Page 4 of Marked By Him

The footfalls grew louder, closer.

Even in the darkness, I felt his shadow creep in from behind me. I was afraid but not of him.This wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t one ofthem.I knew it.

I felt it in the way heat licked over my body and between my thighs.

I dodged left.

He went straight.

I didn’t know why, but I stopped and pressed my back against a wide tree.

You want him to catch you.

I cupped a hand over my mouth, quieting my breath.

Leaves crunched under his feet as he slowed to a walk. And then he stopped. Slowly, he craned his head to look over his shoulder. He was big. Tall and broad. Massive. His presence was like the darkness, threatening to swallow me whole.

My heart pounded and my nipples strained against my shirt. My core clenched with aching, throbbing heat.

Why am I excited?

In a heartbeat, his breath was on my neck. “I caught you now, and I can’t wait to make you scream.”

I sucked a deep breath into my lungs as my eyes flew open wide, the way someone did after they’d been underwater for a while.

The trees were gone.

He was gone.

My head was throbbing… and heavy, so heavy that I struggled to hold it up.

When I tried to move my arms and legs, plastic dug into my skin, cutting my flesh. Everything hurt.

Panic wrapped its fingers around my throat as my eyes flashed wildly around the space.

It’s not a forest.

I was in a dark room. Only a sliver of light shone through a narrow window at the top of the wall—a slim trail of pale, blue danced over the floor. There was concrete. The floor, the walls. I was surrounded by it. That much I could tell. The air was stale. Thick. Heavy. And filled with the metallic scent of blood.

The darkness thrummed with secrets. It bristled with menace and whispered ominous promises, trying to pull me in deeper. It felt like a void that would suck me in if I let it.

I didn’t belong here.

I was a fighter.

I was a survivor.

I was strong.

At least I thought I was. Strong people didn’t end up in dark rooms, strapped to wooden chairs. Strong people didn’t run away while a vampire murdered their mother.

The pressure in my chest tightened at the memory. A shadow flickered in the corner of my eye, and a man moved into the stream of moonlight. His tall frame leaned against a concrete wall. His arms were folded across his broad chest. He wore tan linen pants that hugged his thick thighs, and a pattern of ink spilled from the sleeves of his black t-shirt. His feet were bare. He looked like he belonged here, like he belonged within the darkness.

He felt like I knew him.

I tugged and yanked my hands against the binds holding me to the chair. The plastic ties cut into my ankles when I tried to move my legs.

"You're going to hurt yourself if you don't stop." His deep voice echoed in the darkness, then cascaded over me.

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