Chapter 18 Seek
Chapter Eighteen
Seek
The bells continually tolled, like periods at the end of sentences in an epic tale, each one marking the conclusion to a sequence that would inevitably repeat again and again and again.
On and on, tributes were being consumed, one by one, the way a snake swallows mice. Whole. Inescapably. Persistently.
Daisy was deep in the gardens, far from any path she recognized.
The manicured hedges had given way to wilderness and untamed growth.
Topiaries transformed into shapes and animals that looked more like monsters under the darkness of night.
A swan with a neck ten feet long. A lion whose mane had become a bristling mass of unchecked growth.
An elephant whose trunk had split into three reaching branches, each one tipped with tiny white flowers that glowed in the darkness like eyes.
There were fewer torches in this area, but she didn’t mind. Fewer torches meant less company.
It was as if she’d wandered into a forgotten acre on the property, but there was deliberate intention about the neglect, as if it were purposely left to create a false sense of safety.
A swing draped in vines, suspended from an ancient oak, swung in the steady breeze.
It was getting colder, and her throat burned as if she were breathing in tiny shards of glass with every gasp.
Her legs trembled with each stride, the muscles threatening mutiny.
She hadn’t eaten since that morning, hadn’t been sleeping properly for weeks, and her body was beginning to present its bill.
Daisy reached up to push hair from her eyes. Her elaborate updo had devolved into a sweaty tangle of pins and frizz, listing to one side like a sinking ship. Her locket had returned to her neck, safe and sound, after her run-in with—
A pulsing thunder tore through the air, and Daisy froze. The buzzing, repetitive whir came fast, moving closer, loud enough to overshadow the music, and out of place in this Gothic wonderland.
Lights flashed, defining black clouds above as a helicopter appeared, lowering as if set to land. Bare feet rooted in moss, Daisy shaded her face and stared as the chopping wind from the propellors moved the tree line as it started to descend.
Daisy rushed for cover beneath a crumbling folly sculpted of four stone columns that held up half a roof.
The shh-shh-shh-shh of the helicopter blades swished like swords through the air, louder, closer, pushing her hair back from her face as the wind whipped, snapping leaves from branches that twirled in little tornadoes across the ground.
Its belly lights blazed like eyes that never blinked, blinding her as she tried to look up. The fabric of her beaded dress plastered against her ribs as the scent of fuel overpowered the salt air.
Her lungs locked. What was happening? Had someone been hurt? Was there an emergency?
Lights threw the grounds into stark relief, illuminating the hedges and giant shrubs so their manicured faces glared at her with gaping mouths and frozen green expressions.
Shielding her eyes, Daisy clung to the stone pillar claimed by ivy and time, and watched in curious dismay as the helicopter landed in the not-so-far distance.
Things were getting curiouser and curiouser around here.
Her heart beat wildly against her ribs. Whatever was happening, it didn’t feel planned. It felt—”Mmph!”
A hand clamped over her mouth from behind.
Daisy struggled, her scream of panic muffled against fingers that tasted of antiseptic soap.
“Shh.” The voice was soft and measured. “Struggling will only make this more difficult. For you.”
Dr. Tannh?user.
Her eyes widened. Thrashing and kicking, her feet came off the ground.
He pulled her body back from the column, his chest fitting itself to her spine, dragging her back then pinning her against a flat bed of stone.
The hard edge of his belt buckle snagged on her dress, inches above the unmistakable press of his arousal.
She bit his fingers and spit the second he ripped his hand away. “Get off me!”
“Yield.” His hand dropped from her mouth to her throat, fingers digging into her pulse in silent warning. “Your heart’s racing faster than a terrified jackrabbit. No need to be afraid, Daisy. I’ve seen you in far less.”
She jerked, but there was no escaping his hold.
“Now, now. We discussed this. Resistance only prolongs the procedure.” His thumb stroked the side of her neck, turning her jaw until her wild eyes found his. “You remember, don’t you? How thorough I can be?”
She screamed, and his hand clamped tighter, pressing against her windpipe, reducing her cry to a thin wheeze.
“I certainly haven’t forgotten. We have much more time now. No one around to interrupt us.” His free hand trailed along her hip, gathering her gown. “Let’s see how you’ve fared so far.”
His cool fingers tickled like reptiles on her thigh, sliding upward with practiced efficiency, pushing fabric aside, finding the hidden heat underneath.
“No.”
“That word doesn’t work here.”
She clamped her thighs together so hard her muscles screamed.
“Disappointing, Daisy.” His foot hooked around her ankle, trying to force her stance wider as he held her bent over the paved slab. “Be a good girl and spread your legs. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either outcome’s satisfying for me.”
“No!” she growled through gritted teeth, but it only took a split second for him to force her body to comply. His fingers pushed past her folds, cold and invasive, probing at her entrance with methodical persistence.
“There we go. Almost—”
Rage unleashed inside Daisy, feral and rabid. She twisted and bit down on his wrist, sinking her teeth into his flesh with a feral, animal response that bypassed thought entirely. She tasted blood. The crunch of bone.
His hand retracted, but she didn’t loosen her bite until he shoved her away. Her arm scraped the cold stone. She rolled to her back and kicked her foot into his chest, sending him staggering into a column.
She wrenched herself forward, twisted upward. But she didn’t run away. She ran toward him, driving her knee into the soft junction of his thighs with every ounce of rage her body possessed.
The impact was solid and devastating. The doctor doubled over, then sank to his knees, collapsing on all fours. Throwing off his white mask, he dry heaved like a cat, blue eyes bulging with disbelief, mouth stretched with agony, his skin grey and slick with sudden sweat.
Daisy ran.
The world blurred into shadow as the drum of her pulse beat in her ears, drowning out everything else. The rags around her feet fell away, and her bare feet slapped against stone, grass, mud—she didn’t stop. Didn’t look for landmarks or threats. She just ran.
Groves, gardens, paths, birch trees, she ran through them all like a spooked doe in the night, leaping and lunging, never stopping despite knowing there was no way to run home.
Two hunters lounged on a stone bench, their postures the boneless sprawl of men who had finished their business and were now enjoying the afterglow—until Daisy burst from the hedges and leapt over them.
“Christ!”
“We got a runner!”
Maybe she’d run out of bounds. She honestly didn’t care anymore.
She finally found shelter behind a gardener’s shed, the wooden walls ancient and softened by rot, the door long since swallowed by ivy.
Her hands were shaking so badly she could barely make fists.
Her hair had completed its collapse, damp strands plastered to her face and neck with sweat and dew and tears she couldn’t recall crying.
Clutching her locket, she looked back nervously. Tannh?user’s blood darkened the strap of her dress. Looking down at the plunging neckline, she gasped in horror as specks of red stained her skin.
She rushed to the grass and wet her hands in the cool, evening dew, wiping down her chest to remove what evidence she could.
Would they come for her now? Was that what the helicopter was about?
Did she care? Leaving this place would be a blessing.
Sagging against the shed wall, Daisy dropped to sit on the ground, closing her eyes as she panted. She couldn’t do this. She wanted to go home. They could keep their money.
“She was a real screamer.”
Daisy stopped breathing, her eyes popping wide as her spine stiffened.
“Thought she’d pass out before I finished.” A deep laugh broke the silence.
The nearing odor of cigars had her huddling low.
“Like that would have stopped you,” another male voice laughed.
“A few slaps usually keeps them conscious, but you’re right. It wouldn’t have stopped me.”
The second one laughed again. “I keep telling you, you want your dick sucked right, find a stag.”
As they came closer, Daisy inched back. A terracotta plate she hadn’t noticed slid from a stack and clattered to the ground.
“What was that?”
The men paused, and Daisy held her breath.
“Probably just a cat or something. Come on, let’s find a bar.”
She waited until their footsteps faded along the pebbled walk before exhaling. Scooting back from the shed, she scowled at the terracotta pots that nearly got her caught. If there was a bar nearby, did that mean she was close to a safe zone?
She thought she spotted a green glow when she’d been running over a hill, but her mind had only been focused on getting away.
Now that her fear had dissipated, however, her needs were screaming at her.
She needed water and a bathroom. Something to clean her cuts and a change of clothes, if that was an option.
So she forced herself to keep moving, following the trail the two hunters had gone.
The pebbled path was a brutal carpet beneath her feet, but hours of hiding in offshoots of gardens had cost her too much in time.
As long as the trail was empty, she wasn’t hiding.
And right now, for whatever reason, the only company she had was the soft pitch of nearby jazz buzzing from the hedges.