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I’m speechless, which doesn’t happen very often, but I can’t do anything but stare, open-mouthed, at this beefy bouncer with more muscles than brains and wonder what the hell I’m going to do now. I can’t just leave Cara here alone, but I also can’t wait out here on the sidewalk all night either.
“Fine,” I huff, giving up. I don’t have a back up plan yet, but standing here arguing with a meathead isn’t going to get me anywhere. I turn on my heel and stalk away, wishing I had the gall to say any of the dozen or so insults burning up my throat.
I head down the sidewalk without a destination in mind, but I decide I’ll slip inside the first open place I come to and wait for a response from Cara. Glancing at my phone again, I see she hasn’t replied yet, but I’m not surprised. If I was single and tangled up with a sexy stranger I’d probably be occupied for more than a couple of minutes too.
My feet are starting to ache, screaming in protest with every step which slows me down, but I try to ignore it. Beauty is pain, after all, and I know I look like a million bucks right now. I felt like a million bucks until my lucky streak turned into a dumpster fire of misfortune, but I try to ignore that too. Things will be fine as soon as I get in touch with Cara and we get out of here.
A night of movies and popcorn doesn’t seem so boring now.
I’m so distracted by my extreme frustration that I don’t notice a peculiar feeling nagging at the back of my mind until I reach the end of the block and have to wait at a crosswalk. An invisible weight makes my skin crawl, and I recognize it after a moment as the feeling of being watched. Call it intuition or call it experience, but I know when someone is staring daggers through me, even if I can’t see them.
While the light takes its precious time to change, I look back over my shoulder. At first, I don’t see anything. Just an empty street flecked with a few lights here and there, but as I continue to stare, I notice that the bouncer is no longer in front ofThe Ch?teau.I’m not sure where he went, but he’s nowhere in sight. That makes my stomach turn.
Then I notice a broad shadow at the base of one of the buildings a few yards away, and my chest seizes. It doesn’t seem to match any of the shadows around it. It’s impossibly dark, and there’s nothing above in the air that could have made the shape.
“What the–” I whisper, but my voice cuts off when the shadow moves.
Oh fuck.
I don’t wait to see anything else, but turn on my heel and run straight into the street. Luckily there aren’t any cars coming, and I make it across in one piece. My pain and discomfort evaporate as my fight or flight instinct kicks in and I run, my heels pounding against the pavement, praying that neither of them break. I don’t have time for a snapped ankle when I’m running for my life.
Chancing a glance back over my shoulder, I see the shadow has grown to nearly the size of a car, and it’s moving toward me just as fast as I’m running away from it. My head swims, and I turn back around. I’m panting and gasping for air already–I don’t have it in me to run any faster.
An animalistic growl erupts behind me, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I squeak. Like the first time I experienced a Malev, a terrifying truth hits me. I’m not going to get away.
A second later, the shadow grabs me, wrapping around me completely. Something solid covers my mouth, silencing my scream before I can get it out, and the shadow begins to materialize behind me.
“What’s your rush baby cakes?” a sickly voice groans into my ear. “Surely someone as beautiful as you knows better than to be caught alone on these streets.”
I fight the urge to gag at the pet name, and my head swims. This man just appeared out of thin air, dissolving out of a shadow the way Rafe does. That means this man isn’t a man at all.
He’s a monster.
My stomach turns and I thrash against him, trying to break free of his hold, but he only squeezes his arms tighter around me.
“You thought we wouldn’t find you,” he says with an unhinged cackle. “And then you delivered yourself to us. How naive.”
Delivered myself to them?I’m paralyzed with fear as an ice cube settles in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to be close to the portal to feel close to my mates, but it never occurred to me that there might be other monsters lingering near it as well.
I fucked up big time.
“That’s right,” he says as though reading my mind. “The boss is going to be glad to see you, but he didn’t say anything about what happens to you beforehand–only that you’re to be delivered alive.”
He rakes a set of claws up the thigh of my dress, splitting the material and leaving white hot trails of pain along my skin. I scream, but his firm grip on my mouth muffles the sound to almost nothing. Tears well in the corners of my eyes, and as a car approaches, he drags me into the nearest alleyway, shoving me up against the brick of the building and pressing himself against my back.
The brick bites into my cheek and chest, and I whimper as the man presses himself against me harder.
“I’m going to have a lot of fun with you,” he whispers, his lips too close to my neck.
I look toward the street, wishing that someone–anyone–would come along and find us. I’m sick of feeling like a damsel in distress constantly, but having someone save me right now would be ideal. There’s no telling what this monster plans to do to me, but I know it’s nothing I want.
He rakes his claws up my other thigh, shredding my dress even further. Pain follows his claws wherever they go. My side, my shoulder. As he draws a line of blood up the side of my neck, he runs his tongue behind his claw, lapping it up. I cry out and fight back, but he’s too strong for me to move.
When no one shows up to save me, I squeeze my eyes closed and pray that whatever happens is over quickly. Meanwhile, I try to distract myself with happier thoughts: being curled up with Azarius while he plays with my hair, Rafe kissing me on the balcony at the mansion, or even flying hundreds of feet in the air with Elio.
“Devyn!” one of them calls, and I can swear it almost sounds real. I must have gotten really good at daydreaming over these last several weeks, because I hear it again a moment later. “Devyn!”
The monster tenses against me, going silent, and I reluctantly open an eye to stare toward the street again. A form skids to a halt in the mouth of the alleyway, but my vision is too blurry with tears to make out who it is. A smear of dark hair and its broad stature make me think of Elio.
