To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (129 page)

“So that’s it.”  I said the words out loud.  “It’s time to go back home.”

I turned around and there was no time for me to blink before someone had covered my face with a slightly wet hanky, filling my nostrils with a bland, unidentified scent.

The last thing that broke through my consciousness was a long, rasping hiss.

Zekans again.

I hadn’t been sure if it was an Evren thing, but I had noticed how I kept waking up in the weirdest situations.  I wondered if my immortality would allow me to stave off sleep forever.  If it could, my life might have taken a better turn.  It had been a silly wish, but I tended to grasp at straws when I was alone, heartbroken, and kidnapped.

I woke up shivering.

It took an awful amount of energy to open my eyes.  My teeth couldn’t stop chattering.  I looked around and dozens of mirror images stared back at me from all directions.  I was gagged and trussed up in a chair, hands tied behind my back, and rows of rope curled tightly around my feet.

Blocks of ice surrounded me from all corners, practically serving as wallpaper from ceiling to floor.  Even the ground was encased in ice, and I could only marvel how much it cost my Zekan captors to have an entire warehouse outfitted like this.

The murder industry must be booming.

With no viable source of heat, I was as weak as a newborn kitten.  Maybe weaker, because I didn’t even have claws to scratch some snake eyes out.  In my current surroundings, it would be near impossible to acquire enough power to turn invisible.  And if I did succeed, I’d have to bide my time because I wouldn’t be able to stay invisible for long.

I remained still in my chair, doing my best not to draw attention.  I surveyed my surroundings under my lashes.  My heart sank at what I saw.  There was only one possible exit—a sixty-foot-tall remote-controlled gate.  Measuring the distance, and taking into account my weakened state, I guessed it would take probably half a minute for me just to get there.

Could I stay invisible that long?  And how could I have the gate opened without alerting them?

The entire place was swarming with Zekans.  No surprise there.  I tried to estimate how many of them there were.  Eighty?  A hundred?  They were also heavily armed, and I wasn’t just talking about poisonous fangs and striking tongues but real weapons.  Rifles over their shoulders, pistols hanging from their belts, and knives strapped around their legs.  And these were only the weapons I could see.

“Lucian.”

“Deli?”

“Look,”
I urged and shared what I saw with him.

There was one moment of silence before Lucian sighed. 
“What have you gotten yourself into?”

“This is my fault?”

“Do you know where you are?”

“No.  I think I was drugged.  I can’t remember getting here.”

I gauged my location based on my hunger pangs. 
“But I’m pretty sure we’re still in New York.  How did they know where to find me, Lucian?”

“Our enemy’s cleverer than I believed him to be.  I’ve underestimated him.  I’m sorry, Deli.  I won’t make the same mistake—”

“It’s not your fault.  We really have to talk about this guilt and inferiority complex of yours one day.  But right now I want to know how they could have possibly known I’d be in Central Park.”

“I think they had all your favorite places guarded.  They knew if you came back to New York, you were sure to visit places dear to you.”

Drat.  I wanted to kick myself for falling for their trap.

“You’re not to blame.  I’m the one—”

“Who has a million things to worry about while I have only myself to take care of and I still failed.”

“If it’s any consolation, I still love you.” 
Although Lucian’s voice was light, it was also underlined by sincerity, something I tried my best to ignore.  Things were
not
going to be okay just because he was telling me stupid stuff.

“No, it’s not,”
I told him even as my face heated and I became warm all over.  I hoped he didn’t see how his words affected me.

“Actually, Deli, our minds are still connected—”

I dropped my head, closed my eyes, and tried not to groan in embarrassment.

“Our little prisoner is awake, I see.”

“Company,”
I told him as my stomach churned in fear.

“Deli.” 
Lucian’s anxious growl was so loud it took all my power not to wince.  “
What’s happening?”

Knowing Lucian would see whatever I saw, I slowly lifted my head, then gagged right after when I beheld the monster before me.

Lucian cursed in my mind.  “
I know him.  He’s one of the top officials of the Zekans.  Stay calm and don’t provoke him.  I’m on my way.  I’ve an idea.”

“No, don’t come—” 
A violent slap to my cheek cut off my thoughts, and my head snapped to the side.  The left side of my face immediately stung, but I was grateful for the chance not to look at him.

He was of average height and slightly balding.  He, too, wore the black uniform as all the other Zekans in the place, but there was more bling pinned to his shoulder patch, prompting me to wonder how many people he had killed to earn those medals.  Physically, there was nothing grotesque about him.  Sure, his eyes were bigger than most, almost bulging out of their sockets, but other than that, he would have only been remarkably unattractive and nothing else.

What sickened me was the total absence of humanity in him.  The foul smell emanating from him perfectly defined his character.  It reminded me of rotten carcasses.  I remembered the Zekan who had attacked me and knew I had been silly.  That one would have been an angel compared to the creature before me.

He grinned, showing bloodstained teeth, and I gagged again as bile rose to my throat.  He yanked my head back by the hair, forcing me to stare directly at the bottomless well of evil in his eyes.  I tried to breathe through my mouth.  One whiff of him when we were this close would have my puke all over us both.

His tongue shot out.  I should have been prepared for that—it seemed the all-time favorite trick of Zekans—but I still cringed at the slimy slap of his tongue against my cheek.  He licked the side of my face, starting just below my eyelid until his tongue touched my chin.

“Who turned you,
Delilah
?”

I closed my eyes tightly, holding back the scream of disgust threatening to burst from my throat.  His tongue folded back with a slight swishing sound, and he began sniffing all over my face.

“Nothing smells as good as Evren once you’ve tasted it.”  He twisted my hair painfully, pulling my head back once more as he commanded, “Look at me!”

A smile broke out on his face, when my eyes snapped open, serving to make him look more grotesque.  “That’s better.  Now, where were we?”  He let go of my hair and tapped his chin thoughtfully.  After a few seconds, he exclaimed, “Ah.”

He took a lock of my hair between his fingers.  “So, smooth,” he murmured.  “But useless.  I’d rather have you all bald.  It makes the preparation easier.  Your flesh fetches a high price in our markets.  Do you know that?”

“No.”  I was proud of the steadiness of my voice.

“You know now.”  He laughed a little, sounding secretive, and I had a bad feeling he was psychotic, close to being insane.

Fear should have been coursing through me now.  Tears should have been leaking past my lashes but strangely enough, I didn’t feel like crying.  If anything, I was in the mood for…cutting off snake heads?  Crushing the brains out of them with my stiletto?  Deep-frying them and chopping them into pieces?

“But your blood.”  He sighed, his eyes closing dreamily, and he patted his lean stomach.  I guess his human diet wasn’t particularly fattening.

“It’s better than the oldest vintage wine, sweet nectar, or ice cold beer.”  He kicked the legs of my chair and I screamed, feeling myself falling.

But he was suddenly there, holding the back of my chair just a few inches off the ground.  If he had been a second late, I would have crashed to the floor, my head cracking against the back of the chair.

His maniacal laughter made the hair on my skin stand up.  “Did I scare you, little Evren?”

I stayed silent, hoping he’d just leave me alone.

“I’m not allowed to kill you.  Our prince has taken a liking to your sister.  He’d like to use you as, shall we say, a means of persuasion.”

He sounded so…
sane. 
Smart and professional, like a lawyer or a college professor.  Were eloquence and articulateness taught in Murder 101?

“But he didn’t tell me I couldn’t play with you.  What do you think?”

I made myself look at him, searching for a clue as to how he preferred to play this through.  I was tired of talking to him.  I just wanted to give him whatever he wanted so he would leave me alone.

Was he a bully, preferring me to fight so he could have the satisfaction of beating me into submission?  Or was he the practical sort, preferring cowering victims because they presented less trouble?

Bully,
I decided.

So, I took a deep breath and snapped, “No.  Someone like you can’t scare me.”  For good measure, I added, “And I think you’re the ugliest—”

“Deli.” 
Lucian snapped in my mind just as my captor threw me across the room.  I felt my head smash against the frozen wall. 
I think I overdid it
was my last thought just before pain exploded in my skull.

Lucian was muttering something like
“you little idiot”
but I wasn’t sure.  Ugly Zekan there was still roaring obscenities at me, then I lost consciousness.

~~~

I woke up aching all over.

It took me much longer this time to open my eyes.  If they were planning to take my life by having me freeze to death, I could only be thankful they didn’t want me to suffer.

My vision cleared and this time, my bound feet were dangling in the air and my arms, also tied, were stretched above my head.  I was hanging from a huge, rusty hook attached to the ceiling.

On second thought, maybe I’m not so thankful.

I guess I angered my captor too much.

“Lucian?”

“I know where you are already.  Stay calm and don’t dare bait Aurelius again—”