One foot in front of the other. I tried to focus on my steps to avoid thinking. If I allowed my mind free reign it would replay Abby making plans with monsters to have me broken. It would replay John’s mangled body in the cockpit of that plane. No. I was injured, tired and beaten. Just walking was hard enough. The forest was dark, filled with strange sounds I hadn’t noticed before. The terrain was uneven and my captor moved at a pace I struggled to keep up with considering my head and throat ached and my arms were tied behind my back.

But even with all my efforts, a rock took me down and I went tumbling face first towards the ground. Two strong arms caught me, leaving my cheek pressed against a broad chest. I was too weary to pull away. Without a word, Max hoisted me over his shoulder and carried me the rest of the way.

We were engulfed in darkness as we entered a cave. The night’s chill faded as he carried me deeper into the tunnels. He placed me on something soft and furry and then moved away from me. Moments later, light illuminated the cavern allowing me to see my surroundings.

In the corner of the room a stone basin bubbled over with steaming water. Some sort of hot spring which explained why the caves were so warm. I was sitting on a pallet of furs. Next to me was a crate with a kerosene lamp resting on it. Several more lamps hung from the walls which Max turned on one at a time. Then he turned back to me, reaching for my neck. I flinched and he stopped. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

His eyes were warm, his voice gentle. I knew he thought he was telling the truth, but he hadn’t fully considered his words. “Until ordered otherwise,” I corrected.

He gave a soft smile. “Until ordered otherwise,” he admitted.

Everything about him radiated kindness. But I knew better than to judge things by how they seemed on the surface. He wouldn’t hesitate to tear me apart and wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep over it. Unlike me, Max could successfully compartmentalize.

“I’m about to take the rope from your collar and use it to bind your feet. Okay?”

I remained silent because it wasn’t as though I actually got a say in any of this. His gentle methods were meant to elicit my compliance. I was supposed to be so grateful that he wasn’t hurting me that I’d happily accept being bound, but I knew better. I wasn’t the kind of person that would be so easily manipulated.

He unleashed me and used the rope to bind my feet. Then he headed over to the hot spring.

He faced me, shamelessly, as he sank down in the pool of steaming water. People should have been able to tell Max was something more than human just by looking at him. He was too tall, too toned, his shaggy hair shone to much, his eyes were too intense. There was just too much of him, anyone looking hard enough would have seen it.

The room filled with lavender as Max washed my friend’s blood off his body. "His name was John in case you're curious."

“I wasn’t,” he said, sinking more of his body into the steaming water.

"He had a son, David. He turns ten in March."

He stared at me. His narrowed eyes seemed unnatural. He had a face made for smiling. "And were you concerned about David when you talked John into flying you out here? A trip I'm sure you didn't get permission for. For you to even find this place you must have had some idea of what we were. Did you warn John? Or did you just use him to save your precious Abby? I might have delivered the killing blow, but you're the one who was willing to sacrifice him, little David be damned."

For a person who promised not to hurt me, he didn’t keep his word for very long. His words were like a blow to the chest, because they were true. I knew there was something abnormal about this place, about Abby’s captor, and yet I came anyway and I didn’t give John a bit of warning. How could I? He would have thought I was insane.

I laid down on the furs turning my back to Max. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of my tears which ran freely down my face.

I could hear him stepping out of the hot spring and padding across the floor towards me. He grabbed me by the arm and I froze in panic.

"Not interested," he said, dismissing my worst fears.

The ropes around my wrist fell off. Then he cut my ankles free too. I glimpsed just enough to see his claw turn back into a human finger. This was just too much.

I tried to get away, but he wrapped an arm around me and tucked me against his chest as he laid down. I fought to free myself of his grasp, but he was impossibly strong. No matter how hard I fought, the arm that held me was unyielding. Eventually, I tired myself out. "I'm trained in multiple types of combat. This ass, it's from kickboxing classes three times a week. How the hell can I not break free of you?"

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You're doing particularly well for a human female."

I might not have had enough space to get a good kick in, but I did have just enough room for an elbow to the stomach. I smiled with satisfaction when he grunted. So he did have a sense of pain, I’d just have to hit him with enough force to really make him feel it.

We laid there in silence and I couldn't stand it, so I had to ask, "What's the plan here?"

He sighed. "You were there for the plan. Or more accurately the lack of one. All we have is Abby's wish for you to remain alive."

"I'll escape, you know." I hoped my words sounded more convincing to him than they did to me.

"Doubtful. There is no way off the island, so even if you escaped from me, you'd have nowhere to go."

"I could go kill your boss. Now that sounds like a plan to me. Hypothetically speaking, if a hunk of wood were to find it way into Julian's chest would I be able to Hoover him out of the carpet or am I going to need a broom and dustpan first?"

"You'd never be fast enough to stake Julian, he'd see you coming before you even reached the building."

I tapped my chin. "You're right. If I want to get the drop on someone who is stronger and faster than me, it's better to do it when his guard is down. How about come morning, I slip in and open the curtains for him?"

Judging from the slightly increased grip around my waist, my idea was viable. "Don't like thinking about your boss frying, huh?"

"You can dream all you want. The reality of it is that sooner or later even Abby is going to come to realize that you're a liability. When that day comes they'll agree to throw you in a cage somewhere. At first Abby will come to visit you, but as time passes you'll become a dark spot in her otherwise joyous life. So the visits will come further and further apart. Eventually, the two of you will fight over some irrelevant little thing and she'll use that as an excuse not to come back. You'll be fed and tended to, but in the end, you'll die a lonely old woman, in a cage, with no one able to recall why you're even there. That’s your fate. And to me it seems more merciful had they just let me kill you."

I shivered against him as I listened to his cold nihilistic tone. I didn't like the threat game anymore. He was winning.

"So are you just planning on holding me here like this?" I tried once again to wiggle myself out of his grasp, to little effect.

"Well, I'm sleepy and if I just left you tied up you up you'd inchworm your way across half the island by morning. But if this doesn't suit you, I can install some shackles for you tomorrow."

He couldn't see my icy glare, but I was sure it carried in my voice. "Good. I'd rather be chained to a wall, than force cuddled by a killer."

"Killer? Says the woman who carries a gun." I could hear the sleepiness in his voice, soon he'd drift off and I'd be able to attempt an escape.

I should have been quiet and let him fall asleep, but I couldn't keep myself from responding to him. "I use my weapon to protect those I care about."

"Same as me," he replied yawning.

Was he serious? Did he really think we had anything in common? "I uphold the law and defend the Constitution. You kidnap and murder people."

"You don't think I was following the law? Well I was, just because you never heard of them doesn't mean they don't exist."

I scoffed at the suggestion. "Yeah, the laws of monsters."

He sat up on his elbow and forced me to look at him. "In every realm where humans know about supernatural beings, they are subjugated. The Deathless hide from you, they allow you to grow and develop to a point where you may one day be a threat to them. The Veil doesn’t exist to protect the Deathless, it exists to protect humans from the Deathless."

I couldn't meet his gaze. It was too hard, my eyes darted to his chest. "It didn’t protect John," I argued weakly.

"What if Julian and I had let him go? Had let all of you go? What if he told people? His wife? His son? Then they'd have to die too. What if the three of you managed to somehow convince the world supernatural beings existed? You'd be starting a war that humanity would have no hope of winning. And in the end, this place would be no different than a hundred different realms, with humans the playthings of stronger beings."

"You could all leave. Just pack up and go back where you came from."

He chuckled and gently brushed my cheek. "The Deathless have existed in this world longer than all of humanity, what right would you have to kick them out? Just know, your friend's death wasn't in vain. Lives were protected. Human lives. I know it's hard, but we do what me must. I'm sure someone like you understands that."

I stared up at this man with big green eyes that reminded me of the forest and I knew he didn’t view himself as a villain. He viewed his cause to be as just as mine. He'd fight to protect Julian just as fiercely as I'd fight to protect Abby and only one of us could win. A person with that kind of conviction was almost impossible to beat. If I wanted to win this, I had to toss out all the rules and become the bad guy.

I pressed my cheek against his chest and pretended as though I'd fallen asleep. He was so impossibly warm. I waited until his breaths were shallow and even before attempting to slip out of his grasp. It didn't work. Even in sleep, he held onto me firmly. I struggled to the point of exhaustion until I finally drifted off.