I needed to go.
But I didn’t want to.
I needed to get out of there and away from him.
But the only place I wanted to be was in his arms.
Yet I knew I couldn’t stay.
“I’ll be back for my stuff,” I said quietly, knowing my voice wasn’t going to be heard over Casa and Dom’s quarreling.
I left all my things strewn across the floor and began to walk across the room, intent on getting out of there as quickly as I could, but then the world began to tilt and the floor rose up to greet me. Before I landed face-first, a set of strong arms and the scent of leather wrapped itself around me.
I stared up into Beast’s handsome face, blinking rapidly to ward of the darkness that was beginning to suffocate me. A single lightbulb was hanging from the ceiling, just behind his head, and gave him a weird kind of halo as he stared down at me, his dark eyes focusing on mine. He was talking, but I couldn’t hear a thing over the rampant beating of my own heart and the whooshing of blood in my ears. His hair was longer now, hanging around his face in damp curtains from his earlier shower, and he continued to stare down at me, his large, muscular arms holding my trembling body tightly in his embrace. My god, this was the first time I’d felt safe in months. And yet it was probably the most dangerous place I could be.
The blackness pulled at me harder and I whimpered, my thoughts spiraling with all the things I longed to say.
Please forgive me, I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t have a choice. If not for my life, then I had to protect Jenna’s. She was innocent and I was stupid. But I had to protect her at any cost. Even if it cost me my life.
I blinked up at Beast, watching as his lips continued to move as he spoke, but no words found me. The light behind him suddenly went out, casting his face in dark shadows, and I whimpered louder as his handsome face was plunged into darkness. The curve of each jagged scar across his forehead and around his eyes, and the burned skin on his cheeks, all made him look like something from my nightmares. He shook me a little; I felt my body being jolted as my eyes began to close.
“Are you the Devil?” I whispered as he scowled down at me, his expression growing fiercer by the second, but something in his eyes softened and looked hurt by my words. “I’m so sorry. Please don’t hurt me,” I said, clinging to him as I passed out, succumbing to the blackness.
*
I was on a rollercoaster, with darkness surrounding me, and on every bend and every dip it felt blacker and even more oppressive.
Sitting in a small cart at the top of a huge dip, I was waiting for the ride to plunge down to the other side, but it was frozen. I felt suffocated in the darkness, entombed by its strength as it held me there, invading my lungs and stopping me from moving. I was trapped and frightened, but then a familiar scent came to me, one of leather and sandalwood, and my heart loosened a little in my chest. I looked for it—forhim—but couldn’t see him, but I knew he was there, here, somewhere.
A spark of light caught my attention from the bottom of the frame, and when I looked down I saw orange and yellow flames slowly crawling toward me. Lazy licks of fire stretching across and burning away the frame of the rollercoaster. The crackle and hiss as the wood began to pop and burn away and the creak and tremble of the ride as it became unstable. I needed to get out of the little cart before the fire reached me or the ride collapsed, but I was too terrified to move.
I cried, staring around at the suffocating blackness and knowing I was going to die because I was too scared to get myself to climb out of the cart. I screamed into the abyss, but my voice was gone and no sound came out, and the flames grew stronger still as I tried to speak, the fire leaping toward me every time I opened my mouth.
And then, trembling and clutching onto the silver bar in front of me, I heard the most terrifying sound of all: the unmistakable sound of horses screaming. Every time I opened my mouth to scream or yell, the screaming echoed loudly around me.
The horses were burning, and so was I. Somehow, from deep down in my gut, I knew that the horses weren’t going to hurt me—that they were frightened too. And just like me, they had a secret they couldn’t tell.
I pushed at the bar, intent on freeing myself.
I wasn’t going to die here, not like this.
I wasn’t!
But the bar wouldn’t move. It was stuck. I was stuck. I pushed and pulled and kicked out, wanting to escape the ride and the fires that grew hotter, but I was trapped there in the little wooden cart with the screaming of the horses surrounding me.
Together, the horses and I were going to burn, taking our secrets to the grave with us.
*
I woke with a start and a gasp.
I was so hot I thought I might actually be on fire, but when I tried to sit up to pat out the flames, I found I was trapped and unable to move.
I cried out, thrashing to be free, my hair wild around my face.
“All right, all right, fuckin’ hell, Belle!” Beast roared, and I turned with a start to stare at him, my eyes wide with confusion.
We were lying in his bed, the covers over us both and his arms locked around me. He frowned at me, a hard expression on his face, as usual. Sweat glistened on his forehead and I realized the heat—the fire—had been us. Our bodies entwined under the covers as we both slept, creating a fever in us both.
