8. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Felix

Fuck, my neck hurts.

I groan as I try to roll it; my neck has the worst crick I’ve ever felt and my shoulders are bunched up to my ears, and I can barely move them.

I can’t really move anything now that I’m trying, and it feels like my arms are…

My eyes pop open as I recall what happened on my way home from work.

Silas took off toward the woods.

Roger was getting restless.

I couldn’t wait until I could sink into bed, and was already planning which email to jerk off to today when—bam! Some little gremlin jumped on my back and proceeded to choke me out .

With a scowl, I try to wiggle my way to sitting, but it appears my hands are bound together. I look over my shoulder as I roll to my side and, sure enough, I have a shiny pair of bracelets.

Fucking handcuffs.

Whoever that woman was, the feral creature who grabbed me and somehow managed to kidnap me, she couldn’t have acted alone because even if she put the sleeper to end all sleepers on me, lugging my limp ass anywhere wouldn’t have been easy.

I’m almost six three, and a buck ninety on a good day, and that’s without feeding myself properly for the last few years. I’m scrawny compared to Silas, but even still, it didn’t feel like the woman was very big and even so, I don’t imagine she dragged me down the street on her own.

Not to mention that would have caused one hell of a scene, especially when the sun came up and I burst into flames.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but as soon as I can get these cuffs off, Roger and I are—Roger!

I look around the darkened room, my eyes darting from corner to corner as panic sinks in.

I swear, if she did anything to my cat…

He’s an innocent bystander in all this, a casualty of some screwed up circumstances, and if that grimy little gremlin hurt my cat, it won’t matter that I haven’t fed from another living thing in years. I will drain that woman dry and leave her body to rot.

Speaking of rot.

My brow furrows as I inhale deeply, trying to pick up any trace of my grumpy good boy as I scoot toward the edge of the bed, but I don’t smell Roger.

I smell very subtle hints of a woman; a cheap perfume, various hygiene products that females typically lean toward, lots of fruits and flowers, but they aren’t overpowering. And underneath all of that, I faintly smell the remnants of congealed blood and rotting tissue.

Considering where I am and how I got here, that doesn’t exactly bode well for me.

I think I’ve had quite enough of this entire thing—I’ll be going now.

I swing my legs over and plant my feet on the ground, and go to stand. As soon as I take a couple steps, I’m jerked back toward the bed.

Which is the moment I realize I’m not only handcuffed, but I’m also shackled to the headboard.

If this isn’t some awful and morbid déjà vu…

Attempting to keep a level head, I take a deep breath and try to think.

Unfortunately, I’m irritated as hell and starting to panic, so that’s not going to work.

And it’s why I start yelling while I tug on my chain.

“Hello! Hey! Is anyone there? Roger!” Not that he could do anything if he heard me, but not knowing if he’s okay is only adding to my stress. “Hey!” I yank on the cuffs so hard they dig into my wrists. “Goddamnit, where are you, you psycho?”

With another hard pull, there’s a crack, and I turn around to see the middle of the headboard splintering.

Yes .

I back up toward the mattress and take another breath before I run away from it, ignoring the way my shoulders scream over the position of my arms as the chain splits a little more of the wooden slab.

Repeating my previous action, I gear up to take a flying leap, but just when I’m about to launch myself across the room, the door opens and a stream of light splits the darkness.

“You’re finally awake,” the girl beams.

I stop dead in my tracks as that sweet voice floats through the void, trying desperately to make out the smallish figure standing in front of me. She’s backlit though, and even my acute night vision can’t see the face it belongs to.

“How long have you been up? I didn’t hear you call out until now. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”

Frowning, I watch as the small shadow moves deeper into the room, nothing but a glimmer of something shining from where I imagine her eyes must be.

Which means this woman is the one who was trying to break into the studio because that strange reflective thing they’re doing is exactly what I saw when I was leaving.

“You kept me waiting, though. A lot longer than I thought you would,” she says as she stays just out of the dark where I could see her clearer. “I waited for you to wake up, waited for you to leave work.” She pauses and her eyes twinkle as I catch a flash of white. “And I waited for you to use one of my words.”

“ Zia ?” The realization is instant, one I think I knew deep down because it was obvious this was coming. “You’re Zia?”

Her eyes practically glow and I feel her excitement vibrating off her. “Oh, the way you say my name, it’s better than I imagined it would be. Say it again.” Uhm… no? Because this is getting weirder than it already was. Which is why I simply shake my head at her. “Please, say it again.”

A lamp clicks on and I squint, my light sensitivity more intense than most of my kind, so much so I have to wear tinted glasses. But they’re gone, probably lost in the…

“Oh, here,” Zia says as she quickly comes toward me in a blur of color and movement. “At first I thought you were just a really hot nerdy guy, but once I realized you were a vampire, well, the tinted glasses made sense.”

She grabs the front of my shirt and yanks me down toward her before cramming my glasses on my face—thankfully without poking me in the eye.

“Thanks,” I say slowly while I blink repeatedly, trying to adjust my vision. Then what she said sinks in, and my stare snaps to hers. “Wait, what did you just say?”

“That you’re a really hot nerdy guy?”

“No. No, the thing about…” Wow .

Holy shit, Zia is pretty.

Her eyes are dark, dark like I fantasized they’d be, but they have that silvery reflective quality, giving them an unusual sparkle. It’s captivating, really, the way that almost silver light dances across the darkest brown I’ve ever seen. And with those full lips and a rather adorable button nose, her jet black hair falling in loose waves to her shoulders… she’s more than pretty—Zia is beautiful.

While I’m glad I wasn’t kidnapped by a bridge troll, finding myself attracted to Zia is dangerous.

And probably misplaced.

I’ve been alone for such a long time, deprived of any sort of relationship outside of my ancient landlord or at-work-only coworkers, of course I’d find the first female to show me any attention at all attractive.

Hell, her emails are probably to blame for even entertaining the idea that Zia is pretty.

I’d be attracted to anyone who goes into great detail over sucking my cock or letting me fuck them in the ass at this point.

I need to stop thinking about this, though.

It doesn’t benefit anyone, because at the end of the day, she kidnapped me, and I don’t need to add Stockholm’s syndrome to the long list of shit that’s wrong with me.

“Where’s Roger?”

Zia tilts her head as one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows raise in confusion. “What?”

“Roger.” I nod as I take a step back, putting a little more space between us. “What did you do with him?”

“Who the hell is Roger?”

“He was with me when I left work, but he’s not here now, and I want to know what you did with him. He needs me.”

Zia’s entire demeanor changes and I swear she growls as lunges toward me. “He needs you? The guy you were with at that tiny building where you make your podcast? Is he this Roger person? Because if you’re with him in any—”

“My cat,” I say quickly before she explodes. “Roger is my cat. I was carrying him while I was walking home.”

She frowns. “The alien?”

“Alien?” What the hell is she talking about?

Zia nods as she visibly relaxes. “Roger is the alien. The ugly naked thing with the big eyes that hisses. He’s in the bathroom.”

I blink and ignore the fact she called my grumpy good boy ugly. “The bathroom?”

“Mhm.”

“Why is my cat in the bathroom?”

“He made it very clear that he doesn’t like me. Probably because I tried to show dominance by hissing at him.” She smiles a little as she turns and sits on the edge of the bed. “I wanted to leave him in the trunk, but Draven wouldn’t allow it because he had other things to do, and a hissing alien was not part of his plans for the day. He also thought you’d be mad.”

“I would,” I snap. “Did you hurt him? I swear to god, if you hurt my cat—”

“Calm down, Felix. I didn’t hurt your naked mole rat. I put him in the bathroom while I waited for you to wake up.” Zia looks up at me as I sigh in relief. “Why is he wearing a sweater? That’s freaking weird. And it’s super itchy. He’s probably going to get a rash.”

“He doesn’t have any fur.” I sway a little on my feet, my stomach rolling with hunger and forcing me to sit down next to her. How long have I been here? “He’s a sphinx. They… they get cold because they don’t have fur like…”

“Felix?”

I shake my head as my gut rumbles. “How did you know I’m a—”

“Your fangs.” I turn to her with a furrowed brow as she scoots closer. “The blood bag in your messenger bag burst. Scared the hell out of me. I thought I hurt you and when I was looking over your body to see if I had, I noticed your fangs. Are they always out like that?”

She reaches over with her finger like she wants to poke one, but I jerk away.

“Yes,” I grunt, closing my eyes against the way my head starts to pulse. “I’m not—I’m not feeling so hot.”

“Of course not, silly,” Zia says with a laugh. “Vampires are cold-blooded. You shouldn’t be feeling hot. Not yet, anyway.”

Unsure what exactly she means by that, I choose not to address it in favor of finding out the severity of the issue we’re both about to be facing. “How long have I been here?”

“Just a few hours.”

“Oh.” That’s a huge relief. If it had been longer, there is a pretty good chance I would have gone completely feral on her sooner than later, and whether she kidnapped me or not, we don’t need to go there. I’d prefer we don’t, anyway, but I need to get some coconut water or else I won’t be able to control that.

“What’s wrong?” Zia turns to face me completely just as my stomach screeches. “Felix? You don’t look so good.”

“I just told you I’m not feeling very well.”

“Did I hurt you? I did, didn’t I?” Suddenly, I’m shoved back onto the bed, my head bouncing off the mattress as my hands are smashed underneath me, and knees settle on either side of my waist. “I didn’t see any wounds, nothing that was obvious at least, but maybe I had you in the sleeper hold too long.”

Zia’s breath is hot on my neck as her dainty fingers turn my head, my eyes sliding closed while she pokes and prods under my chin and along my throat.

If I wasn’t so damn hungry, I’d be ridiculously turned on by this.

She’s straddling my waist, touching me all over, and now that she’s this close, I can smell Zia’s natural scent.

It’s spicy yet sweet, heady but light. It isn’t strong, but it’s overpowering at the same time, and I need to stop breathing it in or else hunger isn’t going to be the only thing I’m feeling.

And that can't happen.

Zia kidnapped me.

She choked me out on the way home from work, after she had been stalking me for at least last night.

She’s been mildly obsessed with me for a while, and I saw that obsession growing with each email she sent.

Zia is clearly unhinged and capable of doing quite a bit of damage despite her size, and that’s without proof that the smell of death somewhere in this house was caused by her.

I need to keep reminding myself of all those things because fucking my captor, no matter how pretty she is, how dirty her mind can be, or how lonely I am, is a one-way ticket to six feet under.

Thankfully for me, my stomach growls loud enough for Zia to hear, and she immediately stops poking around my body. “Was that you?”

I nod the best I can. “I’m hungry.”

“You need to feed?” She shivers slightly, but it was enough for me to feel in this position. “Is that it?”

“Yeah,” I whisper as my body goes lax. “It’s been too long since… since I had coconut water. I’m—I’m going to pass out.”

And just before I do, I feel Zia jump off my body and the bed, then hear her rush toward the door as she says, “I don’t know why you’re talking about coconuts, but I’m going to feed you. It’s my job to take care of you now, Felix. And I’m going to take care of you forever.”

Oh shit.