Unlikely Romance

CHAPTER FOUR

I woke up feeling really warm and cozy, especially my back. I stretched a little and then turned around, only to find my face in a black tee shirt, my legs tangling with someone else's. "Hm...?" The hooded man was cuddling me, I realized. His arm was over me holding the pillow that I was snuggling. It felt... awkward. I tilted my head up and noticed that Brian was asleep. Not daring to move further and wake him, I could only see the bottom of his chin, but he was very still. I wondered if he was even breathing, considering that he wasn't totally human.

Brian shifted and I looked up at him quietly, watching as he yawned. I noticed that his teeth were sharper than a normal person's, but they still looked human enough. I felt him wrap his arms around me, but then I guess he caught up to himself as he quickly released me and sat up.

I scooted away from him, self consciously hugging myself. He was staring at me quietly, and was very still. I awkwardly and silently slid off the bed, feeling his eyes on me. I saw him get off the bed and walk away to the living room as I entered the bathroom.

I wondered why he didn't just tell me to go back to my room if he wanted his bed back. Perhaps it was because he was a man of his word? I was confused. Being in his arms like that felt good, but also a bit disgusting. This was the guy that yanked me from my home and dragged me all the way through the forest to have me here as his blood donor. And then he wants to siddle up to me in the night? Perhaps he said I could have his room so he could get closer and closer each night. Men were truly all the same, I thought.

My emotions got the best of me. I hated men. What the hell was I doing playing submissive with one? And one that didn't even care for me, or human life?

When I finished freshening up, I angrily marched up to him and shoved him on the couch. Looming over him, I started yelling. "I'm sick and tired of being your little... whatever the hell you think I am. What even do you think I am? Who the fuck do you think you are? You've got some nerve, thinking you could just cuddle up to me and win me over. Ugh. Men are such trash." Brian said nothing. I stood up and continued. "I deserve much better than this, and I'm getting out of here. You can go torture some other female."

As I was about to turn, Brian stood up. "Torture, you said?" I rolled my eyes and stomped to the door, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. I yelped, trying to escape.

"Let go of me, you sick freak!" I screamed at him, kicking and biting as he held me.

Then he had enough, and I regretted acting out. Brian picked me up and carried me to the cold basement stairs, and threw me down. As I tumbled down, hitting my head and limbs, he followed me silently but menacingly. I felt his threatening energy in the air.

"It looks like I have to teach you this... again," he growled, picking me up by my hair and throwing me into the chest of drawers. I hated him so, so much. I wanted to kill him. But my head spun, and I was weak.

"Torture. But I feed your ungrateful ass." I was pushed into the chest again, my ribs aching. "Sick freak. But I try to make you comfortable." He was mad, and I thought I was going to die. My face was rained on with backhanded slaps.

As he made his last blow, I was taken by the neck and slammed into the hard, stoneworked wall. "I'll show you what torture is if you want that. Is that what you want?" I heard. I could barely see, blood dripping from my head into my eyes. But I shook my head, trembling and whimpering in pain.

His hands cupped my face, and he wiped the blood from my eyes so I could see him. I couldn't focus, but Brian's eyes seemed to be glowing... in a scary way. "Good. But you're staying here until you learn to behave again." I was pushed again, and I blacked out and fainted.

Waking up groggy and aching all over, I almost forgot what had happened. But when I remembered, I really regretted acting out the way I did. Brian was treating me better than any criminal would treat a hostage. I had no business calling him a sick freak, or say that he was torturing me. But, I reminded myself, he didn't have to do this to me.

Hissing in pain as I tried to get up, I slid back down on the hard floor. I now noticed the sling my arm was in, and the bandage around my middle under my shirt. I felt my head and felt one there too. So either he cared about me, or he was just not wanting 'another one' to die, according to his friends.

I wondered what happened to the other one. Was she fighting him like me, and that was why he killed her? Perhaps she didn't want to obey him. I learnt my lesson.

Sighing, I accepted that this was my life now. There was no going back. I had to just exist in this house in the middle of nowhere and serve some half-demon.

Footsteps snapped me out of my thoughts. Brian came down the stairs, and stooped in front of me. He didn't say anything, and neither did I. He just squatted there, hands loosely clasped at his knees, and I just lay there not looking at him directly.

What an asshole, I thought. He had the audacity to stare at me after what he had done. Maybe he was actually a sick freak. What, was he admiring what he'd done to me? Internally laughing at me? I couldn't take it anymore.

"What do you want?" I asked bitterly. "Are you admiring your handiwork after starting to be nice to me and then just switching up on me?"

I looked at him, and he shook his head. "You switched first," was all he said.

Okay, he was right. I decided to be an ass after we were just starting to get along. Then again, I was the victim. It would be normal for me to go a bit crazy in my situation. "And that makes this right, I guess." I gestured to my bandages.

He silently put his hand to my middle, by my ribs. I tried scooting away, but that earned me some pain and I had to stay put. Brian moved his hand. "Just learn to behave," he said, and simply walked back up the stairs. I watched him, seething with hatred and annoyance.

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A/N: So, you see how Hoodie is trying to make her dependent on him so that she'll behave. But even though he's doing that, it comes from a good place. Lizzy doesn't realize that yet, though. She will in the next chapter. Wait till you see how he apologizes and makes it up to her!