Hi Everyone. I am sorry about my disappearance. I feel terrible about it. Since the last stroke I just can't write more than a couple of sentences and then everything just dries up. I keep wondering if I'll ever get any of it back. Yeah, boo hoo to me. I just wanted all the wonderful people who have followed my work to understand. Thanks so much!!!
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Chapter Five
Chal ran through the night. He could smell Bliss, could taste her fear on the wind and it made him insane. He blurred past houses and parks, all dark now at this time of the night. His mind raced as well. Every thought he had was for Bliss.
Pictures of last night, of the way she'd made love with him, tormented him. She'd been so...perfect, so gloriously perfect and beautiful. Thoughts of what Garret could be doing to her made him growl his fury. His eyes glowed and his lips spread, his fangs white and awful. Both his sides, the vampire and the incubus, were enraged. He had to find her before Garret could hurt her. His arms ached with his need to hold her. He'd promised her that she wouldn't be hurt, that she had nothing to fear from anyone as long as she was with him.
She was still with him, no matter where she went, she was still his until she said otherwise. "I'm coming, Bliss. I'm coming. Just stay strong for just a little bit longer."
But even as he said it, he felt the draining of his strength as the first rays of dawn tinged the sky. Despite his incubus side, he was still vulnerable to the sun's rays. He had to go to ground and soon.
* * * *
Bliss felt the hands that gripped her arms tighten even further. She whimpered under the hood that they'd placed on her. It was heavy, the fabric was itchy and she felt like she couldn't breathe. Her face was hot and sweat dripped from her chin.
The gown that Chal had surprised her with earlier this awful night was now torn and, she was sure, stained. She'd been so excited when he'd handed her the big silver box with a blue bow that he'd said matched her eyes. There'd been more than a dress in the box. He'd thought of everything she would need under the gown and shoes, beautiful shoes that perfectly matched the gown. Now it was ripped and she'd lost one of the shoes in her struggles to get free. Her arms were tied behind her back and they ached, her wrists bled and she was growing dizzy and faint with terror.
"Little warm?" The voice was insidious but unfamiliar and she didn't answer.
That was a mistake. He gripped her arm with fingers that felt like steel and shook her like a dog would a bone. "Now, let's try this again. Are you a little warm?"
"Yes! I'm warm!" Tears slipped from her eyes to mix with the saltiness of her sweat. She couldn't decide if they were from pain or from fear. She could only hope that Giselle and Rodney were okay. The couple had done their best to keep her safe when the men had broken down the french doors.
She had done everything that Chal had told her to do. She'd gone back to the house and locked the doors behind her. Then she'd paced and waited for Chal. There was fear in her, fear that she didn't understand. However, the thought of him being hurt or killed was too terrible to consider. The memory of the dream she'd sent him the night before, the dream that he'd made love to her with such power and control surprised her. She'd sent the dream but what he'd done with it still had her heart racing.
It wasn't Chal that came to find her. He'd stood in front of the french doors with his hands out to his side. He'd slowly turned in a full circle than he'd come closer to the doors and knocked gently.
"You're Miss Bliss, aren't you?" He asked through the glass. "Chal asked me to come and find you. He wanted you to know that everything is all right but you must come with me. He'll come find you when all is safe." The man spoke with a strange smile on his face. He sounded so gentle and absolutely honest.
It was as if he couldn't remember how to smile, like he was rusty, or missing something. There was an odd inflection in his voice as he spoke and she could feel him draw her in. She couldn't think of anything else but doing what he wanted. She reached for the door handle to open it for him.
But Rodney quickly wrapped his arm around her and spun her away as Giselle firmly double locked the door. "Leave Garret. You are not welcome here. Go back to those bottom dwellers you live with and leave this poor girl alone."
There was strength in Giselle's voice, strength and conviction in the steel of her words. It was almost as much steel as what was in Rodney's arms as he held her from the door.
The next few moments were awful. Bliss fought against Rodney's arms. She scratched and bit to try to force him to lower them so she could do what her master asked.
It was only when she thought of the word master and what it entailed that she finally calmed. She stood in docile silence with her face buried in her hands. "I was going to open the door for him. I was going to let him in."
"It's alright, Miss. Garret likes to make people do as he wishes. Just don't look in his eyes." Rodney slowly released her. "Can I get you anything, Miss?"
"Could you get me Chal, Rodney? I hate not knowing if he's okay or not." Bliss pleated the skirt of her gown. It felt so much better to have something to do to occupy her hands. She needed something for her thoughts as well. A quick glance back at the door made her realize that Garret was gone.
"I wish it were possible for me to conjure him up for you. But I was thinking more about something like tea." Rodney glanced toward the french doors as well. Garret wasn't there.
Bliss shook her head and graced Rodney with a smile. "Tea sounds wonderful, Rodney. Thank you."
"It is my pleasure." Rodney bowed and turned. With a knowing look to his wife, he glanced once more at the french doors and then left the room.
He'd returned very quickly, much too quickly to have brewed the beverage and set out the tea things. He was marched into the room, a man at his back with a sharp and amazingly long knife that looked more like a machete pressed to his throat.
"This would have been so much quicker and easier if you'd opened the doors, Bliss. Now I have to murder these two and I so didn't want to do that." Garret stared at her as if waiting for an answer. "Or..." He began slowly. "You could come with me willingly and I could let these two go."
He didn't wait for her to answer, only pulled the knife from his throat and slammed it down on Rodney's head. "You are definitely going to want to answer me quicker, Miss Bliss. I really don't have the patience to deal with any negativism. Now, you will come with me and I will let these two live. What do you say?"
Bliss was terrified but shaken and she stepped forward. "Let them go, please"
Garret held on to Rodney and took Bliss's arm. He glanced down at the winsome beauty. "I can see why Chal is so taken with you. I bet you are a sweet piece in bed. Your father said you were and that you were worth more than I could even imagine."
