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Still so weak. Still as pathetic as you were 100 years ago.My father’s voice sounded in my ears, and I flinched.
Logically, I knew I was in shock. The cold seeping into my bones, my teeth rattling, my whole body shaking. My mind whirled.
Why? Why would someone try to take me? Where were they trying to take me?
As if being human wasn’t bad enough, I had to watch for kidnapping attempts too? I didn’t think when watchingTakenbetween licking my toes that I’d ever be in a position to pray for my own Liam Neeson.
What would have happened if Zaide hadn’t found me?
Daithi huffed. “I know you said Earth doesn’t have curses, Charlie, but evil has followed all this.”
I whimpered, agreeing with him for once. “I am cursed,” I whispered.
“You are not. You are my fierce little cat,” Zaide replied.
I shook my head, and tears flooded my eyes. He was wrong. He didn’t know the real me. “I’m not a cat. Just a—” I sobbed. “—a pathetic girl.”
He tightened his arms around me and growled gently, nuzzling my hair. “Do not speak about yourself in such a manner. You are getting worked up again.” He placed my hand back on his chest and began breathing deeply, encouraging me to copy him.
I closed my eyes. I could feel his chest raising and falling under my hand, under my cheek. Soft breaths tickled my face as he inhaled and exhaled. My racing heart slowed to a less hectic pace as my breathing followed his steady rhythm. I could smell the car air freshener and the leather of the seats, but also the smell of Zaide. A natural woodland scent that calmed me but also aroused my interest. I nuzzled against him.
He is so sweet.
The giant beast of a man easily took out two attackers and didn’t work up a sweat. Yet I wasn’t afraid of him. He looked like an avenging god as he charged toward us. His fury ignited hope in my heart, and I struggled in the arms of my captor to get to him.
In Zaide’s arms, I felt protected. And it was a feeling I knew I could get addicted to.
His fingers brushed over my cheeks, and I opened my eyes to see devotion and desire stared back at me in his gaze. I saw a flash of red and noticed that his knuckles were bleeding.
“Oh.” I sat upright and grabbed his hands. “Oh no, you’re bleeding.”
He chuckled softly. “That is to be expected after a fight, Little Cat.”
My body automatically responded to the sight of a bleeding man. I found the bottle of water Charlie had used to wash the sick off our shoes, and using the last drops of that, I poured it onto a tissue. Taking one of his large hands, I cleaned his wound.
It surprised me that his blood was red since his scars were purple, but I didn’t ask him for the details. I looked up at him and said, “I have no antiseptic to clean them with and nothing to wrap them in.”
He stopped me with another kiss to my forehead and whispered, “Thank you, Little Cat.”
The reverence in his voice made me uncomfortable, and I sighed. “I haven’t really done—”
He interrupted with another whisper. A secret. “No one has ever cleaned my wounds. As a fighter slave, I can’t tell you how much I wished for someone to do what you have just done.”
My heart broke, and I stared up at him, knowing how vulnerable that admission made him. I nodded and brought his hands to my mouth. I kissed them both and whispered, “Thank you for saving me.”
“I will always save you, Little Cat,” he whispered back, and somehow, I knew he would. It wasn’t a false promise. He would fight for me like no one else ever had, and my eyes filled again.
“What’s the diagnosis, doc?” Charlie interrupted our intimate moment.
I turned to meet his gaze in the rearview mirror. “He’ll live.”
He nodded. “Are we not going to discuss the kidnapping attempt? By otherworlders? I thought otherworlders coming here was rare. Is that why so many people are going missing?”
“Humans are going missing?” Zaide asked.
“Apparently so. Masses. My contact mentioned it yesterday. Said that there are theories about aliens after blue flashes.”
I recalled watching recent news stories about missing people. Winnie was always angry rather than sympathetic. Said that no one was doing anything to prevent it. I brushed it off before, but now I found her comment curious.
