Chapter 408: Blurry.
Leilani.
The drive to wherever it is that we were going to was quiet and filled with so much tension.
The atmosphere in the car cackled with electricity so strong, I felt it deep inside my bones. My body trembled slightly— more out of unease than fear and to calm my already raging heartbeat, I glanced out the window of the moving car and sighed;
"How are you so sure that this is where he’s been taken to?"
I was talking to no one in particular so when I uttered those words, all three brothers turned to look at me, their eyebrows cocked in askance.
I dragged in a deep breath as I turned away from the window to them, my voice dropping a few octaves as I drawled; "I said... how are you three so sure that he’s been taken to wherever it is that you are taking me right now?"
The silence I got in response was palpable. It hung in the air like a freaking storm cloud. A couple of seconds went by before Kael finally snapped out of his haze. He glanced down at his phone, scrolled through the object for a couple of seconds and said:
"This is exactly where the map points to."
I frowned. "Huh?"
"The private investigator we hired sent us a coordinate... and it is exactly this way."
"So what if he is wrong?" I hissed, unable to suppress the feeling of foreboding that enveloped me like a cloak. "What if he has been moved?"
The sigh that escaped Kael’s lips meant that he didn’t want to have to deal with something like this right now. He let out a soft long string of profanities from his mouth as he too turned to look at me and frowned.
"He’s never wrong. And as we speak, he has his eyes on Keisha and the louts she has employed to carry out this disgusting act."
I wanted to believe him. Heavens, I really wanted to, but for some reason, I feared that there was something missing here... something that we were all overlooking.
I mean, since Keisha wants me and not Jarek, it is only obvious that all of these are merely stunts and her way of pulling me out of my hideout until she could latch her fingers into my skin.
Jarek was not what she wanted. She was the bait. And I am the prey.
I nodded. "Okay. You can ask him to be more vigilant, and as for us, we ought to keep our eyes wide open for anything."
Anything like what?
That question hung in the air but no one voiced it out. And because no one did that, I didn’t bother to tell them about the uncomfortable feeling forming at the bottom of my stomach.
I tried to fight the pressure in my chest as well as the one clawing its way up my spine, but no matter how hard I tried, it was futile.
"Leilani... are you okay?" Caelum suddenly began to say to me, his eyes cocked as he turned to fix me with a piercing stare.
He tilted his head to the side, as if waiting for my response but at the time, I do not know why, I was uncomfortable.
In fact, that was such a light word to describe how much discomfort I felt. My head swelled with the overwhelming need to turn home and my body, once calm, tingled with emotions I could barely understand.
"You look pale, are you okay?" Zevran hissed, coming to wrap his arms around my shoulders and in the process, I leaned against him, buried my face into his chest and dragged in a lungful of his scent.
I opened my mouth with the desperate need to respond to one of them or to say anything altogether, but before I could voice out how I felt...
Crash.
Yes, crash.
That was exactly what I heard followed by the familiar sound of glass shattering as it hit the pavement.
The car swerved out of the main road to fall into a misshapen dusty path where it tumbled down and down and down until it drove face first into a large tree.
The force of the impact made us all fall forward, and while I did, I hit my head hard against the headboard right in front of me, winced and cried out when I felt the familiar warm liquid trickle down my forehead.
I groaned. "Kael, Zevran... Caelum?"
But none of them answered. None of them even tried to reach out to me.
My vision waned only for a brief second and when I peeled my eyes back open, my breath almost caught in my chest due to the strong stench of fresh blood in the air. In fear, I let my eyes dart around very quickly, gasping when I noticed the blood on Kael’s forehead, the one on the corner of Caelum’s lips and the one on...
"Where the hell is Zevran?"
What the fuck just happened?
I tried to sit up but my body felt so stiff, I could barely hold my weight up. But that... that was nothing compared to the pain now flaring brazenly somewhere around my midriff. It felt as though my entire body had been set ablaze. Like I had just been stretched thin on top of a burning furnace.
"Why does everything hurt so much?" I moaned, "what is even happening?"
When I tried to move, I noticed to my horror that I couldn’t and that most of my clothes were drenched in my blood.
I tried to pat myself to see where I had hurt but for some reason, my hand wouldn’t move. My heart wouldn’t stop hammering against my chest and I couldn’t help the fear now clawing its way up my spine.
"Kael?" I groaned, hoping that he would peel his eyes open. But he did not. "Cael—" I began to say but stopped when I noticed that he was nowhere to be found as well.
"Where the hell is he too?"
Wasn’t he just here only a second ago?
However, just as I was pondering over these things, an unfamiliar pair of hands suddenly latched onto my arm and pulled me out of the car with so much force, my vision blurred.
I tried to scream but my throat felt too raw, and goddess, I even had no strength left in me to fight even if I wanted to.
As I was roughly shoved out of the car and slammed to the floor, I couldn’t help but panic because what the fuck is Caelum and Zevran doing a few meters away from me? Lying face down in the dirt and unmoving?
Why the fuck did they look like they were dead?
And most of all, who are these people?
I lifted my head slowly to meet their gazes and the sight I was meet with had my breath hitching in my chest.
Why?
Because I was peering into the eyes of one of the most soulless, darkest beings I’ve ever seen in my life.
The man was large, standing about six foot five with shoulders so broad, they could pass as a tree. His frame was sturdy and strong... but his eyes... they were the darkest scariest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
For a very brief second, he looked at me like I was food, then brushed his fingers over my dry lips as he mulled;
"I want to fuck this one."
I froze.
"Madame asked us to bring the four of them to her unscathed," someone else responded. But because I was too weak and in too much pain, I didn’t even bother to turn around to see who it was.
The man in front of me scrunched up his nose, his voice cold as he hissed; "She asked us not to kill anyone, and in my entire life, I have never met a girl who died from taking my dick."
"This one would." The other man responded, his voice holding a tinge of mockery. "As you can see, she is on the literal verge of death."
I felt hands fist into my hair even before I saw it and next thing I know, there was a smelly hot lip pressing against my cheek.
The owner of the lips— the soulless man— squeezed one of my boobs greedily in between his large hands and shook his head. "Too bad, madame is a manic, I would’ve fucked you until you lost your legs." He growled into my face.
His words made my frown deepen, and seeing that, he continued; "You smell like a virgin and I hope I get to taste that before your very painful demise."
My head was throbbing and so was every other part of my body. But despite this, I still met his eyes coldly and hissed; "The only thing you’ll get a taste of is my wrath, I promise you Scarface."
