The snoring cut off abruptly behind me.
I glanced back over my shoulder.
Two pairs of eyes were staring right at me.
“Shit,” I hissed.
My captors charged to their feet, jumping over the backs of their chairs, their hard boots landing solidly on the vibrating ground.
I jumped to my own feet and lunged at the door, catching the handle just as two hands grabbed onto my ankles and tore my legs right out from underneath me. My forehead smacked the floor as the door crashed open, wind whipping into the train car. Struggling from the ground, I kicked my feet cruelly against my aggressor’s nose—a beautifulcrunchbreaking beneath my boot—as I shouted in a fury, “Motherfucker, let go of me!”
With blood covering his face—and his huge handsnotreleasing my ankles—he barked a harsh order, “Dose her good, dammit! She must be old. She needs more than that!”
My eyes tore to my other kidnapper.
He had two darts in his palm but had swiftly turned back to a small cabinet to grab more, shoving a variety of bottles aside in his haste to find what he wished for.
“Oh, the fuck with that shit,” I growled. I grabbed onto the edge of the train car just outside the door, holding tightly to the cool metal, and slammed my boots furiously again and again against my captor’s face. One kick. Two kicks. Three kicks.Fourkicks. “Fucking hell, let go, you crazy son of a bitch!”
The second kidnapper pounced cruelly on top of my chest, his darts at the ready, knocking the bloody breath right out of me.
My vision swam. I jerked underneath him as five goddamn darts stabbed into my neck. I blinked in a blur up at the man, and I sputtered, “One for each kick, huh?”
His fangs flashed. “You hurt my mate, bitch.”
My eyes began to cross, lethargy shooting through my veins. “I would rather have killed him…”
Fuck these kidnappers.
A vicious punch caught my cheek.
My head flew to the side as blood splattered the floor of the train car. My eyes didn’t open again.
* * *
Drip. Drip. Drip.
“What the hell is that?” I moaned. I scrubbed at my forehead where wetness was falling onto my face. I cracked open my weary eyes—odd light surrounding me—and my stomach clenched in hunger for more than food. I pulled my hand away from my forehead and sniffed at my fingers. I touched the tip of my tongue to my digits when I smelled salt, tasting the sea. “That’s ocean water. What in the world?”
Oh, yes. I had been kidnapped. Pleasure.
Where was I now?
I rolled onto my side on the cold, hard floor I lay upon, my clothes damp and my hair entirely soaking from the continuous drip I’d been laying under. I narrowed my eyes at the scenery. “Okay. This is downright peculiar.”
The most beautiful gems I had ever seen sparkled back at me—and there was no light in this space to make them shine. The minerals that made up the small, domed wall of this…cave?...were jagged and uncut, all tremendous colors I had never seen before. They stuck out at odd angles, some sharp and some rounded. Each one reminded me of an eyeball watching me with the way their sparkle tilted to the side, staying on me as I stood up—even the gems on the ceiling.
I held my woozy head gingerly. “I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to be here.”
The multi-hued gems warmed with more color.
“Yep.” I dropped my arms and nodded grandly, attempting to stay calm in the face of cognizant stones. “Definitely not supposed to be here. I think I want to leave now.”
The gems blinked in a fast cadence.Tittering.
“Not funny,” I grumbled. I gradually walked around the tiny, circular room with my nose up in the air, trying to smell everything I could. Like blood, for instance. I needed it—now. “How the fuck do I get out of here?” The room was solid, except for a large boulder that covered what I predicted was the only exit.
The sparkling gems dimmed.
