Chapter 25

Kayla

Ididn’t know what woke me, but the feeling of someone watching me definitely had consciousness slowly coming on.

I took note that I was naked and in Adryan’s bed still, achingly sore in all the right places. I smiled, stretching and feeling that discomfort settle right between my thighs, around my throat—hell, all over. It was a reminder of how much my vampire pleasured me, how he’d taken control of the situation and given me exactly what I needed. What I’ve always needed.

And as I woke fully and opened my eyes, blinking a few times, I stared at the wood-beamed ceiling. For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel guilt or shame or any negative connotations about what I wanted out of life.

Adryan satisfied all my needs, mentally and physically… especially the latter. And although I didn’t fully understand everything that was happening in my life right now, it wasn’t hard to comprehend all the truth he told me. Sometimes you had to take a leap of faith that things would just work out. Even if those things involved a dominant and arrogant vampire.

I brought the sheet up to my neck and held it against my chest as I lifted my upper body and looked around the room. I expected to see Adryan sitting in that chair pressed in the corner of the room, the shadows hiding him, his focus right on me like the predator he was.

At first I didn’t see anyone, but I still felt like I was being watched.

It was only when my gaze landed on the darkened corner by the doorway that cold iciness instantly settled into my bones. The man watching me sure as hell wasn’t Adryan. But I recognized him as the man I’d seen earlier, the one with the wicked-looking scar dissecting his neck.

He didn’t move or speak, and neither did I. And although at this current moment he wasn’t doing anything threatening, the pure malice and hatred that poured off him and surrounded me could not be denied.

I tightened my hold on the sheet against my chest and licked my lips, looking at the door and seeing it partially open. I couldn’t see anything but a small strip of the hallway. When I moved my gaze back to him for the first time, I noticed he had stuff on his hands and splashed across his chest.

And the longer I looked, the more my vision cleared and adjusted to the dim lighting in the room, and I realized it wasn’t just “stuff.”

It was blood.

The grisly fluid covered his hands, his shirt, and even his neck was sprayed with crimson pinpoints. And judging how there was so much blood dripping onto the floor it was clear it was fresh.

That’s when I saw a horrible looking wound on his forearm, chunks of flesh torn clean out, so much so that I could see the stark white of bone showing through. Whatever had taken a bite out of him had done so with the intent of tearing his arm clean off.

“W-What…” I cleared my throat and gathered the sheet to wrap it fully around myself, feeling even more vulnerable over the fact that I was completely nude. “What do you want?” I wasn’t about to ask where Adryan was. That was a stupid question. He was here because Adryan wasn’t. He was here for me. I just didn’t know why. Although I could guess there was some kind of beef between the two of them and this man wanted to take that out on me.

I looked at his neck, staring at that jagged scar that went from ear to ear. This low growl left him, and my attention snapped back to his face. He narrowed his eyes on me and bared his teeth, his canines deadly points that were growing longer right in front of me.

He lifted his hand and touched the scar but otherwise said nothing. And that was the most terrifying thing of all.

“Get up,” he finally said, his voice nothing more than a husky tenor that had my skin shriveling.

I shook my head, although I didn’t know what I was denying. Even if he weren”t a vampire, he was stronger than me, and his intent, his plans for me were clearly anything but innocent. He took a step forward, and I shifted back. A few more droplets of blood landed on the ground, and the drip-drip that followed made my stomach roil.

“I said,” he seethed and took another step toward me, “get the fuck up, you human bitch.”

I licked my lips and nodded, shifting toward the other side of the bed, farther away from him. When I was standing, I wrapped the sheet even tighter around myself, never taking my focus off his face as I tied the two ends securely under my armpit, wearing the sheet like a dress now.

I eyed the door, but I knew trying to go out that way wasn”t going to happen. Not only was he blocking it, but he’d be on me before I even took a step toward it. And so I backed up when he came closer, moving farther away until I felt the window frame stop my retreat. For a second I thought of throwing myself out the window, but God, I wasn’t that crazy. Jumping out—if I could even manage before he got to me—would end up probably not even killing me but breaking far too many bones.

So yeah, that wasn”t an option, but not fighting also wasn’t going to happen as long as I had air in my lungs.

I opened my mouth to scream as loud as I could, knowing Adryan would hear. He has to. But faster than it took me to blink, the vampire was in front of me and had his hand wrapped tightly around my throat. I gasped and clawed at his fingers as he squeezed and squeezed, harder and harder. He lifted me off the ground, my toes now barely touching the floor, my legs sawing back and forth as I fought and tried to pry his hand off my throat.

My lungs burned from trying to breathe, my muscles strained from the fight, and my head started to feel heavy and fuzzy from the lack of blood flow and oxygen.

He leaned in and bared his teeth, his eyes dark and dead and terrifying. “I’ve been trying to find a way to hurt him, been trying to make him feel what I felt.” His hand went back to his throat. Spittle sprayed out of his mouth, and I lifted a leg to kick at him. “And the only way to do that is through you.” He held my gaze for long seconds, and I felt that heavy weight of darkness taking me under.

I felt my limbs become too weighty, felt the temptation to just let go come on strong. And when the fight started to lessen in me, when I stopped clawing at his hand, only then did he let go of me. I crumpled to the floor, my hand lifting on its own as I touched my neck and winced at the searing pain. I still couldn’t breathe, my throat raw and sore as I sucked in a great lungful of oxygen. My head throbbed from the sudden increase of blood flow, my throat burning something fierce. I tried to stand, but my legs felt like jelly.

I looked up at him, his attention trained on me like he was about to attack once more. “He took from me the only thing that matters.” There was so much raw anger in his words that I felt them on my skin, all slimy and hot and nauseating. “And all I want to do is the exact same thing to him, right here, right now. With you.”

I tried to get up again, telling myself I had to get to the door; I had to scream. I have to show I’m not weak. But his words had me freezing.

“But there are plans for you, plans I agreed to that I can’t go against.” He got down on his haunches and grinned, his smile chilling. “But the end result will still be the same for me. Your pain and suffering will ultimately bring upon his.”

“He’ll come for me,” I whispered and let my anger rise. “Adryan will kill you for this, and I’ll be smiling the whole time.” I didn”t know where this twisted side of me came from, but God did it feel good to spit those words at him.

The vampire’s expression was void of emotion a second before it morphed into something sinister, something sadistic. He grinned. “I know. That’s what I’m hoping for.”

That was the last thing I heard right before I saw his arm come up and felt his fist slam into the side of my head, promptly knocking me out.