Page 6
“…if you do something for me.”
A chill runs down my spine, and with it goes my short-lived relief. No. Fuck no.
“What is it?” I stammer.
His gaze drops to my throat, zeroing in on the nervous little gulp I can’t control. “Scream for me again,” he rasps, the cigarette smoke on his breath clouding my senses. A very hard-to-miss bulge collides with my lower stomach.
I reel back, shock punching through the fear. “What? That’s… you’re… sick.” I shove hard at his chest, but he doesn’t budge. Not even an inch. “Get off me!”
His hand snaps up, lightning-fast, fingers fisting tight in the hair at my nape. Pain blooms across my scalp as he yanks my head back. I yelp, hands flying up to grab his wrist.
“Wrong move,” he growls. “I wonder what Archon is up to.” And then he’s moving down the hall, and I’m moving with him because I don’t have a choice.
I don’t know who this Archon is, but I have the sick feeling he’d drag me straight to him without a flicker of hesitation and sleep just fine afterward.
I scream. Because of the pain, because of the fear. The sound ricochets through the manor, bouncing off the old walls and the painted eyes staring down from their gilded frames.
He lets out a dark chuckle. “There she is,” he murmurs, pleased.
He did that on purpose. He wasn’t taking me anywhere—he tricked me.
“You’re a sick bastard, getting off on a woman screaming,” I spit, still trying to twist out of his grip.
“Oh, you haven’t seen sick yet, my caged little bird.”
He stops abruptly and shoves me forward. I stumble, catching myself against a dark wooden console table. My scalp throbs. My throat hurts.
I need to get away from this monster.
“Three doors down the hall to your right. Look for the dark red door and take your seat with the others.”
I smooth my messed-up hair with shaking hands, then tug my skirt back into place. That’s when I notice the fresh tear in my knee-high black lace stockings, right above my knee.
“You owe me another pair of stockings!” I shout after him, crossing my arms.
He’s already walking away in the opposite direction, but he pauses. “You won’t need them after tonight.”
My smug smile drops.
I stand here frozen, staring at his muscular back until the shadows swallow him whole. My heart is doing something violent in my chest.
Gulping hard, I twist the dial on my grandfather’s watch and start walking toward the dining room on unsteady legs.
God, please save me tonight.
3
Cage
Iwant to kill her and fuck her six ways to Sunday at the same time.
That’d be the best orgasm of my life, fucking my seed into her as the soul bleeds from her eyes.
I’ve never felt this contradictory hunger for a person before. One part of me aches to see her broken open beneath me, gasping my name. The other wants to watch the light fade from her eyes, wants her cold and still in my arms.
Fuck, she looked incandescent.
She screamed incandescent.
