Chapter 7
Seven
“ G et inside, now,” Vaelor growled.
My fingers curled into my palms. He’d done it again.
Acted as if he might actually not be the ruthless demon he was, lulling me into a tentative moment of security and then destroying it with reality.
My life had always been like that. Just when I felt secure, when I believed I could trust, that trust was snatched from me.
“No.” I warily stepped around him and headed for the gate.
Even though I couldn’t hear his footsteps, his voice remained right behind me, so I knew he was following. “Do you have a death wish?”
“I’m not your slave.” My demise may be certain if I exited that gate, but at least I’d have died trying to get to freedom.
“No, you are my murderer, my tormentor, my…” He released an angry breath. “Would you stop walking? Any second a spirit might?—”
“What? Possess me? Kill me?” I laughed. “Sounds like you were planning to do exactly that except you were going to drag it out over days and weeks and?—”
“You’re not listening.” He grabbed my wrist, tugging me to a halt.
I spun to glare at him, wrenching my hand from his grasp. “Oh, I’ve heard enough. I will not be a helpless lamb for you to torture.”
Anger sparked in his gaze, and he drew nearer, but then he looked up and stiffened. “They’ve come.” He raised a finger and pointed behind me toward the gate.
I glanced back to see, and my eyes widened.
Dread pulsed through me like a heartbeat.
Five spirits were at the gate and they were heading right toward me, deadly violent revenge in their glowing gazes.
Two were large, with spread wings and dark gray bodies.
Huge horns jutted from their heads. Another was smaller but had considerable sabertooth-like teeth reaching over his jaw.
He prowled forward with feline grace. One was a huge, threatening minotaur.
I recognized him as the same demon who had struck Gerand when they captured us.
The last creature I identified as Tricken, his pointed teeth flashing as he came near.
Vaelor positioned himself in front of me, wings spread wide. “Stay back. She’s mine.”
“She was yours as long as she stayed in the manor. The instant she stepped out, she gave herself over to us,” Tricken said. “Now move aside. We’ve learned a new trick and we all want to try it out on her.”
“Not me,” said the demon with the sabertooth teeth. “I intend to tear her apart one limb at a time and listen to her scream.”
“Ah, an attack from inside and out, even better,” Tricken added.
I retreated a step. There was no escape. They’d be within me, taking over my body before I took five steps toward the mansion.
Vaelor spun around and grabbed my arms, pulling me close. “Look at me.” His hand came to my chin and forced me to stare up at him. There was a harshness but determination about his gaze. “Do not fight me, and I will save you.”
His being enveloped into mine, and he disappeared.
No.
I spasmed.
Do not fight me, Vaelor’s voice growled in my mind.
I couldn’t do this again. I couldn’t. I’d left to avoid this, to escape this.
Denara, trust me.
Something dark and gentle moved through me, and the pain I expected never came. It was cold and unfamiliar—but not harsh—a compulsion, but not force.
Give yourself to me , his tone was blackness moving inside my mind. I resisted, but somehow that felt… wrong.
The demons hissed, angry that Vaelor had stolen their chance. Tricken picked up a large stone and moved in.
Run.
Back to the manor.
On that, we agreed. I spun and raced toward the open front doors.
The demons followed. In a flash, they were before me, reaching for me. Vaelor made me spring aside, but demon hands closed on my arm.
“Tearing limb from limb it is,” Tricken snarled in my ear. He raised the stone in his hand to strike.
The upstairs window of the manor shattered, and a large bench flew out toward the demons.
Move. With a force I didn’t have, I lunged from the demon’s grasp, away from the projectile.
Demons leaped aside when the bench crashed to the ground. I didn’t think that it would have hurt them, but some reactions must be hard to break even after one was dead.
Go. Vaelor forced my body forward, and I sprinted for the door.
“Don’t let her get inside!” Tricken shouted. He attempted to grab the stone, but his hand passed right through it. He howled in frustration and reached again, to no avail.
A winged demon’s hand latched onto my skirt, and I fell. But Vaelor had me reach out and grip the door jamb. I cried out as my dress tore, but Vaelor forced me to pulled myself through the entrance and into the manor. I landed hard on the floor.
The demons’ murderous glares stared at me through the doorway, but they didn’t enter. They lingered there, the haze curling about their forms, their orange eyes holding a dark threat of revenge.
Vaelor made me kick the door shut.
Then he rose out of me, the mist swirling as he took form. He stood over me, fury in his gaze. “Tell me again why it was worth it to try something so foolish?”
I lay on the floor unmoving, gasping for breath.
Although I had almost been killed, all I could think about was how I was here again, trapped in the same situation.
Months after being taken captive, having to bite my tongue and do every little thing I was told—and now having my escape thwarted yet again, I was still in the hands of a demon bent on torturing me.
I staggered to my feet on shaky legs and I glared right back. “Do not lecture me on my choices. You are a monster. All of you are monsters. If there is anything I can do to get away from you, then I will.”
He bared his teeth and advanced a step closer, his wings spread. “I just saved your life.”
“ You took over my body without permission. And I know you are going to do it again and again.”
He straightened, his eyes flashing. “You obviously can’t be trusted to do what is best for yourself. You shall proceed to your room and remain there.”
“Until when?”
“Until I tell you that you may leave.”
“No.” I clenched my fists, my hands shaking and my body aching. My arm pulsed with pain, and my nails still dug into the cut along my palm. Enough. I’d had enough .
His wings spread wide. “You are not a guest here. You are mine, and you will go to your room.”
I lifted my chin. “And I said, no .”
He hissed and moved toward me. I turned to run—to where I didn’t know, but I wanted nothing more to do with demons and their violent games. Vaelor’s hands came around my waist, and he hoisted me, throwing me over his shoulder.
“Feron!” he bellowed. “Come and get her before I drop her.”
I screamed and beat his back. He probably felt it, but if it hurt, he gave no indication. I reached out to scratch my nails against his wings, and he jerked me off his shoulder and gripped me by my wrists, holding me off the ground.
“Do not touch my wings.”
He carried me up the stairs that way, my feet never touching the floor.
Feron lumbered toward us from where he had been inside a side room, where he must have thrown the bench out the window.
Vaelor paused at the top of the staircase, his eyes widening. “What is this?” His hold tightened on my wrists. I stared back at him, unsure what surprised him, but then realized—he hadn’t lost his grip on me.
Feron moved to take me from Vaelor.
“Nevermind, Feron. It seems whatever causes me to lose my connection with the world doesn’t apply to her.” He scowled, for some reason even angrier.
“Let me down!” I shouted.
“Stop struggling or I’ll feed you to the ghosts who want you dead!”
I twisted and tried to wriggle out of his hold.
I didn’t care. I’d reached my limit. I couldn’t take another second of him or the chaos around us.
Vaelor marched me to the room and unceremoniously dropped me onto the bed.
My skirts tangled around my legs, and I had to wrestle free of them to sit up.
His breaths were fast and deep, and for a moment he appeared as though he might do as he threatened and toss me out the second-story window to the ghosts’ mercy. Then he straightened, smoothing his fancy, rumpled clothes. “I will return to speak to you when you are calm,” Vaelor growled.
“When I’m calm?”
He whirled and strode from the chamber, yanking the door shut behind him. A second later I detected the key twist in the lock—making my room my prison.