Chapter 96: Chapter Two

Hope

A bead of sweat trickled down my spine— the room was freezing, but I was sweating. Leave it to me to be doing the opposite of what was normal.

Could I die from fear? Would my body actually shake hard enough to spontaneously combust into tiny little Hope particles?

Because there was no logical explanation for the way my body burned.

It actually burned.

Like I was on fire.

Maybe it was some sort of test?

The girl to my right shivered and wrapped her arms tighter around her small frame. She looked like I felt.

A scared little girl who’d just been abandoned by her own parents.

At least she got kissed on the forehead.

Tears were shed.

Promises made.

I had none of that. But when you grow up without parents, you learn not to wish for things that weren’t. Besides, what was the point? It only left me sad.

And I hated being sad.

Just like I hated being scared.

And hot.

Seriously, why weren’t they sweating? I was just about to tug my sweater off when I heard footsteps.

I wasn’t sure what was worse, someone just bursting into the room or hearing the pounding of heavy steps as they got closer and closer.

And closer.

Scuffle, tap, scuffle, tap. Stomp, stomp. What was stomping, stomp?!

With each step, my heart leapt.

And not in a good way.

It wasn’t like there was much hope for us. Our current predicament was bleak. Literally. We were in a windowless room, with a roaring fireplace on one side and a giant four-post bed on the other.

Right. A bed.

Pretty sure I knew what that was going to be for.

After all, that was why we were here.

Actually, that was why the girls on my left and right were here. I showed up to do what I always did on a Friday.

Water the plants.

Immortals and their plants.

Ever since Ethan had gotten married, his wife, a beautiful human who I’d met on a few occasions, had decided that the bridge between immortals and humans needed to be mended.

And apparently in her mind, that meant plants.

Or I guess, just decorating the immortal compound so that when humans visited it looked more jungle than dungeon.

It was ~still~ terrifying.

And honestly, in my mind, stupid. They could put a freaking Ferris wheel inside this place, and I’d still shiver a bit when I walked through.

Because I knew what went on.

On Fridays I watered plants.

On Saturdays, I cleaned the floors.

And on Thursdays.

I shivered again as the footsteps paused.

On Thursdays, I heard the screams of human women, the ones who were privileged to know about the immortals. They screamed for immortality, for bites, for attention.

And sometimes, the immortals took them up on it.

It was never pretty.

Mainly because females, or at least the ones of this variety, were stupid, not realizing that vampire bites only felt good if they wanted it to, or that werewolves couldn’t control their claws.

But really, the sirens were the most terrifying.

One in particular.

The most powerful one of his kind.

I prayed the immortal who needed to be mated was the nice wolf. The one with the shaggy hair and soulless eyes.

I’d take him any day over sex in boots.

Like Puss in Boots, only way more intimidating.

The large wood door creaked open.

The girl to my left started sighing as if she was about two seconds short of the best orgasm of her life, while the pixie on the right, the one who not a few minutes ago appeared like she was going to pass out—started moaning.

Um.

I winced.

This was what happened when you went to work early.

You got sucked into weird immortal mating rituals.

It wasn’t like I could say no this morning when The Dark One swept by me. He paused. The angel paused and then slowly turned, locking eyes with me and whispered, “What are you?”

Confused, mainly because it was rumored that if you spoke to him without being given permission, he’d snap your neck like a twig. I stared at him like a mute.

“Never mind.” He waved his giant hand in front of my face then crooked his fingers. “Come. I have a new job for you.”

I frowned then blurted, “Like a promotion?”

Dead. He could have killed me right there. Snapped his fingers and incinerated me. Instead, his steps faltered as he opened a large wooden door and motioned me inside.

“Sure. Let’s call it a promotion.”

I didn’t realize until after the fact that he’d put me in the stupid mating room.

The two gorgeous girls gave me perfectly bland smiles while they hugged their parents goodbye.

As for me, I got to stand there like I was actually worthy of being considered by an immortal.

My fingers were dirty from one of the plants I’d just recently moved to another room.

Dirt caked my nails.

Still hot, I took a deep breath just as the hooded figure walked in.

Dark leather pants wrapped around his muscular thighs. I sucked in a breath but only managed to get hotter as oxygen failed to enter into my body.

It was him.

The bad one.

Well, really, the good one.

Too good.

The type of good you stare at until your eyes start to cross and your heart threatens to thump out of your chest.

Or the way chocolate tastes as it melts across your tongue only to attach its calorie fest to your thighs later.

Crap, I thought of thighs.

A visual of his thighs.

My thighs.

Everyone’s thighs.

Came into view.

Though mine were larger than the girls next to me.

I winced. Yeah, larger by a long shot.

Again, it was like standing next to two pixie fairies. Both had elf-like features with blonde hair that matched the wisps of white I saw escaping from underneath his hood.

Another whimper was emitted from the girl to my left as she swayed toward him. More sweat dripped down my spine, making a lovely trail down the back of my plain black leggings.

“You.” His voice was intoxicating, like I’d never heard the word you before and was just now being given the pleasure of hearing it for the first time. Gulping, I took a step back, because something told me stepping forward would be a bad idea.

“Me?” Both girls answered swaying toward him.

The hood still covered half of his face, his smile unleashed a whole flutter of excitement from the girls who started to pant next to me.

If that’s what he needed to get his rocks off, he was going to be seriously disappointed.

I was too hot to be hot and bothered, if that made sense.

My knees were about ready to buckle.

I had sweat—everywhere.

I just wanted to sit down with a nice cold drink of water.

“Dance,” he whispered.

Both girls immediately moved around the room, leaping into the air in perfect ballerina-like form. Was that part of the human training now? Dance lessons?

“Cry.” He didn’t move, just crossed his arms while they both burst into tears, eventually sobbing against one another. Either they were really good actresses, or he was just that powerful.

Which begged the question.

What was wrong with me?

“Indeed.” Alex mused. “What is wrong with you?” His blue eyes flashed as he glanced at my dirty flip-flops and slowly raised his gaze to meet mine. A look of disgust marred his near-perfect features. “Other than the obvious, I mean.”

“The obvious?” I repeated. “I’m sorry I don’t—”

“Oh, believe me, I know you don’t understand. How ~could~ you?”

The girls continued to sob, while I held the immortal Siren’s pissed-off glare; his icy blue eyes refused to look away.

I felt naked.

And afraid.

Only I’d take the TV show over what he was currently doing. It almost felt like he was… searching.

Me.

~Inside~ my head.

“Stop that,” I snapped. “It feels funny.”

His eyes widened. “What did you just do?”

I shrugged. “I told you to stop.”

“I’m an immortal. I stop for no one.”

The heat in my body intensified until I felt like someone had set a fire near my feet and blown on it.

“Stop twitching,” he hissed.

“I’m really hot.” I swayed. “I can’t help it.” My vision blurred just as he braced me. “So hot.”

“Eh, I get that all day.”

“Me. ~I’m~ hot.”

“Slight exaggeration on your part.”

“Cry.” His eyes locked on mine once again.

I shook my head. “I don’t want to cry.”

“Laugh.”

“What is wrong with you?” I tried to jerk free, but the guy was a muscular demigod, or at least looked like one. Me struggling was probably as funny as watching a fly squirm in a spider’s web.

I accidentally knocked his hood back as I pressed my fingertips to my forehead.

The girls behind me cried harder. “He’s so pretty!”

His smile widened and then disappeared altogether when he stared down at me. “Well? Don’t you agree? Aren’t I pretty?”

The way he twisted the words made it sound like an insult. To call him pretty. And the last thing I wanted to do was die.

I mean I had plants to water.

My life sucked.

But it was still my life.

And as soon as I saved enough money for college, I was going to live it.

“I uh, no.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Did you just say… no?”

“I think so, yes. No. That depends.”

He held up his hand. “Leave us.”

I tried to walk away, but he held me firm in his grip as both girls sobbed and left the room, shutting the large oak door behind them.

A lock clicked, my heart dropped to my stomach.

“I’m Alex.” He still wasn’t releasing me.

“I figured.”

“How so?”

“You’re the last of the last male sirens.”

“And I’m not pretty?” Was he seriously that vain?

“Honestly?”

“Please.”

I took a deep breath. Good-bye, college. Good-bye, life. Air. Breathing. “When I think of pretty, I think of a flower or the sunset. Pretty is feminine. It speaks of things you’re told not to touch and places you see in a book.” I took a deep breath. “So no, I can’t say you’re pretty. But I can say you’re dangerously beautiful, the type of beautiful that hits a person in layers over and over again until every sense is assaulted with everything—you. Pretty wouldn’t do a siren justice, now, would it?”

His smile widened just as the door opened. Cassius poked his head in. “You’ve made your choice.”

“It seems, it was made for me before I even had the chance to say anything.”

“Funny how that happens.”

“Hilarious.” Alex sounded more irritated than amused.

“I’ll leave you to it.” Cassius closed the door and that damn lock sounded again, only this time it was several clicks followed by a thud and then a sucking noise, like we were in an airtight container and only had twenty-four hours worth of oxygen.

I gulped.

It? What was ~it~? Why wasn’t I getting to leave? I wasn’t one of the human virgin sacrifices! Even if I was a virgin. I was… a botanist!

Okay, a horrible botanist since I’ve killed more plants than I’ve kept alive, but not the point.

Alex lifted his hand into the air. The large metal locks slid across the door and clicked into place.

Again.

So basically at this point, I was in my own tomb.

Locked from the inside.

Lovely.

With one sweeping movement, he pulled the hood over his head and tossed the cape to the floor revealing a rock-hard eight-pack that could cut ice and long tresses of hair of so many colors I couldn’t focus on just one.

His eyes illuminated blue and then turned purple.

His beauty hit me full force, sending me to my hands and knees even though I don’t remember telling my body to fall in front of him.

“And now?” He teased. “Now what do you think?”

“I think…” My voice shook. “That I’m in trouble.”

“You would be right…”