13. Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve
Olivia
E verything hurts. I wake disoriented by the pain and try to move my arms, but nothing happens except the agony of straining them, the joints pulled taut behind me. My ass hurts from sitting on a hard surface too long and my head pounds, but it’s the least of my concerns. Fear begins to rise, along with my panic. Shit. Slowly, the memory weaves its way to the forefront of my pulsing mind. A man in a mask, he existed! There is momentary relief. I was not going mad , but it’s short-lived when I realize how much danger I’m in.
I raise my head, the action painful with the stiffness between my shoulder and neck. They got me. After everything, all of Mistress Abbott’s promises that the school was impregnable, they still found a way. Defeat is smothering. How will they do it? No doubt they will demand I sign everything over to my brother with the promise of freedom, only to put a bullet in my head when I sign on the dotted line. Despair is a blade as swift as any bullet.
I will become like my mother. Another Jane Doe. Another body without a name, a vessel discarded, not by the owner, but by those who would desecrate to preserve secrets. I might not even get an unmarked grave. They may just add me to the foundations of some new building or incinerate me until I am nothing but ash on the wind. The heaviness of it all has my head lowering despite the ache. A pitiful sounding sob escaping around my gag.
I had hoped for more.
“Tut, tut.” Pain is all I know as I jerk my head. “You aren’t crying just yet? We haven’t even begun.” The taunt trails up my spine.
There is a low tapping, a sound that moves closer and sets the hairs on my body rising. I see him in my peripheral, but keep my eyes trained forward, an attempt at defiance. As if looking at him will give him satisfaction in knowing the effects his masked features have on me. I won’t play into whatever sick game of scaring me they have going on.
“You must be hungry,” he purrs, finally stepping into the shard of light coming from the adjoining room.
I turn my face away, not wanting to look. The chuckle that fills the space between us is full of malice and despite my best efforts, I side eye him, just to know if he moves. The light halos his colossal bulk, giving his fur an eerie glow. Featureless, he moves closer and I shift in my seat, my entire body attempting to recoil from his nearness. Then he does something that makes me question my sanity, throwing everything I thought might be true into chaos. The growl cannot be coming from a man, not this kind of growl. It's something guttural that comes from the chest, rising into the back of the throat to settle in the air.
I didn’t want to look at him before, but now, despite everything, I cannot take my eyes off of him as he steps closer again, his features still shadowed—but I remember them. The way he stood before me on the footpath, lit by the full moon, and when he stood beneath the trees below my room. Monster. My mind screams it and I begin to laugh hysterically, the sound distorted behind the gag that somehow makes it all the more bone chilling. His head tilts back, the light flashes off those horns and I imagine those eyes falling to slits as he assesses me, yet I don’t give a shit—I have, after all, lost my fucking mind.
“I am glad to see that despite your current situation, you can still find humor.” There is a trace of sarcasm in his voice. “Care to share the joke?” Something firm but silky slides beneath the gag, tugging it roughly down.
Free of the obstruction, my laughter fills the room, an awful sound of forced humor. Yet I can’t seem to stop.
“What?!” His vicious snarl is the antidote.
I gasp, sucking down breaths like I have run out of air, my throat closing around the maniacal sound that wants out so that I gurgle. He moves fast, hand clasping around my throat. I try to pull back, but he only leans in and pulls my head closer.
“What? I asked.” The snarl is still present, but his voice is low and even more deadly.
I choke on a sob, my head pounding as I just stare up into his shadowy face. His fingers tighten, making me gag.
“Take off the mask,” I rasp out, barely recognizing the sound of my voice.
He laughs. Right into my face. Bastard. His hot breath caresses my cheeks as he does so. He even throws his head back, the hand clamped to my throat relaxing its grip.
“Oh princess,” he says, voice full of humor.
He releases me, and I sag back into my chair. Despite the agony in my shoulders, I’m grateful to be free. He rounds me and I hear that gentle clicking, my skin prickling as I turn my head to see what he is doing. There is a whirring sound, and the room blooms with blinding light. I wince and blink dumbly as a wall of glass reveals blue sky and towering buildings, causing my mouth to fall open. It’s incredible, and enough for a moment to make me forget. More clicking, however, tugs at my attention. I listen carefully, feeling doomed as it draws closer and rounds me on my other side. I can’t look. Despite the morbid desire to know where he is, I can’t will my head to do so and find out.
“Look at me.” His voice is gravelly with his low command. I shake my head, a sob in the back of my throat slipping past my lips. “Look!” I jump as his voice cracks around the room, amplified by the glass.
With a gasp of resignation, tears rolling unchecked down my cheeks, I turn my face to him. A mask! My mind screams, denying the image before me. Even as I stare at my fate. Blue eyes burn with defiance back at me, demanding I deny him. I drop my gaze to take in all of him. Fur covers a rippling chest of muscles and extends down over more prominent muscles to disappear beneath grey sweatpants. I suck in a breath, swallowing hard as my eyes find his feet, or the place where they should be. I now know what the clicking was. Claws, tapping against the tiled floor with every step.
I stare unabashedly at my nightmare. This cannot be real. I must have sustained a head injury during the abduction. I close my eyes for a moment, and when I open them, the monster is still there.
“You aren’t human,” I whisper.
His mouth twists into a mocking smile and he leans down into my space again, bringing our eyes level.
“Don’t like the Dolmino handy work?” He turns his face side to side.
I am too stunned by him to even form a response. Short caramel-colored fur covers the planes of his face. His eyes are so human despite his fearsome features beneath heavy brows, one distorted by an immense scar that looks like whatever was used came close to taking his eye. A sob of disbelief escapes again as I take in the two sharp teeth curving down over his lip. That mouth twists into a wicked smile as I continue to just drink in his monstrous features.
“I was going to feed you,” he says quietly, pulling back. “But I would rather let you think about what you are seeing for a little longer. Let the gravity of what you will face if you don’t do as you are told sink in.”
The gravity of my situation is already sinking in. His gaze sweeps my face, the silence heavy and full of tension before he walks around me. His claws tap the tiles with every step. There is another mechanical whir and the view I longed to look at is covered by heavy drapes.