still, his stare locked on my face. He was observing me with the same fascination a child would a crawling bug.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed. It could have been minutes or days. Eventually Gretchen returned, breaking me of Callan’s trance, my entire body shaking.
“The halls are prepared. Has she agreed to take care of the mess?”
I won’t clean anything...
The whisper of my own words charged through me to carve out a path of regret. Especially when Callan grinned, the look so feral that I didn’t have time to scream before he’d struck out with a single hand to grip my wrists in his fingers.
It all happened at once, so damn fast that the air rushed from my lungs, my body yanked and spun to land on my back, my arms stretched out above me. He was on his feet and dragging my along before I could pretend to fight back, my legs kicking and shoulders sliding over the ground as I was made utterly powerless.
The sound of metal bounding across the floor didn’t draw anybody’s attention but my own. His grip had been so strong, that my hand opened, and I’d lost my only weapon.
We passed Gretchen, who only stepped back like this was completely fucking normal. Her typical scowl was in place, her eyes smiling to see my body tugged along the floor.
“She has,” he growled as we left the room.
Body sliding when we turned a corner, my feet slammed against a wall and warm water soaked into my nightgown. My heels screeched across the dry marble, my clothes soaked as Callan led me through halls, his steps a heavy thud while my body slid one direction or the other, a human fucking mop he used to shine and polish.
I tried to free my wrists from his punishing hold, but he only squeezed his fingers tighter, my bones rubbing together, my skin on fire.
“Let me go,” I yelled, my voice echoing down the hall he was cleaning with my body, but he didn’t so much as slow down as I was dragged from one hall to the other.
Only when we reached the stairs did he finally let go.
My arms fell to the ground with a painful slap, my body curling over itself as if that would protect me. But he wasn’t done, his voice so insanely silent as he gripped my knees to force my body straight, his hand locking over the fabric of my nightgown as he lifted me up with such force, I could hear the seams ripping.
Tossed over his shoulder, my palms slammed down on his lower back, his arm a steel bar across the backs of my legs.
I kicked to get away from him, pounded my fists against the locked muscle of his back, but it did nothing to dissuade him. Callan walked me up one hall and down the next, my body bouncing over his shoulder as we descended stairs and burst through doorways, the house around us transitioning from familiar places to the lower levels where I’d never been allowed to go.
I couldn’t see where he was taking me. Only the floor swept beneath my eyes, the brilliance of polished marble lost to a gritty wood grain that was scuffed and smudged.
Another door slammed open a minute later, muffled voices catching my attention, and when I lifted my head to chase the sound, I locked eyes with another woman, her arms locked in shackles above her head, mouth gagged, tears streaming and spit dripping from her chin.
I didn’t have a chance to react before my body was dropped to the floor, a painful oomph bursting from my throat before I curled over myself again.
Clenching my eyes shut to whatever Hell he’d dragged me to, I refused to look at the truth of this nightmare.
“Well, that’s one way to deliver the new recruit.”
A pause, light steps approaching from behind me.
“Why are her clothes so wet and bloody?”
There was humor in the man’s voice that only pissed me off more, but that anger bled away with ferocious speed as a veil of fear closed around me.
“She had a mess to clean up. But now she’s all yours.”
I flinched as two fingers swept the hair away from my face. Opening my eyes, I was met with amusement in the man’s expression, his lips curling into a knowing grin.
“Ah, well, in that case, I guess we’ll have to just deal with it.”
His green eyes locked to mine.
“Hello, Lisbeth. Welcome to the dungeon. I take it