Dark Rising by Miya Chanda (most popular novels .TXT) 📕

pacing while on the phone. I supposed it was a stupid thing to do, hanging up on her if she really did have my men.

I stopped and dialed Caleb’s number. It rang the usual four times before switching to a musical voice mail. I hung up and tried Naurius’ number. Same thing. I called home to the manor at the Coven in Alaska, where all seven of the men stayed. Ashley Keanu answered the phone with the usual video game background noise of Madden playing. But when I asked if he’d herd from the men he’d said no. I explained to Ash where I was and he said I was probably at Naurius’ Condo. Then he started asking question, questions that I didn’t have the answer to yet. So, I made up some lame but quick excuse to get off the phone. He bought it.

Alex hadn’t called back since I’d hung up on her and the one time I was willing to set some pride aside and call her back, I found out that she’d called from an unknown number. So much for that idea.

All I could do now was wait. I let out another breath waiting for the irritation to come creeping back like it had so many times before, but nothing happened. I even urged it along, provoking it with memories of Alex and me flirting, still nothing came. I focused on my inner panther to see what he was up to and that bastard was taking a nap.

And for the third time I heard rustling coming from the other side of that bedroom door, only this time I didn’t ignore it. I slipped my phone into the font pocket of my jeans and braced myself for what laid behind.

As I stepped through the threshold I should have been a little more surprised by what I saw. There was a white haired woman bound and gagged like she’d been auditioning for a soft version of an S&M show. She had on a cotton, cream colored, mini-nighty-thing and rope was tied around her waist attaching her bound arms to her ankles at her back. The gag was a simple white cloth tied tightly around her mouth. She had shifted onto her stomach, in what seemed like a very uncomfortable position, stretched horizontally across the mattress. Most of her upper body was hanging over the edge of the bed.

Remembered how I’d said I should have been more surprised. Thing is, during the flood of imagery I experienced upon waking, and the magnitude of information I was trying to process, I remembered seeing the white haired women in the midst of it all. And I vaguely remembered tying her up in this fashion and leaving her in the bedroom. I just wish I knew why. Who was I kidding Alex was the reason why. She was behind the whole charades.

Having heard me open the door, the woman shifted again, lifting her head to get a better view of me. If there wasn’t terror ridden in those pale, wide eyes of hers I didn’t know what it was. She was scared of me and as my memory started to piece itself together, from scattered images, I knew she had a reason to be.

I closed the distance between us and pulled the half of her body that was hanging off the side, back onto the bed by her arm, sitting her on her side. She mumbled something inaudible through the cloth around her mouth, trying to move her body away from me as I set to the edge of the bed.

I loosened my grip at her arm and held up my other hand saying, “I’m not here to hurt you,” trying my best to sound as unthreatening as possible, considering she had every right to be scared. Our eyes met briefly and then she looked away resting her head on the flat pillow, almost in surrender.

I didn’t know what Alex was planning or what she was after but it was evident I was a few steps behind. The whole thing had been a set up. Meeting Alex at the lounge had been a way to get me alone and I vaguely remembered taking her to see the men. I shook my head. God know where they’re at or if they were even alive. Although, I figured she was smarter then that. If she did have them, than she would be using them for some kind of leverage. It’s what I would do in her shoes. But leverage for what?

I glanced back over to the woman who still refused to look at me. There was an all around softness about her. Her skin was a light honey color, and it almost matched perfectly with her white-honeyed hair. Her nose was short with a round tip and her eyes were a pale green. She wasn’t exotic or outrageously sexy but there was a sort of innocence and inexperience to her that slightly turned me off.
Her eyes shot back to me as if sensing my distaste and I pulled my hand from her arm.

I knew I shouldn’t leave her like this, but a part of me didn’t need anymore-unexpected surprises. With her bound a gagged, it assured me she wouldn’t try anything.

My phone buzzed again and I pulled it out of my front pocket, knowing who it was.

“Yeah.” My voice was bored

“Good, you’re calm now. Maybe I can actually get through to you.”

Responding to that would only kick my rebellious attitude back into hyper drive, so I kept my mouth shut.

Picking up on this, she continued. “So, I’m assuming from your silence you’ve had a chance to think about some things and I’m sure you have a lot of question. We’ll get to those later. By now I’m sure you’ve called your men to see if I were bluffing about having them. In addition I’m sure you’re either in the bedroom with the woman as we speak or have already seen her. Which leads me to believe that you’re ready to cooperated now.”

If there was anything I was going to be cooperating about, it was going to be the steady end of my dagger’s blade slicing through that pretty little smile of hers.

I got up from the bed heading back to the living room. The girl mumbled something but I ignored her and closed the bedroom door behind me. “What do you want?”

“I need for you to keep our contract.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose with my free hand and closed my eyes, irritation simmering on the verge of yet another eruption. “And what about Caleb and Naurius, how can I ensure their safety once I’ve accepted?”

“If you keep your end of the deal, then no special force will be needed to motivate you.”

My eyes popped open. Motivate me? I’m already motivated.

Although, I slightly hesitated before asking, “…What’s the Contract?”

“Under the girls bed you will find a box. Your instructions are inside. Keep the girl with you, keep her safe and I’ll be in contact.”

The other end of the receiver clicked off.

The words keep her safe lingered in my head as I pulled the phone from my ear to place it back into my pocket. How was I supposed to keep her safe when I was the kidnapper? Still, even now the images from waking up were distorted and unclear. But the terror I’d seen in her eyes when I went to check on her a minute ago had made it clear as day, she was not happy to see me, which meant she wasn’t going to trust me.

Outside of kidnapping her, I must have freaked her out. She must have seen me do something. I skimmed through my memory, piecing together the images I’d briefly seen upon waking. Trying to make since of any of them that was not currently obvious. Maybe she’d seen me drinking blood. That wasn’t a big deal though, I could easily pawn that off as having done something else. Or maybe…

My blood suddenly drained to the bottom of my feet, pooling, when the image reverberated into a crystal clear picture.

Not only had she seen me shift, but she’d also seen me kill a man.
Chapter 4

Chapter 4


Shit!

That’s great. That’s just what I need. Kidnap charges. Murder charges. The Human Police snooping around in Valarian affairs. I don’t have time for that kind of stuff. And how am I going to explain that to her? I didn’t really want to, but I knew this conversation was going to have to happen there was no way around that. But not right now, I decided. Later.

I found myself walking or rather wondering about the living room before retuning to the bedroom door where the woman laid gagged and bound on the other side. Bound and gagged in a way that I honestly didn’t have any experience with. I rolled my eyes, clearly another one of Alex’s antics. But how did she do it? How did she make him do all of those things? It was a question that I had been haunting my subconscious this entire evening and I was afraid I knew the answer.

If she is Mage, I –

Don’t think about it. I shook my head inwardly.

I turned the door nob and entered into the dark bedroom. There had been a little amount of light coming from the side window against right wall earlier but now since the sun had set the room was completely dark, beside the light coming in from the living room.
I felt for the light switch on the closest wall and flicked it. Nothing. My gaze shifted upward to the ceiling and I noticed there was a bare light fixture missing a bulb. I guess Naurius hadn’t been to this apartment in a while, so there was no need for it.

Eyes trailing downward I noticed the girl hadn’t switched positions like she done before. She remained on her side, head slightly elevated, eyes squinting due to the flood of light coming in from the living room and pang of guilt washed over me. My inner panther even expressed his disapproval by batting a paw at me. Maybe I shouldn’t have left her like this, but what was I to do. Let her frolic free while I’m on the phone with the crazy bitch that must have recently crawled out of hell. No, it had been for the best.

But now there was no need to keep her like this and she did looked extremely uncomfortable.

Slowly I walked over to the bedside keeping a non-threatening posture, her beautiful