I try as hard as I can to fight him, but I can't seem to lift my arms and my body is succumbing to sleep before my brain can tell it that I’m not tired. My eyelids float down, and everything goes black as I drift off into an unwanted sleep in the demon's cold arms.
54
Chapter 9
My entire body is freezing and there is an excruciating pain radiating from my neck, into my head. I slowly try to peel my eyelids open but one of them feels like it's swollen shut and I grimace at the fuzzy memory of Thrane back-handing me. I don't know where I am, but I can feel cold tile underneath my back. I roll onto my side and try to feel for anything around that could give me a hint as to where I’ve ended up.
My good eye is finally able to open most of the way and take in some of the surroundings. I'm alone in a nice-looking bathroom that is decorated in dark colors and smells 55
way too strongly of bleach. My stomach turns at the overpowering scent and I try to stand, but only end up crawling toward the toilet to vomit uncontrollably.
When I am finished, I pull myself up to the sink and wash my mouth out. I catch my reflection in the gold-framed mirror and gasp at the sight of the swollen image looking back. The whole right side of my face is purple and nearly twice its normal size. I tenderly touch the sore spot and flinch. After studying the rest of my body, I see that I have otherwise been untouched, and I release a sigh, grateful for that at least.
The bathroom door opens and Thrane enters with a smile on his disturbingly handsome face. His black hair is slicked back, not at all nice-looking as it would be on a different man.
"Good, I'm glad to see that you're awake," he says, not sounding the least bit apologetic for drugging me in the first place.
I back away from him with both of my hands out in front of me. "Get away from me, you psychotic freak."
Thrane just steps closer to me, unfazed by my anger and name-calling. "But I've been waiting so long for you to wake up. I was worried you were down for good," he says, obviously faking worry.
I scoff at him. "You hit me, drugged me, and then left me on a cold bathroom floor. Don't act like you care at all about my well-being."
Thrane just continues to invade my personal space. His suit buttons come up against my hands and I cringe as he wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me hard against his muscular chest. The feel causes me to shiver worse from the cold skin beneath his shirt. I am afraid to move as his black eyes roll around, roaming over my face. "Looks like I hit you harder than I planned.” His finger traces my bruised face and I flinch from the pain.
"You actually kind of hit like a girl for someone who is supposed to be pretty scary." I lie, trying to keep my features schooled. I have a feeling that he's the type that enjoys watching a helpless girl cry in pain.
Thrane's features become hard. "Don't play games with me, darling. You won't like the outcome." The words slither from his rancid mouth.
I fear that if he keeps breathing on me, I will puke again from the stench of his breath. I wrinkle my nose. "You know, for a guy who obviously cares about his looks, you clearly don't own a toothbrush."
Before I can blink, Thrane has one of his cold hands around my throat, squeezing just enough to make it difficult to breathe. I claw at his hand but the other one pulls my wrists 56
together behind my back so that I am helpless. "Not so tough now, are you, little girl?" he says with a grin.
It gets harder to breathe with each second that passes as his hand continues to tighten on my throat. I can feel the burning in my veins that reminds me I'm not totally helpless. I drag it within me to the surface. When my whole body fills with the heat, I swing my right leg forward and connect my knee with his groin, while releasing all of my strength.
Thrane lets go of me and doubles over in pain. He lets out a deep growl and takes a knee to steady himself.
I allow myself a small smile at my little victory, but I can tell right away that my body must already be affected by being away from Gavin. My kick doesn’t keep Thrane down long and he recovers quicker than I hoped.
He stands tall and comes within an inch of me, almost touching his nose to mine. It's hard to tell what he's thinking through the black in his eyes, but his other features show deep anger.
"This can continue on as long as you'd like but you will never win. I am the superior being here, so you better get that quick or I will kill you before Barron even lays his eyes on you."
He grabs me by the wrist and pulls me behind him into a beautifully decorated bedroom.
The whole room looks Victorian with a large bed in the center that has an intricately ingrained wooden frame wrapped around it. There is antique furniture lining the walls and a high ceiling that peaks at the very center.
Thrane proceeds to pull me toward the bed and my heart rate picks up out of fear. I try to pull away from him but there is no use. He is a thousand times stronger than I am and the epitome of evil. I stop fighting and instead try to distract him with conversation, hoping that he
