Fire

Hotel Jotun

For a minute or so there was no noise from outside, and I decided that whatever happened, I was mad enough to take things into my own hands. Whoever opened that door would get more than they’d bargained for. I crouched against the opposite wall, across from where I guessed the door would slide open. There was the dull murmur of voices outside the van, footsteps on the pavement, and then the door began to slide open slowly. Someone came into view, and I only got the chance to see a dark mop of curls before I launched myself, a savage shriek tearing at my throat.

My victim gave a squawk of surprise as I barreled into him, flailing as he fell backwards. My knees hit the pavement on either side of him, sending a shock wave of pain through me. I found myself staring down at the boy from the field, his bright blue eyes huge with shock. Asher. Then I recovered and moved as quickly as I could, launching myself off him, body protesting as I turned to run. We were in a parking lot, next to a tall building, a hotel I thought. There was no time to look around though. I had to get away from him and his creepy kidnapping van as fast as possible.

Sudden pressure around my middle. I shrieked as I was yanked backwards, feeling my back hit Asher’s chest, his other arm snaked around my neck, holding me in place for a moment before I reached back and punched him in the side of the head.

“Ahg!” He reared backwards, hands still gripping my sweater, yanking me off balance. I shrieked as we both fell, and this time I hit the pavement, scraping my hip and cracking my elbow. I scrambled to get up, but Asher pounced faster than I’d expected, wrenching my arm sideways, flipping me onto my back. I screamed angrily as he swung one leg over my hip, effectively pinning me to the pavement, his hands pressing down hard on my shoulders, “Stay down,” he barked, and then winced, “ow…my head.”

“Let me up,” I snarled back at him, “I’ll get the other side for you, you know, even it out.”

Asher muttered, “they said you’d be a handful…”

“Screw you!” Angrily, I tried to punch any part of him I could reach, but Asher just moved his hands further down and pinned my wrists to the pavement instead, “look, you don’t have to make this hard…”

“Let me up! That would be easy! Wouldn’t it?” Struggling was just wearing me out, so finally I stopped, moving my head from side to side, trying to see if there was anyone else in the parking lot, someone that would see what was going on and report it to the police.

The parking lot was empty, aside from one another car. A silver pickup truck was parked on the far side, but there was clearly no one in it. And there were no other buildings that I could see, at least not from my current position.

“What do you want?” I glared at him, wishing my eyes could bore holes through his skull just on sheer strength of rage, “you’re one of them aren’t you? Royal soldiers or some shit like that. Another bunch of scum bags that want to use me for something.”

Asher’s brows creased, and for a moment I actually believed he was confused, “What are you…look, this isn’t getting us anywhere. Let’s go inside and we can talk about this.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. He sounded just like the others. They had just wanted to talk, Trent had sounded so reasonable at first. Like I was going to fall for that again.

But Asher looked like he might let go of me if I seemed like I was going to be reasonable, so I just nodded, trying to relax my features. If I tricked him into thinking I was going along with this he would let his guard down.

He rocked back on his heels, actually offering me a hand, which I stared at for a moment before remembering I was supposed to be acting like I was cooperating. Asher pulled me to my feet, “Ready? We’re heading for the hotel.” He briefly released my arm to stoop down and pick up the knap sack he’d dropped when I’d first jumped on him. For a second I pondered running right then, but it would be too easy for him to catch up. I had to wait for a moment when he was preoccupied and it would take awhile for him to even realize I was running.