Chapter Six
Morning came, and Lana slowly opened her eyes. Sunshine peeked in through the small round windows, lighting up the carriage. She noticed it was still in motion. Dante’s warm body enveloped her, his arm draped about her waist. As she stirred, he moved slowly, pulling her even closer to him. She felt his length stir against her, hardening at her touch.
“Good morning, my pet,” he whispered in her ear. Despite everything, she smiled softly at him even though he couldn’t see her, and snuggled back into his chest. She felt the carriage come to a halt, and a knock sounded on the door. Dante pushed himself up and got out of bed in order to answer it. She watched as he closed the door behind him. Lana pulled the covers in close, feeling very cold without his warmth.
She heard Dante and a male voice talking in low hushed tones. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t discern what they were saying. Sighing, she rose and climbed out of bed, and shuffled to the kitchen, hoping to find a coffeepot or something like it. Craving a nice hot cup of the beverage, she was surprised when she found the coffeemaker in the cupboard, alongside a bag of delicious-smelling coffee grounds. Taking a deep sniff, the coffee aromas overtook her. Happily, she put the grounds in the coffeemaker and set it to brew. She watched as freshly prepared coffee began to drip into the container. Dante hadn’t returned to their little home away from home by the time it was done, but Wes and Emma were beginning to stir. She found some coffee mugs and poured four cups. Exploring further, she discovered sugar and cream and added them to hers. Picking up two mugs, a container of creamer, and few packets of sugar, she carried them to Wes and Emma. Looking up at her gratefully, they each took a mug. Wes took his coffee black, and Emma added a bunch of sugar and creamer to hers. Lana took the rest of the creamer and sugar and brought it back to the table. Sipping on hers, she melted into the soft leather couch.
Sitting sideways, she peeked out the window at the scenery outside. They were surrounded by trees and overgrown plants as far as she could see. She could see some of the lions and wolves milling about, their size dwarfing any human or even the larger Erassans. Before too long, she had finished her coffee and went off to brush her teeth and her hair. Strangely, Dante hadn’t returned yet.
Wandering toward the door, she opened it and peeked outside, the fresh air caressing her face. A scent reminiscent of fresh flowers tickled her nose. Opening the door further, she exited the carriage and sat on the small ledge at the top of the steep stairs. A breeze ruffled her hair.
Lana smiled when Tala came and sat in front of the stairs. The oversized wolf gazed at her, yellow eyes piercing through her entire soul.
“Morning, Tala,” Lana said softly. The wolf dipped her head slightly in response. “Did Dante go far?”
“No, but he told me to make sure you stayed here. It seems the situation is tenser than expected here.”
“What seems to be the issue?”
“Danger from the south is growing. There are whispers of a terrible man-beast who builds an army of great might. This place is nervous because of this.” Tala’s voice sounded loud in her head.
“You mean, this planet is divided? Dante isn’t king of all the lands?”
“No, his reach only goes so far. He rules over many territories, collectively known as the kingdom of Legeari.”
“What lies south of us?” Lana asked out loud.
“The kingdom of D’Lormere. Even further south lies the New World, but they have been cut off from our world for some time now.”
“Cut off?”
“There’s a magical wall between D’Lormere and the New World. Human wizards erected it centuries ago, in order to keep our lands safe from dangers long forgotten. The threat we are facing today centers in the lands of D’Lormere. We know not who within that territory is threatening our borders as of yet, but the king aims to find out.”
Tala sounded ominous. Lana hugged her arms into her chest and looked into the shadows of the forest, but they were silent; there was only the sound of rustling in the wind. Deciding to take a chance, she climbed down the ladder and approached Tala.
“Are we far from Eriborough, Tala?”
“No, we are just outside the settlement.”
There was something about this place that made Lana feel edgy, like something was a little off. She wandered toward the front of the carriage, and heard Tala walking behind her, tailing her. Keeping close to the big wolf, she looked around, trying to see if she could find Dante.
She saw him off in the distance, talking with a large tan Erassan male, who was wearing little other than a loincloth and an elaborate headdress. The two of them seemed to be having a heated conversation. She could practically see Dante’s anger seething from him as she watched the rise and fall of his shoulders. Thanking her lucky stars that he had never been that angry with her, she leaned against Tala, who had come up beside her. Petting the giant wolf’s soft fur calmed her as she observed the conversation between the two big men.
They were no longer talking in hushed tones. In fact, they were yelling now. She heard something about the number of humans diminishing, and something about the Erassan people not being safe either. Lana tried to follow the conversation, but still seemed lost. Instead, she gave up and turned back to the big wolf.
“Tala? What’s been happening here?”
“It seems the Erassans of Eriborough have a significant number of missing humans, many of them being young women and teenagers. The chief says it is no longer safe for humans to venture out alone in the night, although his concern lies more with his Erassan people, and not his human slaves.”
“What’s happening to the Erassan people that scares him?”
“A few of the young ones have been found drained of life, their eyes completely black. Every vein in their body looked as though it had been filled with ink. It is a magic that has struck fear into everyone here.”
“That’s terrible. How could something like that happen?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before.”
Lana watched as Dante ran his hand over his face, agitation causing his muscles to twitch. She felt an insatiable need to ease his worry, but held herself back. Feeling uneasy, almost as if someone was watching her, she turned and looked deep into the woods. Seeing nothing but the shiver of leaves from the wind, she tried to shake off the odd feeling and turned back to look at the two men.
“Come. Let me show you the horror of what afflicts our Erassan people, our very own young ones,” the chief offered. “But you should know your human waits for you over there with your wolf. Bring her along so that she may serve us if we need it.”
Dante whirled around to face her, his anger obvious and then quickly masked. It was clear he wasn’t very happy to see her outside the carriage. He pointed at the ground and stood tall, indicating to her that she needed to be by his side immediately. Lana looked back at Tala and made her way over to Dante, suddenly very nervous. Standing beside him, she waited.
His hand shot out and grabbed the back of her neck. She cried out at the sudden pain. Pulling her close to him, he hissed in her ear.
“What are you doing out of the carriage?”
Lana whimpered at his sudden aggression and did her best to quiet herself. He had warned her that he’d be harsher with her in public, but this seemed almost too much. His hand tightened, and she could feel his fury. He had never treated her like this or hurt her without reason before. Then she remembered Emma’s words of warning. Maybe he was the monster the humans said he was, the monster Emma had told her about. Maybe what she had felt for him wasn’t real.
“My king, what news of the south have you procured?” Wes’ voice broke the tension. Dante harshly threw Lana to the side and she dropped to her knees, carefully keeping her eyes on the ground at his feet. Her breathing ragged, she tried to understand what had just happened. Fear billowed up within her, taking over her thoughts. She knelt on the ground, her muscles shaking.
Soft female hands touched her shoulders, and Lana looked up to see Emma. The girl offered her a hand, and Lana took it. Slowly, the two of them backed away and let the men talk. Wes snapped his fingers at his side and pointed behind him. Emma scurried to him, and Lana followed, looking at Dante with a distrust she hadn’t known a few moments ago. How could she have allowed herself to care for such a man? How could he hurt her like that? How could she even begin to let herself fall for someone who would think it was okay to hurt her that way?
Wes looked back to the two of them and pointed at their carriage. The chief and Dante were no longer watching the human girls, and Wes turned away, trusting that they would obey his instruction. Lana grabbed Emma’s hand and ran back to the safety of the metal hull. Emma climbed up the ladder into the carriage, but Lana paused, turning back toward the men, gazing at them.
Emma looked down at her, urging her to come back into the little refuge, but Lana couldn’t. Something deep within her held her back.
A sudden need overcame her. She had to escape. Somehow, she had to get away from all this.
She met Emma’s eyes and mouthed her apology before she took off at a full sprint deep into the woods. The moment Dante had grabbed her, something had broken within her. She questioned how she’d allowed herself to care for such a person. Terrible memories rushed through her head, of her alcoholic father hitting her, grabbing her in unacceptable ways. She thought she had escaped all that.
She had thought Dante actually had cared for her. She had thought she cared for him too.
Tears coursed down her face as she ran, the sheer cloth of her designated human clothing ripping on thorns and branches. The weak fabric was torn to shreds in the deep forest. Her muscles, fueled with emotion and adrenaline, kept her moving far longer than she expected. She continued, racing through the forest with wild abandon. Refusing to be the king’s pet any longer, she ran for what felt like hours.
The simple sandals on her feet held up surprisingly well, protecting the soles of her feet from rocks and sharp objects on the forest floor. When she felt like she was far enough away, Lana continued walking at a brisk pace, the sun high in the sky over her head. If she were on Earth, she would have guessed it was high noon, but since she was on a different planet, she had no idea how long she had been running.
Her breathing loud, she tried to calm herself, so that any potential pursuers wouldn’t hear her. She wanted to pause, but couldn’t stand the chance. Capture was a very real and very scary possibility.
She found herself approaching a river and waded into the water, hoping to cover her scent. The water got deeper as she followed the stream, and she took a quick dip, cooling off her body from her long run. Finally completely and entirely alone, she submerged herself and looked up at the sky, floating atop the water, drifting with the slight current.
Relishing her time alone, she allowed herself to think.
Her life had been blown apart in what seemed like a few days. She had been a normal college student, taking classes and worrying about exams. Her friends Becca and Jake had been the most important people in her life, but now, they seemed like a dream, like they weren’t even real. For God’s sake, she wasn’t even on Earth anymore. She had been kidnapped and taken to some planet she had never heard of before, examined in the crudest of ways, and gifted to the king as his very own personal slave. He had been both cruel and kind in the best sorts of ways, bringing her pleasure and pain in a variety of methods. But he was a king and that was his first priority. She would never be that for him. He had certain responsibilities and his people expected him to act in a certain way. Dante was an elite, an Erassan, and she was but a simple human. Maybe it was never really meant to be.
Her limbs trembling, she climbed out of the cool water onto the opposite bank of the river. Following it far into the distance, she kept the body of water to her right as she walked, far from where the Erassan royal guard was camped. Before she knew it, night began to fall. She began to search for shelter, and found a massive tree with hanging branches that seemed to fall with just that in mind. Moving aside a branch or two, she crawled into the safety of the tree.
The tree’s branches fell in such a way that a rather large area was protected. Moving close to the trunk, Lana sat and leaned against it. Her muscles were sore and protesting; she wondered just how far a distance she had covered in a single day. Silently, she listened for any noises deep in the forest but heard nothing. She was safe. Closing her eyes, she allowed sleep to overtake her.
* * *
Lana woke some hours later, unsure of what caused her to awaken. A very strange cold breeze tore through her little shelter. It was wholly unnatural and chilled her to the bone. Suddenly very aware of just how naked she was, she tried to cover herself with the shredded fabric that remained of her human slave outfit, but to little avail. She should have stolen better clothes before deciding to escape an all-powerful alien king into the wilds of the woods.
Trembling, she waited, putting all her effort into listening to the strange wind. The more she listened, the more her cold, naked fear grew. Something was very, very wrong, and she was completely and utterly alone.
It was still pitch black out, and her eyes struggled to see anything. Straining, she opened her ears and eyes wide in hopes of discerning what this strange feeling was. All her attempts were futile. There wasn’t even a bright moon to help her see anything.
The air grew so frigid that she could see her breath in front of her face. Shivering with cold and fear, she began to regret her decision to run away. Even now, she wished she was in Dante’s warm embrace, looking at the smirk on Wes’ face, and the timid, but happy look seated deep in Emma’s eyes. Closing her own eyes, she waited for whatever awful thing came with this strange frosty wind.
Something frigid brushed up against her and she yelped, recoiling at the icy touch. Whatever it was, it was very wrong, and felt like an evil so dark, it chilled her to the bone. She opened her eyes, searching the dark of the night again. Picking up her frigid limbs, she pushed herself out of her little shelter and started running. She tripped and landed on her hands and knees many times. Her terror pushed her to run faster than she would have ever dared in the dark before. Her eyes finally adjusting, she was able to avoid a few trees at the last second. No matter how far she ran, it seemed like she couldn’t escaped the chilling touch of the strange wind.
“Please, leave me alone,” she cried out, her voice breaking in fear. She would give anything to be back with the Erassans far away from whatever this was. Surprising even herself, she decided even another dose of Dante’s belt would be preferable than the cold terror that seemed to be lying in wait for her.
A deep laugh sounded heavy in the air, so unexpected that it nearly flattened Lana to the ground with terror. Her limbs grew heavy, like some strange power was weighing her down.
Looking back, she tried to run faster, tried to escape this terrible thing, but ran straight into something hard and firm. Crying out as she fell to the ground, she pushed herself back up and gasped in fright.
A line of tall Erassan men in strange clothing stared at her. The man she had run into looked down at her fiercely, almost hungrily. Grabbing the hair at the back of her head, he twisted her around and forced her to stand tall, looking in the direction she had been running from.
Dread billowed up through her. The sun was beginning to rise and the sky was lightening. Her eyes, once used to the dead of night, adjusted quickly to take in a terrifying sight. A man stood in front of her, at least something like the shape of a man. Everything about him was jet black, like she was staring at a walking shadow. His eyes were a deep blood red as he gazed back at her. He stood well above her by at least two feet, and his body frame and muscles were equally as massive.
Lana trembled before him as she was held fast by the Erassan she had run into. Pain radiated through her skull as he pulled on her hair, but she hardly noticed, her focus solely on the shadow man. What did these monsters want with her?
She didn’t say a word. The shadow man walked up to her, and she held her breath in suspense. He grabbed her chin and she whimpered, his touch liquid ice. It was so cold she felt like her skin was burning.
Moving her face back and forth, the shadow man studied her. A terrifying smile broke out over his face, teeth white against the soul-crushing black of his skin, so dark that Lana swore that it was darker than jet fuel. A living shadow; rather, living fear.
“Let go of me, you monster!” she cried out, her voice unsteady and unable to stow away her fear.
The shadow man laughed heartily at her and grabbed her hand. Cold agony raced through her as she watched black lines etch over her skin, her veins turning the color of ink. Pain like she had never known before coursed up her arm, and tears fell from her eyes. The shadow man let go of her hand, and she watched it, shaking as her skin turned back to normal.
“What do you want,” she panted, her voice strained with the lingering pain of what he had done to her. The man holding her tightened his grip and she cried out at the tiny stabs of pain that drilled into her skull.
The shadow man pointed straight at her before he brought his fingers to her throat. She felt Dante’s collar fall to the ground. A deep dread filled her.
She was completely unprotected.
He pushed aside a stray piece of fabric so that it fell off her right shoulder, exposing both her collarbone and the king’s tattoo. A strange sort of smile passed over his lips.
“You are the child of prophecy, the one destined to change our world.”
Lana stared at the man, completely bewildered. What could he possibly mean?
“Take her, and make sure she can’t escape. Our success relies on her capture, so that we may prevent the prophecy from taking away our chances of victory.”
Lana fought tooth and nail, but hands seemed to come from everywhere, grabbing her hands and arms, as well as her legs and feet. Before long, she was completely overpowered. There was nothing she could do to escape, as strong fingers clamped all over every inch of her skin. Still, she continued to try to fight as they ferreted her away in the early morning fog. Tears of desperation clouded her vision as she screamed out for Dante, Wes, Emma, and Tala, calling for their help, for their forgiveness, and most of all, their protection.