Shifters’ Fae Captive by Lacey Carter Andersen
Chapter 12
Ann
By the timemy eyes adjust to the darkness of this place, I’ve been clawed and scratched by those same kinds of monkeys Dusk fought in the woods as they drag me, I don’t even know where. Sounds--cries, squeals, screams, and screeches--assault me so that I want to cover my ears, but I don’t want to show fear because this is the kind of place that probably feeds off of fear.
A place of nightmares...
The monkeys move away from me, a little bit, but I’m still in a circle of them. A sea of glowing red eyes in a world that shouldn’t be able to exist. When I look up at the sky in terror, I see nothing. No sun. No moon. No clouds. It’s as if a blanket has been cast over this world. A blanket of grey, as if some small light source exists, somewhere in the sky. Enough to make out the things around me.
But not enough to allow any kind of life to survive.
I wrap my arms around my knees, pulling them closer to my chest as some of the monkeys race around me. Some small part of me wants to understand where I am, and if there’s any way out. But the little bit of the world I can see outside of the monkeys doesn’t give me hope.
In fact, it terrifies me.
It’s a replica of the world I live in, but without any sort of nurturing or life. It’s like a twisted version of the forest I’ve been yanked from, but where my world has trees and lush moss, waving grasses, this is a wasteland of death, brown and burned. Everything here is dead. And it looks as though, as I’m propelled forward, that I am about to join those ranks.
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
I try to stand, and a monkey knocks me onto my back on the ground. Their screeching grows louder, and they slash at me as I try to curl back around myself. It seems they aren’t ready to attack yet, unless I try to stand or escape.
Noted.
But then, how in the hell am I going to get free? I can use my touch on them. But will it work here? On this many of them? My gaze darts around me as movement stirs behind the blackened charred forest of leafless trees, and the huge boulders that seem to litter the ground. The ground itself begins to vibrate beneath me, and “what the hell?” explodes from my lips.
My arrival seems to have summoned all the creatures in the area to come to this place. On one side, there’s a tribe of monkeys with glowing red eyes and fur the color of coal lined as far as I can see in the small clearing in the woods around me, and a half a dozen trolls, large and ugly, leering and drooling, on the other side. Where the two groups meet, there is a slim void and through there I see him--the Shadow King.
Because that’s the only person it could be. I feel it to my core.
As if he knows I’m looking at him, he drops his chin, turns his head, and smiles. Smirks might be a more accurate description, but I’m willing to wait until he speaks to decide. Unlike the shadow beasts, his dark hair is trimmed, and his green eyes are small and sunken deep into a thin face. He wears black leather that encases him like a king, rather than a warrior, but whispers he can still kick ass if needed. His gaze clings to mine, and he holds up his hand and slides it to the left before he turns to look at me, then drops his hand in a quick motion.
Suddenly, the sound stops. All sound stops. And had birds been able to survive here, I could’ve heard one shedding a feather.
This isn’t good. None of this is good.
I try to recall everything I’ve learned up until this point from the shadow beasts, and all I seem to remember is that this man is bad. That he’s their enemy. And somehow, he’s tied to this plan to destroy my world.
So, definitely not a good guy. Not at all.
But what does he want with me?
“You are as luscious as my watcher said.” He slaps one of the trolls on the back, gives him a shoulder squeeze, and makes it look like one smooth move as he makes his way toward me. “I think I’m going to enjoy being married to you almost as much as I’m going to enjoy us taking over your world.”
Married. Mated. Bonded. There’s a disturbing trend happening in my day.
“Married?” The word slips from my lips, but it’s barely louder than a whisper.
The Shadow King wants me to marry him. Maybe I should be flattered. He’s a king. Who doesn’t want to be queen? But the answer comes easily. Me. Especially a queen to a Shadow King whose minions look like something out of a twisted version of a child’s cartoon.
Oh yeah, and a psycho who wants to destroy my world.
And like he can read my mind, the king wags an eyebrow. There’s something about him… he’s almost handsome in a wicked sort of way. Familiar, too, but I can’t place why. Maybe it’s because dark hair and green eyes is a rare combination, but it feels like more than that.
Another question without an answer.
When he gets about ten feet from me, the monkeys part in his wake, and he stops walking. He eyes me up and down as he purses his lips like he’s about to blow me a kiss. “Oh, yes. I do so look forward to the wedding night.” Something about his cadence too. It’s like he’s jovial and dangerous all at once. The combination is both strange and unsettling. But like someone has tapped his shoulder, he turns to his side. There’s no one there, but he frowns, tilts his head for a second, then smiles at me. “So, what do you say, my future queen? What do you say to the man who is going to give you everything?” His gaze appraises. His tongue slides along his lip. “And give you a wedding night to remember.”
What is this guy? Some kind of gross villain from a cheesy play? Wedding night? No, sir.
I look behind me and eye the direction I’d come in this place from. It looks like a wall of black oil, except it moves and slides, twisting in the air like smoke. Technically, there are only a few of the monkeys between me and that wall, but I can’t imagine a way in which I can reach it before they, or this king, can catch me. Still, if the right opportunity presents itself, I’ll try.
Until then, I need to buy myself some time.
“Well, as lovely as your proposal is, and as enchanting as I’m sure the wedding night would be, I’m afraid I have to decline.” I’m babbling out a ridiculous number of words, words that make me sick to even say.
But as hard as I’d tried not to tell him the idea made me want to vomit, his eyes flash with rage, as if I had actually said the harsher words I’d wanted to say. I rise slowly to my feet, eyeing both him and the monkeys, and I back up a step because this guy’s cool appraisal has turned murderous.
“Respectfully, of course.” I back up two more paces, and he moves faster than I can see, and takes my face in his hand. His touch is harsh. Painful as he squeezes my jaw until a small cry of pain escapes my lips. But he doesn’t seem to care. He jerks my chin up so that I’m forced to look directly into his cold, cruel eyes.
I shiver. This man wants to hurt me. Not just me, but everyone.
But instead of smiting me, or whatever the king of the shadows can do, he cocks his head then throws it back and laughs. The sound is not what I expect. “Of course, you’ll marry me.” He grins and lets go of my face. My face burns where he grabbed me, but I breathe out a slow breath. “I’m charming. And handsome.”
If you have to say it, it’s probably not true...
But I nod because there’s no advantage to telling him he isn’t my type. Probably because if I was the evil form of myself, this guy--a little old maybe--would be right in my wheelhouse. But it’s sort of like seeing a hot picture of a murderer on TV. The first time you see him, you might think, “oh, nice!” But the second you hear his list of crimes, your vagina feels like it closes like a steel trap.
And I’m a steel trap right now, in every way. No, I definitely don’t want this guy. He scares the hell out of me, and I’m pretty sure whatever the guys were trying to warn me about, this man is a lot worse.
A cold shiver passes through me. I need to escape. But how?
There’s a small sound behind me. Like I’ve dreamed him into being, Onyx comes exploding from the dark cloud, splits through the crowd of monkeys, running like he’s taking the ball into the end zone and throws his arms around me. I barely have a moment to gasp, when he drags me backward and away from the king.
I see the king’s shocked expression as we’re bolting to our escape. The monkeys go wild, but Onyx punts the ones that cross our path away. A roar sound behind us, that seems to echo through the entire world, and I see a giant dragon made of smoke rising into the air like a demon of vengeance.
“Onyx!” The king roars.
The trolls advance and one has a staff--it’s long and curved, like a cane but with a bladed end. He launches it, and I see it coming straight at me and twist in Onyx’s arms. He reacts in an instant, shielding me with his big body before I can stop him.
The cane is a blur of motion above us, and then Onyx stumbles like he’s drunk and about to hit the ground. I can see the blade sticking out of him from behind, but the man just keeps stepping forward in an unnatural way. I look in front of us to see how close we are to our escape and see that we’re nearly at the wall of smoky tar.
I can almost see outside of the cloud to our own world. And I might be imagining it, but I think I can hear the whistle of wind. We’re so damned close to getting free of this nightmare! I need to get Onyx out of this place. Now!
His face is pale. His feet seem to be moving more and more slowly, and he’s leaning on me so hard I think we might fall over. He’s heavy, but I wrap both hands around his waist and drag him. The screeching of the monkey’s grows louder. The ground shakes as the trolls approach us, and I hear the shadow king scream something although I’m not sure what. And then, suddenly, we’re through the wall of black tarry smoke.
“We made it,” I whisper, but my voice shakes.
I keep dragging Onyx as far as I can, even though he seems to be getting heavier and heavier, but I don’t want to stop. Not until I can’t see the cloud of black any longer. But when we’re almost out of view of it, Onyx crumbles to his knees.
His eyes keep fluttering closed. I kneel in front of him, trying to catch his eye. Trying to get him in a position so he can read my lips. “I’m going to heal you, okay? You freaking brave man! I’m not going to let you die because you tried to save me.”
While I’m speaking, his eyes close, and my heart races.
“I got this. I got this. I can do this.” I know he can’t hear me, but I need to say the words, even just to myself.
Awkwardly, I try to reach around him to work on the staff. Normally, I know, it’d be better to leave the staff where it is until we could get to a hospital. But since there’s no hospital anywhere around, and we only have me, I know we need to get the staff out before I can try to help him. Pulling it out slowly, an inch at a time, I grit my teeth together. Onyx moans and makes a few sounds of pain that make my gut clench. But as much as I want to stop, I know I can’t.
So, I just keep working. Inching it out, but the damn thing is in deep. But finally, it works free, and as I toss it aside, he falls, then coughs and blood spatters the ground beside his head.
It doesn’t take a PhD in internal medicine to know this is bad. My heart hammers.
“You’re going to be okay. Remember, my glowy hands. They can fix anything.”
I try not to notice the blood that spreads beneath him onto the sand, or the way it seems to be expanding faster than it should. Because no matter how bad things are, I can’t let him die. Not after he risked his life to come in after me.
After he saved my life.
I’m going to do whatever I can to save him. But I have to do it quickly.
Trying not to look at his pale face, or the way his chest rises and falls erratically, I breathe in slowly. I try to center my thoughts the way I had before. I try to focus on healing him.
As I concentrate, I feel the power inside of me vibrate. It feels natural, almost the way I imagine it feels when someone is an amazing athlete and catches a ball, without even knowing it was coming. My hands begin to glow, and I close my eyes, then lay my hands on his wound and let the healing force surge from me to him.
It’s working!
Almost before I’ve finished, Onyx is moving on his own to sit up. I try to gently push him back down, but he sits up fully, and my hands drop away. He looks at me, then down at the blood that stains the ground.
“Thank you,” he signs.
I sign right back at him. “Thank you.” Then, because I don’t know the other words, I say, “For saving my life. For going into that place after me.”
Even though he still looks pale and exhausted, he nods his head, a small smile curling his lips. I’m surprised when he takes my hand covered in his blood and squeezes it. As I gaze into his eyes, such a dark brown they’re almost black, warmth flows through me followed by butterflies in my stomach. This man is so damned handsome. And when he smiles, he’s absolutely breathtaking.
“You should smile more,” I say.
“Ann! Ann!”
It’s Phantom, and he sounds scared.
“We’re over here! But Onyx was hurt!”
A second later, Phantom and Dusk come exploding out of the trees. They both have their swords out, but when they see us, then look around as if expecting trouble, their swords slowly drop to their sides.
And then, Dusk seems to spot the staff. “How the hell is that here?”
I don’t know what to say. “We… had some trouble.”
Their faces fall, and they both resheath their swords, then join us. Phantom kneels down and begins frantically signing to Onyx. He responds, more slowly. All three of the men’s gazes keep snapping to me, then back to Onyx’s signing.
Oh boy, if they didn’t think I was useless before, I’m sure they do now.
Finally, the signing stops, and Dusk picks up the staff I tossed aside and looks at Phantom. “Shit.”
And I don’t know what he means by it and certainly we aren’t at a place in our … friendship… where he would tell me, but I agree completely.
