“Miss Ell!? Can you hear me!?”
“Miss Lancaster?”
“I love your curls!”
I swallowed hard. “And I love you.”
“What the fuck did she just say?”
“Right there. Yep. Point it right at her.”
“Miss Ell?”
“She has to be disassociating. No one’s that good at ignoring pain.”
That brought my head up from its dangling position. “Challenge accepted.”
The stinging sensation rushing through my side was met only with the buzzing of the harsh light that dropped down onto my face. I winced as the bright light burned a hole into my forehead. My shoulders tensed as my mouth drew in short bouts of air. I felt it coming. Felt it brewing as something dragged its way across the floor in front of me. The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end. My arms shivered from a cold my body didn’t feel. The rough carpet beneath my feet taunted me as whatever was being dragged got closer. Then, something thudded in front of me before my seat lurched with a resounding thud.
I wanted to be back with my kids. Back at the school, where I knew that it was safe.
“Aaaa-cho!”
I sneezed all over my lap before a brutal voice hit my ears.
“Don’t get snot on my fucking floors.”
Panic gripped my throat. I tugged at my wrists, but they didn’t come free. I outstretched my legs, or at least tried, before I realized I wasn’t sleeping. The pain coursing through my body reminded me I was alive.
No. It had been a dream. It couldn’t be real. There was no way that—
Oh, God. I’m really not at home.
“Where am I?” I croaked out.
A shadow cloaked me, giving my aching face a rest from its harsh light. I peeked up with one eye, managing to pry it open from the sealant of fluids and crust that had painted it shut. My ankles throbbed. My wrists ached. And for some reason, it felt like I was about to vomit.
“Who are you?” I managed to choke out.
I heard what sounded like shuffling around before the shadow abated, leaving me exposed to the harsh buzzing light.
It took my eye a second to adjust, but I found the devil himself sitting across from me when it did. The spindly chair he sat on did nothing to confine his humongous stature. He spread his legs wide as a grin slithered across his face. He looked positively murderous.
“Who are you?” I asked, trying to thread some strength into my voice.
But the man sitting in front of me with shoulders as big as the canyons simply stared. Sitting there, unwavering in his stature, while that glaring light blasted from behind him. It cloaked him in a weird sort of ambiance that would have relaxed me had it not been for the bloodlust in his eyes.
If he wasn’t going to kill me, he wanted to.
And that was enough for me.
“Look,” I said, shaking my pounding head, “whoever you think I am, I’m not. I’m just a schoolteacher. I work with students who need extra evaluation and care. I put together their IEPs, I get them set up with intervention tactics. I work with them on—”
“Does the name Luca ring any bells?”
I blinked. Was he serious? “Really, you’ve got the wrong girl. I’m just a—AH! NO!”
The thundering footsteps made me cry out before something pulsed against my lips. The chair creaked beneath a weight that shifted the arms of the chair beneath my arms. I felt his presence, even though my stare struggled to focus through the tears. His shadow loomed over me. Even though I couldn’t see him—even though my eyes ached from a pain that ricocheted all the way down my spine—I felt him hovering. And when my gaze finally managed to focus on him, the disgust that curled his lips down stopped my heart in my chest.
