Caught

Run.

If she could just keep her distance and get out of the room —

She sucked in a sharp breath as he took a single step forward, purposeful and menacing. The shadow rippled with his intentions.

“You want to refuse me?” He cocked an eyebrow. “You know how that will end for you.”

She heard her voice screaming in agony from years ago, the crack of a whip, the bite of knives, and burning in her lungs. She gagged, shaking her head, stumbling along the wall, trying to keep as far away as possible. He licked his lips, smirking at her and reaching for his tie, loosening it and rolling his shoulder in one smooth, almost oily movement.

“It’s… so nice to drop the act like this.” His eyes flashed as he dragged his gaze over her. “So good that you’ve filled out so much like your mother.” His eyes narrowed, hungry like a beast. “I’m starving.”

Kaelra shrieked as he lunged at her with outstretched hands. She dodged, turned, and ran. He laughed, leaping high and quick over the back of the couch after her, unnaturally agile even for a shifter. He seemed almost weightless, the darkness in his skin deepened, turning his limbs to swaths of darkness.

She feinted, causing him to leap just before she changed directions. He twisted in the air, but crashed with a snarl into the wall behind her.

“You—”

Her gaze jumped to the door. The path was clear.

She could make it.

She leaped over the couch, landing on the table, the love seat, and rocking it back, springing from it toward the door.

Darkness swept over the wall in front of her so thick that it was as if he had wiped the exit from existence. She reached the door, scrabbling for where the doorknob should be, and yanked back at the bite of pain digging into her hands. Vicious claws of shadow punctured her hand. She ripped her hand free and spun, dizzy with terror.

He appeared behind her, his hand rising over her, and she dropped to the ground as her legs gave out.

The frigid cold of his hand clamped around her arm, the other fisted in the fabric over her chest, hauling her back up and shoving her into the thick darkness covering the wall. The shadows crawled over her skin, slightly wet and chilling. She slammed her eyes shut, not wanting to see, know, or even be present.

Away.

She wanted to go away and sink beneath the darkness in her mind until this was over, but the darkness would not part for her. It would not take her. The lilting hum screeched in her ears, holding her mind hostage. The scent of his cologne, barely strong enough to cover the stench of rot, slithered into her senses as she banged on the walls of her mind, pleading to escape the slipping, sliding feeling of time and space blending now and then, there and here. The scent of stagnant water, tinged with old metal, welled up in the humming. Industrial lights of the past cut through the darkness, summoning the scent of warm, wet skin mingled with sugar and poison.

Blood and death followed. Rot and oblivion loomed.

“Commander?” She pleaded. “Please.”

She wasn’t strong enough for this. She couldn’t breathe this air.

Someone, please. Anyone!

There was no answer from the darkness. She was alone with this monster just like before. His hand clamped on her jaw, his hips pushed against hers. The hard ridge digging into her stomach made her retch on nothing as he turned her to look into his cold, empty, ravenous eyes.

She braced for that gnawing hunger, need, and sadism to lash out, but it didn’t come. He just stared. Waited. Fumed. Glared. There was a flash of restraint in them. His stillness infected her, making even her heart stop, and the whole world narrow to the fine point of the words he spoke. His face was so close to hers that every puff of breath, tinged with sweet liquor and rot, ghosted across her face.

“Did you bond with him?” He snarled. “Answer me!”

“No!” She cried, shuddering,

He struck her across the face,  leaving a fresh slash of pain on her cheek from his ring. He pulled and ripped her shirt at the seams, shredding it, then forced her back against the wall, pinning her in place. His eyes roamed over the bare skin above the holster she wore. He snarled, grabbing the front of it and yanking it. The leather laces bit into her skin before snapping free, her breasts falling heavily against her chest, and shame curdling in her stomach. He snarled and thrust his nose against her neck, sniffing deeply before throwing her down roughly. Kaelra curled up there, shaking and tugging the shreds of her shirt and holster closed, wrapping her arms around herself.  He kicked her hard in the back. A sharp cry escaped her as she rolled into the wall.

“You think I sent you there to play around? No wonder that fucker has vanished!” She wheezed as he kicked her in the gut, punctuating every word with another vicious kick. “Worthless. Filthy. Sow...”

She whimpered, covering her head, bearing it until he stopped. He stomped on her head, grinding his boot into her hair.

“Listen closely,” he whispered, his tone lilting, and said, barely above a whisper. “This deal will be made either on your cunt or on your head. Make him want you. I don’t care if you have to drop to your knees and service him in the middle of the banquet hall. You will accept his claim, his advances, and cater to his every desire, or the frontier will look like a vacation. Your Commander will not save you.”

Her heart thudded in her ears. His footsteps crossed the room before coming back.

A sharp, deep pain exploded in her side again. Something with a bunch of strings in a glittery pastel blue fell over her face. “Clean yourself up and get downstairs by the next hour.”

Then, his feet turned away. The shadows withdrew, sliding, dropping her as they retreated, dragging their sharp, vicious teeth across her skin.

She suppressed the sobs, focusing on the faint light of her mother’s talisman in front of her between her breasts and the humid darkness she breathed. It warmed against her, the solidness and lingering magic in it spread, casting silence over her like a barrier through which nothing entered.

This was the only safe space in the world, right on the edge of the realm of death and insanity, where she could feel her mother as if just on the other side of a veil, her warmth seeping through. If she listened close enough, she could hear her, feel her hand on her head.

Soon, the silence lifted. Fear settled like sand in water, and she could see beyond the shadows of her arms. The swirling gold in the rug beneath her glinted, leading her gaze from just in front of her out to the rest of the room, to where the door opened with a slow creak.