“No,” Tressarah sobbed in shock. One of the men turned at the sound and smiled nastily. “Oh Lord …” she breathed, before turning and running back the way she had come. Samkara decided that was a good idea and did the same. The stranger giggled and gave chase. Others saw him and his prey, and decided that they would follow.
“Come on, Cassiana,” Samkara said, turning Cassiana around and pushing her back toward the blue path. “We need you to lead us as fast as you can,” Samkara continued.
Her words broke through Cassiana’s fear. Cassiana worked to focus again on the blue line and it reappeared. She ran toward it and back along in the way that they had been going. Samkara and Tressarah were right behind her. It was a blind dash with blood-thirsty, insane giggles nipping at their heels.
Over time, those giggles grew silent. But it was still a few moments before the girls could slow down. “You think they gave up?” Tressarah asked, as she panted, taking a quick break. Unease crept up Cassiana’s spine but she stopped when she heard Tressarah stop. She didn’t want to lose the others.
“I hope so,” Samkara muttered, also stopping.
Don’t leave the path, Alec had said. They had left the path and they lost Breeanna. He also told her not to stop, and yet, she and the others had stopped. Cassiana really didn’t want to know what would happen if they stopped too long. “We need to keep going,” she whispered, breathing hard.
“In a sec,” Samkara said.
“Aren’t you tired?” Tressarah asked.
“Yes,” Cassiana replied, “but I’m too scared to just stand here. We need to go before something happens.”
“All right, let’s go.” Tressarah sighed. “Let’s make a chain again so we don’t bump into each other.”
“Cassiana, where are you?” Samkara asked.
“I’m right here,” Cassiana replied, touching Sam’s arm, by the feel of it.
“I hate this darkness,” Samkara said as she slid her hand to Cassiana’s shoulder.
“Me too,” Cassiana admitted.
“Come on, Tressarah, put your hand on my shoulder and let’s go,” Samkara said.
“I did,” Tressarah replied, “you’re really sweaty, Samkara.”
The hair started to rise on Cassiana’s nape. She could feel the tension in Samkara’s hand. “True, but you’re not touching me,” Samkara whispered warily.
A girlish yet cruel giggle filled the corridor and Tressarah cursed. “RUN,” Cassiana shouted, and she and Samkara bolted down the blue path in the way they had been going. Cassiana was distantly amazed that she could tell which way they needed to go, but she could. Which was a blessing in a field of curses. Samkara and she ran until they had to walk. “Tressarah?” Cassiana asked softly. There was no response. Her throat tightened. Another friend lost to the maze from hell.
“I heard her run,” Samkara said, her hand clutching Cassiana’s shoulder.
“But where?” Cassiana asked, as they kept moving.
“I don’t know.” Samkara swore. “This is so messed up. This was supposed to be a fun vacation.”
Tears pricked Cassiana’s eyes. She half sobbed, half laughed. “I thought so, too.”
“Dr. Rigel’s public speaking class couldn’t scare me after this,” Samkara added.
“You don’t mind public speaking.” Cassiana snorted. “That class was the bane of my existence.”
“Oh, but you didn’t have Dr. Rigel as a professor,” Samkara protested sulkily. “It was impossible to get an ‘A’ in that class and Dr. Rigel was like a judge, considering how best to punish you for breathing and taking up space in his classroom.”
“I would prefer that to this,” Cassiana pointed out, unable to keep a small smile from touching her lips.
“I would choose a whole year of Dr. Rigel to this,” Samkara muttered.
They fell into wary silence as they continued on. The path wound on and on. In places it widened, in others it narrowed even more. Sometimes it seemed to circle back around on itself, but they never crossed a previous blue path. The two of them could hear giggling and moaning from a distance. Every unknown sound cause their hearts to still. But somehow, they managed to keep walking. One step in front of the other, Cassiana repeated to herself over and over to block out the horrors that lay in wait for them. It seemed, though, that the blue path was truly the only ‘safe’ place in the maze — as long as they kept moving. Tired limbs protested, but the adrenaline racing through her system would hear nothing about taking a break. Time became a vague thing as they trudged on. Hunger made them lightheaded, but they refused to heed any temptations that lay off the blue path. The lessons had been harsh, but they had learned them well. We will get out, if for no other reason than to get the military and storm the place for Breeanna and Tressarah, Cassiana vowed to herself.
“Do you feel that?” she eventually asked.
“What?” Samkara whispered back in alarm.
“The breeze,” Cassiana replied. She took a deep breath and could make out the lush scent of life; something missing from this underground nightmare.
“Yes,” Samkara said after a moment.
They hurried through a couple last turns and there it was. Evening light touched their faces with welcomed warmth. The blue path led right to the open door. It beckoned them. Neither girl could tear their eyes from it. Of the same mind, they raced toward it. Cassiana stepped on to the lush grass with no other thought than to run and never stop.
“HELP,” Samkara screamed. Cassiana whirled around in time to see Samkara being dragged backwards into the darkness.
“NO! Samkara!” she cried and raced back toward Sam. She would not lose another friend.
Despair darkened Samkara’s purple eyes. “Behind you,” she gasped, just as Cassiana was grabbed from behind.
Cassiana kicked back, trying to break the man’s hold so she could save her friend. But he wouldn’t let go. Instead he pulled her into him, his face buried in her neck. Samkara cried out as she was dragged back into the dark. Cassiana echoed her. She raged and struggled, but her captor would not relent. “Stop, Cassi. You get to live,” Alec whispered in her ear. A moment later she couldn’t make herself move to struggle a anymore. It was like the energy had been drawn out of her, leaving her limp in her enemy’s arms. Unable to fight the drain or her body’s lethargy, Cassiana collapsed.
Chapter 23 – New Roles
Cassiana was lost in the maze from hell. The blue path she had followed led her straight to a stone wall. For a moment, she stared in dismay. Distracted, she didn’t notice the odd rune in the floor until after she had stepped on it. A clanking rattle behind her spun her around. The portcullis slammed shut, effectively trapping her in the little room. Pitiless giggles had her backing from the entrance. Samkara, Tressarah, and Breeanna peered in at her. Tressarah giggled again. “I told you that your ‘blue path’ would lead to a trap.” The other two laughed.
Their eyes changed to glassy white. All of them smiled identical grins. In the same monotone voice, they said, “Better it would have been if you had stayed. Your gift would have served the Master better if you had.” They continued. Before Cassiana’s stricken gaze, her friends melded together. In a sickening dance of color, they became the hungry Collector.
Cassiana pressed herself into the wall with a whimper. The bars between them vanished and that overlarge mouth opened. Cassiana cried and tried to become one with the wall. She turned her face away from that looming maw of doom. Helpless tears trickled down her cheeks.
“She made it out, Collector. She is the Heir’s now,” a new voice scolded. “Go back to your maze and let the girl dream peacefully.” There was a sound much like grinding stone. Cassiana peered out of the corner of her eye. The large mouth was closed and the Collector’s eyes shot sparks of anger at something that she couldn’t see. Then it closed them and rolled backwards.
She sank down the wall in relief. It took a moment, but the second voice’s words sank in. Am I dreaming? She wondered, If I
am, this is the most horrible dream ever.
“Then wake up,” the second voice suggested.
***
Cassiana broke out of the dream suddenly. She sat up in bed and buried her head in her hands against her drawn-up knees. Her long silver, gold, and light blue hair tumbled down her back. It was silky soft against her back. She frowned in her hands, the horrifying nightmare fading away before this odd mystery. Cassiana usually wore a shirt and pants to bed. While she could feel the weight of her hair on her back in those, she couldn’t feel its texture. Had I been so tired I forgot to finish changing? she wondered. If that was so, that was just sad. She needed to make sure she went to bed at a decent hour … The thought derailed when she looked up.
“Where am I?” she wondered aloud. She was in a bedroom decorated in tasteful shades of black, brown, and forest green, though decidedly more masculine than anything she had ever seen before. Even at home she hadn’t had furniture that had been designed to go together like this. Wood floors and accents brought a living warmth to the room. Gold-touched curtains draped before the dark windows. Was it night? The green rugs and walls brought out the wood. The black chair in the corner spoke of comfortable sitting. The sheets she was wrapped in were also black. She didn’t know anyone who had black sheets.
Unease had her scrambling out of the bed that she didn’t remember getting in. Did Tressarah and Samkara get me so drunk last night that I can’t remember going home with someone? she wondered in growing panic. No longer swathed in sheets, Cassiana was reminded of why she had originally noticed her strange surroundings. She looked down and blushed so hard she imagined Samkara’s red locks being put to shame. The gown she wore was a white wisp that barely covered her better air. With frantic hands, she yanked the sheet off the bed and wrapped herself in it. She was too mortified to go searching for whoever she came home with in this poor excuse for a nightgown. Especially if she was going to have to apologize to them about having been too drunk to remember how she had gotten in this situation and that she just wanted to go home.
The strangeness of her situation got even worse as she took a step and felt something shift on her left ankle. She sat on the edge of the bed and shifted the sheets out of the way. Clasped around her ankle was a metal cuff linked to a chain. WHAT THE!? Tressarah would have had some choice words for this. Ones that Cassiana’s mother would frown upon. She reached down and tried to pry the thing off. In response, something tightened around her throat. Her hands left the cuff and went to her neck. Warmed by her body heat was a metal collar that felt like it was studded with jewels. What had she gotten into?? She desperately tried to find a clasp and the darn thing shocked her. Crying, she stopped. Immediately the pain did, too, and the collar seemed to relax.
With careful, inquisitive fingers, Cassiana felt along it and it didn’t do a thing to her. But when she considered trying to remove it again, it started to tighten. Some would think her weak, but she really didn’t want it to hurt her again. She stopped trying to remove it. She even went about trying to ignore it.
Instead, she turned back to the cuff. Again, she got shocked for trying to remove it. Smarting and deciding she wouldn’t try to take off her new jewelry any time soon, Cassiana gave up. She had learned her lesson. A sense of satisfaction seemed to come from the horrible thing around her neck. With a grumble, she figured that she might as well see what was around. If it will let me, she thought, glancing down at the cuff. The chain disappeared under the blankets and she traced it to a second cuff on the bed post. She didn’t even try to free it. Again, she didn’t want to get shocked.
She stood up and took a careful step forward. Apparently she was allowed to explore. It let her peer into a large, walk-in closet. She considered the large shirts and wondered if whoever she was with would object to her throwing one of those over the wispy get-up she was in. After a moment of dithering, she decided that was pushing things too far. She would ask for her own clothes once she found the room’s owner. The sheet was more than adequate to hide her form.
Cassiana left the closet and found the bathroom. As if peering in suddenly encouraged her bladder, it started to make its demands. She cast a dubious look at the chain. It looked like it was at its comfortable limit and the toilet was still a distance away. With a shrug, she decided to see how far she could pull it. To her utter amazement, the chain didn’t pull her up short. It seemed to be endless as she got all the way into the bathroom to the toilet. She satisfied nature and washed her hands before looking into the mirror. She had been right, the collar had gems in it. Two white opals flanking a black one in a band of white gold. It made her feel like a rich person’s pet… She didn’t get angry often, but someone was going to pay for this. Casting a final glare at the offending piece, she continued her exploration. There was one more doorway that she hadn’t gotten to yet. She opened it and found a living room in the same colors as the rest of the rooms she had seen.
There was a glass door that was open to the outside. Stars glinted at her, answering her question from earlier. It was night. A soft breeze caressed her face and she frowned. It troubled her, but why? It was cool and sweet. It just reminded her … Shaking her head at her silliness, she took a step toward the open door.
Or at least she tried to.
With a yelp, she fell to her knees, the sheet falling about her. She looked back at the chain. It was pulled taunt now. Why had it suddenly decided to remember reality and that it only had so much length?
“I apologize, but I couldn’t let you wonder too far just yet,” Alec said with amusement. Her vision fuzzed from turning her head so fast. He was leaning against the doorframe that opened to the night. His mostly black hair gleamed in the light of the room. The green and blue locks in his hair made her think of an opal. She froze as the nightmares rose again. While the dream with the Collector had been bad, it hadn’t been as horrible as the reality. All of her friends had been lost in the maze from hell. And Alec had both pushed her into it and had told her how to get out. And with him standing there, she understood how she had ended up the way she had. He had drained the energy from her like she did flames. He was also the one who had given her the new accessories and dress — leave it to a man to put a woman in such a revealing thing …
“Why are you always standing between me and freedom?” She was angry enough to ask before fear made her cringe.
His dark eyes crinkled and he laughed. “Freedom for you would be a waste,” he replied.
Cassiana shook her head. “Not so. You don’t have the right to chain me up like this.”
Alec approached her and she sat back on her heels, pulling the sheet tightly about her. He crouched in front of her. And that was when she noticed that his dark brown eyes had flecks of green. “And that, my dear, is where you are wrong,” he said, running a finger along the collar on her neck. She could have sworn the darn thing shivered in pleasure. Cassiana gasped and pulled away. Alec smiled with a predator’s satisfaction, “As the head of the Norighen Family and the Master’s Heir, I do have that right.” Cassiana wasn’t too sure about the last title, but the Norighen family had long been considered Kinair’s royal family, if only in tradition and name. If he was telling her the truth, she was looking at one of the most, if not the most, influential men on the planet.
“You’re too young, surely,” she said and he snorted. “And even if you are, don’t I get the right to agree—or not—to wake up in your bed, I’m assuming, in such a sad excuse for bed clothing?” she asked, her face heating up.
He stroked her cheek as he replied, “No. Not since you played with those candle flames in my hotel. You have skill with majvolta and that makes you a prize. The fact that you used it to try to escape and were able to focus it enough to find your way out of the Maze makes you valuable to me.”
Trembling, she asked, “And my friends? Why did you drag them into it?”
He shrugged. “Because the Master’s Collector was owed something if I was to keep you for myself.”
<
br /> Rage warmed her like nothing else. “I don’t care who you are, you didn’t have the right to take that from them! To use them in that fashion! Or in any fashion,” she growled, as Alec stood and pulled her to her feet. Her hands were still fisted in the sheet to keep it from falling. “You can’t just take …” she began, but he silenced her with a finger.
“Again, that’s where you are wrong, Cassi,” he breathed, leaning closer. Cassiana stared at him like a doe coming face-to-face with a mountain cat. He removed his finger from her lips and tilted her head how he wanted it. She couldn’t look away from the look in his eyes. Before she could think to turn away or try to flee, he was kissing her. She gasped and the part of her that was drawn to him swooned in delight. The rest of her was in chaos. Before she could sort it out, he pulled back. “I can take anything I want. I can take your freedom. I can take your dreams and replace them with mine. I can take that rage of yours and turn it to more interesting pursuits. And I will take you tonight,” he promised, and from the heat in his eyes, she could guess what he meant.
Needing to deny him, she shook her head, but he only smiled. She backed away from him. He followed like a smug cat with a mouse. An insane part of her wanted to smack that smugness off his face, but the collar tightened warningly. So instead, she thought about fleeing. Locking herself into the bathroom sounded like a wonderful idea. Problem was the damn chain.
With every step back into the bedroom, it shortened and refused to lengthen again. Despite that, she tried. But no matter what she did, Alec managed to back her onto the bed. Even then, she attempted to thwart his plans. The chain on her ankle refused to let her escape. It was so short now that she couldn’t even scramble to the other side of the bed. Sitting on the bed next to her, Alec bent to remove his shoes and socks. Having ended up on her stomach, she turned her face away from him and tried not to cry.
She heard Alec sigh. The mattress shifted and she felt his warmth and presence against her side. Shivering, she tried to make herself as small as possible. Gentle fingers combed her hair back from her temple. His breath tickled her ear as he whispered, “Relax, Cassi. Who knows, you might even enjoy this.” The collar at her throat warmed and pulsed soothingly. Cassiana felt herself start to relax, but she still couldn’t decide if she believed Alec or if she just wanted to believe him.
Defender of the Empire: Chaos Page 19