Stealing Kathryn (20 page)

She must have. She must have doubled back onto her own scent and he had missed it in his haste. She had to be somewhere else in the house.

But even as he moved to leave the room, he couldn’t help but look at the mirror one last time.

Fingers tipped with much smaller claws reached around her front and grabbed hold of her breast. By this point, Kathryn had tears running down her cheeks. She didn’t want this! She didn’t want him to do this to her. What was wrong with him? He ground against her again, sweeping up the dress where it settled over her hips and baring her backside to the chill air. She felt exposed and helpless and, for the first time, a bone-deep victimization at his hands that made her stomach lurch. She thought that if she’d eaten she surely would have hurled all over herself.

“Stop,” she whimpered as she felt him stripping off his shirt. “Please, stop.”

“Kat!”

The shout of his voice was distant and savage, but for some reason she found it perfect and beautiful. Her heart leapt in beat, her entire spirit lifting, her soul reaching out to that call with everything in her.

“Adrian!” she screamed.

Adrian thundered onto the scene in a rush of violence and muscle, slamming into his doppelganger as he ringed an arm around his neck. Adrian peeled the beastly version of himself off her and she immediately collapsed to the floor, her weak, shaking knees unable to hold her upright. The massive men began to wrestle with each other, and for a moment she couldn’t tell which was which. But in the end it was the savagery with which he fought that marked her Adrian. He fought to protect her, while the other fought for the right to own her. She could tell the difference so very clearly, and now she wondered how she could have ever mistaken one for the other.

But Adrian was fighting himself, his equal in power and strength. Only his passion gave him the upper hand, allowing him to pin the beastly image of himself to the smoky ground.

“Kat! You created him, you must destroy him!” he shouted at her.

She didn’t know how. She didn’t understand. Her traumatized mind wouldn’t absorb anything, so the fight went on. She numbly watched as Adrian began to batter his doppelganger with brutalizing punches and openhanded swipes of his claws. It was when the antithesis managed to rake vicious claws down Adrian’s chest that Kathryn was jolted out of her shocky state.

“How?” she cried. “How do I get rid of him?”

“Change your desire. You called him to you, now shed him from you.”

“But I already don’t want him here. I already want him gone!”

“Change your desire,” he gritted out as he grappled with his fiendish self. “Change what brought him to you in the first place.”

What had brought him to her in the first place?

Of course! She had wanted Adrian to find her. She had wanted him there whatever it took, to save her from her rocky situation. The nightmarish world around them was what had corrupted him into this hateful version, this true beast. Well, she didn’t need him any longer; didn’t want him to come to her rescue. She was going to rescue herself.

The minute she thought the independent thought, the doppelganger faded away. She sobbed hard, almost like a laugh of relief, as she tried to get her feet under herself. But before she could move she saw Adrian charging toward her, looking as mad as a bull with a bee in his butt. He reached down and scooped her off the floor in a single effortless motion, dragging her to his chest and squeezing her so hard she almost popped.

“You stupid little fool!” he hissed in her ear, the words gritting out through his clenched teeth. “Why would you do such a thing? The dangers you could have faced in here!”

“I know! I know!” she said in harsh exhales against him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him back. “It was awful. It was you…but it wasn’t you. It felt all wrong. And he almost…he was trying to…to…”

Adrian didn’t need her to finish. He shuddered with repressed rage as he tried not to rip her head off for being so blatantly stupid. He had thought her much smarter than this. To at least have some common sense!

“Why did you do this?” he demanded of her. “Why would you do something so foolhardy and dangerous? Didn’t it once occur to you that this wasn’t safe?”

“Of course it did!” She jerked back to look into his face. The same face she had woken up to this morning, only it was full of anger…and something else. Fear. He had been terrified for her. “Do you think I would have come in here on my own? You were supposed to be waiting here for me. This was your idea!”

“My idea? To bring you into this brackish hell? I want you pure and good, just the way I found you. This place will corrupt and destroy you. Stay here long enough and even your beauty would turn monstrous. I wouldn’t wish that for you in a million years!”

“Then why would you tell Cronos to bring me downstairs to the mirror? Why did he seem to think you were waiting inside for me?”

“Cronos?” The word started out normal enough, but by the time it reached the second syllable it was a radiating roar of rage. She felt Adrian shuddering with his anger, the quickness and the power of it no doubt exacerbated by the mirror they were in. “Cronos did this to you? He sent you in here?”

She could only nod.

He grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her to his side, marching through the thickened smoke. It was almost like a physical thing now, with weight and substance, as though Adrian’s presence gave it power. It wasn’t long before he stopped, waved a hand to clear the heavy smoke, and revealed the back side of the mirror. Standing there she could see the torchlit room beyond. Who could have thought that such a dank little place could suddenly feel so much like home? Adrian tightened his grip on her hand and drew her up hard against his body. Then with a single broad step, he took them through.

Once through, Kathryn felt as though an astounding weight had been lifted off her, as though she could breathe again after being held down underwater. She hadn’t been aware of it before, but there had been an allover sensation like pins and needles pricking against her skin. Also, the numbness that had persisted from her electrical shock immediately disappeared. Maybe it hadn’t been from the electrical shock at all. Maybe it had been from that awful place.

Whatever the reason, it was all over now. But there was something she didn’t understand.

“Why did I see you? When it wasn’t you? You came and were rough, and mean, but it wasn’t like before. The touch of your hands was all wrong. I knew it wasn’t right.”

That seemed to bring him up very short. He frowned as he stared down at her for a long moment, but as the seconds ticked by his frown smoothed out and then she could swear he was trying not to smile.

“You created a phantom,” he explained. “You wanted and expected to see me, so you made me appear with just the power of your thoughts. The phantom usually behaves how you expect it to behave. It feeds on your deep-seated desires and thoughts. If not controlled, it preys on your deepest fears. It takes much practice and much strength of the mind to be able to control a phantom.”

“So what’s so funny, then?” she asked defensively.

“Not funny,” he corrected her. “I am just pleased.”

“About what?”

“That you weren’t excited by the actions of the phantom.”

“Well, he was pawing me like a beast!”

“And don’t you like to be pawed?” he asked her, his voice dropping several octaves and his eyes firing with deep intent. He snared her around the waist and yanked her into the bend of his body. “Seeing you wearing a dress like that makes me want to do some pawing of my own.”

And there was the difference. Instantly it came. That rush of instant excitement and overwhelming heat. Despite what had just happened to her, she suddenly wanted him to do some pawing as well. He must have read that in her eyes because he growled low in his throat and she could feel him growing hard against her.

“I saw the dress and I didn’t think you’d mind,” she said lamely. Why was it she always turned into a blithering idiot when he got like this with her?

“You can try on any dress you like. They’re yours. And believe me when I say I don’t mind in the least.” He reached out with one hand to shape the swell of her backside very suggestively and she felt the caress all the way down to her toes. It was as if he had magic in his hands. Nothing about the way he touched her felt bad or wrong. Shouldn’t it, though? she asked herself. Shouldn’t she be just as repulsed by him as she had been by the phantom? After all, look at all he had done to her!

But despite that reminder, she couldn’t make herself turn away from his compelling touches and adamant attentions. When he reached out to flick a playful claw against her nipple through the fabric of her dress, she gasped and almost shot off the floor like a rocket. But just when she was going to tell him to do his best to her, he drew back and away, leaving her standing there aching and feeling more than a little lost. Oh! She had to be out of her mind! Nothing could ever come of all this toying and teasing. All she was doing was tormenting him and torturing herself. And still she yearned for him when he put distance between them. It was so stupid. So utterly insane.

“As much as I would love to continue this, there is something that must be done first,” he said roughly, the sound of his voice telling her he was just as affected as she was by this wild, unreasonable chemistry between them.

“You mean Cronos?” she guessed, clearing her throat when she thought she sounded like Demi Moore.

“Yes. He tried to hurt you. Again. For that there is no forgiveness. I will not allow another hour to pass by with him in reach of you. I protect what is mine.”

“But why would he do something like this?” she wondered.

“Why does not matter. He is a vile little man in need of correction, and I am going to see that he gets it.”

“Adrian, be careful,” she said, snagging his arm when he went to leave her. “Don’t underestimate him. Whatever is motivating him is making him desperate. He had to know if he got caught he’d risk your wrath. He didn’t intend to get caught. He didn’t intend for me to ever be found again.”

And he’d almost succeeded, she thought with a shiver.

“If you had moved any farther from the portal,” Adrian rasped, “he would have succeeded. It was pure luck that you hadn’t moved out of shouting range. Even so, the nightmare plane could have toyed with my shouts, keeping them away from you.” She heard his teeth grind together as his anger at the possibilities grew. Then Adrian went to leave once more, and yet again she pulled him back.

“Don’t leave me alone here,” she begged him.

He seemed to stop and think about it for a moment. He sniffed the air carefully. He could smell Cronos’s recent travels through the room and scented Aerlyn’s perfume, but there was nothing to indicate Cronos was anywhere close by.

“This is the one place I can be assured Cronos is not present,” he told her. “That makes it the safest place for you to be.”

Kathryn glanced over her shoulder at the dark and ominously deadly mirror, and a flood of willies skipped down her spine.

“Are you sure?” she asked. It sounded good in theory, but she’d much rather be with him.

“I’m sure. I’ll work my way out from here until I find him and then he will be gone for good.”

“Okay then. I’ll stay.” She tried to sound firm but knew she didn’t as she backed up against a wall where she could see anything coming at her. She wasn’t particularly strong, so she didn’t know what she could possibly do against Cronos if he came, but at least it would give her time for some hearty screaming for help.

Chapter 10

Adrian could see she didn’t trust him to be right about leaving her alone, but that was to be expected. He hadn’t protected her well enough and that was the price he had to pay. He would find a way to regain her trust later. Right now it was more important to remove this threat once and for all.

He left her slowly, feeling his own reluctance strangely. He didn’t want to leave her any more than she wanted him to leave. On the one hand, he felt an overwhelming sense of satisfaction that she saw him as a source of refuge; on the other hand, he hated the idea that she had needed him and he had let her down. He sniffed the air, seeking Cronos’s trail, and he began to climb the stairs out of the antechamber. The only thing he could smell, though, was his sister’s cloying perfume.

That drew him to a sharp halt.

Why would his sister have been in his workroom? She despised coming anywhere near the dark influence of his mirror, claimed it made her ill just to look at the thing. And his sister did not wear her perfume in cloying ways. She used it lightly, enhancing her own scent and not destroying everything around her with it.

Adrian couldn’t change direction fast enough. He bolted down the stairs and ran into his workroom. He skidded to a sudden halt when Cronos suddenly jerked around to face him, his arm locked tightly around Kathryn’s neck and the tip of a wickedly sharp dagger pushed under the point of her chin. She had a look of utter terror painted across her features, her vulnerable gray eyes pleading with him to help her. Adrian felt terror and rage roll through him and forced himself to get the volatile emotions under his control lest he make a mistake that might cost Kathryn dearly.

“Cronos!” He barked the name roughly, making the little man jerk in fear.

“No,” he whined. “I have to get rid of her! Everything was so beautiful and perfect before. Cronos served Master with all his heart and did good at it! If I don’t get rid of her, you’ll send me away!”

“No, Cronos. I’ll send you away if you let her go; I’ll kill you if you hurt a hair on her head.”

This made the underling hesitate, and he seemed to be thinking of the alternatives for a long moment. Then he seemed to make up his mind.

“She is ruining you, Master. Ruined. Remember how things used to be so clear? So pure? Now it’s all confusion and doubt. I can fix that! I will fix it!”

The point of the dagger pierced Kathryn’s skin, and a dark red trail of blood ran down her throat from her tipped-back chin. Adrian saw tears of pain and fear in her eyes and something very feral roared in his head. He could hear his own pulse against his ears, felt his blood running high and hot; every muscle and tendon in his body was straining to jump on his enemy, pounce him into the ground.