3. ANGEL

For the first time in weeks, I stepped foot outside. I wanted to run, but my legs weren’t following the demand my brain was sending them. The guard that stood at the door watched me with blood red eyes. I didn’t like the way his eyes trailed over my body. A faint memory surfaced. He was one of the men I had seen in the basement. One who was well-known for being aggressive. His lips twitched. My heartbeat started to escalate when I saw the sharp points of one fang. It reminded me of the day I first arrived. How long ago had it been? The urge to flee grew stronger the longer the man stared at me. A low growl from behind me made a shiver run down my spine. I froze when I felt the slight brush of a hand against my lower back. “You should pay women some respect Jack,” a husky voice muttered from behind me. “I will have a word with your master. Seems she’s been neglecting to teach you manners.” The hand moved from my back to my upper arm. His grip was gently, but tight enough to ensure that I couldn’t get away. I was forced to walk towards a black car that pulled up. The driver got out to open the backdoor without sparing me a glance. “Get in,” the man holding me ordered softly. I hesitated. The hold on my arm tightened painfully. Warm breath fanned the side of my neck as the man leaned down. “Get in the car Angel. Don’t make me force you into the car when you’re already in pain.” It felt like my bones were going to snap at any second. Biting my lip to keep myself from crying out, I slowly got into the car and slid across the leather seat to the other side of the seat. The man instantly slipped in behind me and slammed the door closed. A woman in her late thirties had taken me behind the stage again once the man had stated that he was buying me. She had led me into a small room where I was forced to shit in a chair. For half an hour, I was forced to stare at graphic pictures and listen to instructions. The woman claimed that I was lucky. Their King had brought me for his castle. There I would serve him in any way he wanted me to serve him. “How old are you?” he asked when the car started moving. I swallowed. “N-nineteen.” “You were the girl that came through the portal.” It wasn’t exactly a question. He already knew the answer. I wanted answers but I was too scared to ask them. When I had tried it, they had punished me for speaking out of turn. We weren’t allowed to talk without permission. In fact, the only time we were allowed to talk was when they asked us questions. But that wasn’t how I got punished. I got punished because I tried to run. “You’re bleeding.” My body jerked in fright. For a moment I had completely forgotten about the man next to me. “Where are you hurt?” He looked genuinely concerned, but I had learned that looks could be deceiving. “I’m not going to ask you again, Angel,” he muttered softly. “My back,” I whispered. “How did you get injured?” He tilted his head to the side slightly as he studied me. “I tried to escape.” “I see,” he muttered. Did he really? He was the king of the place. He had power and control. Why wasn’t he doing anything about that door we came through? Why wasn’t he doing anything about the auction and the abuse women and men faced when locked in the basement? “I need to ask you some questions about the portal,” he told me. “But we need to get a look at your wounds first. From what I know about humans, you’re known to easily pick up infections.” “You speak like you’re not one.” He looked normal. If we were to pass each other on the streets I would assume nothing abnormal about him. King Lucas was tall and had broad shoulders; he almost looked like a bodybuilder, except his muscles looked much more natural. His light brown hair was curly and a little messy. Even his brown eyes looked normal. “I’m not.” I scooted closer to the door and wince when my back made contact with it. “Turn around, let me take a look.” I didn’t want him to touch me, but I could feel blood trailing down my back and dampening the dress I wore. Turning around slowly, I presented my back to him. King Lucas didn’t immediately reach touch me. Just when I thought that he wasn’t going to do anything, I felt a tug on the dress and then the first button slipped free. He made slow work of unbuttoning the dress until he reached the third button. I heard him suck in a breath. “Nobody will answer my questions,” I whispered. “They won’t tell me where I am or how it was even possible for me to get here.” “How did you get here?” he questioned as he started unbuttoning the dress further. I pressed a hand to my chest to keep the front of the dress in place. “We were walking through an alley when a door appeared on the wall,” I told him. “They dared me to touch it and when I did, it opened. I thought they were going to let it go, but they wanted to see what was inside.” “And you went with them.” I licked my lips. “Not willingly.” “So, you were forced inside?” I remained silent. King Lucas pulled the edges of the dress away from my skin and muttered a low curse. “How bad is it?” I questioned. “I tried to get a look at it in the bathroom mirror when we were dressing.” He swallowed and then carefully started buttoning the dress back up again. “How…what did they use to punish you?” “A whip,” I answered. “The belt didn’t work the first time.” Silence stretched between us. I turned back in my seat and stared out the window. Funny enough, everything looked like it did back on Earth. They used the same things, lived in the same types of houses and buildings, yet they were in a whole different universe. “Can you tell me more about the portal?” “It was dark. The moment we stepped into it, the door closed, and my friends disappeared. I tried searching for them and then I saw light,” I paused. “Followed it and now I’m here.” I didn’t want to mention the fall or the fact that a strange man had healed me before he sent me to the auction house. “You’re the first human to come through it.” My eyes snapped to him. “If I’m the first, it means that my friends didn’t come out first or after me?” He shook his head. “We don’t know much about the portal, but we’re trying to learn more.” “Which is why you bought me.” “One of the reasons, yes.” His eyes darted over my face. “What’s the other reason?” King Lucas didn’t answer. I sat up a little straighter when the car started to slow. “Take us to the private entrance, Dean.” “Right away your highness.” We drove through big iron gates and turned left. My mouth dropped open when I caught my first glimpse of the castle. It was huge and looked like something exactly like a fairy tale. If it wasn’t for the throbbing pain in my back, I would have thought it was a dream. The castle disappeared, replacing the view with high walls. A minute later, we drove through another gate into a courtyard. The car came to a complete stop and the driver got out. He opened the door for his king. “Come on,” King Lucas urged as he climbed from the car. I slowly slid across the seat and stared at the hand he held out towards me. Was it some kind of test? The man was royalty, and he was offering to help me out of the car. Could I even touch him? “Angel.” Slipping my hand into his, I climbed out of the car. I was thankful for the hold he had on my hand because my legs were shaking. In fact, I realized that I was trembling. The shock of everything was probably starting to set in. With a firm hold on my hand, King Lucas led me in the building. I stared at the big speckled gray tiles and then tilted my head up to blink at the ceiling. It was painted with different images, but we were moving too fast for me to make out what story the images told. In the next moment, we entered a lavish sitting room. King Lucas led me over to the couch and gently pushed me down on it. I watched him as he walked over to the bar and reached behind it to pull out a glass. Placing it down on the countertop, he held his palm out over it. A scream lodged in my throat as I watched one of his fingernails change into a thick claw. He used the sharp tip to cut across his palm and then squeezed blood into the glass. “I need you to drink this,” he muttered as he picked up the glass and carried it over to me. “It will heal you.” I shook my head. “No. That’s just…No. Do you have any idea how many－” My sentence was cut off abruptly when he pushed me down on the couch. He straddled my waist and pinched my nose closed as he pressed the glass to my lips. “Drink,” he growled, brown eyes flashing golden. “Drink it!” The only way I could suck air into my lungs was to open my mouth. I held my breath for as long as I could, but in the end, he won.