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“Wait. ” I tried to scoot down. Ignoring the rock cutting into my hands, I kicked lamely at him. “Are you serious? You tied me to a rock?” I kicked and flailed, but he only dodged out of the way. “Is this some kind of Greek mythology thing? What kind of poetic crap did Master Al order you to do, anyway?”
Alcántara wanted us to attack one another in moving and poetic ways, and I wouldn’t have put it past him to insist Rob reenact a great moment from literature.
“No way, dude. This is all me. Wait”—he stopped and stepped close—“just one last thing. ” He eased into a squat, running his hands down my legs as he went.
“Get the hell off. ” Ignoring the rope, I kicked like a maniac now, but he was too close for me to do any damage.
Crap. I hadn’t thought he’d try to get physical. I shuddered at the creepy feel of his fingers running along my calves. But then I felt him fumbling at my boots…and, double crap…he was reaching for my stars.
“Get off,” I screamed, bucking and jerking wildly now. Warmth bloomed along my wrists and knuckles as the rock scored my skin.
I rammed my heels into his stomach, but he’d tied me up too well. He was able to dodge me, making my attempts laughable. And laugh he did.
Laughing, he stole a star from my boot. Standing, he tilted the star, studying it in the deepening twilight.
Even though I hadn’t budged, I was panting, glaring. It was the star Carden had given me.
Pain and regret stabbed me. I missed my vampire with such fresh longing. Like thinking a wound healed, only to remove the bandage and tear the scab away with it, I was left feeling as raw, my heart as battered as on the day I first realized he was gone.
“Isn’t this pretty?” Rob tested a point of the star with his thumb. “It’s etched. Like feathers. ”
The wings of a bird, you asshole. But I’d never tell Rob that. Carden was the only one who knew the significance. I was his dove with wings of fire. Was.
I hitched my hips and pistoned my feet toward his groin, but he hopped back, laughing harder. I tried again, and as I did, the rope across my chest shot up an inch, slipping close—too close—to my neck. I froze.
“Careful, little D. ” He smiled and tapped my star on the rock. With a little toss, he adjusted it in his fingertips.
My eyes went wide. “What are you doing?”
He opened my coat.
“Don’t touch me,” I shrieked.
Rob slashed a giant hole in the belly of my pretty new catsuit.
“Stop!” The rope near my neck forgotten, I thrashed li
ke a wild animal. “What are you doing?”
He placed a cool hand on my stomach. “Easy now. You might hurt yourself. ” Slowly, he brought the star down. Traced it around my navel. “Alcántara will enjoy this bit of poetry, don’t you think? Slashed by one of your own stars. ”
I grew still and stared, proud of the smile I managed to muster. “But will it be moving enough for him to forget you’re a fangless freak?”
He slashed then, quick and deep, a diagonal slice across the soft flesh of my belly. “Do you know where we are right now?” he asked as he used the hem of my coat to wipe my blood from the blade.
I gritted my teeth, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing my pain. “Yeah, Rob. I’m with the asshole who’s going to die when I get out of here. ”
“Wrong answer. ” He struck then, a sucker punch in my gut, tearing the wound deeper, dizzying me, releasing a fresh wave of blood, drizzling down the sides of my torso. “You’re in Draug country,” he said. “They’ll scent your blood and come running. Which means I’m going to leave you now. Dark will come soon. They’ll be hungry. ”
“They feed on fear,” I said, as much to convince myself as him.
He shrugged. “That’s cool. You go ahead and try not to freak out when they swarm you. ” And then he simply turned and left.
“Coward,” I shouted after him. “Fangless freak can’t fight a girl. ”
But my taunts were met with silence. I tried to tug my hands free, but it was hopeless. My movements only cut the rope deeper into my wrists.
I lay there for a minute, heart pounding.
