Beast Within

07| The Cure

KAIA'S P.O.V.

Shadow asked me to sit down on a cushiony red chair adjacent to one of the bedrooms. "I'm going to bring out Dario. You can wait here—if that's okay. I think he's in the middle of a call."

I nodded. From behind the thin door, I could make out a muffled voice that had to be his brother. The tone of their voice, the volume at least, made me doubt coming here in the first place. He wasn't in a good mood. Confronting him now, alone with just my cousin Lawrence as defense, seemed like a dumb idea. What if this went south?

"You good?"

My head swiveled around the hallway, seeing Warner at the top of the stairs. He was dressed in a plum jacket that deepened the translucent paleness of his skin. His long finger traced the wooden handrail as he got closer, tiptoeing over to me with hunger boring through his eyes. I had to look away. The heat under my arms became alarmingly uncomfortable, sensing his gaze go up my legs and to my face in a way that stripped me bare of any clothes. I felt nude in the moment, and all he did was look at me with his brown eyes. Never faltering his interest to the floor, and only breathing a short hello before planting himself next to me.

"Why don't you have boyfriend?"

Bold to assume I'm single by accident.

I coughed a laugh, holding my hand to my mouth so he wouldn't see me smile right away.

"I don't have the patience to train a boy into being my companion."

His shoulders rattled, chuckling at my claim. "That's not fair."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean, as easily as you could say that, I can say that I don't want the responsibility of always feeding my girlfriend and being her personal wallet."

"You're broke." I shrugged. "That's all you have to say."

He didn't find any amusement in this observation. 

"That doesn't equate to me not having money. That just—"

"I don't need to lower my value simply because you're not big enough to ride this ride." I tried to hold a serious face, but it broke instantly. Nothing of what I said was something I believed—but I knew that it would be enough to get him off my case. Dating wasn't on the menu. 

 Seeing Lawrence though, springing up the stairs as if Satan's hounds were at his heel, stopped me from wanting to continue our conversation.

Bumping into Warner's feet in the process of getting up, I grabbed both of Lawrence's hands before he could speak. He was trembling, cold to the touch. We'd been inside for well over ten minutes, why did he feel like he walked out of a freezer?

"Whoa, are you okay?" I asked.

"No," he admitted, holding me closer when a shadow approached. It was Dario, walking out the room with his brother, Shadow. Lawrence's voice fell to a dead whisper. "We have to get out of here."

"Slow down, we only got here a few m—"

"What's going on?" Dario inquired, easing out of the room and more into the hallway. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, there is something wrong," Lawrence boomed, "There's something extremely wrong with the fact that I just went into a room downstairs that gave me a clear view of where Jamila is. She's chained up like some prisoner. You guys were never going to help us...were you?"

Shadow and Warner exchanged a look with Dario, sharing a secret message to each other that no one but them could understand and decipher.

 "This can easily be explained," Dario instructed. "Your cousin tried to steal from me."

I scoffed. "Bullshit. She wouldn't."

"She said you were going through hardships," he further detailed. "I was going to offer her a place to stay, some cash perhaps. But she threw away that all to rob me."

"And what proof do you have? Am I suppose to believe you simply because it came out of your mouth? You could be lying for all I know. And what the fuck is the point in imprisoning her here!?" I roared. "Get the police involved if you're that serious."

Lawrence touched my elbow. "Maybe the cops shouldn't be added into this."

He was right, but they didn't know we were avoiding law enforcement...from the looks of it, they were too if they were playing judge, jury, and executioner in their little palace.  

"Kaia," Shadow said with both his hands in the air, "We're not here to start any trouble."

"Good. In that case, you can give me back my cousin without us having to kill you all."

This didn't get the response I wanted. There was nothing but laughter bursting through the three of them - seeing no real threat in my statement. They saw me as a joke. 

"What are you going to do to her?" I asked in horror. "Make her your fucking maid?"

"She'll be a wife," Dario divulged. 

"You're going to force her to marry you?! What kind of sick fuck thinks they can force someone else into a legally binding marriage? The second you give her freedom - she's going to murder you. I hope you get that."

"She's not marrying me, she's marrying Shadow." 

My stomach ached. Bile began to build up in the back of my throat as the idea settled into my mind of my cousin being trapped here to be someone's companion - and even worse, forced into the role of being a mother. She would take her own life the moment she learned of her new reality.

"I'll do it."

Lawrence, at the side of me, shook his head. "You're insane. Shut up."

I shoved off his clinging arm, holding on to me like they were iron claws. "Return her to us, and you can have me in her place." 

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