His hand reached toward my face slowly, and he hesitated once again before I grabbed his hand, his magic coming to life beneath mine, yet I didn’t take it. I couldn’t bring myself to break his trust. If I was going to be stuck here, I needed a friend to survive my mates, so why not keep the only decent one close?
Kalen let out a breath when I placed his hand on my cheek. His thumb brushed beneath my eye softly, and I closed my eyes. Sleep finally took me.
When I woke up, I found the spot where Kalen had been empty, looking around the room. A prickle up my spine alerted me to someone in the room before his voice did.
“Looking for someone?” Darius asked, and I shook my head, scooting up the bed.
I yawned. Darius watched me or rather glared at me. “Get up. You have five minutes to get dressed. Put these on,” he said, throwing some clothes at me.
He then stormed out, and I looked to the window to see the sun was barely up. I groaned, wondering where he wanted to take me. I slipped the jeans on, which fit perfectly, and a white blouse. How did Lycus know my size? I shook the thought away before realizing I had no shoes. I looked around the room for some when the door opened.
“Time is up,” Darius called, pushing the door wider. I glanced down at my feet. I only had socks on, and I quickly glanced around again but found no shoes. Darius, however, didn’t care as he suddenly walked off. Was I meant to follow him even if I had no shoes on?
“Now, Aleera,” Darius snapped, and I rushed out after him. His long strides had me jogging to keep up. My feet were cold even with the thick bed socks on. Darius walked down a flight of stairs, and I became lost with all the twists and turns. I could hear the murmuring of men behind doors, and I raced to keep up with Darius before we went down yet another set of stairs to a floor I recognized from when I’d tried to escape.
Darius walked to the mess hall, where I saw all the men gathered the other day. It had a few tables full when we walked in. All of them looked up, and I froze. More men filed in behind me, bumping into me, and Darius gripped my arm, his nails digging into my tender flesh. He dragged me over to a table and dumped me on a chair.
Glancing around, I noticed something quickly. They were all demons. These men weren’t fae. The other thing I noticed was that there was no woman in this room. Looking up at Darius, he was smirking cruelly at me.
“Welcome to hell, Aleera. Don’t think my men are your friends or will be your friends. No one likes a traitor.” Darius leaned down. His stubble brushed my cheek, and I held my breath at his closeness.
“And all of them think you are and don’t go looking for any woman. You will find none. You are the only one,” Darius said before standing upright. Darius turned to leave.
“Wait!” I reached out, grabbing his hand, and he growled at me. I jerked my hand away and took a step back at the frightening look he gave me.
“You can’t… Are you leaving me here?” I asked, petrified. Demons fed on fear or any emotion, really, and I knew I would be a nice treat to these men.An emotional buffet.
“Why? Are you scared, Aleera?” I looked around, their demonic eyes watching me, and I gulped before looking up at Darius. He chuckled, the sound mocking.
“I wanted to kill you, but now seeing the look on your face, I know this was the better option,” Darius said, and he looked around at all the men. He smiled. I didn’t like the look he wore on his face. It was off, severely off.
“Zac, come here,” Darius called out and waved a man over.
“Keep Aleera company and take her to your first lesson.”
“Be my pleasure, my King,” the man taunted, his smile growing bigger as he stared down at me.
“Just don’t kill her. I want to watch her suffer. I don’t want you to incinerate her before she has,” Darius told him before walking out of the mess hall. He left, and I remained frozen before turning to face this Zac person who grabbed my arm, hauling me over to a table with three other men.
Chapter 13
“Darius can be adick. He will settle down,” Zac said. I stared at him, confused. He almost seemed normal, nice even, as he slid a food tray over to me. Zac sat across from me, grabbing another before digging into his food.
The man beside him was a huge burly-looking man with a short beard and dark hair, and he tapped my tray. “Eat. If you’re training with us, you will need it,” he said. I looked down at the tray to find it had scrambled eggs on it.
“I’m Satish, that’s Zac, as you know, and that one is Deacon.” The other man waved; he had blond hair, a boyish face, and was clearly the youngest at the table. It was impossible to tell the actual age of full-blooded demons; they could be hundreds of years old or precisely the age they appeared.
“And that one at the end is Lyle.” The man nodded, but his lips pulled back in a snarl.Note to self, stay away from the unfriendly one. I went back to my food, scooping up some egg on my fork.
“So, Darius and the others don’t eat down here with you?” I asked. Zac snorted and shook his head.
“No, this place belongs to Darius. He owns and runs it.”
“So, he bought it then?”
Zac shook his head before leaning back in his seat. “You don’t know much about them.”
“About Darius and the others? No, only what I managed to hear on the radio or see on the news of their killing sprees.”