The Soul Mate

CHAPTER NINETEEN

As I neared the end of my chores, a booted foot came out of nowhere and kicked an entire barrel of clean dishes over. The barrel rolled about 15 feet, dishes went flying, some landing outside the wards.

“What is your problem?” I asked Onyx, unsurprised to find her attached to the booted foot.

“You.” She poked me in the chest.

“I have never done anything to you,” I said defensively. But I had, hadn’t I? Inadvertently anyway. I’d come out of nowhere and taken from her someone she loved.

“Do you know what I loathe about the Gaje?” She asked.

“I know I really don’t care,” I told her and began collecting the scattered dishes.

“You’re greedy, nasty little whores who think just because they live in big houses and drive nice cars that they can have anything they want just because they want it. And when you’re done wanting it you throw it away like it never meant a thing to you and you move on to something bigger or prettier.”

Still ignoring her, I reached down to pick up another dish.

“Why did it have to be you?” She asked.

“Why?” She continued in a scathing tone. “You have no magic, you have no Romani in you and you’re not even that pretty!”

“You think I wanted this!” I yelled. I dropped the dishes I was holding and turned toward her. “You think this was how I’d envisioned myself ending up with someone?”

I laughed at her. “Yeah, I stayed up every night as a little girl praying to the Gods that someday they would send me to a guy who would see me as nothing more than a necessity!”

Seething, I turned my back on her to pick up the dishes I’d dropped. Dumping them in the barrel I began hastily collecting the others that had scattered farther away.

“No matter,” Onyx said, suddenly directly behind me. “Soon there won’t be much left of you to see.”

A sense of dread filled me. I’d just barely turned my head when I felt the palms of her hands push against my back. With strength I didn’t think possible for someone of her size, or even a human for that matter, she pushed me and I flew about ten feet through the front lot, then skidded across the grass before hitting the tire of a large van.

Before I knew what was happening she was wrenching me up. Frantically I reached for the closest thing to me, the back double doors of a van. They were completely smooth and devoid of anything to grasp.

“Bye Trinity.” She laughed as she pushed me forward. I tottered for a minute, then a blast of wind hit me hard and I went flying through the wards.

It took me a minute to realize what had happened. I’d never even ventured sticking a pinky finger through the wards. I had always assumed they consisted of some kind of substance, something tangible. But no, it was if I had simply fallen over.

The camp had vanished.

I was still standing in the middle of a huge clearing except now it was empty. I walked forward and I was instantly overcome with the strangest sensation to… walk away.

“Onyx! You bitch!” I screamed.

“I didn’t ask for delivery,” Somebody hissed from behind me. My mouth dried. “But I’ll take it.”

“Shit! Shit! SHIT!” I screamed. I screamed and I ran.

My body surprised me. Several months of hard labor had given me more endurance that I’d expected.

I ignored the small branches and sharp rocks cutting into my feet and focused solely on pumping my arms and legs as hard as I could.

A frighteningly high pitched scream had me nearly jumping out of skin. To my left, two naked bodies rolled alongside of me locked in a bloodied ball of snarls and hisses.

I turned sharply to the right, smashing my face into a low hanging tree branch. Stumbling backwards I tripped over something, a rock maybe. I was fully engulfed in the forest now and its shadows. Getting to my feet I heard a crunch followed by a low growl. Squinting, I scanned the area.

Crouched by a tree no more than four or five feet from me, eyes glowing red against the dark of the forest, was how I was going to die.

As if reading my thoughts he grinned at me, a depraved and ugly look full of vile intent.

I began to shake furiously as he stepped out of the shadows. “I’m going to fuck you while I kill you,” He hissed, his nostrils flaring.

If his intentions were to incite fear in his victims before he did them in, it was working tenfold. But I didn’t doubt him for a second. He was in fact turned on. Naked as the day he was born and bared before me I could see just how arousing the thought of raping and killing me was to him.

“Please,” I begged him. “Don’t.”

He laughed, the sound resembling more of a growl then anything close to merriment. Inhaling again, this time deeply, his large chest expanded. “Ahhhh, you are far too sweet. I should bring you back and keep you as my own.”

Oh my Gods. He wanted to make me like him.

The horror I felt must have shown on my face because the bastards grin swelled. I was out of options and out of time. In a last desperate attempt to live, I turned to run.

With speed no mere human will ever possess he had me pinned down on my stomach before, it seemed, I’d even had a chance to move. Too startled, too scared to even scream, I wet myself.

Something wet and surprisingly warm began stroking my cheek. His tongue, I realized, as I fought the urge to gag while he licked his way from chin to temple.

I didn’t want to die, not before I’d really gotten a chance to live. And not like this.

Cool air hit my back as my t-shirt was torn open. I squeezed my eyes shut. Was it going to hurt to turn? Would I remember my life before? Would any part of me be the same?

My body instinctively jerked off the ground as ice cold daggers pierced through the flesh on my back. I screamed through the pain and kept on screaming until an explosion went off. I felt a tearing inside of my ear, and then both pain and pressure filled my entire head.

It hurt so bad I barely noticed that the weight on top of me was gone.

“I’ve got you fată, you’re safe now,” A muffled voice said. Something warm pressed up against my cheek. “I’m not leaving you. Not ever again.”

I tried to speak, to say anything at all but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even move.

Thankfully, everything soon went black.