By Force (16 page)

“Not me,” said one.

“Me neither,” said the other.

“Please excuse me.” They refused to move. “I said, excuse me.”

The bigger one, with black eyes and matted brown hair, raised his arm and let me pass. I immediately made for the side door. I could have gone back to my friends and I probably should have, but the place was so crowded I could barely breathe in there and the noise made my ears ring. When I stepped outside, I took a deep breath and drank in the salty smell of the ocean. The men from the bar blew through the doors behind me. They each grabbed one of my arms and dragged me along the street.

“Let me go!” I screamed as I flailed. I was now being kidnapped from my kidnappers. How often does that happen? I wiggled and screamed. They stopped and one of the men pulled me tight against his chest. The knife he pressed to my throat was so sharp I felt heat where the blade touched my skin before warm blood trickled down to my collarbone. My entire body tensed.

“Be quiet or we’ll kill you now,” the one who held me whispered into my ear. His thick, low voice made the hair on the back of my neck rise. Carefully, I turned my head to meet his beady brown eyes. He wasn’t much bigger than I was, but I could tell from the strength of his grip that I couldn’t overpower him. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and sniffed. “You smell awfully pretty.” He lowered the knife and spun me around, crushing his lips into mine, trying to force his tongue into my mouth. I bit it until I tasted blood. He pushed me away and ran one of his hands across his mouth. Blood dripped down his chin and, after seeing the blood dripping from his hand, he glared at me with pure hatred. “You bitch!”

I cocked my fist back and swung, making contact with his jaw. Not smart and so unlike me, but I was done playing the victim.

I had to stall. Soon my Daentarry friends would come looking for me. They would tear through the streets until they found me. As I considered this, the shorter one slapped me with such force that he knocked off my feet and I landed on my back several feet away.

I propped myself up on my elbows and shook my head. The pain in my jaw sliced through my face and neck. The music from the inn boomed and so did the crowd. Remmie and the others would never hear my screams.

“They will kill you,” I said to the men, loudly. Ironically, I was more concerned about their lives than mine. Whatever scars they inflicted on me would soon fade into nothingness. These men would never recover from my friends’ anger. Soon they would inflict unmentionable pain on the two men who’d hurt me.

The bigger one stomped over to me and punched me in the stomach, then the face. I drew my knees up and covered my head with my arms. Another blow. A fire ignited inside of me and I began punching and kicking and screaming like a madwoman. I doubted I caused much damage, but I wouldn’t go down without a fight. I felt the skin of my cheek tear down to the bone and I screamed out in pain, prompting the man to hit me harder than he had before. Two blows to my skull and one to my chest.

I lay on the ground, arms splayed, when someone pulled the man off me and threw him to the ground. My friends. Finally, they’d come to save me. When I lifted my head, I gasped. The man who’d rescued me had curly red hair and green eyes. It couldn’t be. He was dead.

James.

Blood splashed the wall of the pub as James pounded the man over and over again. Bones crushed and snapped under James’s fists. I almost vomited from the sound. The man’s blood sprayed on me, entering my mouth. I coughed and spit it onto the dirt.

The man tried to fight James off, but he was much too fast for a feeble human. I wanted to move over to them, to jump on James’s back to stop him, but I was covered in gashes and blood, and I could barely move my limbs.

The other human looked on, wide-eyed. A dark circle of urine appeared at his feet. “Run!” But he didn’t move an inch. I don’t think he blinked.

As the large human lay dying in the dirt, James withdrew a dagger from his belt.

“No!”

He drove the dagger straight into the man’s heart. After a quick gasp, the life in the man’s eyes dimmed. James dropped him to the ground. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t do anything but stare.

Like a crouching cat, James snapped his head in the direction of his remaining prey. He wiped the sweat from his brow and pointed his dagger to the smaller human. “Your turn.”

Like a cannonball, he zipped through the air and into the man’s midsection. The man fell backward, his head meeting a rock with a
crack
. James leaned over from where he landed to snap the man’s neck with one swift twist. The crunch traveled straight through me and my stomach lurched into my throat.

I scrambled to my feet, every ounce of my pain forgotten as fear and shock overcame me. I reached the pub’s side door when James grabbed my hair and yanked me backward. My shoes fell off and fine rocks sliced through my feet. A trail of blood followed behind me.

“Thought you were rid of me, did you?” James growled.

“You’re dead. Remmie killed you.” I held onto my hair so he wouldn’t rip it from my skull.

“You saved me,” he said. “Or should I say, your blood saved me. And now that I’ve had a taste, I think I might have to keep you for myself.” He turned a corner into a dark alleyway and threw me to the ground. He wrapped his thick arms around my neck and crushed me with the weight of his body before sucking at the open wound on my cheek. I shook my head, trying to stop him, but he pressed my head down with his forehead. I grabbed the sides of his face and tried to push him away, but I might as well have been trying to move a mountain. Desperate, I dug my fingernails into his eyes.

“Argh.” He clutched at his eyes and cursed at me as he fell backward. He reached out, waving his hands through the air to find me. Fueled by adrenaline, I shot to my feet and ran to the inn, calling for Remmie, for Nole. For anyone.

Before I reached the inn door, I fell into warm, thick arms. “James,” I managed before I collapsed against him. “He’s alive.”

Chapter Fifteen

I winced in pain as Remmie attempted to scoop me up. I felt as if I had been crushed by a boulder. All of my bones felt that they might break from his touch. Every ounce of me felt beaten and a red haze clouded my eyes. With unfailing tenderness, Remmie gently cradled me into his chest and lightly kissed my mutilated face.

“Gods!” Nole’s gaze flashed to my face. Fine wrinkles appeared around his eyes as he frowned in sympathy. A flush rose from his chin to his hairline and his eyes turned hard as stone. He lightly draped the cape over me and my face before I heard a thunderous splintering of wood.

* * *

I dreamed of home. I could feel the warmth of my sister lying next to me. I could smell the bread baking in the oven pit. I could hear the sounds of my mother and father bantering back and forth, in a way that hinted at their deep-rooted affection and intimacy. As the corners of my mouth curled into a smile, I patted the space around me, searching for my sister’s tiny, warm body. We had shared a bed since she was a baby. Then, I came to a halting realization: none of it was real. And yet, the thoughts that filled my head as I slept were more real to me than the life I currently lived. In what world would a young woman cooperate with the men who had abducted her because she came to think of them as friends? In what world would she worry about what could happen to them and their families should she not be delivered to their king, as promised? No, this life was far from realistic.

I fluttered my eyelashes and opened my heavy eyes to find Remmie sitting on the bed, bent over, with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. I looked around the room. Where was I? I was on a thin bed, lying on layer upon layer of fur. To my left was a small table with nothing on it except for dirt, a fat spider, and a candle. Across the room sat a dented dresser with broken handles. The floor was blackened with layers of dirt and soot from a fire. We were in a room above the pub; I was sure of it.

I felt broken, but I could feel that most of my body had already mended. I was drained, though I was sure it was from the healing. Never before had I made the connection. Thinking about it, I recalled several childhood injuries being followed with fever, but they never tired me like the ones I had of late. Then again, as a child, I never had serious or multiple injuries at once, so the lethargy was never grand enough to notice.

“The worst of your injuries have already healed.” His voice was soft. “Are you in any pain?”

“No.” I winced as I tried to turn on my side. “Only when I move.”

He snorted, but the concern in his red-rimmed eyes was obvious.

“James? Did you find him?”

He shook his head. “James is dead, Isame.”

“You found him?”

He looked at me, confused. “There was a great deal of damage to your head. I killed James days ago. Have you forgotten? Did your injuries affect your memory?”

“He’s alive. He was here. Did you see the dead humans? Did you think I did that?”

His face went blank as he moved closer to me. Instead of answering me, he examined my head and looked deep in my eyes.

“You didn’t even look for him, did you?”

I tried to sit, but I could barely manage enough energy to move my fingers. “He told me that my blood saved him, right before he drank it again.”

“Again?”

“He drank my blood in the woods that night you shot him with an arrow. Is that a normal thing for Daentarry to do? I must admit I find it rather disturbing. Do you do that?”

“Your blood?”

“Why do you keep repeating me? Yes, my blood.”

He rose to his feet and walked over to lean against the window. He looked down at the street below. The sun shone straight in the room, casting a shadow of his body on the wooden floorboards behind him. In the light, his eyes twinkled like tiny, little stars. He looked breathtaking, but he also looked…troubled. His thick brows were tightly joined into a single brow.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

“Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I can’t. Not yet. Leave this with me. Don’t tell the others what you’ve just told me. I’ll deal with James personally.”

“Why not tell the others? What are you keeping from me?”

He shook his head. “Soon. I promise. For now, I need you to think about getting your strength back. Tell me what I can do to make you feel better.”

You can tell me what you’re keeping from me for a start
, was what I wanted to say. Instead, I decided to use this moment to address something else that troubled me. “I want to send a message to my family.”

He started to shake his head.

“Just to let them know that I’m safe. They’re probably sick with worry. Please.”

He rose to his feet and crossed the creaking floor. He rifled through a brown leather saddlebag and threw it on the dresser before returning to me. He placed parchment and an eel ink pen on the small night table.

“You talk, I write. And be quick. I am not sure if the others will approve of this.”

“My family won’t recognize your handwriting. They’ll think it’s a lie.”

Remmie took a step back and waved to the table, as if to say, “It’s all yours.”

Wincing, I adjusted myself so I could rest on the table. I could feel Remmie’s eyes on me as I wrote, and his continual sighing forced me to write faster than I thought possible.

My dearest family,

I cannot imagine the worry and despair you must feel from my absence, and I sincerely apologize for this. Rest assured, I am alive and well.

I am not being held against my will. I consider these men friends, and I have promised to accompany them on their journey home. Please do not send anyone to look for me. I need you to trust me. That being said, it is imperative that all of you leave the house immediately and travel north to Aunt Elsie’s. I pray I am being overcautious, but I can’t risk your safety. I will return to meet with you when I have fulfilled my promise.

Yours,

Isame

I handed the letter to him after sealing it with wax. He placed it in his breast pocket. I told him where to send it and he promised he would.

“Is there anything else?”

Now that he mentioned it, there was. I had almost forgotten about being beaten outside by three men while they comfortably sat drinking indoors. “Where were you last night?”

He fidgeted nervously with his fingers.

“Isame….”

“No. Never mind. You don’t owe me an explanation.” I turned my head away from him to stare at the basin on the beat-up dresser.

“You said you needed air. I thought you wanted to be alone.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I’m being foolish.”

“What do you want from me, Isame?”

I wanted him, but what would that life be like? I couldn’t imagine it. He could give me adventure and safety—maybe. I was sure he had many enemies as a king’s man. But was he the type of man to commit to one woman? Would he take me with him on his adventures? With his friends and comrades? I didn’t think so. My family would never accept him—with good reason—and this should have been enough for me to turn my back to him and scream at my heart for wanting someone I shouldn’t. We would never work, which made my heart ache. He was the only man I’d ever met who made me imagine taking a man as my own.

“I don’t know. I feel more for you than I should,” I whispered.

“Good,” he said with a smile that had me smiling too.

“Is it? Do you feel it too?”

He leaned forward, his fingers gently traveling the length of my arm to trail up to my neck and cup my face. Every inch of me felt like it might catch fire. I wanted to pull him on top of me, and do things I never imagined doing with another. It took everything I had not to do it.

Remmie pressed his lips into my mine and the yearning deep in my belly spread lower to settle between my thighs. I thought I might explode if he didn’t stop.