Demon Host

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE- Predator

Her words registered in my brain. My heart rate accelerates and I try to control my breathing.

Hunter....

Huntress....

I shut my eyes for a second trying to plead with the steaming volcano in my head to calm down.

Her eyes screamed danger in the most innocent way and that had me cautious of my every move, my every word, my every action around her. I had to be strategic and silently plan my way out.

The lights were on now so I had a good picture of the room I had been trapped in. And just like I thought, this place definitely had not been used in a very long time. There were dried cob webs hanging on every edge and corner of the walls and ceiling, the walls were covered in white fabric along with a single couch by the right end. With the creaking sounds the wooden boards on the floor made with each step she took, I could tell that they were in serious need of changing, or at least servicing.

The place was quiet, so quiet if you listen closely the only thing you could hear was the faint sound of crickets and frogs and maybe a little rat squeaking here and there sometimes, other than the sound of our own voices. We were somewhere in the outskirts of town in an abandoned cabin alone with no such thing as an Internet connection.

This is going to be harder than I thought. When you watch too many criminal movies, you think the victim would always somehow find a way to free themselves from the bonds and defeat the bad guy or get rescued by the hero thereby giving them a chance to escape. But here i am in that same situation only that there is probably no way in hell I'm going to be able to get this ropes off me without assistance and the closest thing to a hero that could come save me are the rats lurking around somewhere behind the holes in the wall.

There was only one door in the room, the door that was a good distance away from me and if I ever wanted to get there, I would have to cross Isabella first. Not to mention it was pointless, even if i somehow managed to escape, how was i going to find my way back home? How do I even know which way is home? And by what means to i get there?

I watched this woman that claimed to be my predator, pull up a chair in front of me and take a sit with her legs and hands crossed over her chest, not a single curve on her lips, not the littlest twinkle in her eyes, not so much as a tinny scrunch on her nose. I wondered why she was just sitting there silently observing me, ' i thought she wanted to kill me?' She stared me down as if daring me to say something.

"Are you working for him?" I asked, not knowing where I was going with the question, just needing even just a little bit of information.

"Who?" She lifted a brow "the man who's family you murdered?" The way the words rolled off her tongue sent a blade right through my gut.

It stung like fire. She did not even know half the true story and here she was, shooting daggers at me. I have done things, terrible things that I have taken complete responsibility for, but it did not close the tight feeling in my chest of hearing her spit the words out like that.

"I work for no man." She said, head held high, confidence boozing from around her. She picked up a small pocket knife from her shoes and began to toy with it. Twisting the slim metal around her fingers and gliding them softly down the edge.

"Then what do you want from me? How did i get here? And what did you inject inside me?" I could still feel the burning in my shoulder, now spreading to the lower parts of my body causing this itching pain to circulate around.

"You ask a lot of questions now, don't you?" She smacked her tongue with her upper gum, causing tsking sounds to escape her lips as she shook her head. "You see Dianna, there are so many things that i want from you, but most of all..." Her eyes darkened, the emotionless look on her face from earlier transformed into one of pure hate "I want revenge!"

I did not even know when the small pocket knife she had been twisting in her fingers came to be forcefully stabbed between my thighs, missing them only by an inch or two. I sucked in a breath. She intentionally missed, she let the blade slide between my thighs on purpose to create fear, and the way my body had fidgeted as response to the contact must have given her a little bit of the satisfaction she needed.

"Revenge for the life of the innocent man you took."

My breathing quickened. " What are you talking about?"

"I want revenge for my grandfather."

I gasped. Now that I look at her well, I might have missed it before but i see it now. The resemblance, it's a little tricky because if you didn't look closely enough you would never notice it. But i do. From the moment i met her i could tell that she had a trace of Italian, I just never thought she would be related to him.

"George" it came out as a tiny whisper, the shock evident in my tone .

"Surprise honey. He's dead!" She was up before i could blink and her fist was clawing around my throat, ceasing my supply of oxygen and I struggled with the binds on my hands trying to get it off me in order to fight back as i struggled to breathe. "Murdered by you!"

I struggled for air, coughing, gasping and shaking my head around since my hands were useless, trying desperately to free myself from suffocation. She seemed to have been in some sort of trance. Because the moment i started trashing with tears breaming down my eyes, she let go. Eyes a little wide and she moved a couple feet back, taking a deep breath to gain back control.

I fell back and hit my head against the had wood of the chair I was sitting on, gasping heavily. My voice came out in a tiny whisper, a little sour squeak that did not sound like me at all. "I'm sorry."

Fresh tears slid down my eyes, unto my cheeks and lover until i could taste the saltiness of the natural liquid on my tongue. I coughed still feeling the impact of her rough hands around my neck.

She scoffed. "Save it." She walked closer to me, picked out the pocket knife with that same murderous look in her eyes.

I thought she was going to use them to cut me, but instead she went behind me and cut the ropes that she had used to strap me up on both my legs and hands.

I let out a sigh of relief and massaged my aching wrists with both hands one at a time. I noticed her eyes were drawn to the one with the markings and before I could think of saying anything she pulled my wrist and turned, examining it with a deep frown between her brows.

Then she said something in a language that I'm guessing should be Italian, something I did not understand.

Her grip on my wrists tightened and the murderous look in her eyes turned into one of panic but just for a brief second before they went back to cold and expressionless. "I'm running out of time." She mumbled lowly I almost missed it.

" For what? To kill me?"

She looked up at me and dropped my hand. " Exactly that."

" So why don't you? Why did you let me go?"

" Who says I'm letting you go?"

" So why don't you just kill me then?"

" Because it would be futile. This demon would only jump right into another body and continue where it started."

" So then why did you bring me here?"

She twirled with the knife in her hand for a little bit longer, took a sit in front of me and they looked up. Staring right into my eyes with an unreasonable expression.

"Because I need your help."

I frowned deeply. Need my help? She just kidnapped me and tried to strangle me and now she needs my help? A scoff escaped my lips. "And what makes you think that i would ever want to help you?" I asked with a lifted brow.

" Because I'm the only one who can save your friend."