Chapter 31
31
Samantha
John was with a small group of people, standing by a display of taxidermized white-tail deer and holding a bottle of Bud Light. His choice of beverage threw me off, being used to seeing him with scotch or whiskey. “Hey,” I said softly, giving him a small smile as I planted myself beside him.
John returned the expression and resumed listening to the conversation. Caroline and Helen made their way to another cluster of attendees, and I saw Julia and Clint, Julia’s head thrown back in laughter, while Clint gazed lovingly at her.
It was as if she had never been manhandled by the scarred man in the other room, I noted. I cast my gaze around the room farther, searching, and noticed he was slinking about, observing everyone while sipping a beverage, an unlit cigarette in his other hand. If the upcoming marriage between Julia and Clint was based on anything other than love, Clint probably had someone else, as well, I guessed.
Turning my attention back to the gathering around me, I listened in. They were discussing a tennis tournament taking place in the Spring. Shuffling my feet, I glanced down, having lost interest in the conversation almost immediately. Movement to my left caught my eye and I glanced over just in time to watch John trying to readjust himself. He noticed where my gaze had wandered and flushed. It was perhaps the most animated I’d ever seen him. Sympathetic embarrassment washed through me, and I turned my head.
Reminding myself that John was, in fact, human and male, I made an excuse and left. I made it maybe thirty feet before I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Samantha, do you want to get going?” John asked, appearing flustered.
“Sure. Is it too early?” He was acting so strangely it made me eager to leave.
He nodded his head. “I’m positive its fine.”
We said goodbye to our hosts and made our way to the waiting car, John’s hand at the small of my back. “May I speak with you about something?”
The driver stepped away a few paces, giving us privacy when my companion glanced at him. “Yes?” I answered, unable to imagine what could be on his mind.
John started fidgeting, another unusual occurrence for him. “Well, I... Would you like to join me for dinner?”
Tilting my head, I asked, “What? Now?” It was eleven o’ clock at night. Dinner wasn’t completely unheard of at such a late hour, but if we were leaving, I wanted to go home.
“No,” John shook his head. “I meant tomorrow?”
His eyes darted around the landscape and now I was becoming uncomfortable. This wasn’t how this was supposed to work—why was he ruining a perfectly good arrangement? “John... Please don’t ask me that.” There were currently multiple reasons why it wasn’t a good idea for us to be a romantic couple, and one was I simply was not attracted to him.
Footsteps sounded behind me and when I went to turn, my upper arm was grabbed. An unfamiliar voice hissed in my ear, “Get in the car.”
Twisting my neck, I gazed up at Ammar. “What are you... how are you here?” He gently pushed his knee into the back of my leg, herding me into the vehicle. I watched the driver head around the car and heard John’s protests outside the window after Ammar pulled the door shut.
“I need information from you,” Ammar started while the car pulled away from the curb. “I couldn’t ask you in there, please forgive me.”
He didn’t seem to mean me any immediate harm, but this was unacceptable. “There are other ways of getting information from me. Why are you doing this?” I almost hadn’t recognized him at first since he’d cleaned himself up and put on a suit. “How did you get here?”
Ammar chuckled. “This isn’t my favorite place, but your boyfriend is a tad protective of you and I needed a way to speak with you.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I snapped, my irritation over being spirited away rapidly rising.
“Your prince believes differently, I’m sure.”
Ignoring the nickname, I said, “Well here I am. What do you want?”
“Where is the crystal ball?”
My gaze snapped to his. Ramone had said I made myself a target, I just didn’t picture this man whom I hadn’t thought of as being a real person, to be one to target me here. I wasn’t sure what I’d thought he’d been, I just hadn’t thought about him at all.
And I now understood why John had a different driver tonight. The sick realization that he’d maybe cooperated with my detention hollowed my stomach.
“I don’t have it.”
Ammar licked his lower lip and sat back against the seat. “The last place it was felt was in your home.”
“That doesn’t mean I have it.” The car accelerated up an exit ramp, bringing us onto the highway. “Where are you taking me?”
“What did you see in the glass?”
Swiveling in my seat so I faced him, I said, “How is that any of your business?”
Ammar rubbed his chin. “You fail to realize how serious this is. Ramone’s actions have set off a chain of events that are not in his favor, or yours.” He paused when I glanced down. “You know something,” he remarked.
“I know things aren’t as they appear.” I was tempted to mention my yearlong imprisonment, courtesy of Ramone, but I didn’t divulge. Whether my loyalty was misguided or not, it didn’t feel like it’d be wise to mention that detail. “I do know some things, likely not as many as I should. I can assure you that I do not have the crystal ball.”
“What do you think you know?” Ammar turned his head as if he were gazing out the window. The reflection in the glass showed he was still watching me.
“I know there’s a such thing as magic. And that people can move between worlds, or dimensions. I’m not sure what to call it.” I shook my head; I was still trying to wrap my head around all my new experiences. “I’m going to assume you have magic as well?”
“I do. And I’m going to assume you are not telling me everything you know. You’re aware that’s not wise, correct?”
“Are you threatening me?” His eyes glowed faintly, a light-yellow ring shining around his irises, reminding me of Ramone’s glowing green eyes. “Are you going to hurt me?”
“There’s no need to threaten you, you’re a human with the prince of darkness claiming you. You’re already dead.” Ammar gave me a mirthless smile.
Ramone’s proclamation that he’d kill me echoed in my mind and I knew I’d find no help from this man. “Are you suggesting he’s not human?”
Ammar laughed. “It wasn’t a suggestion.”
A chill ran up my spine. “Then what is he? What are you?”
“He’s the devil,” Ammar muttered, pushing a button that slid the partition down. “Take that exit and drop her off at the curb.”
The driver did as instructed, leaving me on the side of the road yelling after the car. Stunned, I stood there for a few minutes as if the vehicle would turn around and pick me back up. It didn’t.
Shivering, I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and called a car service while I walked to a gas station in the distance. I’d heard the word “devil” in reference to Ramone multiple times now and it left me with my head buzzing. It couldn’t be a literal devil, right?
The side of the road was littered with cups, liquor bottles, and fast-food wrappers and the contents of the grass between the road and the trees were no better. Tall, dry weeds cut a perilous path alongside me that my heels would be unable to navigate.
Walking along and keeping eyes on the glowing orange lights of the station up ahead, all I could think about was Ammar’s inquisition. There was no way to tell what he really wanted to know, other than he was in search of the mysterious glass sphere. It struck me as strange he approached me rather than Ramone and I had no idea if he’d already questioned my green-eyed devil. Devil. I laughed under my breath. Such a strange idea. It had seemed as if Ammar was serious and took it literally. But he couldn’t have cared that much what I saw or thought if he was willing to leave me stranded on the side of the highway.
I’d been walking for nearly five minutes before a pair of headlights passed me, my jaunt passing in the silence of the night. There was barely a breeze in the air, everything quiet and lifeless other than the distant buzz of traffic.
A rustling sound on my right forced me to whip my head around, the intrusion feeling foreign in the stillness. It was too dark to see clearly but I thought I caught some low bushes shaking and picked up my pace as much as my high-heeled shoes would allow. I shook my head; I was walking down the side of the road in a cocktail dress and five-hundred-dollar shoes. This was ridiculous.
Ammar had some nerve leaving me on the side of the road. He hadn’t left me any time, or the wherewithal to request a more convenient place to dump me. As I walked along, focusing on the security of the lights ahead, the heels of my shoes echoed down the road. My cell phone’s flashlight shone on the asphalt, guiding my steps, the beam casting right and left while I hurried, giving the illusion the trees were moving.
Another rustling of leaves sounded alongside the stretch, and I swung my phone around. A pair of eyes caught the light. It was odd—deer generally ran away from people at first sight. I slowed my gait, marveling at the unique experience. The closest most people got to the wild creatures was when they flew across the hood of your car after darting into traffic the way they were prone to.
Yet another pair of eyes peeked through the trees, but this set was moving, almost appearing to float. The form began to move forward, tree branches separating to reveal a cloaked figure. At first, I was confused, wondering why someone would be wandering around the woods along the highway. When I raised my phone, the beam was too weak to shine much light on the whatever it was, but it was just enough to display something that was other.
I froze, unable to comprehend what was slowly gliding toward me. The being—there was no word descriptive enough—possessed protruding eyes and hairless, prominent brows along with stringy, greasy strands of what may have been hair coming off the top of its head. The other set of eyes in the woods began coming forward. My ears were buzzing, my lungs tightened, and my arms were turning numb as a sticky feeling slithered around me. The terror was engulfing as the beings kept creeping toward me. My brain couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing.
An arm curled around my waist at the same time the creatures faded away, dissolving as if they were projections. I blinked, trying to clear my eyes, but they were gone. I knew it was Ramone who’d come to my aid before he even said a word, his familiar scent plus my instant physical reaction assaulting my senses.
He led me to a car directly behind us and I willingly entered. I’d never heard the vehicle pull up. “What were you doing out here?” he asked after the car started moving.
Blinking, I turned away from the window. There was nothing there, no sign of the strange beings. “I was dropped off,” I answered.
“I’m aware of that,” he snapped at me. “Why?”
I took a deep breath before replying. “Someone wants to know where the crystal ball is. What were those things in the woods?”
“What things?”
“Those people! They were headed straight for me, what were they? Or are they?” I shook my head. I knew they weren’t human; Ramone could play as dumb as he liked. He wouldn’t have come to my rescue if they had altruistic motives.
He eyed me thoughtfully. “Those were, are, lesser demons. You shouldn’t be able to see them.”
“Demons... " It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in evil spirits and demons, it was that they’d always been something I’d never considered before. I’d ordered books for my shop on the subject, seen them in paintings, watched them depicted in movies, but I’d never given them a place in everyday life. “Okay. What are they doing in the woods and why shouldn’t I be able to see them?”
Ramone’s jaw twitched and he clenched and unclenched his fists. “I wasn’t supposed to go to the Fourth Realm, the place that I took you. I was banished, as I believe I’ve told you. Because you touched that crystal, it unleashed something. It's similar to GPS. You have magic inside you. The preparations I took before bringing you weren’t enough.”
“I had Ilya test your blood and you come from a long line of witches, a highly sought after family bloodline. Now that my father knows you exist, you’re a target. Why do you think Matthew sought you out?” His proclamation was punctuated by a thud from the back of the car when we hit a pothole, jarring me.
None of what he’d said made any sense. “Matthew? The man I went to the opera with? What does he have to do with anything?”
“He must’ve known due to my interest in you, he has a habit of pursuing what isn’t his.”
“You didn’t answer my question and he ghosted me.”
Ramone smirked. “He’s a smart man.” I glared at him.
“Matthew’s an angel,” he replied, waving his hand. “You could only see those cockroaches because of the magic inside you. I don’t know how it escaped me.”
I let out a breath and drummed my fingers on my leg. “Please take me home.”
“Who dropped you off? I need to know who put you in danger.”
“You’re going to take me home.” I stared out the window as we passed Harding Dairy. The full moon highlighted the inside of a large open barn with cows visible inside. I recognized the huge farm from multiple trips with my parents down this road and knew we were headed in the wrong direction.
Ramone chuckled under his breath. “Little witch, you’re going to tell me who dropped you off.”
My head tilted at his words. I wasn’t a witch, no matter what he thought he’d discovered. “Ammar did.”
His eyes turned dark, and I felt the anger emanating from him. Ramone sat forward and angled himself toward me, grabbing my hand. He laced his fingers through mine and lowered his head to my neck. Instantly, my heart rate accelerated and my skin heated as warmth flew through my veins. Pressing my hand against his chest didn’t stop him, his lips and nose trailing along my flesh as I held my breath. Then I reached for him before I knew what I was doing.
“He didn’t touch you,” he remarked, his mouth brushing my skin.
Letting go of the hair I’d clasped with my free hand I reached for his shoulder, attempting to dislodge the assault on my senses and heart. “No, he didn’t touch me. He didn’t do anything but question me.”
Ramone slowly righted himself, leaving our hands entwined. “He asked you about the sphere,” he stated.
I nodded. “He didn’t hurt me, he only fished for information. Who is he?”
He let go of me and leaned back against the seat, moving an elbow to the door’s armrest. It took several minutes before he spoke. “He’s no one. He’s supposed to be dead, like I told you before. He was dead, I thought. I’ve never heard of anyone coming back.” I remembered the two men talking about this in the castle but wanted more information.
“Did you kill him, too?” My question was ludicrous, but I’d seen things I’d never imagined. It bore asking in case people really could come back from the dead.
Ramone rubbed his chin. “No.”
Still hoping for some explanation of what was going on and what I’d inadvertently gotten myself into, I asked, “Should I expect to see him or those beings again?”
Ramone furrowed his brows and fisted his hands. “It's possible.”
“How did you know where I was?”
“There’s a tracker in your phone.”
“When did you do that?”
Ramone sent me a smug smile before glancing out the window. “Do you really want to know? It's completely unnecessary now, but I will leave it just in case.”
I pulled my phone out of my clutch and turned it on with my thumbprint, trying to see if anything looked different or stood out to me. I felt his eyes on me, felt his amusement. Did I really want to know when he’d violated my privacy? He regularly trampled over my boundaries.
“No, I don’t think I do,” I answered, shoving my phone back in my bag. “You do know that planting a tracking device on me violates my privacy, right?”
“Oh, I think I’ve violated much, much more than that.” I felt his dark gaze like a physical touch. “Are you going to try to stop me?”
Rubbing my eyebrows with my hand, I said, “Ramone...” I glanced at him, and he’d turned slightly, a glint in his eyes. He lifted his hand, and I felt the softest touch, almost as if a gentle breeze was circulating around me. The sensation sent a shiver up my spine before a ghostly caress wound itself around my limbs. It was as if Ramone were winding satin and velvet along my skin and tying me up into the most delicate, delicious package. My arms were covered with goosebumps, my flesh tingling, as he moved closer to me.
He didn’t physically touch me, not even a nudge of his knee against my thigh, but as the feeling spread through me, I wanted him to. The strokes skittered along my torso, climbing up my breasts and leaving a longing between my legs with a force that took my breath away. The hunger I felt for him was wild and powerful. I pressed my thighs together in a futile attempt to shove the carnal urges away.
“Open your eyes, little witch,” his voice whispered by my ear. I shuddered and pried them open, my gaze on Ramone’s lips mere inches away. I reached for him, and an invisible force pinned my palms to the smooth leather surface of the seat. He’d trapped me, caged me inside his lust-filled assault and I was at his mercy.
My thighs parted of their own accord, and the unnatural contact slid through my center, consuming every millimeter of my heated flesh. I gasped and met Ramone’s eyes. They were emerald discs under hooded lids, amused, hungry and sparkling. He watched as I began to writhe under the wraith-like fondling, his teeth biting his lower lip. He was doing this to me with his sorcery; he was making me mindless with desire without laying a finger on me. I knew I should be scared, concerned, screaming.
But all I wanted was more.
“Ramone,” I begged him. My legs were shaking as the pressure built up inside me, the need to orgasm more insistent than my next breath.
He waved a finger at me and lifted himself from the seat to bend over me. I felt his hot breath against my neck and wanted more than anything to feel him against me. The unseen chains I fought against restrained me, leaving me immobilized. My frustrated whimpers were useless.
He didn’t let even a single strand of his hair touch me.
“Did you need something from me, Samantha?”
My eyes were watering while he dangled me over the edge of euphoria. I wanted to both punch him and kiss him, and I was unable to do either. My telling him to stay away echoed in the back of my mind. He’d maneuvered me into a position where I was begging for him. Granted, he’d rescued me from the creepy figures in the woods but what was to say he hadn’t set that up in order to lead the two of us to this exact moment?
“You know what I need. Why are you doing this?” It took everything I had to swallow my pride and shove those words out.
“And what is that?” Ramone moved to pour himself a drink from the bar hidden in a compartment.
I needed him and his physical touch. His mouth and lips all over my skin, sucking, licking, and biting. I needed his cock to fill me, bringing me that physical connection I’d only ever felt with him, the engulfing wholeness and contentment he’d deliver to me. Just Ramone, that’s all I wanted.
I’d never tell him, though. Not after all the games, not after he’d jailed me in a nightmare and told me he’d murder me. “Please just stop this, let me go.”
My body was shaking, and I was only able to move about an inch in any direction. It was painful and I was stuck, unable to find relief.
He set his drink down and moved closer to me. “Did you want Ammar to touch you?” he snarled.
“What? No, why would I?” There was no reason for him to think this way.
“Mm.”
Another whimper sounded in my throat. “Ramone, please. I’m begging you, please stop this.” A tear rolled down my cheek. This was too much; I couldn’t take it anymore. I was powerless against his magic and unable to end the sensations on my own.
Suddenly, it stopped. I felt something leave my body and I fell sideways onto the seat. The ache between my legs lessened and I began righting myself, pushing my skirt down. Ramone scooped me up and set me on his lap before I had the chance to sit back.
He fisted my hair at the back of my head and tugged lightly. “Look out the window,” he ordered.
The city lights were coming back into view, the buildings glittering on the horizon. I hadn’t noticed when the car had turned around, but I’d been busy. If I could’ve, I would’ve turned and asked Ramone what it was he wanted me to see in the skyline.
“All that,” he pulled my head back, so my neck rested against the edge of his shoulder, “that’s mine, a tiny sliver of what belongs to me. Everything you see could all be yours, as well. If only you’d submit to me.”