All she had to do was learn.
“And learn you will.”The growing swell of enthusiasm at his groin assured him so.“You will learn there is no greater honor than to be owned by Kronos.”
His words hung over her, collecting in a ball before, slowly, he lowered them into her mind.
She was fast asleep, but she would know her master’s will long before her rational mind accepted her destiny.
Chapter Nine
Kristina
Muted light was the first indication that Kris was awake, but she squeezed her eyes closed and groaned at the intrusion.The deep, blissful sleep she was rousing from was the best she’d experienced for weeks.Hours of uninterrupted rest that she was sure had restored her in some fundamental, cellular way, and the last thing she wanted to do was leave that idyllic state of solace behind.
The next thing she noted was the silence.Not just the rumbling hush of her regular household, but an unusual quiet that was laced with a stark, disturbing quality.
Silly.She groaned, wishing she could just go back to sleep.I’m being silly.Calm down.It’s just the quiet of the house.
What was the point in such an excellent slumber if she was already twisting her waking moments into unnecessary panic?She wouldn’t stay rested for long when her heart rate picked up and her old friend adrenaline rushed to meet her.
Adrenaline.
Just like that, the events of the prior night flooded back to the fore of her mind, unfolding behind her eyes like the old-fashioned reels of a black and white movie.She’d gone out for pizza, but then she’d been accosted by three malevolent morons, and…
She gasped, her eyes flitting open slightly as she recalled the awful situation she’d found herself in.She’d been in trouble, and she’d have paid the price had that giant of a liberator not stepped forward to help her.
In her mind’s eye, she could still see him.Absolutely bloody enormous, with dark hair and captivating eyes, he’d glowered down at the remaining assailant before he’d even spoken to her.
He’d saved her, but she didn’t even know his name.
Blinking her eyes open a little wider, the thought was dismissed when she finally focused on the room around her.So consumed was she with the growing dread of her attack, and the lingering fascination of the man who’d helped her, that it had taken a few seconds for her brain to register her surroundings.Staring up at the ceiling, though, she was aware suddenly that she wasn’t in her own bed.
Bewildered concern flickered inside her, allowing that fact to settle.
She.Wasn’t.In.Her.Bed.
And wherever she was, it didn’t look like the home she shared with Tina and Melanie.
The ceiling above her head was far too white to be the off-cream one over her bed, which looked like it hadn’t been painted for about a decade.In fact, the shining hue she was blinking at overhead was so bright it was practically blinding.
Where am I?
Turning her face away, she intended to lower her arms and roll to one side.Ordering her arms to fall to her sides, she frowned when they didn’t respond, or, to put it more accurately, theycouldn’t.She could feel her shoulders and elbows moving, but it was as though there was something at her wrists, stopping her from achieving the rudimentary task.
“What the hell?”Tipping her head backward as far as her neck would allow, she peered at what was preventing her movement.“Is that… lace?”
For a moment, she paused, her brows knitting as she fell flat on the bed again and tried to take stock.It looked as though black lace had been wound around her wrists, tying her to the structure she was stretched out on.Firstly, she’d woken on a strange bed, and then she’d realized her arms were bound.
Oh, God.
Her throat dried at the analysis, but oddly, the wave of panic that she’d expected to wash over her didn’t come.
She couldn’t recollect how she’d got to be there, and she couldn’t move to get away, but for some bizarre reason, Kris had the strangest sense that she was safe.Concerned, yes; intrigued definitely, yet, where there should have been alarms exploding in her mind, there was only a tepid mixture of unease and confusion.
Pulling in air, she turned inward for a moment, conscious of her breath.Her heart rate was a little faster than normal, but she was breathing at a regular rate.Her head had identified her possible peril, yet for whatever reason, her body’s regular physiological responses hadn’t all kicked in.
“How?’she murmured as her eyes opened.
It was as though something had suppressed her fight or flight reflexes.Her body was trying to act instinctively, speeding up her pulse and alerting her to another potential crisis, but her respiratory system refused to react in the typical way.
