I'm Being Kidnapped by a Demon. Lovely, huh? (Under Revision)

Chapter 13

            When we got back to the house I got my lunch but Cody didn’t stay with me to eat it. No, Cody went straight to Hunter and told him about my little night time adventure. Hunter was furious at his guests and even a little bit at me. I was to be punished, apparently. I found out when Kaisue walked me back to my room after an afternoon of hanging out with her and the other… slaves.

Cody was there, already dressed for bed in black shorts and no shirt. He glanced at me sympathetically as I caught sight of the other person in the room. Hunter stood with his arms crossed, clearly not pleased about having to do whatever he was about to do.

"Go get ready for bed, Gracie." Cody ordered gruffly. Confused, I scampered off to the bathroom with my PJ's and only reentered the room when my teeth had been brushed and I had changed.

"What’s going on?" My voice was quiet, as Hunter gestured down to my mattress. Watching him warily I crawled onto my bed and laid down obediently. He bent and covered me up with my quilt before speaking.

"You know wandering out at night is wrong?" I nodded, ashamed that I’d been so stupid in the first place, and he continued. "Well, that won’t be happening anymore. Give me your wrist."

Uncertainly, I reached out and he softly gripped my hand, taking out something from his back pocket. I gaped at him in amazement. He can’t be serious can he? I watched in disbelief has he handcuffed me to one of the bed's legs. Yes, he handcuffed me to the bed. "You can’t be serious?"

"Oh I’m completely serious. You knew I had vampire guests about in the castle yet you still left. This is your punishment.” He sighed, running his hand over his face. "Just a warning, the wedding will be in 2 months. You have that much time to get used to the castle and used to me. You’ll be sleeping in my room the night before and every night after the ceremony. Goodnight Gracie." With that he strode from the room and shut the door behind him, not even noticing that I stared after him as if he’d just told me I had an extra arm.

Cody let out a long breath. "Get some sleep Gracie."

“What? You’re just going to leave me like this?” My outraged expression didn’t appear to help my case any; he turned off the light and crawled into his own bed, silent.

Somehow I knew things weren’t going to be all right. Call it Emily's physic intuition -Heck call it my physic intuition- Nothing was going to be alright if I had to marry Hunter.

******

(Later that night)

I whimpered as another loud rumble of thunder echoed above me, trying to press myself into the floor. My whole body shook and the chain on the handcuffs rattled loudly. Alec watched in sympathy. He had tried to comfort me but that was kind of hard to do when no one could touch you. "Calm down, Miss Gracie. A storm can’t harm you!" He tried to sooth. I could tell my crying was clearly making him very uncomfortable.

Hugging the bed leg, I cringed in terror as lightning flashed. I didn’t remember when my fear of storms had started. Perhaps, when I was younger, but that was irrelevant at the moment. To this day, I still hadn’t found a remedy to kill off my unwavering sense of panic whenever thunder began to rumble in the sky.

"Mm....Gracie?" I heard Cody ask in sleepy confusion. He paused a moment before calling my name again, this time more awake. I didn’t answer him; I was too busy shaking. I felt the bed move as he crawled towards the end to peer down at me.

"Gracie? What’s the matter?"

My explanation was cut off by another loud clap of thunder and I squeaked in fright holding onto the bed post tighter.

"You’re afraid of thunderstorms, aren’t you?" He finally let out in understanding. I nodded vigorously. He stepped off his bed and knelt beside me. There was no way of telling what he was doing until I heard keys jingling and the handcuff on my wrist fell off. Without another word he climbed back on his bed. "C'mere." he called with a sigh.

As fast as I could, I scrambled up onto his bed and then literally leaped into his lap when the sound of lightning striking nearby scared me half to death. I started to sob uncontrollably and he let me cry into his chest, tucking me securely against him with his arms.

"Shh..." Cody murmured over and over stroking my hair. It calmed me down some, though I wasn’t sure why. "It’s alright. You don’t need to be scared," He whispered still stroking my hair.  It… made me feel safe for the first time in a while; it was something about the warmth from his strong arms. A sense of peace overtook me, and my breath slowed. The storm was finally over an hour or so later but I didn’t move; I was too tired. Hoping he wouldn’t mind, I rested my head against him and purposely fell asleep, curled up in his lap. It was the first time I had slept soundly in a long while.