Chapter 4—Scars
Trapped beneath Cillian, I panted for breath. What was my choice here? I was no match for three men, especially after what I'd witnessed. Was I going to die, or worse, become a sexual plaything for them? I was far from ready to accept those options as my only two choices. I was already searching for the way to pull off my third option; escape.
I just had to bide my time, wait it out. Let the brothers think I was weak and compliant. They were sure to drop their guard at some point, and when they did, I would be ready to make my escape.
"Are you going to get up or will we spend the day gazing into each other's eyes?" he asked.
His words threw me a little. I hadn't even realised I was staring into his eyes until he pointed it out, but I was. And they were very nice eyes. In another circumstance – one where he wasn't keeping me a prisoner – I could like those eyes very much.
"Perhaps you should get off me and we can look at something else," I said.
Was that amusement that flickered in his eyes at my comment? Maybe getting him to drop his guard would be easier than I had thought.
He rose and easily pulled me to my feet, his eyes appraising me with frank interest. I felt the strength of his grip, noted the texture of his skin. He smiled as if reading my thoughts. Despite myself, a blush coloured my face. Dammit. That really wasn't the look I was going for.
"I'm perfectly capable of walking unaided," I said snapped, embarrassed that I'd acted like a besotted schoolgirl.
I willed myself to make my thoughts neutral and focus on what might happen to me alone and surrounded by strangers who were clearly not ordinary men.
Cillian ignored me. Keeping his grip on my arm, he guided me back the way I came. I thought about breaking free and making a run for it, but the slight tightening of his grip persuaded me otherwise. His guard was still up and trying to escape right now wouldn't do me any favours. It would just show him that I wasn't the scared little girl he was expecting me to be.
I glanced back longingly and glimpsed the retreating road before the foliage swallowed my view of freedom. Cillian's strident pace through the forest caused me to stumble and the pressure of his fingers on my arm was becoming painful.
"You're hurting me," I said, trying to pry his fingers from my flesh.
He cast me an amused glance.
"Consider this a hike through the forest on a pleasant day."
I raised an eyebrow. This couldn't be further from being a pleasant day, but I realised I had no option but to keep up with him.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked. "Please... I promise I won't say anything if you just let me go. You can tell the others I got away or you couldn't find me."
I already knew it wasn't going to work, but I had to try it right?
Cillian glanced at me and shook his head as though admonishing a naughty child.
"Ah, Tilly, my sweet, it doesn't matter where you were going or who you were going to see. All you need to know is that your old life is merely a memory. You're forever ours now, and we're not letting you go."
The possessive tone of his voice worried me. What was going on? I belonged to him? To them? Was this some type of twisted fraternity joke?
I wasn't some kind of stray animal they could just take and claim as their own.
Images flooded my mind of kidnappings, cults, and worse. But these were stories found in the newspapers or in television reports of from big cities, not sleepy countryside villages. They happened to other people, not to me.
I felt eyes on me. Now I understood how prey felt before they were pounced upon by unseen predators lurking nearby.
"Well, if it isn't the lost lamb come back to the flock," Torin said, stepping out nonchalantly from behind a tree.
Fionn's darker voice held no lightness as he appeared quite suddenly at my side and looked emotionlessly at me.
"Thanks to you, Tilly, the leader of the Gatemen escaped."
I cringed. Fionn frightened me the most. But I wasn't about to show it. I wouldn't let him see that I was afraid of him. If they were going to kill me anyway, then I could at least make their lives a bit more difficult first.
"Thanks to me? You kidnap me in broad daylight then blame me for a fight that's not even mine? Your quarrel with those men is yours! How am I at fault here?" I ask with indignation.
Who the hell do these guys think they are?
My words silence I had so much more to say, but the words died in my throat when I glimpsed a bloody wound on his hand literally heal before my eyes. A cold shudder coursed through my body. Now my doubts had been confirmed. Though Fionn and the others appeared human, they clearly weren't. But what were they? Vampires?
No, vampires aren't real I told myself. But neither was regeneration or whatever the hell that was, and yet I had just seen it with my own eyes.
I decided it was probably better not to know exactly what these...these things...were. I just had to concentrate on escaping.
Fionn followed my gaze to his fixed hand and merely smiled as he fixed his shredded shirt.
Torin approached him.
"We can discuss this later. Horous will bring others. They won't stop until they find the girl."
Cillian drew me protectively toward him. His touch sent a shiver down my spine and I wondered how I could feel so afraid of him and yet so drawn to him at the same time. Did he really care about my fate or was he just possessive of his newest toy?
"You must wonder about our intentions, Tilly, but be assured, the Gatemen are not the heroes you believe them to be."
I want so badly to believe him, to think that his intentions are pure, but the evidence suggests otherwise and I can't stop myself from blurting out my questions.
"And you are heroes? Am I supposed to feel reassured? You kidnap me, put the fear of God into me, then your wounds heal before my very eyes. Do you really expect me to believe that I should be more afraid of those other men?" I looked closely at each of my – Captors? Protectors? – in turn. "Who are you? What are you? I've never seen you around here before."
The brothers looked knowingly at each other.
"Is silence your answer?" I challenged, eyeing their model perfect features, sculpted bodies and unusual wardrobe. "Did you steal your clothes from a museum? You're like characters from some steam punk movie. You don't fit in with the people around here."
Cillian and Torin laughed while Fionn simply watched. Dark blue eyes glaring at me, his face showing no expression. I think it was his ability to hide his thoughts completely that made me feel more felt nervous around him far more than the others.
"Tilly," Torin said, "we were actually thinking the same about you."
What?
His amused gaze travelled from the rose barrette clasping my unruly mane of dark auburn hair down to the pearl-buttoned, pink and green jewelled cardigan I wore over a floral-print dress of bold peach and green. While I had always loved anything embellished, a passion I had inherited from my mother, Torin's condescending expression seemed to challenge my taste.
"Let's just say that you could also be a character from a movie with your strange English accent and eccentric dress sense," he said.
"I love flowers," I replied, feeling slightly insulted. "Is there anything something wrong with that? I didn't ask to be here, so your opinion on the way I'm dressed and how I speak really doesn't matter to me."
Torin smiled, clearly enjoying the game.
"Tilly, the question isn't who are we, it's who are you?"
This just keeps on getting better. They kidnap me and they don't even know who I am. I guess kidnappers don't have the luxury of being picky, but still, that seemed ridiculous to me.
"Your aura shines of the purest essence," Cillian said kindly. "You see, you're not only beautiful, but you also possess a beautiful spirit. We're awed by you."
Well I have to admit I didn't see that coming. I didn't know what to say, so for now, I said nothing.
Torin approached with hands clasped behind his back and regarded me with a hunger I found disturbing, yet strangely exhilarating. I swallowed hard as he leaned forward.
"When I look into your innocent eyes, I glimpse a purity unique among many. I feel your essence touch me like the heat from a smouldering fire. You don't understand how rare this is for us."
Then his eyes locked on the feathered scars that fanned down from the left of my neck to my shoulder and onto my arm. The result of a lightning strike when I was a child, they had been the cause of much teasing when I was in school.
I was about to pull my cardigan up over my neck to hide the scars when I realized I could possibly use them to my advantage. If they saw that I was flawed they might leave me alone.
Torin looked at me. "Those scars, why haven't you covered them up? In our world we cover such disfigurements with clothing. Why would you choose to have them on display in such a manner? Do you have no respect for yourself?"
I felt myself becoming angry but his comments hurt. They were too close to the taunting I had received as a child. Disgusting. Ugly. Hideous.
Instead of retaliating, I shut down. I pulled my cardigan over myself as much as I .
Fionn smiled. It wasn't an amused smile – it was the smile of a parent who has finally gotten a child to do as they say. It was the smile of someone who believed themselves to be in charge.
"That's much better. You don't want others to see such ugliness on the outside when the inside is so beautiful," Fionn said with a note of approval.
He stepped forward regarding me with a cold, authoritative stare.
"You belong to us, Tilly," Fionn went on. "You'll obey our commands. If we order you to do something, you'll do it without question. Do you understand? Nothing can change our minds, so the sooner you accept your fate, the better."
I glanced at Cillian, hoping the sympathy he seemed to have for me would work in my favour, but he remained silent. One thing was certain, none of them were going to release me.
I wasn't ready to agree to obeying their commands like a dog, but I wasn't ready to argue the point right now. Instead, I stayed silent, a quiet rebellion where I refused to acknowledge such a ridiculous request. I started Fionn in the eyes with all of the defiance I could muster. It wasn't much.
Fionn abruptly looked away from me with narrowed eyes. For a moment, I allowed myself to believe I had won the battle of wills.
"We must go," he Fionn said to Torin and Cillian.
I hadn't won anything. He had sensed something. He turned to me with a dangerous look and it was all I could do to supress the shudder that threatened to run through me as his eyes burned into me.
"Now come with us and stop your ceaseless questions. We've wasted enough time here thanks to you. I warn you, if you try to escape again, I will kill you."