Page 17 of Demonic Cage
Darya looks at me, and the words freeze on my lips like dew. The same gaze. Silver streaks in completely black eyes. Now he really looks like a demon. It takes great strength to gently place my other hand on his arm.
“Please! Let him go and then take me away from here!”
His eyes clear, restoring their cloudy gray hue. He releases Nathan.
Darya looms over me, casting his predatory gaze on me again. Once more, I feel like he wants to devour me. I quickly step aside before he can grab me and kneel beside Nathan, who is gasping for air. The rosy haze caused by the drugs has almost cleared, to be replaced by more violent dizziness and nausea, butI stubbornly resist and try not to collapse. I place my hand on Nathan’s back.
“Can you stand up?” I ask.
“How dare you, you fucking son of a bitch!” he screams at the white-haired man. “You picked a fight with the wrong person. I swear you’ll regret this! I’ll… Don’t touch me, Lotte!” he shouts at me, pushing me away. My whole body trembles as I fall, the pain radiating through my spine running all the way to my head.
Strong, cold hands grasp my waist and help me. Even blindly, I know it’s Darya standing beside me.
“Lotte, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Nathan says, his voice trembling with guilt.
“Silence.” Darya’s command is chillingly calm. “Or I’ll regret not breaking your neck. You have no idea how valuable this girl is!”
It takes a great effort for me to speak.
“Let’s go,” I say, grasping onto Darya. “Can you take us from here?”
The man smiles, and in his eyes burns the fire of victory, as if it has been blazing there for centuries.
“Yes,” he responds, leading us towards the kitchen. I hesitate.
“We can’t go through the door,” he informs me. “The exterior is full of herebias. They’ve surrounded us. They’re looking for you.”
My blood freezes in my veins.
“Why? To kill me?”
There’s nothing on Darya’s face to erase his confident smile.
“Don’t worry,my little champion,” he says, and before entering the kitchen, he runs a finger from my forehead to my chin, then further down, lightly touching my breasts. “I’ll protect you. You won’t fall into their hands.”
I want to speak, but I feel something is wrong. The silence that follows is too profound.
A chill runs down my spine as I look around. All the people are frozen, staring into nothingness as if they’ve turned to stone. If I didn’t see their chests moving, I’d think they were dead.
My hand turns ice cold. I’ve seen this before in the psychiatric ward. Truly insane souls who sit all day in one place, staring at the wall. I glance at Nathan, who is also frozen, his angry gaze fixed on me, his arm still outstretched towards me.
“What did you do to them?” I whisper, unable to look at Darya. I’m going mad. I must be going mad.
“They’ll be fine,” he reassures me. “They just turned to stone.”
I step back from him, but he follows.
“I can tell you one thing, Lotte, and I promise as much,” he says, cupping my face in his hands. Just as he touches me, I realize I’m trembling, teetering on the brink of hysteria. “I’ll never lie to you.”
He only twists the truth.
“Will you hurt them?” I ask uncertainly.
“Why would you save them?” Darya whispers. “They wouldn’t save you.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Too much for me to list,” he says in a deep voice.
