“It is not far at all. Do not worry, we will have all the time we need.”
Becka tried to hold out, but soon blackness engulfed her, swallowing her whole.
Chapter 28
An acrid smell filled Becka’s nose. She thrashed her head to and fro, attempting and failing to avoid the fumes. She coughed and tried to sit up, but something cut into her chest, arms, and thighs, preventing her movement. Her head throbbed and ached and she tried desperately to remember what was going on. There was something important she needed to remember. Try as she might, Becka couldn’t manage to open her eyes.
Silken fingers stroked down the length of her arm, lingering on her exposed wrist. She tried to pull away, but considering she was tied down it didn’t do much good.
What had happened to the silk gloves? Oh yeah, she’d dropped them back at the grove. Perhaps someone would find them, and come looking for her?
Pain shot up her arm and Becka’s eyes flashed open. In a split second she took in her surroundings through eyes that couldn’t quite focus. A man clad in black stood over her right arm, the blade in his hand the only thing she could focus clearly on. She lay on a small bed, blood pooling slowly under her right wrist. The man in black cut the cord holding her arm down and lifted her wrist to her lips.
“I need to verify you’re the one we are looking for,” said the man, his voice sounded oddly familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. He pulled off his hood, throwing it to the floor. “But to be honest, I just wanted the first taste of you. If you are all that we hope, then I’ll take you far away from here.”
An image flashed through her mind from the student safety course during her Freshman year at college. Never let them take you to a secondary location, the instructor had warned. In retrospect, it was great advice. Too bad she hadn’t been able to follow it.
Becka pulled against the cords holding her down, her movements frantic, her vision clearing as her anxiety peaked. She recognized the small retreat cabin as a place she’d stayed in as a youth. At least she was still in House Rowan territory; he hadn’t taken her far. But it was far enough if no one knew where to look. Did anyone even know she was missing? And where was Quinn? Oh right, she’d wandered off. Would he or the shifters look for her when she wasn’t found with the others in the funeral grove?
She looked up at the man, and recognition dawned on her. “Lagan! You’re the one Quinn’s been talking to!”
The realization that she knew Lagan and had revealed to him about her frustrations despite knowing there was a potential killer within their midst hit her square in the solar plexus. He’d managed to abduct her the one time she’d been apart from Quinn.
He looked down upon her, as if remembering she was a person, not just a thing to be used. “I was born Lagan, but you may refer to me as Woden. And there was no way I was waiting another day for your Enforcer fling to bring you to me.”
“He’s not my fling!”
“Oh please, the first time I saw you two together I realized he would never hand you over. I knew I’d have to come up with another, unaided, plan.”
Luckily she wasn’t bleeding heavily yet, but his iron grip on her wrist and her growing pool of blood didn’t bode well. If he was taking her somewhere, at least she wasn’t about to die here and now. Right? “Where did you say you were taking me?”
“My business affords me the movement I need between cities and territories, but I didn’t say where I was taking you.”
“Huh. Wait.” Her head was swimming and she had to fight to stay afloat. “Woden...like the ancient fae ancestor?”
“Indeed.” He may have intended his smile to exude confidence, but it was just creepy.
Becka decided to push her luck. It’s not like things would get worse, and perhaps by delaying things, it would give someone else the time to notice she was missing.
She tried to ignore the drip, drip, drip of blood falling from her wrist.
She needed to keep him talking.
“Taking his name seems...pretentious. Gauche?”
“I am reclaiming my birthright, as is my due. The fact that the fae-touched accept the limitations our originators set upon us grieves me. We are capable of so much more.”
“I disagree. They uplifted us, but never intended us to be all powerful. When they bequeathed to the world their half-human children, we were meant to continue on as a tribute to the memory of the fae. We’re just a remnant of their overblown egos,” she said.
Woden’s rich laugh filled the small cabin. “It’s true, they sought to limit us. But we can transcend the boxes they left for us. The shadow-dwellers are already more than the fae ever dreamt we could become. With your help, soon we will be boundless.”
His words chilled her to the core. Whatever ‘help’ they planned for her to give certainly didn’t assume any level of consent on her part.
Woden brought her wrist to his lips and lapped at the blood oozing from the wound with vigor. Becka’s stomach churned and her head throbbed and ached in pain as she watched him consume her blood.
Woden groaned with pleasure as the golden sheen in his eyes flared with intensity. “I have fed on the blood of all of the houses, and yours is indeed singular. Which is curious, because you are such a flawed vessel.”
“Pardon me?”
He gestured over her, head to toe. “Look at you. With your late gift emergence you’ve been living in the city, away from proper rearing and culture. Between your pink hair, your pierced ears, and your utter lack of taste in clothing...I have
