Deal with the Devil (18+)

09| Never Trust A Perfect Stranger

"You don't get to shorten my name. It's Evelyn to you, sounds similar to Brooklyn. E-V-E-L-Y-N." I spaced the syllables apart slowly so that he could hear me over the loud music, a hint of annoyance to my tone. Not enough that he could call me out on it, but enough for the edge of his mouth to curve up into a discrete, amused smirk. It seemed a ridiculous thing to pay attention to when my entire hand had decided to cosplay Niagara Falls. A red waterfall was cascading down my forearm, but the way my nickname had so easily rolled off his tongue was unsettling. A murder's tongue.

"I'm sincerely sorry about that, Evelyn. It won't happen again." The goading way he pronounced my name with slow precision gave me the distinct impression that he was not at all sorry. He clearly found my agitation amusing, how nice of him.

"Why are you even here? Have you been following me?" I was appreciative of the liquid courage allowing me to be so upfront.

Luca rolled his eyes as though my question was laborious and taxing for him to answer. He pursed his lips before replying. "I did warn you I'd be coming back to collect on my payment, although this is a little earlier than I'd imagined..." I didn't like the predatory way he was watching me, his eyes flicking back and forth between my bleeding hand and my face. "But you just couldn't keep yourself out of trouble now could you, and this happened."

Speaking of my hand, as I glanced around I suddenly realized that no one else around us had noticed the strange interaction or my bleeding hand. In fact, no one was even looking over in our direction at all.

"Why is nobody-" I was cut off.

Luca lowered his voice and leaned in close to my ear. "Watching us? I've effectively cloaked our existences for the moment, although it won't last very long." Okay, so he was clearly mental and believed we were living in the Harry Potter universe, good to know. At least it was a distraction from the throbbing pain in my hand.

"You're not selling yourself as a sane person very well here you know." I muttered beneath my breath despite knowing it was probably unwise to anger him. I think the blood loss was going to my head. Hopefully I could expelliarmus his body across the room and then make a mad dash for the door, seeing as though he seemed to believe in all that shit.

He snorted. "I'm kidding. You seriously think I'm that delusional?" His mouth spread into a wide smile and something flickered in his eyes, but before I could read into it, it was gone. Suddenly he grasped my bloodied forearm and began to pull me through the crowd of people milling around near the bar. "People just haven't noticed yet and I have no intention of letting them do so."

"What do you think you're doing Luca!" I gasped as he continued to drag me along behind him. "You can't just take me away." I felt sick. I didn't want to be sacrificed in the name of Hagrid, that would just look truly awful written on my tombstone. That's if I even got a tombstone, didn't these kidnappers usually hide all evidence of the body? Maybe I would be fed to his pet dog... I think that would be even worse than the Hagrid scenario.

He huffed a dark laugh before slowing his pace a little, yet didn't turn to face me as he spoke, "I think you'll find that I can and will do anything I want." His grip on my arm softened slightly as he added, "So I see you remembered my name, I must have left a good impression then."

Good impression? More like unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.

I risked a glance down at my arm and visibly recoiled at the sight of fresh blood, the pain now less of a burning sensation and more of a dull throb under Luca's tight grasp. I didn't bother replying to him as we exited through the back exit of the club, my every attempt to struggle free of his death grip an utter failure. He had me at his mercy and for some perplexing reason, I didn't really mind it.