Chapter Five

The pongs sank deep, and with barely a regret, I pressed the button in, sending sparks of electricity shotting along the wires.

Clicking filled the air, and the vague, distasteful smell of burning skin. It reminded me of forgotten burger patties on the grill. I nearly gagged. The only thing that stopped me, was the unbelievable sight of the psycho who had forced his way into my trailer, told me I was his, and was clearly insane, smiling at me calmly, as volts that should have felled a giant ran into him.

With utter calm, he brought a huge, powerful hand up to the wire connecting the taser prongs and the handset, and tugged them free.

“Do you really think this can stop me?” he mused, sounding completely uncaring that the air literally smelled of his burning flesh.

Terror like nothing I’d known before crept through me. I backed away. “What are you?” I asked. My flight or fight response was screaming at me to flee. Get out the back and make for the woods, or start banging on trailer doors, and begging someone to call the cops. I wasn’t safe near this man.

“Stone Acanthus,” he repeated, as he took a step toward me.

“What the fuck are you??” I demanded.

“Language,” he tutted. “Growing up again in the human world has made you…” he paused, as if searching for a word, and then smirked, “…wild. But don’t worry, princess, I will tame it out of you.”

“Growing up again? You’re crazy, right? Did you escape from that place two towns over? If you did, let me call the police to help you. You have clearly been missing your meds for a few days,” I said, as calmly as I could.

My rising hysteria wasn’t helped by the fact that every time I took a step back, he followed. I had the sudden, terrifying feeling that he was herding me. I glanced back, and saw the wall, just before my back hit it. Great, nowhere to run.

“If you knew yourself, you’d realise that you are the one who sounds insane,” Stone said. His deep voice held some sort of growl to it that made all the hair on my body stand on end. It was like the taser had charged him up, and made him stronger. Was he a superhero? Bitten by a radioactive spider? No, that couldn’t be. His aura screamed villain. Great, figures I’d meet someone with superpowers, and they’d be the villain.

“Why are you pretending to know me? We’ve never met,” I stated, flinching as he leaned in and brought both arms up to cage me against the wall.

There was that scent again, the one that made my head swim and the roof of my mouth itch. It was absolutely intoxicating. Stone leaned in, shocking me into stillness, and ran his nose through my long, unbound hair, hanging beside my face. He growled low in his throat. There was something so threatening about that sound, and so utterly familiar for a moment, I didn’t know how to react.

The man had smelled me. Smelled me. “We’ve done more than met, Aria, you just don’t remember. Whether you recover your memories of not, I don’t care. What I said remains to be true.”

He pulled away and stared down at me. This close, his dark eyes weren’t quite as black, as they’d seemed. Instead, they were warm, dark chocolate, melting and addictive. I fought his gaze mesmerising. I could almost imagine a glowing gold light deep within. The longer I stared, the more I realised that that fanciful golden glow was getting brighter.

“Whether you hate me forever, or try to escape every single day of the rest of your life… I don’t care. You’ll still be where you belong, by my side.” His deep voice seemed to wind around my chest, and made it hard to breath.

“What are you?” I repeated, and licked my lips, feeling like all moisture in my body had deserted me.

“I am Stone, first of his name, and next in line to the crown of Acanthus, Prince of the Night Keep. I am a ruler of night and darkness, and I am your owner. I have looked for you for decades. I have waited for you longer. I’m tired of waiting.”

His words were nonsensical. The man wasn’t just a poor escaped mental patient, he was absolutely nuts. When I couldn’t hold that shimmering gaze anymore, I looked down, taking in his black suit properly for the first time. Now, I saw, it wasn’t just some oddly designed work wear. With a high collar, and fitted waist, it looked more like something old fashioned, like a warrior would wear. His entire outfit was bizarre, as though he had walked off a movie set in the most realistic looking knight’s outfit that Hollywood had ever cooked up.

Pressure built in my chest, a desperate, sudden knowledge that I couldn’t allow this man to take me from this trailer. I felt certain that if I didn’t get away from him now, I wouldn’t be able to again. Something shifted in my belly, something warm and powerful. It was a odd feeling, and I let it fill me, because there was nothing else I could do.

“People can’t own others anymore, if case you didn’t get the memo. That sort of thing ended centuries ago.” I was proud of how clear and unintimidated my voice sounded. It certainly wasn’t reflecting the absolute terror I felt within.

“Call me old-fashioned,” Stone said, his full lip quirking into a grin that was twisted as hell.  “Because I do own you, Aria. Signed and sealed by decree of your father.”

“My father? I don’t know who my father is, and if you think I’ll be going along with some stranger’s wishes you can think again.”

“And what makes you think you have a choice?”

“I’ll fight you.”

“Really? How exciting. I do love to break stubborn things. Have you become even more stubborn, Ari? I’ll tell you the truth, princess. I’ve always liked the thought of playing with you like we used to, but this time, without rules, or limits. This time, the winner takes all.” There was something so intimate about his casual nickname, as if he’d said it a hundred times before.

“I don’t know you,” I repeated. In the depths of his eyes, that gold seemed to flare a moment, and something that looked like annoyance twisted his features.

“Yes, you do, and I’ll prove it to you.” His hands landed on my hips, strong fingers tightening on my skin. For the hundredth time I wished I was wearing a hell of a lot more than I was. I could feel the heat of his skin sinking through my thin cotton shorts. He was like a furnace.

“I’ll scream,” I muttered, freezing as he pressed closer. He was too strong, and too damn big to push him off. Looming over me, I could see nothing but him, smell nothing but that scent, and feel nothing more than that addicting heat radiating from him.

“I don’t care,” Stone said simply, his dark eyes intent on mine. He brought his face toward mine, and when I twisted my head away, his hand came to grip my jaw, turning my chin toward his, giving me no options. His lips met mine hard, without a shred of gentleness. His skin singed me, as his tongue stroked along my lips, and then forced them apart. The hand that had held my jaw slid into my hair, and wound it around his palm like a rope, tilting my head right back, so I was completely exposed to him. My mouth offered up like a gift to an angry god, and he devoured me whole. My mind lost focus and my body went slack, like I was a puppet whose strings had been cut. I sagged against him, and he pressed his long, hard body against me and pinned me to the wall. His hands felt like they were everywhere, touching, and taking and driving me out of my virgin mind. I couldn’t take this. My body wasn’t equipped for it. This clearly wasn’t beginner level seduction. His hand other hand fell to my throat, and tightened. Alarm shot through the hazy fog of pleasure that his masterful kiss had filled my brain with. That feeling in my belly grew, like lava boiling just under a dormant volcano. I’d felt it only two times before in my life, and neither had had a good outcome.

Stone broke the kiss, and leaned his forehead against mine. He was breathing harshly, as if this ravaging of my mouth was affecting him just as much as it was me.

“You are mine, Aria, and I won’t be leaving this world without you. There is no where you could run that I won’t find you and no one who could protect you from me.” His quiet confident words pricked that bubble of pleasure, and it shrivelled away, as cold clarity took its place. This was a dangerous, unhinged man, and he had only just started to take what he wanted from me.

I couldn’t let him.

As he leaned back in to kiss me again, his time, both of his hands tangled in my hair, tilting my head to get even closer, that feeling in my belly contracted, and expanded.

It filled me with emotion, anger and fear. Fear of him, and his strangeness, and then fear of his words, and the scariest thing of all; that what he said might be true. I slapped a hand to his chest, and tore my mouth from his bone-melting kiss. Damn, pyscho or not, this guy knew how to kiss.

“Here in ‘this world’, no means no, asshole,” I murmured to him, and let that red-hot rage fill me. White light flashed; a boom sounded.