Page 30 of How Does It Feel?

“They are getting smarter,” he purred against my ear as he held my face firmly. The black leather of the glove did little to soften his demanding grip, and his muscular body was a vise that squeezed me against the dense tree. “You’ve no need to play dumb human. I’m quite interested in how you’re not dead. Obviously, you’re not as foolish as I had originally thought,” he said, disgust coating every word.

His voice trailed over the dirty skin of my ear and neck, causing shivers to flow up my spine.

The giant of a man stepped back and let my face fall from his hand.

Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, something cold and sharp stabbed into my chest, causing me to wheeze out a hoarse cry as I clung desperately to the tree behind me.

Black smoke swirled densely from the cretin’s back. His right wing flowed thick and wispy behind him, the edges fading softly into the night.

His left wing swirled wildly with soot-black smoke, shaped like a hand against my heart. The “fingers” were pointed like sharp knives of smoke that dug into my skin.

I cried out in pain, swatting wildly, searching for anything I could do to move the horrid thing’s grip on my chest, but it was pointless. My hands flowed through the wisps as if they were the smoke from a campfire. Not faltering for a moment, the pain grew sharper as he dug the dagger-like talons of his smoke farther into the depths of my flesh. All the while, his face glimmered with a sadistic grin.

“Tell me how you survived that, and I’ll remove my grip from what remains of your damaged mortal heart.” His soulless eyes slightly darkened as they grazed over my exposed body. “Tell me, what’s it feel like knowing the humans wasted every breath you’ve ever taken by sending you to kill a man who can’t be killed?”

I fell to my knees, unable to comprehend what was happening or deal with the pain any longer, for that matter. Certainly no one in their right mind would believe me an assassin? And why would he think that humans had sent me? I would have laughed at the thought had I not been in such pain. I didn’t dare continue to deny it, though, as that only seemed to anger him more. The last thing I wanted to do was put the foxes that had saved me in harm’s way, but they were hopefully far away now. My head continued to pound, ceasing any further thoughts, no matter how helpful they might have been.

“A fox,” I wheezed out breathlessly, shifting my loose wisdom tooth back and forth in a nervous frenzy.

He froze suddenly.

Even the inky smoke seemed to stop its swirling. Had I not seen him move earlier he could have easily passed as a statue without question.

Concern and confusion muddled against his dark brows as they creased slightly together before he dropped his grip on me.

I fell to the dirt with a thud, and my chin split as it bounced roughly off a nearby rock.

My body hurt in places I had never imagined being able to hurt. I was covered in dirt and blood. My blonde hair felt matted and sticky. I was clearly having a delusional episode because I had no idea how I could be seeing a giant, muscled, evil Calvin Klein model with wings of smoke right now. Not to mention a fox that shimmered gold in the sunlight, tried to attack me before I fell into another evil world, then followed me here and saved my life. Yea, okay.

I couldn’t even cry. I was too numb.

I sat up, wiped the blood from my chin, and clawed at the dirty black fabric covering my chest.

No exterior marks from the horrible smoke talons on my skin.

Well, what a horrifying trick.

I knew he could have easily ripped my heart out had he wanted to. I had felt it. For some reason, the mention of the fox had made him uneasy. I glanced up to see his eyes taking stock of my every twinge and wince like a hawk. Something flashed in his eyes briefly as I adjusted my dress to cover my rear yet again. I don’t know why I bothered since it had been hanging out most of the time anyway.

Was that . . . fear that flashed in his eyes? Was he afraid of me?

At this thought, I did begin to laugh.

“What did the fox do?” he asked as he leaned in again.

At his movement, my laughter immediately left my body, replaced now with only fear. I wouldn’t survive another near death.

That was something I certainly never thought I’d say to myself.

For whatever reason, this creature was uneasy about the fox, and I needed to do whatever I could to survive and get out of here. Whatever that meant.

“No.”

“No?” He raised his dark eyebrows in surprise.

“Where am I? Who are you?” I asked. My words filled with a confidence I didn’t feel.

I felt so very weak. Could I survive if I made a run for it? Could I locate another portal? Were there even other portals?