CHAPTER 2

DARKNESS GREETS ME.

Pain is a close second.

What the hell happened? I was finishing with the job and heading out to my car. Did I fall?

Even though my head throbs at the thought, I risk peeling open one eye. This darkness is less eternal. A gray room lingers ahead of me. I can’t place the furniture but a Christmas tree sits in the back. Its lights are low and pale, less like twinkling stars and more the pallid flesh of a ghost come to wreak havoc on some miser’s life.

Firelight dances behind me. Both the heat and ever-shifting flame are a welcoming presence in this desolate hell. Goosebumps prick up my arms. The only warmth in this place comes courtesy of a couple of logs giving their life on the hearth. My teeth start to chatter.

Where did I leave my coat? I need to get out of here. Go home and…

My head swivels to try to take in the fire. A loud thunk reverberates through the still room and my arm snaps back. Like trudging through soup, I force my head to lift.

Firelight gleams on a set of chains knotted around my wrist.

What the…?

I yank my wrist, tugging my arm closer. On the far side of the room, a dark mass rises from the floor. The strength of an elephant pulls against me and my arm snaps back. I yelp, metal biting into my wrist.

That’s not right. How did I snag my hand up there?

Almost laughing at myself, I glance at my left hand to help me out of this situation. My fingers roll against the same frost-bitten chain wrapped around my other wrist. Grogginess drains as panic clenches hold.

No. No, no, no!

I wrench one arm, then the other. Each time, I can only manage a few inches before the weights ram my arms back. I’m posed like a letter X, my arms stretched high above my head and my legs straddled a couple inches above the floor in the middle of some asshole’s sitting room.

What kinky Saw bullshit is this?

“Help!” I cry out. “Help me!”

A silhouette passes in front of the door, black on gray. It lingers there, watching me struggle to free myself. “Hey,” I shout. “You! Help me out of this. Please?” The weights catch at the same time, ripping my arms back so fast it wrenches my shoulders. I squeal in pain and tears bead up in my eyes.

Exhausted, I hang in the air, waiting for him to run in and help. “Hello? Can you hear me?” I shout.

Without saying a word, he reaches inside. I jerk my knees, trying to give myself some leverage. The shadowed hand takes the knob and slowly pulls the door toward him.

“Hey! Wait! Get back here! You son of a bitch!”

The door closes and, even through the clink of chains, I hear a lock turning. No one will find me. No one can save me. The burst of adrenaline wears off instantly. All the fight fades from my exhausted bones. My arms snap back into place. I’m hanging from the ceiling like the fucking Christmas star. My wrists throb from having to take all of my weight. I tip my head back to peer at the chains binding me, hoping to find a weak point, but in this darkness I can’t make out the beam above.

How the hell did this happen? I was saying goodbye. Going home. And then…

The drink! He offered me a drink, and I blacked out. “That fucking asshole roofied me!” I shout. Then he strung me up like his personal living Christmas stocking. Oh, fuck. Fuck! What’s he going to stuff into me?

Please let this be some fucked up sex thing, cause otherwise…

Otherwise, he’s going to kill me.

Of course, it could be both.

Ding.

I yelp at the sound.

Ding.

The little clock on the mantle. I can’t see it, but those two bells must mean it’s after two AM. No matter how hard I scream, no one will find me now. Panic seizes up my arms, burning then freezing them. I shake in my prison, the chains rattling like ice on a window. I’m going to die in this creepy house on Christmas.

No. Giving in to that little shit is the last thing I’ll do.

“DeVere!” I scream, his name invigorating my mind the second I open my mouth. “You’ll never get away with this! They know I’m here! The app tracks my movements! You’ll rot for this you scum-sucking, limp-dicked asshole!”

A floorboard above me creaks. Maybe he can hear me. Or maybe he’s jerking his cocktail weenie right now at my threats. I want to tear out the last of his hair but also leap out the window and never look back. “DeVere,” I whimper. “I won’t say anything if you let me go now. I promise.”

No answer.

“We can forget this ever…”

A great woomph bursts from behind me. The warm hearth dies with a cold gust of wind and something very heavy hitting the bricks. It’s snow. A ton of snow fell down the chimney.

A soft jangle, like the tinkling of bells, rattles through the room. No, not quite like bells. Something’s off. Even though I can’t see it, a presence walks out of the chimney and looms.

Santa?

Why not? I’ve already had the weirdest night from hell. How about good old Saint Nick showing up to save me?

I lift my head, bracing myself to call out to whoever it is. The almost bells drag on the ground and a loud clop echoes over the hardwood floor. When another follows, I realize what I heard. Those aren’t bells. Someone or some thing is dragging chains across the floor.

My breath sucks in hard, my body prepping for a scream. A hot snort splits my hair and assaults the nape of my neck. The room shifts, every sense I have fixating on a darkness solidifying directly behind me. Heat blisters just behind my back, almost touching me. My skin breaks out in goosebumps. A scream catches on the back of my throat, and I suck in air to try to stop it.

The scent of animal slaps me across the face. It’s like a petting zoo in a pine forest. I try to think what animal it is when something hot lingers just behind my head and breathes. The gush of air into its lungs sounds like a jet engine. A panicked whimper slips past my teeth as the hot breath travels to the other side of my neck.

I can almost feel its teeth and tongue lapping over my skin. Rough hair sticks to the back of my bare shoulder.

Wait? Bare? I was wearing a sweater and…

Dumbstruck, I look down just as a hand with skin as gray as ash curls over my waist. Long claws catch on the pink silk clinging to my body. I sure as hell wasn’t wearing this before.

Oh, fuck. The hand’s pads touch the silk, then grip to my body below. It clenches, pulling the hemline higher. On my long torso, it doesn’t have far to go to expose me. Cold curls under my buttocks and I realize my bare ass is hanging out.

Another hot snort buffets behind my neck. I’m shaking, barely able to breathe, while I obsess over the hand swerving back and forth across my stomach. The creature’s body is just behind mine, its heat growing insurmountable. Something caresses my naked ass and I yelp, leaping in my chains.

The hand clamps down, pressing me back into it. The thumb’s claw spears up between my cleavage and the pad of its hand sweeps upward toward my breasts. My ass swings back, landing against some kind of thick fabric—a coat maybe—and heavy fur.

Whatever’s behind me looms closer. Fuck! I’m terrified and shaking, but the threat of a hand nearly clamping over my breast has me ensnared. My spread thighs quake, swinging me onto the monster when something hard pulses under the silk nightie and against my naked ass.

Holy shit. Is that…?

The creature moans and thrusts its hips. Well, his hips. That unmistakable his partrides higher and higher up my trembling, sweat-soaked back.

It just keeps going.

How fucking huge is this thing?

You know what, if I’m going to get speared by a three-foot cock while hanging off of the ceiling, I deserve to see who…or what’s doing it.

My thighs are trembling out of fear and not because I want…oh, damn. He cups his palm under my right breast, the silk doing nothing to come between our skin. I arch my spine on instinct, chasing that burst of pleasure. When he reaches for more, his claw thrums up my throbbing nipple.

I yelp in surprise and pleasure. My body shivers in terrifying agony. The motion sends my head back and I gulp.

Holy shit!

Whatever’s behind me is massive. At six foot three, I’m used to looking down on people, but his head rests a good foot or more above me. A huge hood obscures most of his face in darkness while a black beard tumbles from out of the depths. I can’t see anything of who or what it is except…

“Fuck!” I shriek. The monster stares down at me. From the shadowed depths of its hood glow two eyes as red as blood with double pupils.

Steam bursts from below the demon’s hood. A snarl if I’ve ever heard one.

He drops his hand from my breast and holds my stomach instead. I can’t look away, but he turns from me to the chains. Wrapping a single hand around the link, he only has to give a quick tug to snap one, then the other. My arms fall to my sides in blessed relief. Everything aches from my shoulders to my fingertips, but they’re free.

The monster dips down and I brace myself to land on my feet. ‘Thank you’s’ form in my head along with apologies for thinking he was a demon.

My stomach hits his shoulder. I yelp out as all the air flies from my body. What’s he doing? Oh, god. Oh, shit!

The chains catch on my feet. I’ve never been so happy for those stupid weights. He’ll have to let me go because he can’t…

Plink. Plink.

Both chains shatter. The weights fall with the thud of a dead body hitting the ground. “No!” I cry out, trying to wad my throbbing hands into fists. I smash into his chest, doing little, but it whips the broken chains around. With a grunt, he bends down to pick up a bag.

I swear to god, tiny cries erupt from inside the empty-looking burlap. The monster swings it up beside me on his other shoulder.

“Stop! Put me down! This is kidnapping!” I scream, thwacking the chains into his chest and legs as I flail.

Whip fast, he catches both of the chains and pins me across his shoulder. I gulp, fighting against the massive biceps wrapped around my whole back. The hood shifts and I stare into those double-pupil eyes from hell.

“Sleep.”

No. No, I won’t…

The monster takes a step to the fireplace. My head crashes against him, my chin nuzzling into his beard. The feral scent of musk overwhelms me until I grow dizzy. Bobbing on a sinking boat, I try to fight it, to lift my head, but there’s nothing left to give.

“No…” I mumble just as a wind envelops my body and I’m gone.