At the last second, I changed my mind and thrust my hand toward him. Our combined strength meant that I hit harder than I would have on my own. One of my fingers jabbed right up his nose, and he grunted as he rolled away.
Eyes wide, I scrambled to my feet.
Merdon didn’t come after me. He stayed where he was, head hung low. When he looked up, his nose was bleeding. He wiped the back of his hand over his upper lip and looked at the stain on his skin for a long, silent moment.
I’d drawn first blood. I had no doubt this would change the rules.
“Shit.” The word escaped on an exhale.
He continued looking at me, a slight smear of red still under his nose. At least, it wasn’t gushing. That had to count for something. Right?
“Are you afraid, Hannah?” he asked softly.
“I’d be stupid not to be,” I said, tense and ready for him to spring on me.
“You would be,” he agreed with an unusual calm as he got to his feet.
With slow steps, he stalked toward me.
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” I whispered, backing away.
“I know.”
He said it almost soothingly, and that just made it worse. My stomach pitched with trepidation. I hated not knowing what was going to happen. How mad was he?
I skirted around him, sticking to the edges of the mat. He circled me.
“What are you most afraid of?” he asked.
“That you’re angry and you’re going to bite really hard.”
“You’re smart to fear being bitten.”
That just made my stomach dive lower, and I fisted my hand, wondering which finger I’d be saying goodbye to. I hoped he’d leave me my middle ones. I needed those to tell the world what I thought of it once Cassie stopped the bleeding.
“You’re breathing too fast,” Merdon said.
“No shit. I don’t want to lose my fingers.”
He tilted his head at me but didn’t stop his slow perusal of me.
“Come here, Hannah.”
I shook my head.
“I won’t bite your fingers.”
“Oh, well, in that case…”
I’d circled enough that I was near the basement stairs. I bolted for them, hoping I’d get to the top like I did last time. I wasn’t that lucky.
An arm circled my waist before I made it two steps.
My feet left the ground, and the panic riding me intensified. A weightlessness engulfed me, and I flailed mid-air, his hands still gripping me, before I landed on my back. My breath whooshed out. Before I could be grateful for the mats, his weight settled over me.
Lifting my gaze, I met his focused, yellow eyes. He didn’t give me a moment to think. With little effort, he trapped my hands above my head and grabbed a handful of hair.
I couldn’t move. I tried. Frantically, desperately, until sweat damped my skin, I tried. Through it all, he held me and watched. When I had nothing left, I lay still under him, defeated.
“You failed.”
I wanted to hurl some sass back at him, but I couldn’t. I knew what failure meant.
Air wheezed into my fear-constricted lungs as he lowered his face toward my neck. A whimper of fear squeaked out of my throat at the feel of his breath on my exposed collarbone. He hadn’t yet set his mouth on me, but I could already feel the bite of his teeth breaking my skin. I could imagine the pain. The agony of being bitten again and again was something I thought about often.
I started to shake. Squeezing my eyes closed, I braced myself. A tear slipped out.
His nose grazed the side of my neck, a soft brush of skin to skin that was gone before it began. But, a weird tingle of awareness remained even as he tugged my head out of the way. When his teeth settled onto my skin, I wasn’t as afraid as I was confused. I felt his lips and the heat of his breath more than the points of his teeth.
What the ever-living hell was going on?
I was about to ask him if he was going to bite me or what when his teeth closed down on my skin. A spark of pain ignited, but it was small in comparison to the jolt of pleasure that rushed from the collarbone to my core.
Air whooshed out of me along with another sound.
Merdon jerked his head back and looked at me.
I returned his stare equally as shocked. Had I really just moaned while he was biting me?