Ancient Darkness (On HOLD)

Chapter Nineteen - Word Bound

She was beginning to hate this view, Sang thought as she tried to settle deeper into the couch. Once Owen had pulled her back inside the house he had calmly ignored her repetitive demands and situated her in the same room that she had woken up in the night before.

The fire still crackled happily as the moonlight created streaks through the closed curtains. Her captors had followed closely behind them with Owen moving towards the desk.

Looking around once more, Sang shivered under the combined attention of the nine males – Immortals as they called themselves. It wasn't hard for her to accept that they weren't human, there was darkness in their eyes and some sort of aura demanded that she respect the weight of their years.

Lucian had carefully lowered himself beside her although he made efforts to ensure that no part of them touched while the only other one she had officially met, North, had propped himself beside the fireplace with his back to the wall and his arms crossed.

Sang blantantly looked around at the others, her face warm, as she realised that she was essentially standing in a room with men that outshone even the most handsome of human men.

"Sang," Owen's voice loudly cut through her stunned musings as she whipped back around and faced him as he dropped gracefully into the chair behind the desk. "You will give me your word that there will be no more escape attempts."

She spluttered, leaning forward and ignoring the fact that the other males stiffened, "Why should I agree to that? I don't trust you – you're not even human!"

"Which one of those things worries you more?" The man standing closest to Owen stepped forward and Sang took a short moment to drag her eyes over his face. If he had been sporting a smile, she would have said that he reminded her of a cheeky flirt with his soft honey curls and pale green eyes but as he was, she wanted to flinch away when she recognised the lack of humanity within him.

"I want to go home," She whispered without answering his question. What was the point? The facts were simple – none of them were human and it appeared that none of them were going to let her go.

"For now, this is your home," Lucian turned towards her with his ragged blonde hair swinging forward to cover some of his impassive expression.

"What do you think is going to happen?" She asked, nervous. Her hands were shaking frantically as her mind strained to keep track of them throughout the room. Most had positioned themselves within her line of sight but she knew that the largest of them stood somewhere behind her. "I've seen some of what you can do, and from what I have overheard there is no way that I would want to make you my enemies by speaking out. People probably wouldn't even believe me anyway." She muttered the last under her breath as Owen shifted forward, staring at her pixie-like features and the way her bottom lip trembled in fear.

"We will not harm you," He tried to reassure her, watching the play of emotions that crossed her face. She looked so small and fragile, cringing into the back of the couch as Lucian fought a battle with himself. Owen could tell that his brother had taken the seat beside her because he couldn't help himself, but he also realised that the older Taylor brother was struggling to control a sudden need to touch her, stroke his fingers through her hair and stop the trembling of her mouth by pressing his own to it.

Owen knew all of this because he himself was fighting the same urges and Lucian was making no attempts to block his thoughts from his brothers.

"Is that really meant to reassure me?" Sang asked, flicking her eyes to North as he loomed silently near the fire.

"Human or not, we will not deceive or trick you, Miss Sorenson," Victor suddenly spoke up, startling the little human. It didn't surprise Owen when she locked her gaze onto him, he watched as her mouth gaped open and the breath rushed from her lungs.

Victor's features were truly supernatural – a reason why he rarely ventured into areas populated by humans. If anyone were to see him, they would know that the he was something other. Beautiful in a way that few others could match, his most startling feature were his eyes – they flickered and pulsated with an inner flame that gave the impression that staring into them was similar to facing an unquenchable fire.

"Why do you think that I'm a threat?" She asked, her eyes never leaving Victor's even as the others in the room shifted around.

"Humans do not have the capacity to use telepathy," Sean informed her bluntly, watching as she reluctantly dragged her eyes to him.

It was curious how each of the nine Immortals gravitated towards her; as each moment passed, they sensed that her mind was shifting with impressive swiftness. Although still frightening, she had accepted that they were all a part of a predatory species, and she was struggling to understand what they could possibly want her for. In her own mind, she had done nothing wrong and she believed that her ability to keep a secret was obvious. If she hadn't been willing to share her own ability with the humans around her, she wasn't going to run through the streets screaming that vampires lived amongst them.

"But I do," She drawled slowly.

"Yes, you do," Owen answered. "I have lived for a very long time and never have I seen one of your kind with this skill."

North straightened, his eyes narrowed, "To be clear, we do not trust that you are human – with all that our enemies have tried lately we are wary of your sudden appearance."

"But," She protested, "I AM human and I came to the Carpathian Mountains on holidays."

"I'm afraid that we won't chance believing you just yet," Sean lifted a lip in what he hoped was an apologetic smile. He could feel her fear rising once more and it was beginning to appeal to him – a clear indication that he had gone too long without feeding.

"So I'm your prisoner?"

"Yes, I suppose you are," Owen replied, slowly inhaling her intoxicatingly natural perfume. "You will not come to harm unless you attempt to deceive us."

"Fucking great," She grumbled, both frightened and angry beyond all reason. "Can I at least know my captors names then?"