For you, My Fiery Heart

Chapter 3

Instantly she was plunged into rushing water. Kicking and thrashing, Neela fought for air. The current was fast and strong. The water was deep Neela could tell by the way her body had not yet touched anything solid. Her lungs screamed for air she couldn't find. I'm going to die, she thought. At a point she thought she saw a light from beneath her, Neela tried to swim to it but the current pushed her right past it. Light must mean that the water flowed out somewhere. Somewhere that had air! Another light, brighter than the first, shined below her. This time she didn't have to fight, she was low enough that she got sucked into a vortex, going down.

Eyes tightly closed and body strung tight, Neela listened to her body for pain. Nothing. Neela kicked, her feet met solid ground. Harder this time, she kicked herself up. As soon as her head popped out of the water, Neela gasped for air. The pain in her lungs were so bad, if she wasn't gulping in air like a fish out of water, she'd be crying.

Pushing her tired aching body forward she finally got far enough that the water reached her waist. Her hair stuck to her face, she couldn't see anything before her, too busy breathing to care. Tripping a few times, Neela's wondering hands found something solid. Hanging onto what felt like a boulder, Neela sputtered and coughed.

"Oh my god, oh my god", she repeatedly said. Her hair still stuck to her face like a scared cat out of water. It coiled around her head and neck. Neela pushed herself off the boulder. Head tilted up, she clawed as much of her hair off with both hands.

With an exhausted huff and roll of her neck, Neela opened her eyes again to check where she ended up this time. Neela froze.

The "boulder" she had been leaning on just a minute ago had the most piercing blue eyes she had ever seen. But what really caught her attention was they weren't normal piercing blue eyes. They were slit like a cat's. And those eyes were looking at her!

After a minute of deafening silence, all hell broke loose. Neela turned around and screamed at the top of her lungs running away. It wasn't until she was head deep in the water she so desperately tried to get out of moments ago that she came back out sputtering and coughing again. Lungs full of air again, she let out another scream aiming for land, this time avoiding the place the "boulder" sat in the water watching her.

Once she climbed out of the water, she tried to look for an escape. Running this way and that way but to her dismay there was nowhere to go. Nowhere to run or hide, Neela looked at her surroundings with a pounding heart. She was in what looked like a grotto or underground cave. It was beautiful. This place looked like a place you would go on vacation. The natural pool where she came out of was lit from underneath. The room was lit up by lighting somewhere in the high walls.

The sound of water splashing had her on alert. The boulder was getting out of the pool and it was heading in her direction!

Okaaay. Boulder here was definitely male, a very good looking one at that. But he wasn't just good looking, he was the "wet your panties" kind of good looking. Danger oozed from this one.

He was tall, maybe six feet or taller. Bare from the waist down, he had on black trousers that hung low on his hips. His body was sin, well built and tanned. But that was all that was humanly normal about this man.

His hair was probably as long as Neela's waist length hair but it was white as snow. His tanned skin only made his hair stand out more. To make matters worse, blue eyed hunk here had swept back black horns on his head and a long tail that lazily waved side to side behind him.

"It's the devil himself," Neela whispered, and then loudly to herself, "I'm dead. I died!"

The devil moved like the predator he was, his eyes never leaving her, his prey.