22. Nora

22

NORA

Shuffle. Shuffle. Shuffle.

Sounds filtered through the darkness in my mind as I slowly woke. Opening my eyes felt like a task, my mouth dry with a strange taste.

Where am I?

Shuffle. Shuffle. Shuffle.

I blinked away the grogginess as I slowly came to, becoming aware of the tree branches above me. I gasped as a jagged rock moved under my body, pain shooting through me.

I was being dragged.

What is happening?

I couldn’t move. My limbs were unresponsive, and beyond that, they were bound by rope. I attempted to raise my head, but couldn’t.

Panic set its icy claws into me. I forced myself to breathe, attempting to reason with the onset of emotions. It was like attempting to jump into the eye of a storm while the waves tried to drown me.

Breathe, Nora.

Call for help.

I closed my eyes for a moment, centering myself. I couldn’t even feel my breaths, but I knew I was breathing. Everything was simply numb.

Finally, I found the will to open my mouth.

“Help,” I rasped. “Help.”

The dragging stopped for a moment. My body dropped hard and whimpered as I heard the scuffle of boots.

Alec’s face appeared above me.

“You son of a bitch,” I said through unmoving lips. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Hi Nora,” he said. “I’ve drugged you. You’re not going anywhere, belladonna.”

“ Alec .”

He smiled. And it was fucking genuine too. His cheekbones were sharp, his steel eyes colder than I’d ever seen them before. Something had gone terribly wrong between us, but I couldn’t imagine what.

“Release me.”

“No, I won’t be doing that,” he said calmly. “My question is this: Why did you steal the samples?”

“I didn’t.”

“You did. The only samples I had of your monster, and they’re gone . It was either him or you, and in broad daylight it had to be you. They were there before I left for the funeral, and then when I returned they were gone. It was very brave and very stupid of you to touch what belongs to me.”

“I… didn’t…”

“Shush. There are only two people it could have been. You or me, Nora. You or me.”

Did he not hear himself? Already, the monster had gone from his mind as a culprit. I wanted to shake my head, fear shooting through me. I hadn’t taken his poison.

“Alec… Not me.”

He sighed and leaned down further, his lips almost touching mine. “This toxin will be a bitch to wear off for you. I’d apologise but I’ll enjoy watching you writhe as every nerve ending and muscle prickles as it comes back to life. After all of our moments this week, you stole from me.”

“It wasn’t me.”

He pressed his lips into a thin line, his eyes flashing with heat. The shadows clung to him, making his cheekbones appear all the more sharp. “It doesn’t matter now, darling, because you are bait. I am going to use you to lure him out, murder him, and then use his poison to end all monsters. And you’re going to watch me do it.”

Alec rose and went back down to my feet. He grabbed onto the rope there and started dragging me again.

“You won’t catch him.”

He ignored me.

“How would I even have gotten in? You lock the greenhouse.”

He paused for a moment, but then continued on.

This was madness.

I’d seen shards of it in him. But now, I was finally seeing all of it. There would be no reasoning with him. In his mind, I’d stolen from him, and now this was his way of balancing the scales.

And now, Alec Briar, St. Thorn’s prized botanical genius, had dragged me out into the middle of the forest in the middle of the night. He’d drugged me so I couldn’t move, couldn’t fight.

I was at his mercy, and he was hardly the kind to show any.

I let out a soft, crazed giggle. Somehow being dragged to hell wasn’t the worst thing to happen to me since I’d come to this cursed university.

Alec continued to drag me in silence until we came to a clearing. I recognized it, even in the dark, as the place where the circle of stones was.

There was a thud as he dropped something to the ground. A bag of sorts? What exactly did he plan to kill my monster with? A gun? A knife?

We would be here all night until dawn. I hadn’t seen the monster since the night we were together. A very bitter part of me wondered if I would ever see him again.

Maybe I had imagined it all.

Some figure of my mind, a shadow that had come forth to help me deal with all of the trauma. I couldn’t put the possibility past myself.

“I’m wondering if torturing you or arousing you would be the best way to lure him out. Perhaps both?”

“No,” I said. “Alec, no.”

He chuckled, and even hearing what he said, I didn’t feel scared.

Part of me believed Alec wouldn’t kill me. He wouldn’t make me into one of his victims. To kill someone, he had to feel like he was doing the world a favour. He was a sociopath, but somewhere inside him was a righteous vision of the world. It was how he justified when he hurt others. It was how he justified killing someone.

How would he justify doing that to me?

He was sadistic. Deeply, deeply sadistic. It would bring him pleasure to hurt me. Would that pleasure go too far?

Alec straddled my hips and leaned over me, moonlight haloing his dark hair. Even if I couldn’t move, I could feel his erection pressing against me.

My breathing quickened as desire flooded me.

“I can’t kiss you, because then you might poison me,” he said, his eyes on my lips. “I’m tempted to anyway. To experience the pain with you. To paralyse myself on top of you so that we are together and I can look in your eyes as it dulls in your blood.”

He leaned in and pressed his nose to my hair, breathing me in. He grunted as he ground his hips against me.

“The problem is, you’re already a poison to me, Nora. Deadlier than nightshade. The most addicting drop of poppy on the very tip of my tongue.”

His tongue grazed over the shell of my ear, his breaths becoming erratic.

“You tortured me this week.”

“I hate you,” I said.

“Oh, I know. Tell me to stop.”

I couldn’t.

That was the ultimate problem, wasn’t it?

That while I might have been a poison to him, he was an experiment to me.

I wanted to know what he would do. My curiosity wouldn’t allow me to tell him to stop, even to my own detriment.

He waited, his gaze searching mine.

“Nora, tell me no.” His voice wavered with a hint of panic.

I held his gaze as I spoke. “I can’t. But he won’t come. No matter what we do. The sun will rise and if you kill me, they will find out.”

His expression changed for a moment, pure delight emerging. He let out a dark laugh and then it became louder, echoing around us.

“He will come for you. How could he not?”

Alec pulled out a knife, showing it to me. The blade gleamed bright silver. He lowered it to my neck, the tip digging into my skin. He ground his hips, planting his hand above my head in the grass as he dry humped me.

“One wrong movement and the blade would pierce your vein and you’d bleed out,” he murmured.

“And then you’d be alone.”

His face contorted with anger. He drew the knife down and it grazed over the first set of ropes around my upper arms and chest. They snapped free, and he grabbed a hold of the nightdress I wore.

I sucked in a breath as he cut it open, my breasts spilling free.

He froze.

His head cocked ever so slightly.

“Who marked you?”

Fuck.

Fuck . I’d forgotten.

“ Who marked you? ” Alec screamed.

“ He marked me,” I said.

The jealousy and betrayal on his face was almost too much to bear. I could see him thinking, calculating, his emotions on display for me. Part of me wanted the monster to rescue me now. My odds would certainly be better with him.

I didn’t know if pleading with him would help. Alec pressed his lips into a thin line. “This completely ruins my plans for tonight, but we’ll make do.”

“Alec, I…”

“Your monster will live another day,” he said coolly. “I cannot stand for this. I will not go another moment without having my cock inside you.”

“What?” I rasped.

Alec stood up and moved out of sight. It sounded like he picked up a bag, and then he squatted next to me, pulling me into his arms and lifting.

He slung me over his shoulder and started carrying me.

“What are you doing? ”

“What I should have done earlier this week.”

“ Alec .”

Panic iced my veins. My heart pounded as he carried me deeper into the woods. He said nothing, even as he came to what appeared to be a cave.

“Where are we going?” I whispered.

No answer.

Darkness consumed us so suddenly that I screamed. My voice echoed as we went deeper, the air chilling. I could see nothing. All I could sense was the sound of his footsteps going from padded earth to stone, and the scent of damp musk.

“Where are you taking me?”

My thoughts ran wild as he carried me. I wasn’t sure how he could possibly navigate this place, but he seemed to know it instinctually. It was a maze of twists and turns.

How is he doing this?

An idea formed at the edge of my thoughts, but it was fleeting and I pushed it away. Feeling was returning to my limbs and tears filled my eyes as the prickling pain started.

It hurt. It hurt so fucking bad. I dragged in a cold breath as each moment passed.

“Good, it's wearing off,” he said. “I want you to be able to fight me. Tell me about where you learned self defence.”

“What?” I rasped, my lips feeling strange as my jaw could move more. “How did you know?”

“Nobody without training would be able to do the things I’ve witnessed you do.”

“I learned from my father,” I said. “He made sure I learned how to fight.”

“Interesting. What else were you taught?”

“Many things,” I said sourly. “Let me go, Alec.”

He continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “And the Woulfe family… such an old name. ”

My blood ran cold. Had he been looking into our history?

“Your mother died. Your uncle died. Your aunt died. Everyone, dead. Why is that?”

“We’re unlucky,” I said. It was the truth. As much as people like to talk, the Woulfe family was simply favoured by the reaper. “Clearly. I’m being carried through a dark tunnel by a sociopathic botanist who poisoned me.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that you were sent here for a reason?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I heard something that made me wonder if The Hunt had a purpose for you.”

“Well, what did you hear?”

His questions were distracting me from the pain that was now flaming through my veins. I squirmed against him, but I still could hardly move.

He chuckled. “You aren’t getting away so soon, believe me.”

“How can you possibly know where we’re going? I can see nothing.”

No answer. Always questioning me and never answering.

“I hate you,” I said. “You never answer me.”

“Ask better questions.”

His voice was rough, deeper. I was able to move my fingers again and curled them into the fabric of the jacket he wore. The wool was soft against my palm.

A cool draft swept past us. He turned to the left and the sound of his footsteps changed, as though the stone was different. Light began to swell and I unsuccessfully attempted to lift my head. Eventually we passed a lamp on the wall, the golden glow flooding everything.

He slowed. I breathed in again and frowned, recognizing what smelled like the greenhouse.

Were there tunnels that ran under it?

That would explain why he knew them.

A door creaked on its hinges. He stepped into a room and carried me to a wall, finally putting me down. My legs would have given out, but he caught me, allowing me to slump against him.

The pain came back and I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut. He grabbed hold of one wrist and lifted it.

I heard a chain rattle.

“ No .”

“Oh yes,” he whispered.

He clasped the chain around my wrist, and then the other. He stepped back and I gasped as I sank down, the chains holding me up. He took another step back, looking me over.

“I need to be released,” I growled.

“For once, I agree.”