Taken by the Beast (The Conduit Series Book 1) (13 page)

Though I couldn’t see myself, I was sure I paled.

“Listen,” he said, his tone a little softer now. “She hasn’t been harmed.”

“Save the bull. There are cuts all over her. She obviously hasn’t eaten or bathed in days.”

“She hurts herself, and if she hasn’t eaten or cleaned herself, it’s because she refuses to do so.” He moved closer, something dangerous darting through his gaze. “So what’s it going to be?”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“See it yourself,” he said, and before I could turn to dodge him, he had already slung me over his shoulder.

I could have sworn he grinned as he did so, but before I knew it, I was nearly upside down, my hips high at his shoulder and his strong arm pinning my legs to his chest.

I struggled against his grip, but between gravity and his hold on me, it was useless. He crossed the hall into the room I had been nearly attacked in and mercifully set me down on the edge of a bed. I tried to stand, but his hand came quick to my shoulder to hold me in place.

“Stay,” he ordered.

“Or else you’ll tie me up like you did her?”

A grin broke across his face, but he bit his lip and looked away.

“Not quite the same way,” he muttered suggestively. But before I could even chide myself for blushing, he added, “Hear me out, and then if you want to leave, I will not stand in your way.”

My mind and my instincts were at odds. There was a woman in the other room, beaten and captive. But as intimidating as Abram was, nothing about him seemed nefarious, and if he was going to hurt me, wouldn’t he have done so by now?

I squirmed beneath the weight of his hand on my shoulder. I was a fool. Now was not the time to test my instincts, which had a history of failing me enough as it was.

A loud crash came from the other room, followed by screeching. When Abram turned to look down the hall, I used the opportunity to escape from under his hand. I made it to the door within moments, but so did he. His arms circled around to grab to me, his breath hot on my neck.

Gritting my teeth and praying for a little luck, I drove my elbow hard into his gut. He didn’t crumble as much as I’d hoped, but I darted toward the steps regardless. Stairs were not my friends. I had fallen on both these and the stairs leading down to the Castle. So I hopped onto the bannister instead, sliding down it toward the first floor.

My feet thudded against the carpet, and I bounded toward the door, pushing through it with elbows in front of my face to break the impact.

The air hit me hard and cold, gusting through my hair and prickling my skin. The sun was almost down, and here I was—again—in these goddamn woods.

I barreled into the quickly darkening gray. Visions of that monster, the one that chased me, sliced into my thoughts. Would it be back tonight? Was it lying in wait right now, itching to pounce on me?

Couldn’t think about that. I might not have been able to save that girl myself, but I knew where she was, and the instant my phone went back into service, I would have Dalton on the line. Abram would never hurt anyone again, not so long as that poor girl could hold out until help arrived.

A whoosh of wind shuffled past me, and then he was standing there. Abram. His massive chest heaved up and down in ragged breathes.

“Stop!” He growled, his eyes glowing bright red and his already huge frame somehow even more hulking. “You. Need. To. Listen.”

I dodged to the left, but he was there, too, appearing in front of me with impossible speed.

“I said listen!” He grabbed me by the shoulders, wrapping his huge meaty hands around my arms.

“That girl,” I coughed out, tears pouring down my cheeks. “How could you do that to an innocent girl?”

“She’s not innocent, and she’s not a girl,” he answered, red eyes burning into me. “No more than I’m a man. Not anymore.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, trying and failing to pull away from him.

“This is going to sound peculiar, Ms. Bellamy, but I’m going to need you to trust me, regardless of how fantastic it might sound.”

I continued my futile attempt to free myself, which only resulted in him tightening his grip on my arms. His chest heaved, pressing against mine forcefully.

Swallowing hard, he said, “Ms. Bellamy, there’s a beast in me.”

For whatever reason, the revelation weakened his grip. I pulled away, spinning and running as quickly as my tired legs would carry me. The setting sun glared in my eyes, making it hard for me to see, but I pressed on. Even if I ran headfirst into a tree, it would be better than whatever Abram had in store for me.

There’s a beast in me
 … 

He couldn’t possible mean—

He was in front of me again, once again huffing, once again staring at me with glowing, inhuman eyes.

“Fine,” he huffed. “Have it your way.” He grabbed me again, jerking me toward him in a fluid motion that both terrified and excited me.

“I suggest you brace yourself,” he said flatly.

And then he threw me.

I went sailing through the air. The trees seemed to meet me and then I surpassed them. I was over the tree line.

But how was that possible? Even if I wasn’t what my agent generously described as ‘full-figured,’ this wouldn’t be possible. No person could toss another one so high into the air. No one could—

Oh God. Look at how high I was. There was no way to survive this. I was going to splat against the ground like a bug, if the branches didn’t impale me on the way down.

A scream, shriller than I thought I was capable of, escaped my lips. Suddenly, I felt colder. I would die out here in this woods, just like all the other women who looked like me.

And the worst part was I would never get the answers to the questions swirling about in my mind. No one would. They would all think I was just routinely murdered. Or maybe Abram would cover it up as a hiking accident. Hell, maybe my body would just go missing and no one would ever know what became of me. I would be a fixture on those Walmart missing poster boards, forgotten by time.

I began to fall. The earth sped toward me at lightning speed. I would have screamed again, but what use would it be? Screaming wouldn’t stop this. Nothing would, and I didn’t want my last moments to be spent howling like some doomed idiot. Even if that’s exactly what I was.

Instead, I shut my mouth, closed my eyes, and tried to settle both my stomach and my mind. If this was the end, and it most certainly was, then I was going to face it with as much dignity as I could muster.

Still, if I was gonna die, I wished I could do it in Versace.

Something caught, and I jerked to a stop.

Was that the ground? Was I dead?

I opened my eyes, fully expecting to see either nothing or the golden (and hopefully bedazzled) gates of the afterlife. Instead, I had to begrudgingly admit what I saw was just a beautiful.

Abram had me in his arms, cradling me like I was friggin’ Scarlett O'Hara.

I brushed windswept curls out of my eyes. “How did—You just—”

“I told you. There’s a beast in me.”

“But you didn’t kill me.”

He growled as though I’d either hurt him or offended him. “Of course I didn’t ‘kill you,’ Ms. Bellamy I only threw you to prove that even the most unbelievable things can be true.”

“Mission accomplished,” I muttered, and I pushed my way out of his arms.

He didn’t fight me.

“So explain this unbelievable thing then,” I continued. “Tell me what ‘there’s a beast in you’ means.”

“Let me ask you,” he said, lowering his brow. “What do you know about magic?”

I fumbled through my purse, fingers grasping at the metal cylinder that held my mace. Abram’s eyes bore into me, though they lacked the sort of delusional flair you might expect from someone who just seriously asked you whether you believed in magic or what you knew about it or whatever.

Finding the fresh can of pepper spray (replaced after the last incident), I yanked it out of my purse and emptied its contents right into Abram’s glowing red eyes. He jerked away from the mist, covering his face with his hands and growling.

It was strange. Not twenty-four hours ago, I would have told you this man was someone special. Okay, so I probably wouldn’t have actually admitted that out loud, at least not before our massive sex session. But the truth was, deep down, in a place within myself that I so rarely went that I barely recognized it, there was a piece of me that felt like I might be falling in love with him.

What a difference a couple hours could make.

I turned to run again, but before I could make even a step, he was in front of me. His eyes were watery, puffy, and still red. He grabbed me hard on either arm and somehow looked even larger than he had just a moment ago.

“It is entirely too close to sunset for this sort of dalliance, Ms. Bellamy.” He ground his teeth together. “Now, I’ve already thrown you halfway to Jupiter. Should I plant you at the top of the nearest pine? Would that be enough to convince you that what I say is the truth? Or would you prefer this?”

His lips receded, revealing long hooked fangs where his teeth should be. They were huge and crowed out of his mouth. Suddenly, in the light of the setting sun, Abram looked less like a man and more like a monster … as if everything he had said was true.

Maybe there 
was
a beast inside of him.

Whatever that meant.

I pulled away hard, stumbling over my feet and falling to the ground. The mace fell from my hand, not that it had done much good anyway.

“You’re … You’re …” I stammered.

He just stared at me with the saddest, scariest eyes I had ever seen.

It all came together. The missing girls, the glowing red eyes, the monster that chased me through the woods and into the strange house I had just ran away from.

There 
was 
a beast in him. He was the monster that had chased me.

But no, that wasn’t right. Those eyes, I recognized them. Monster or not, I knew them.

“You were … you were the one that saved me,” I said quietly. “Weren’t you?”

His fangs receded and he stepped toward me. “Yes.”

I flinched back. “What are you?”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “There is magic in this world, Ms. Bellamy—things that can’t be explained by reason or logic.”

“You expect me to believe that?” I asked, although it wasn’t lost on me that he
had
just sent me soaring to the heavens.

He stood and looked around wearily. “I don’t
expect
you to believe me. I
need
you to. For your own safety.”

“And you—you are saying you used magic to throw me?”

“No.”

My brow furrowed. “Well, spit it out. You didn’t hunt me down just to keep it a secret, did you?”

He shook his head, but his lips moved wordlessly several times before he finally spoke. “Ms. Bellamy … What I mean to say is, there are those who can channel magic. They’re called Conduits. And in addition to being extremely powerful, they have also become exceedingly rare. But I am not one of them.”

“Why are you telling me this if it has nothing to do with you?”

“It has everything to do with me,” he answered.

I pressed my lips together, my legs trembling beneath me. “Then tell me what you are.”

“Something unlike anything else. Or at least I used to think so.” He looked away from me, deep into the woods. “I was something of a scamp in my younger days, Ms. Bellamy. To put it bluntly, I was crude, lazy, and worst of all, incredibly selfish. I used people, women chiefly. One day, a beautiful traveler named Satina wandered into our village.”

“Your village?” I asked, my nose crinkling.

“She was beautiful,” he said. “The most beautiful thing I had even seen.” He blinked hard. “Or she used to be.” He cleared his throat. “I was a handsome man even then, if a bit boyish. And my charms were quite effective when I wanted them to be. Nature took its course with us, and after that, I took mine. She thought we were in love, that we would be married. I, of course, never saw her as anything other than a conquest. That is, until she killed herself.”

My skin went cold. “What?”

“She was a Conduit. I didn’t know, but her bloodline was one of the most potent in recorded history. A few nights after I left her, she climbed to the top of the bell tower. She cursed me in front of the entire village, told them of all my shortcomings and that very soon the ugliness inside of me would be seen by everyone. Then she spouted some incantation to invoke the harvest moon.” An aching smile etched across his face. “You know, I actually scoffed when she jumped. All I could think, when she hit the ground, was how foolish she must have been and how lucky I was to be rid of her.” His eyes flickered back to me. “That’s the kind of person I was.” 

 His hands found their way into his pockets and his eyes moved away from me again. “I was already with another woman when it happened the first time. It was almost a month after Satina died. It came on me like a sickness. I was on top of her.” He bit his lip. “In the middle of it all. I felt myself heaving. It was so painful the first time that I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. And her eyes, if I live a thousand years, I’ll never forget those eyes. That poor girl was terrified, and with good reason. One look in the mirror showed that I was a monster; a horrific hairy thing that no one could ever love.”

Abram folded his arms as I lay there motionless on the ground, half terrified and half enthralled.

“What happened next?” I asked, too stunned and too curious to move.

“The girl tried to run,” Abram said softly, as if the memory had taken him by surprise and he was afraid he might drown in it.

“Tried?” I asked, hoping that didn’t mean what I thought it did.

“You have to understand, when the change happens, it doesn’t just affect my body. Everything is heightened. Every sensation is a thousand times stronger. Anger, grief, lust—even love; it’s all supercharged. I wasn’t equipped to handle it then, especially not on that first night.” He shook his head hard. “She called me a demon. She said she was going to tell her father what I was, that she was going to have me burned with all the other abominations.”