Chapter 2

When Indra wakes up again, her head throbs painfully and waves of nausea sends overwhelming sensations through her body.

What happened?

Frightened, she sits up. Her hands trembles at the feel of the rough cold surface against her fingertips, she tries to get up, but notices to her horror that she is chained to the floor.

Indra is close to screaming, but she's stops herself at the last minute.

She rubs her forehead and pulls at the iron mask, desperately trying to create a gap so she can see where she is. But it is to no use, the delicate iron mask stays fixated over her eyes, and she remains in total darkness.

What did the unknown man say? She had understood that he said sorry, but she doesn't remember any more.

Stay calm. First, you need to find out what happened. Then you can come up with a plan to get out of here.

Indra pulls at the thick chain that’s grazed her wrists raw, but nothing seems to shift it. With unsteady legs, she slowly gets to her knees and trails the length of the chain with her hands, in an attempt to find a weakness in the links.

"Well, well," says a voice out of nowhere. "The daughter of darkness has awakened."

Indra instantly recognizes the man's voice, and the faint scent of roses and briny ocean fills the room.

She also feels anger churning deep inside her, like the distant rumbling sound of thunder that is getting ever so close.

"If you want me to pray for my life, you have come in vain. Lucifer has tortured me for months without me giving into his will."

"In time, dear Indra, in time. You’ll see, I'm not like everyone else. Once I'm done with you, you'll do whatever I want."

Indra smiles. "Do you really think you can beat me? You already know I'm the devil's daughter, don't you?"

"Without a doubt. I know your weaknesses better than you do."

"I don't have any weaknesses."

The man laughs. "That's exactly what I expected you to say. But we all have our Achilles heel. You are no exception."

Indra can swear she hears the man licking his lips. "Just dare to treat me like a little girl," she replies, trying to get up, but the chain is too short and pulls at her grazed wrist’s making them sting painfully.

"Why not?You’re alittle girl."

She can hear him smiling, and she's trying to imagine what he looks like. In her inner vision, she sees dark hair and bright eyes, but his face remains in the shade. The only thing she can make sense off is the scent of his body. She doesn't really know what to think off it yet.

"Because I am not one of your frightened subjects, who flees whenever they hear your voice."

She senses a low growl, which seems to bounce between the walls.

"Stop it, Indra. This was just a test to see how you fare against the enemy. You failed catastrophically."

Indra gets confused. What does he mean? Is she still in the cell? Is it just a new kind of torture that Lucifer is also behind?

She hears the man approaching and instinctively she turns to the sound and prepares to fight. Without her eyesight, she has to rely on her other senses. She raises her hands and waits for the inevitable. She can't help but feel her body tremble with fear, but she's not going to give him that satisfaction.

She senses him standing in front of her and feels the warmth of his breath fan her face. Indra attacks and tries to get a hit into what she guesses is the same height as his crotch, but misses and punches straight into thin air. Quickly turning and spinning around, she strikes with her elbow, which appears to hit him in the ribs and he grunts loudly. She gets down to her knees and kicks around in a circle, hits his leg and smirks at the sound of his body as it falls to the floor with a dull thud. He seems to be heavily built, perhaps both muscular and tall.

Indra immediately scrambles her way across his body and puts her knee under his chin, pushing down over his throat, cutting off the oxygen supply. With a guttural wheeze, he throws up one leg, wraps it around her waist and flips her to the ground before sitting down over her body. She doesn't even stand a chance, not this time. The man undoubtedly has strength and is used to fighting. He's not as unfit and slow as her first impression of him.

She hears a deep sigh before his dark voice vibrates through the room.

"Let me guess. Black belt in Aikido?" She nods in response. "If I was going to kill you, you'd already be dead. I wouldn't even bother to free you from Lucifer."

He puts a hand around her neck and squeezes before he slowly pulls her towards him and whispers, "But now that I think about it, maybe I should end your life, here and now, and be free from the responsibility of saving you from the gods."

Indra gasps in an attempt to draw in any form of oxygen she can get while he continues to speak in the same calm tone.

"But today you're lucky, my dear, I'm not going to take the easy way. Nothing about you is easy."

She exhales loudly when his hand eases around her neck. Her heart is still hammering in her chest, but whether it's out of anger, fear or something completely different, she can't tell. She has the strange urge to bite him, feel his flesh in her mouth, but she doesn't. Instead, she pulls back, a gesture signaling that it's time for him to back off now, too.

"You don't trust me," he says in a short tone, his voice riddled with fatigue.

She tries to answer but no sound leaves her lips, so she just shakes her head.

"I hear you can read people's minds," he continued.

 "I give you my permission to dig around in my head, so you can see for yourself that I am someone you can trust."

Indra flinches, her eyebrows raised in suspicion. How does he know all this about her? Right now, it doesn't matter. She is too weak to read anything at all right now.

Indra shakes her head again. He shrugs his shoulders.

"Okay, then you'll just have to try to trust my word."

She hears him get up and feels her hand in his. He wants to help her off the ground and for some reason, she allows him to help her. She accidently brushes one hand against what she believes to be his muscular chest. She is reminded of how long it’s been since she has had any form of body contact with another human except for the purpose of defending herself and trying to stay alive.

"Indra, come with me and I'll help you regain some of your strength. Unfortunately, you'll have to keep the mask for a while longer."

Theclick of the lock in the door opening up fills her with the hope of long-awaited freedom. When he stands so close to her, she once again senses the smell of roses from his skin. It's like the roses are a part of him, like they belong together.

In response to the faint scent mixing with his masculinity, her body comes to life despite the fact of her iron clad will that is set to break free, escaping as far away as she can. The scent overwhelms her senses. Indra enjoys for a moment the pleasant clean and spicy fragrance that fills her nostrils.

If the circumstances had been different, she would really consider letting this man pleasure her. She can feel his presence with all of her senses, his masculinity, strong physic and apparent sex appeal, even though she can't even see what he looks like. The thought both frightens and excites her, and she feels her cheeks blush into a deep red at the realization over what she wants to do.

Or maybe it's just her body that wants to.

He raises his eyes and looks at her face.

"Are you okay?"

She tries to get her increased breathing under control and nods to answers.

"Good. It's time to get some food into you." He leans over and sniffs her briefly before moving away. "I think we'll start with a hot bath, considering how you smell."

Indra can only agree with his inviting proposal. She allows herself to be led away by the man, lacking energy to speak with him, but that does not stop the thoughts from going back and forth in her head. New questions keep popping up. Who is he? Where's he taking me? And what does he want with me, anyway?

She wishes she could at least see him so she had something more than his masculine scent to go on. At the moment, she does not dare to trust her own instincts or current presence of mind after Lucifer's protracted torture and constantly mocking words.

She feels him squeezing her hand and wondering if she should refuse to go with him. Indra hesitates. It feels wrong not to when, after all, he saved her from Lucifer. She is grateful to be alive and can't help but think about all the wonderful things life can bring her, now that she has survived.

She suddenly feels him unlocking the heavy shackles around her wrists.

Her first thought is that she was free.

Then, it strikes her that she is still in captivity, albeit at the mercy of another man.

A man whose name she doesn't know.

He trails over her form with his eyes. She's not a classical beauty, but curvy enough to pique his interest. Her lips are pink and plump and her breasts larger than usual for a woman her age, which he estimates at just under 20 years. Her honey-colored hair is smeared with dirt and blood, and hangs tangled over her shoulders. He can see that her hair also has highlights, which catches the warm rays of the sun falling in at an angle through the window.

He squints to see her face better. As far as he can see in the gloomy light, she has a lovely face with ivory-white complexion, but also some freckles on her pale, straight nose. She is beautiful, despite all the dirt – or maybe it enhances the impression that this is a woman who is not captured so easily. She's not intimidated by shackles, let alone a little dirt.

He catches himself with wanting to rip off her mask to see if her eyes are as beautiful as he thinks. But even if he felt affected by her appearance, the worst part is that she has handled this whole situation so well. Most of the women he had become acquainted with in the millenniums he has walked this world would have cried and screamed if they had gone through what this young woman had been put through.

He hasn't seen such a strength in a person in a very long time.