Lair of Beasts [Book I in the Curse Of Blood Saga]

Chapter XIV - Obedience

Lucian fixed his iron hand over my mouth as I ran past him, and abruptly shoved my back against his chest with an indomitable arm that he wrapped about my waist. I could not see him; and did not want to. It was enough that I could feel his stubbled jaw alongside my neck and his warm breath across my ear.

"What the devil are you doing here?!" he bit out, each word embedding painfully in my conscious.

His voice was barely above a whisper, yet I recoiled vehemently as though he had roared the words into my ear for they were no less ferocious; in spite of his disguised and deadly-calm timbre.

My ear-splitting scream had ceased almost as soon as it had issued from my terrified core; rather it had abruptly been terminated for me. I clawed desperately at the hand obstructing my fitful breathing. Although I struggled, I was marginally relieved, unwise as that seemed, that it was Lucian who now held me in his unyielding custody.

In truth, he was the lesser of any number of evils I had already conjured to mind. For a fleeting moment I had imagined it to be some loathsome rapist, or a murder besides, who had happened upon me; unsuspecting twit that I was! And then to see a flash of glowing orbs, and hear that growl, in the all-consuming, veiled dark... For just an instant I had thought that I'd seen a monster. Yet it was a different kind of beast that entrapped me now: my furious, would-be husband. Ergo, I could do naught but whimper till he removed his hand.

"Be still," he uttered in a sibilant whisper, "or I shan't release you."

I nodded stiffly and he did as promised; more or less. He turned me to face him and then backed me up against the portcullis, clasping the iron bars at each side of my head so that I was imprisoned between him and the labyrinth. He had now positioned me so that I could not help but look into his shadowed face.

"Are you in your senses, woman?!" By the incredulity he displayed, he no doubt thought me without them.

I began shaking noticeably, but it did not signify for he did not expect an answer either way.

"You must know," he said through gritted teeth, struggling to keep calm, "that I will not tolerate your willful disregard of my wishes!"

"I..." But no words were forthcoming, my straitened throat barely able to nourish my lungs.

"And for what have you come?" His asperity was menacing enough that I shrank further. "To satisfy a curiosity?!"

I balked as he punctuated the last of his words with a brutal fist that he slammed against the gate beside my head, causing the iron to reverberate noisily.

I had heretofore been conditioned by Edwyn to expect the worst from the male gender inasmuch as I prepared for his attack with a clench of my jaw and my eyes fused tightly shut. But my flinching seemed only to provoke Lucian all the more — instead of mollifying him as it at always done when I had faced my father.

"For God's sake, stop cowering!"

I'd never heard him shout thus, his voice echoing into the night and frightening a nocturnal bird from its perch nearby. Contrary to how most other maids might react, the magnitude of his latter utterance only served to calm me somewhat for the violence had dissipated marginally from his eyes. A blustering Lucian I might possibly deal with, but the deadly, quiet rage of a moment ago? I was beyond terrified by that; by him.

"Then stop scaring me!" I kept my eyes closed and head twisted away, still not convinced he wouldn't beat me, but could still feel the force of his stare.

He was still so unnervingly close and, my obvious aversion to that nearness notwithstanding, he made no move to increase the space nor did he allow me additional room to breathe. I could smell the nighttime on him; the peppery smokiness of his incense both scared and, conversely, excited me.