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She hated him enough to do something as rash as breaking his windows and escaping through there, but some part of her wanted to stay. Something strange was going on with him, and she needed to know. The way he had looked at her…and the way she had felt. She was almost certain he felt it too. Some kind of feeling she had never felt before.
She knew which room was his—he had pointed that much out to her, but she was too scared to knock on the door. The irony baffled her—she fought a demon but was scared to face Axle. He was an enigma, and she wasn’t sure if she should bother trying to unravel him.
Outside of her room, she stared at the doors in the hallway, avoiding the first one, tempted by the second. Why didn’t he want her in there? And could there be some answers there for her? What kind of things could he be hiding? The lure was too strong for her, and soon she found herself walking toward the door, curiosity having gotten the best of her.
In front of the door, she took a deep breath and placed her hand on the door handle.
“You women are only drawn to the forbidden, aren’t you?” she heard Axle say just as she was about to open the door.
“Well, hi.” She turned, her cheeks burning slightly. He seemed to have appeared out of thin air. “What are you doing here?”
“Last I checked, I live here.”
“No, I mean like—here, like—never mind.”
He nodded. “There’s some food in the kitchen when you’re hungry. I didn’t know what you’d like, so I…well, there are lots of options.”
“I’d like to go home.”
“And yet you choose the hardest one.”
Natalie walked close to him and stopped at a careful distance. “What did you see, Axle? Do I frighten you?”
He scoffed at the question. But when she took two steps closer to reinforce her question, he moved back.
“There are some things you can’t understand now, no matter how hard I tried, and if I tried I would only scare you. You think of me as a monster, don’t you?”
“Only ‘cause you act like one.”
“Maybe I am,” he replied with a smile.
But she was stuck with him. What’s more, he was stuck with her.
Natalie saw the smile, and was absolutely swept by it. Axle was incredibly good looking, for a monster. His demeanor, the confident manner he carried himself. The fresh musky scent that always emanated from his body. Natalie had no idea what it was, but she felt herself getting more attracted to him. She had convinced herself that it was the savior syndrome, that was why. But it was too strong to deny, just too alluring. Nat could not believe this man’s guts. First, he had brought her here against her will and now he was keeping her, as though she was his prisoner.
The day that followed, things were no different between the both of them. Axle acted like Natalie wasn’t there, yet he wouldn’t let her leave. He was grumpy and rude, and made a point to annoy her some way or the other whenever their paths crossed. If he was sensible, she might have entertained the thought of staying. But not when he acted silly for no apparent reason.
By the third day, Natalie was certain she could no longer stay in his home. She had survived this long because it was very beautiful and grand. A tall bookshelf had kept her company. But now she had to leave. Unlike Axle, she had a life to get back to.
She put on a dress out of the collection he had personally picked out for her. At least he had very good taste in fashion.
Without bothering to knock, she opened the door to his room. She didn’t see Axle at first, and by God, his room was such a mess. There were clothes all over and cans of alcohol. She wouldn’t have guessed he was a heavy drinker, but there was only so little she knew about him anyway. The windows were open, as though he had only gone for a walk.
“Axle?” she called softly, but there was no response. Natalie took a few steps further inside, and at the corner of the bed she saw a faint red trail. “Axle?” Fear seized her, as she recognized it as blood.
What the hell happened? Where is he? And whose blood is that?
Axle vexed the hell out of her, but she hoped to the heavens that it wasn’t his. She inspected the blood trail, and there was still no sign of him.
If there had been an intruder, how had she not noticed? She refused to accept it as a possibility. It was a horrid thought. While she had spent the last few days hating Axle and wishing to get out of the place, what if he had been attacked? Maybe that was why she hadn’t seen him recently.
And what if it was her fault? Before she came here, she had been attacked by a demon. What if the demon had followed her here, and what if it had attacked Axle? Who knew how long ago this had happened, and she had been too consumed by rage and hate to notice, even when there was a high possibility that it was her fault.
But no. Her life had been perfect up until that day…the day she saw him for the first time.
Oh, Axle, where are you?Natalie didn’t care about him any more now than she had days ago, she just needed to be sure that he was fine.
“Do I need to label the doors so you know which rooms are yours, and which aren’t?”
