My eyes flew open, and I stared at him. Long raven hair hung in slants over his shoulders. The bluest eyes, like the ocean, locked with mine. He smelled like sanitizer mixed with ammonia. I coughed.
He took a few steps back. “You look a lot like your father, the one that died I mean, not the imbecile that raised you.”
“My dad is not an imbecile.”
“Well, he didn’t last that long to be honest.”
“No!” My lower lip trembled as the sobs poured out of me.
“No, no, no, don’t be sad.” He palmed my cheek. “You are going to join him soon. I promise.”
I sniffed hard.Don’t lose it now, Elena. Be strong.“Who are you?”
His warm palm fell to his side as he laughed. “Wow, he never told you a thing, didn’t he? I see that my pathetic excuse of a brother was with him.”
“You are pure evil.”
“Oh, thank you. I’m saving you from a lot of things, by the way. Because what they had in store for you, there is no way you would’ve succeeded. Claiming the Rubicon is not playing house. And if you fail, he would turn you as evil as me.” His lips curved into a smile as his eyes grew. Laughter escaped his lips. “Bummer, right? Did he tell you that?”
I spit in his face. “I knew that part, you freak.”
He raised his hand and swung it down fast. It burned on my cheek and the jolt pulled at my neck muscles. Pain seared all over my face and into my head as he grunted foreign words and gob splattered on the ground.
His footsteps walked to the table, and I lifted my head, pressing my eyes shut to get the tears from my eyes so that I could see what he was doing.
He looked at a blade, bringing it up closer to the light. It glinted and looked sharp.
“What are you going to do with that?”
“A lot of fun.” Fox turned his head toward me, and a sadistic smile sprawled on his lips.
“Don’t do this, please.”
He walked with the knife back to me and tore the lower part of my shirt. My heartbeat pounded behind my ribcage.
Fox laughed. “I love the smell of fear coming from you, Elena. The scent is so sweet.”
I wished I could get my heartbeat under control and deprived him of that.
“I’m doing you a favor. Goran is not the only one that doesn’t like someone out there that can tame the Rubicon. The alpha doesn’t like that either. He will devour you, maybe even play with you a little.”
I didn’t like what was coming out of his lips.
“He will thank me for what I’m doing for him right now.” The movements were so fast as I felt slight burns on both sides of my stomach, burning like paper cuts.
I drew in a breath as the cuts stung. I peeked at my shirt and saw how parts of the white became red and blood oozed out of the thin stripes sticking through the shirt.
“I’m going to take my time with you. Let you bleed out slowly. So I’ll give you time to make peace with your destiny, Princess.”
I felt a few more burns, and I whimpered as it was a bit more than just paper cuts. Tears pricked my eyes, and I shut them tight.
I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to die, either. What did I have to do in order to survive? Something told me I would not get out of this one with my heart beating.
BLAKE
At three o’clockin the morning, a dragon crashed hard in front of the safe house that belonged to the organization.
Matt and I jumped up rushed outside.
