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I think that was the part about all of this that shocked me the most. To find out that he had actually broken into my room at night and watched me sleep. That he had sometimes touched me, going as far as to kiss me, happily making me believe it had all just been a dream centered around him. I didn’t know whether to be outraged or just allow myself to continue to be strangely turned on. It was crazy, to want that type of attention from a guy. But then, when that man was Ryker, I knew that given half the opportunity, I might have been tempted to do the same.
Christ, now I was fantasizing about what it would have been like stalking him. It was all kinds of messed up but, right now, it was a reality I had no choice to face because I was currently living it.
But I didn't know how I could trust him. Trust that he felt the way he said he did. He'd used the word love like he was so sure. And if I were being honest with myself, it also made me question and, admittedly, be a little self-conscious, wondering how many other women before me he had said that to. How many more damsels in distress had he saved and thrown around the L word with before realizing it wasn't true. Perhaps this was how the insanely rich spent their free time?
I also knew that, in all likelihood, I was just trying to create excuses when there weren't any… and all because I was scared. Scared of letting someone get close. Scared of trusting that they wouldn’t just make me fall in love before then casting me out to deal with the cruel world all alone. Of course, I also knew that I had hang ups, likely more than most.
But then it was like he had said, trust was earned and the only way of doing that would be to stop running long enough to let it grow. To let it be found through the gift of time. The fantasy was that he really did care about me. That he had kissed me that night and felt exactly what I had. As if fate had brought us together and that first kiss had bound us in such a way that both of us knew we should not ever be apart.
Because hadn't fate also intervened that day of the shootout? He had obviously been as surprised with my presence, as much as I had been surprised with his. And since then, he had stopped at nothing in trying to protect me. Okay, okay, so it did come with the title of stalking and, like he said, it wasn't exactly the most conventional way to fall in love. But then it hadn't been conventional the way that we had met either.
I knew that I couldn't throw all blame his way for my current circumstances. I'd had a choice that night, I could have screamed the second I saw them walk in the office. I could have fought them. But most of all, I could have let them get captured. But I had chosen to help them and, even now, I didn't find myself regretting it.
Which begged the question…
Would I regret running once more?
I released a sigh and knew that I had spent far too much time in this bathroom contemplating all that had happened as it was. I had to make a decision. I had to choose to go forward acting willingly, or once again fight against his ideal of what was best for me. Which meant there was only one last question I needed to ask myself…
Could I learn to trust him? Or should I say…
Could I trust him with my heart?
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back, moaning aloud at my current predicament in trying to make sense of it all. But then a sound above me like metal grating being shifted made my eyes snap open. And the second I did, what I saw horrified me.
Because now, for the second time in my life, a Demonic face was looking down at me.
And this time, I knew for certain…
It wasn't a mask.
5
THE HEART OF A DEMON
The second I saw the Demonic face staring back at me, looming from the moveable panel in the ceiling, my natural reflexes kicked in. Meaning I scrambled out of the bathroom stall like my life depended on it. I slammed against the sinks just as I heard the body drop from the ceiling and with my back to the basin, my hands gripping onto it for dear life, I watched as it rose up to standing.
I kept trying to tell myself it must have been a latex mask or something, but the closer it came, the more my eyes wanted to deceive me by telling me it was real. Because whatever this thing was, the guy started to change shape. One look up at the ceiling and I soon knew why. The square panel he had dropped from was only big enough for a slim body. But as he started to rise to his full height, his skin started reacting, like something living was beneath it, trying to fight its way free.
His face was all teeth and tiny scales, like some lizard man with a constant creepy grin on his face. His slanted eyes glowed red and were made even more murderous with the harsh diagonal slashes of his brows and deep set of his eyes. Eyes that were framed with greenish scales that dusted the dirty-grey leather skin that covered most of his bald head.
“Oh… My… God…” I uttered, my fingers aching when my grip on the sink turned desperate, and my nails practically bending against the porcelain bowl. Because the moment his skin started to split and reveal another body beneath, he quickly became the stuff of nightmares.
Like a lizard bursting from its scales, the body beneath became too big for its own skin, it now preceded to shred off massive flakes and bits so big, they looked like discarded pieces of a map. Veins and marks from his old body were still imprinted on the paper-like skin that he walked away from, leaving pieces of the timeworn body in a trail on the floor.
Of course, what was left was like a giant lizard man pumped up on steroids! His body was every inch of bulging muscles, and I forced myself not to look down too far because it was clear shedding his skin left him naked. And well, my eyes had already noted something dangling between his legs of a substantial size. The guy terrified me enough without adding that new horror to the situation.
The skin on his body was similar to that on his face, smooth in parts with sections of it scaled. Like the top part of his chest near his neck and the sides of his torso. Only instead of these scaled segments being only green, there were also patches of dark red mixed in, especially down the sides of his body. One that thankfully he covered up, magically bringing forth his clothes.
I knew I should have been screaming for help at this point, but my chest was heaving like I was close to passing out from fear. I felt locked within myself and was trying desperately to pull myself together enough to fucking act!
His towering height would have meant even looking down at Ryker, because this monster of a man looked to be closer to seven feet tall! Which meant that even if Ryker did hear me screaming, I didn’t know what he could do about it to save me, unless he carried a gun on him!
His legs were now covered in a leather type material that looked more Demonic in nature. This along with his jacket that looked armored in places, with spiked plates at his shoulders and back. His bare chest was left exposed, with only straps across his muscles that’s only purpose seemed to be for holding weaponry.
I knew the only thing I could do was run and hope that I made it in time. But if not, I needed to make sure Ryker got out of there before this beast could get him as well as me. But then suddenly the memory of how he had fought the men back in the train station came flooding back to me, and I only hoped that if he couldn’t get away that he would be strong enough to fight him.
So, with my mind now finally kicking into gear, I screamed,
