Laughing Eyes: Bittersweet Familia (3) (15 page)

Anna

The sky was black.

I had lost the whole day, trapped in a nightmare that I struggled to wake from. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I stared into the depths of the darkness outside, a few glowing lights in the distant hills holding my attention.

The door behind me opened, but I didn’t turn. I had no control over the situation so there was no point in fighting.

“Come,” a man’s voice said.

I stood on his demand and rounded the bed to where he was standing. He offered no sign of what was to occur or whether I should be running and hiding in the bathroom to keep myself alive for another few hours. The bald man looked down at my white cotton nighty, exactly the same style as the one from earlier, except fresh and dry. It wasn’t a revealing item. It didn’t cling to my skin, it wasn’t short and sexy. Yet for some reason, it made me feel vulnerable, like an innocent being led to slaughter.

The man’s hand wrapped around my upper arm, his fingers digging painfully into my skin.

“I can walk myself,” I asserted.

He held my gaze for a moment, a glimmer of pity washing through him. There was something extremely disconcerting about that. It appeared everyone involved in this business was born so emotionally sterile, that it was troublesome when someone did show any hint of it. Removing his hold, he ushered me to a room down the hall.

The door was open, a solitary figure standing in the darkness near the window doing exactly what I had been doing only moments ago. His body was silhouetted from the glow of the moon, the rest of the room without light. As I crossed the threshold, the door closed behind me.

My heart thudded in my chest so hard it was causing shortness of breath. I didn’t want to be in his room. I didn’t want to be anywhere near him.

Silence consumed the space, neither of us speaking. I wondered if he even knew that I was there.

He was shirtless, only wearing black pants that hung at his hips, both hands in his pockets. From behind he looked magnificent. It was when you saw the beautifully hardened face that one’s confidence waned.

“Your lover was here.”

My stomach plummeted once again at the mention of Danny. Last time he was brought up in conversation it didn’t fare well for me. I didn’t know what to say. He had been here looking for me. But where was he now? Nicolas hadn’t moved from his spot, his voice distant, like he was contemplating his words as they were spoken.

“He moves through this land like he owns it, like he understands it.” He continued. “This afternoon, I received a call saying that men belonging to my army had been killed. My fault really. It had been my plan to end him there. Unfortunately for me, he survived.”

I detested the man before me. If I didn’t hate him in its entirety then, I did now for sending Aiden and Danny in to be ambushed. I tried my best to conceal any reaction that could be interpreted as fear, but I knew I was failing miserably.

“He only wants justice. To stop the violence,” I said, defending the man I desperately wanted to see again.

“Violence,” The word played on his tongue as if he were trying to understand it. “It’s all relative. I am no more a killer than what he is.”

“That’s not true!” How dare he even make such an abysmal comparison? “You are a poison in this land.”

He turned his head slightly, a move that had me immediately regretting my words.

“He can fight as much as he likes. My entertainment hasn’t even begun. The main course is yet to start.”

“What are you talking about?”

Turning around, he watched me, his face cast in shadow. “I’m hungry for this. I can taste his demise every second of the day. I have what he wants. His sweet innocent is only a breath away from me and he can do nothing about it except chase his tail in search of you.”

He took four steps toward me, his body only a hair away from mine. I could feel him even though he wasn’t touching me.

“You don’t judge him like you do me.”

There was no point in explaining why that was the case. How do you reason with a mad man?

“Do you want to know why I do what I do?”

No! I really didn’t. I whole heartedly did not want to know why he was compelled to lead such volatile genocidal wars.

“It feels good,” he explained without me answering.

“Killing feels good?”

There was a pause before his fingers grazed my neck, his spicy cologne filling my nostrils. “When a man kisses here, his lips trailing down your skin, you like it. The sensations don’t just touch you here, the secondary effect can be felt in other places, other more… sensitive areas. After you experience it for the first time, you crave it, you want to taste it on your tongue again, to feel that rush.”

“That’s what makes you and Danny so different.”

“Are you saying he doesn’t crave it? Oh, he and I are exactly the same, Anjo. We both insatiable. We both crave it.”

A terrible niggling feeling told me he was no longer talking about killing. Both hands moved to tentatively cup my face. We was barely touching me, almost as if I would burn him if he did. His face was edging close, eyes hooded.

“You need to run.”

“What?”

“You make me weak in a way I fucking hate. You have one minute to get away from me. Sixty seconds to get out of this house before I make you mine forever. If you make it out you are free.”

Was he for real? He was just letting me go?

“If I don’t make it?”

A low growl reverberated in his throat. “If you don’t make it out, you will regret it.”

I didn’t fully understand why he was doing this. Was it some sick game? The thrill of the chase? “Why are you giving me this chance?”

“Anjo, love and destruction go hand in hand in my life. You stay, I will destroy you, it’s just in my nature and I will fucking love breaking you down. I’m giving you the chance to avoid that life, starting now.”

He took a step back, arms dropping to his side. Even in the darkness I caught sight of an eerie gleam in his eyes.

“Tick, tock, Anjo.”

***

I had already lost valuable seconds staring at him dumbfounded. He was really giving me this chance and I would be damned if I wasn’t going to make the most of it. I sprinted from Nicolas’s bedroom and out into the now blackened hall. All the lights in his mansion were off.

He wasn’t going to make this easy for me.

Using the balustrade as a guide, I ran down the marble staircase sometimes taking two steps at a time. My skin prickled and I couldn’t tell if the air had dramatically chilled or if I could sense someone watching. I headed straight to the massive wooden front door only to find it securely locked. After some yanking and fiddling with the latches I gave up. I couldn’t waste time on futile attempts. Cursing under my breath I tried all the windows along the front of the house before crossing the dark lounge to the back. Through the large folding glass doors I could see the pool glistening likes diamonds in the moonlight. The lock was the only thing getting between me and freedom.

In the shadows, the dining suite caught my attention. The chairs were heavy and solid and just what I needed. Knowing I only had a few seconds to spare, I stood in front of the door, chair in hand, gripping tight, mustering all the strength I possessed. I sent it hurling through the air, flinching at the noise it made upon impact with the glass then the floor.

It had done nothing.

Not even a fracture.

Feeling like I was just handing my one and only opportunity back into the hands of the devil, I rested my head against the door. It was freezing cold. A definite spiteful chill in the air sending shivers through me, layering the glass with condensation, my warm breath making small circles with each exhale.

Through the silence, my cold shivers soon turned to those of terror.

“Revelate Anjo, ven a mi,” His deep voice sang through the house, tormenting me with each syllable. “Reveal yourself, Anjo, come to me.” This time I could tell he was close, advancing down the stairs.

Taking off through the kitchen avoiding his path I found myself down a hall with off-shoots of bedrooms and offices. Choosing the one with the most furniture, I attempted the window only to come to the same conclusion as the others. In a state of panic, I knew making it through the night would be a challenge. Hiding under the impressive wooden desk, I pulled his giant chair in. Trapped by my own foolishness, my heart struggled to gain its normal rhythm.

Nicolas’s voice that had traveled down the hall, now came to an eerie stop. Silence descended upon the mansion again, the only sound, the pounding of my heart in my own ears. Closing my eyes I wished myself away to a beautiful place void of hatred and pain. A place that warmed my skin and my soul. Lying next to me, a man whose face I craved like no other. I prayed and I wished for Danny.

Anna

I was pulled violently from my dream.

The chair was no longer a barrier between me and my demon. He had found me and now I was being dragged out from underneath the table and onto my stomach, the carpet burning my skin. A weight circled my hips holding me down, my hands pinned above my head. I couldn’t move despite my struggles.

“I guess this means you are mine to destroy,” the same deep voice I had quickly grown to hate mouthed quietly in ear.

“You knew I couldn’t escape.”

A slight chuckle reverberated in his throat. “Why would I let my most prized possession go?”

My heart sank. He was right. His opportunity was no more than a game, now I was in a worse position than I had been ten minutes ago.

Squeezing the tears from my eyes, my body stiffened at the touch of a hand sliding down my torso, my worst nightmare suddenly becoming a reality.

***

That night Nicolas Blanco claimed a part of me I could never get back.

In the glow of the moonlight shining through the window, he sank himself deep into me, my nightie pushed high on my waist. I could feel the sadness of all the lost souls who had suffered a similar fate just before meeting their deaths. My screams echoing those just before they had been slaughtered. My cries from those left to mourn for the ones they’d lost.

His touch was gentle yet possessive, his kiss that of a passionate lover but full of bite. He moved inside me with no remorse, the only act of humanity was that I couldn’t see his face. My pained screams were answered by forceful thrusting, his hand fisting my hair as he drove deeper. I could feel him breaking me, an agonizing pain shooting through my core. With his chest against my back, his hand pulled me around just far enough for him to kiss me as if I were his lover.

By the end, I could taste blood in my mouth. Despite the cold air, sweat layered us both as he pulled out and spun me onto my back.

His muscular legs still framed mine, his face a blank mask.

My arms lay either side of my body, all sense of fight nothing more than smouldering ash.

Nicolas’s hand came to rest under my ear, his knuckles gently stroking my skin before working his way down. Gently, almost as if he were transfixed, he pulled my nighty down over one shoulder revealing my breast. His fingers, barely touching my skin, circled my areola.

“He will never touch you again,” Nicolas’s voice was distant, as if he were talking to himself yet there was no mistaking the threat.

If I had any tears left, I would have cried. I knew something was happening behind the scenes. I knew that Danny was entering yet another ambush. While his expression gave nothing away, his voice did.

Nicolas Blanco was going to destroy us all.

***

The same bald man who always came to my door, appeared by my side completely non-plussed by what he saw. He now wore a mask of indifference again. Nicolas rose to his feet pulling the waistband of his pants over his still hard erection.

“Take her,” he instructed.  Two hands wrapped around my limp form lifting me to my feet, my nightie falling back to my knees.

Partially dragged to the door we came to a complete stop hearing his voice. “Wait,” came his throaty voice behind us. I didn’t turn. The last thing I wanted was to see his face.

I was a fool to believe I had any choice in the situation.

Feeling the world close in around me again, his presence sucking away all the air, his warm breath on my neck.

“Take her to my room.”

My heart sank.

The door closed behind, the darkness of the hall engulfing us. Bald man wasn’t rough, his hands barely touching me. As we climbed the stairs, he wrapped his arm around my waist to steady me from falling.

“He’s toying with you,” he whispered into my ear. I stilled, staring straight ahead not knowing what to say. It was the first time he had said anything to me.

“Forget about beating him,” he continued, his arm helping me to take the last few steps, “I’ve never seen him lose.”

“Why are you telling me?” I was confused about his motives. What did he have to gain?

He stopped me once we entered Nicolas’s room. “Because I have never seen him this obsessed.”