Blood Red (13 page)

Vivi Anna

watched her pull against the ropes. He could see them cutting into her flesh. Blood soon spotted the bed. She kicked and screamed like hell’s fury. He had his work cut out for him. She would not be easily convinced.

She had seven long years to grow strong, to brew her hatred for him.

After the murder, he knew that Red’s mother did not fare well. She was a single caregiver, as her husband died in an accident the year before. It wasn’t long before the Church took over the care for the girl.

She was declared an orphan and was housed with the other abandoned children.

It was here that Red learned the discipline of the mind and the body. Wolf had a spy inside the orphanage, and knew that within a few months, Red had isolated herself from the others and performed her duties and laborious tasks with an unnatural single-mindedness.

Two years later, Red escaped the institute with the skill and precision of a professional thief, stealing into the night and disappearing. The magistrate did not look long for her. There was no one of influence begging her whereabouts, so she was soon forgotten.

Wolf had only fragments of information about her after that, but he knew that she was training her mind and her body for one thing; to face her enemy and slay him.

* * *

Red screamed until she passed out from the pain.

When she woke again, a glorious scent wafted up 24

Blood Red

her nose causing her stomach to growl. Something was cooking. She had not eaten for at least twenty-four hours. She raised her head to see. Wolf was at the stove, stirring something in a big black pot.

He must have sensed her the moment she woke.

He turned to look. She twisted on the bed, straining to see him. He took a bowl and spooned stew into it. He ripped off a piece of fresh-baked bread and set it on top.

She could feel the saliva dribbling out her mouth from the smell and sight of food. She was ravenous.

“If I untie you, you’ll behave?”

She nodded eagerly.

Wolf set the food down on the floor. He untied one wrist, and left the other tethered to the rail. Red was able to sit up. She rubbed her sore, bloody wrist on her leg. It helped ease the throb. She twisted her neck back and forth to ease the stiffness.

Wolf handed her the bowl. She set it down between her crossed legs, taking the bread and tearing at it. She couldn’t shove it in her mouth fast enough. Still chewing the bread, she shoveled the stew in. It dripped out her mouth and down her chin.

Her jaw still pained, but she was so hungry it did not stop her. She ate like a starved animal.

* * *

He sat on the edge of the sofa and ate his own supper.

He watched her as he chewed. Her face was the same.

Her cheeks had sharpened and her lips filled, but her eyes remained. He could always remember her eyes.

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