Blood of Eden

Chapter 19

The pressure behind her lids eventually woke her.

Katherine opened her eyes slowly and then closed them again when a sharp pain rocked her brain. She hissed and squeezed them shut until the jagged hurt subsided a bit, enough for her to lift her heavy lids and look around.

The light that shone through the dirty window was fading, meaning that the majority of the day had passed since she'd done a swan dive into the ground. The memory of being shot by a tranquilizer gun was clear in her mind. The drugs and the fall hadn't totally cut her off from logical thinking, a fact for which she was grateful.

Her entire face felt as though someone had run over it with a Jeep and her temples pulsated to the beat of her frantic heartbeat as she furtively glanced around out of the corners of her now heavily watering eyes. Her arms were tied behind her with rope, tight enough to break the skin and send drops of blood running down her wrists to pool in her hands.

Katherine tested the rope, not expecting much, and knew that there was no hope of breaking free. She had tied up her brothers while playing too many times to not recognize an unmovable knot.

Her legs lay outstretched before her, also securely bound by rope. For some reason her feet were bare and a little on the blue side, thanks to the lack of circulation from the bonds.

Oh shit. Where the hell am I? Who did this to me?

Questions filled Katherine's mind, tossing sanity aside for a brief moment before she fought back and pushed them down. The pain wouldn't help her get out of this mess, wouldn't help her figure out where she was or who had shot her.

There were two obvious culprits for her abduction, both of whom were extremely dangerous. Katherine didn't want to jump to any conclusions until she had proof but there was a part of her that hoped she was wrong and that she hadn't just been completely fucked over by either the hunter or that sadistic bastard Raphael.

She cleared her mind and looked around for clues.

The room lay in darkness, lit only by the flames of a small fire in the middle of the large barn and the quickly dying rays of light that managed to get through the grime on the window.

Katherine breathed deeply, taking in all the scents around her, then immediately regretted it. The rancid smell of old hay combined with the ancient residue of animal sweat hit her senses like a brick to the head. She gagged and tried to breathe through her mouth. It didn't help. The taste of the place filled her mouth with an oily coating and made her stomach heave. She struggled to keep herself from throwing up.

There was a petrifying familiarity to the disgusting scent that was overwhelming her sense of smell and taste, which pulled the muscles in her stomach tight and set her heart to pounding.

She'd scented it once before, in the airport when she'd arrived from Vancouver.

Raphael.

A wave of utter panic flowed over her and made all of her muscles seize up. She lay still for a minute, unable to do anything but gasp for air and pray for help. The futility of her situation washed her in a sense of dread that made her stomach contract. Unable to control her body anymore, Katherine turned her head to the left and threw up the contents of her stomach onto the floor next to her repeatedly until there was nothing left and her body was wracked with dry heaves.

Exhausted, she turned her head away from the stench and let the tears slip from her eyes.

Bull shit.

The two words echoed inside her head loud enough to scare the shit out of her. She gasped aloud and looked around wildly, expecting to find Raphael to be watching her misery and degradation from the shadows.