Susceptible

Chapter four

We landed with a thud in a spacious room. I quickly scramble away from the Machiavellian breathing heavily. We make eye contact and he grins seeming pleased. I break the silence.

"You twisted freak."

He laughs, his smile widening. It seems genuine like he just watched his friend embarrass themself, not get insulted by the person he kidnapped.

"Oh Addy." He says coping what he heard Sam say I assume.

"It's Adriana." I cut in narrowing my eyes. "Just Adriana."

"Okay Adriana." He says holding up his hands in a surrender position. "Look I swear I'm not gonna hurt you."

"I'm not stupid." I reply.

"I promise." He stresses. "The only reason I took you was to put your little boyfriend between a rock and a hard place."

"And why would you want to do that?"

"That's just for me to know." He says still smiling but not in a sinister way, still looking very joyful. He seemed surprisingly light hearted for a villian and it makes me suspicious. It must of showed in my face because he spoke up.

"I want to do this as a sign of good faith between us." He says. "And we are going to be living together for a while so I want to do this, for you to trust me." He brings his hands to his face and removes his mask.

The first thing I'm struck with is how different he is to Sam. Bright straight tousled blonde hair spilled out of his mask. His skin is tan and clear compared to Sam's that stays pale with a couple of freckles. He looks at me and his eyes are clear and blue juxtaposing Sam's dark and stormy ones.

Everything about him was in contrast to Sam, to what was familiar, and comforted me.

Another part of me was in shock that he so easily gave away his identity to me. Supers just didn't do that. Even Sam didn't know any other superheros identities. I could see why he thought it would make me feel more trusting.

The Machiavellian shook out his hair. "Wow that feels better. Those masks get so cramped you have no idea." He joked.

"Anyways I don't want you to have to go around calling me the Machiavellian as that gets quite a mouthful trust me. So my name is Alex." He says and holds out his hand for me to shake.

I glared at it refusing to shake it.

"Alrighty then." Alex says dropping his hand. "Still not feeling friendly I suppose."

I wasn't. I was terrified. If he would easily give up his identity he must not be planning on me leaving. His act of trust backfired and I felt more on edge.

"Okay well at I'll give you the tour." Alex said. "This is the living room."

I took in my surroundings. It was a pretty big room with a nice tv hanging above the mantle and a couple of comfy looking couches. Alex started walking away and I followed.

"Here's the kitchen." Again it was fairly nice, and I wondered how he could afford it.

On second thought, maybe it would be best if I didn't know. Next he takes me down a small hall.

"Here's the bath and the laundry" He points to a couple of doors. "And here is where you will be staying." He says pushing open a door at the end of the hall.

The room was nice, smaller than my one at home and at Sam's, but still decent. The full sized bed took up a lot of the room along with a large dresser.

I nodded in response biting back my natural urge to say thank you.

"My room is down on the other end of the house behind the living room. And yeah that's it." He says. His apartment wasn't huge, there was no wasted space, but was very cozy and I was sure I would appreciate it more if I wasn't here against my will, and he wasn't a supervillian.