Azeira
My head pounded as I slowly opened my eyes. My stomach swirled as if I had swallowed a tube of acid. Blinking a couple times, I waited for my eyes to focus. My mouth was dry along with my throat. I reached up, grabbing my aching head, trying to remember what the hell happened.
“What the…” My voice faded. My finger was sore and aching. Moving my hand from my head, I eyed it, trying to find the source. My eyes bucked when I noticed the red ink on my left ring finger.
Navarro.
With parted lips, I brought my hand closer, making sure I wasn’t seeing things.
Something wasn’t right. Shooting my head up, I darted my eyes around the room. They ballooned. My heart fell from my chest. Suddenly it felt hard to breathe as if someone had cut my air way off.
“No,” I whispered. Panic crept into my chest. My stomach twisted. “No!” I said again, this time my voice louder.
Shooting off the bed I rushed to the door and slammed my fist into it. “Kairus! Kairus!” I felt woozy as my pulse raced through me, pounding through my head. Knots bunched in my stomach.
“No. Kairus.” My voice felt strained. My head fell on the door and I squeezed my eyes shut. I was sure my heart was about to pound out my chest. The knots grew larger inside me. My chest felt as if someone had placed a bag of boulders on it.
One of my shaky hands lifted and went to the side of my neck where I felt a slight soreness. Faintly I remembered being in the library and Kairus coming inside. My heart felt like a dagger had been sent through it.
Things with me and Kairus had been good. We had grown closer and I felt like we had a connection. After the symphony, something in our relationship had shifted from captive and captor to something deeper. I found myself growing anxious for him to return home after he left to handle business. The times with just the two of us became precious to me. Never had I felt so attached to someone before. My previous relationships never left me yearning for my partner when he wasn’t around.
My hands balled, my nails pressing into my fists.
It felt like lava was shot inside my veins and filed through my body. Harsh air blew out of my nostrils as they flared. Shooting my arms to the side, I stepped away from the door and spun in a circle. I couldn’t locate it but I knew Kairus had a camera somewhere in here.
“Kairus!” I shouted. “Kairus, I know you can hear me! What the hell is going on!”
Wildly, I shifted my eyes around. My muscles were tight. I waited to see if someone would come into the room, but I was met with silence. There were no windows in the room, nothing but the bathroom. Memories of when I was first taken and thrown in here flashed through my head. I closed my eyes and pushed out a shaky breath.
The tightness inside me grew, my throat felt sore.
“What did I do?” I whispered brokenly. My shoulders fell forward and dread passed through me. When I woke up, my heart was full of joy. I was happy. Things were moving in the right direction. Out of nowhere that all changed and I had no idea why. I tried to think of something I could have done to upset him but kept coming up blank.
Finally my legs gave out and I fell to the ground. My eyes went to the newly added ink on my finger. My chest squeezed tighter. He branded me again . Why would he do this just to lock me up?
Balling my hands again, I dropped my chin to my chest and slowed my breathing. The blood swirled like a hurricane in my head. Pressure built in the back of my eyes.
Nothing made sense to me.
“What did I do?” I repeated, this time in defeat.
Silence.
No one came down here to explain. I knew he was somewhere in the house. I could feel him. He wasn’t in the room, but I felt his eyes burning into me from wherever the cameras were in the room.
Dropping to my butt, my body suddenly felt too heavy to support itself. Nothing made sense. All the progress we made had been washed away.
I squeezed my eyes tighter as I curled into myself, attempting to hide in the blanket on the bed.
He was in the room, I felt him and it woke me instantly. Kairus seemed to be in my skin now. I easily became aware of his presence when he was near. He was silently looming over me, watching me. My back was to him and I made no attempt to change that.
I pressed my lips together, partially opened my eyes, and stared at the wall.
“I know you’re awake,” he murmured.
Silence.
When he touched my hair, I flinched out of his reach.
“.” My name sounded like nails on a chalkboard falling from his lips.
My tongue went across my lips. Tears pooled in the bottom of my lids. I was angry that he had drugged me and locked me away, but more importantly I was hurt . I thought me and Kairus were past this. He was opening up to me, showing me a side he kept locked away from even himself.
“Look at me.” He yanked my shoulder, forcing me on my back. Blinking through my tears I stared at the man who stole my common sense and someone crept into my heart and locked it away from anyone else being able to have it.
His lips pinched together and his eyes were hard but held indifference in them. He raked them down my blanket covered body. I pulled it tighter around me, wanting to hide myself from him.
“You tattooed your last name on my finger,” I said, my voice low and slightly raspy from yelling and crying earlier. I was sure my eyes were swollen.
“I did,” he replied calmly.
“Why? I didn’t give you permission to do that.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Is it not clear? It’s because I need everyone to know who you belong to.”
I choked out a laugh and closed my eyes.
“You act like I’m your property. Is that why you locked me back up down here?” The muscles in his jaw flexed.
“You being down here is a necessity right now,” he replied tightly.
Snorting, I fluttered my eyes open and stared at him. My stomach twisted and the aching from earlier returned intensified.
“I knew it was too good to be true.” I swallowed around the lump in my throat. My voice cracked as I spoke. “I thought me and you were building something serious. Like I had knocked down the walls that had been built around you. That you truly cared about me, but it was all a lie.” I inhaled a deep breath and sniffed back my tears. He didn’t deserve them.
His face slacked and he stood straighter. “That’s not true.” He went to touch my face but again I flinched away from him. His eyes hardened as he snatched me by the chin and made me look at him.
“Just tell me why I’m down here,” I pleaded after a long stare off.
“It’ll all make sense soon.”
“That’s not good enough!” I tried to yank out of his grip. Irritation filled me. My muscles twitched.
“Someone wants to take you from me and I won’t allow it,” he answered vaguely. My brows crinkled.
“Who?”
“That doesn’t matter right now.”
I closed my eyes and exhaled a deep breath. “Kairus, you don’t have to lock me up in fear that I’m going to leave. You know that right? I care about you, a lot. I…” My voice trailed off and I snapped my mouth closed. Right now wasn’t the time for me to open up and reveal my feelings.
His hand moved from my chin and he stepped back.
“Do you even care about me? Were these past couple of weeks all a lie?” I wondered, feeling my heart cracking as I spoke. The thought of the relationship forming between us being a lie made my stomach coil.
I hated that I still craved him, still wanted to be in his presence. I should hate Kairus, but instead I wanted nothing more than to throw myself in his arms and hug him tightly. I wanted him to envelop me in his bulky arms where I knew no harm from others would come to me.
His eyes narrowed. He rushed the bed and gripped the bottom of my face again, this time it made me wince.
“Don’t ever tell me how I feel about you. If I didn’t give a fuck I wouldn’t be doing this.”
I bit down on my back molars. “No! You just want to own me, that’s different than actually caring about me!” My voice grew louder as I pulled away from him.
“You’re not in the space to understand right now. We’ll talk again later.” When he turned to leave, panic shot through me. I quickly sat up.
“Kairus! Wait!” I called out, scrambling off the bed. “Please, please don’t leave me down here. I don’t understand what’s going on, but I promise I won’t leave. I don’t want to leave.”
Something shifted on his face. It was easy to see he was battling with himself.
“Soon,” he finally said.
My feet stayed planted where they were. I watched as he lifted his hand and placed it on the scanner. The door unlocked, which snapped me out of my trance. By the time I rushed to it, he was already closing it.
“No! Let me out! Please!” I shouted, pounding the door. Pain shot down my arm but I didn’t care.
I wasn’t sure how long I stood there shouting and pounding on the door. My temples throbbed and my throat grew taut as my voice went hoarse.
I fell to my knees, still hitting the door, but softer now. It was obvious whatever happened before Kairus got home had him shook enough that he felt like he had to lock me up as if I was a runaway bride. What hurt worse was he didn’t have enough faith in me to believe he wouldn’t lose me if he just talked to me.