Page 24 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

This wasn’t my bed.

Wait.

Yesterday, I came back home, ate that mouth-watering puff pastry with the sweetest cream filling, cursed myself for pretending it was what I craved, and passed out.

In mykitchen.

The water. There had to be something in that water. I didn’t drink or eat anything else.

He must have put something in it.

The man who had been hiding in my bedroom.

The man who had stalked me the past two months and forced me to come two days ago. Half-forced me. Okay, I’d enjoyed it. But it didn’t meankidnappingme was acceptable.

I leaped up to get out, but a thick gray blanket halted my attempt, and I face-planted the mattress.

Great. The freaking bed itself had decided to become my personal jail cell. Utter perfection.

Sitting up on my heels, I brushed the hair out of my face and deliberately exhaled in a plea for my heart to cease racing. I tugged my pale blue, half-sleeved shirt down, so it wasn’t scrunched up between my armpits uncomfortably, and curled my pinkie.

One. The bed I was on could fit no less than two people and was covered in half a dozen gray pillows—the color of concrete apartment buildings in Ilasall—half of them scattered on the ground. Might have been my fault. But I wasn’t going to pick them up. My kidnapper could handle the mess.

Two. The room was much larger than my whole apartment in the city. The bed itself was arguably bigger than my bedroom.

Three. On my left stood a dark wood bedside table, leading to a matching closet fifteen feet away.

Four. Daylight was pouring from the three large windows on the far wall. Now wasn’t the morning. Based on the sun’s position, I’d guess the middle of the day or later. Which meant I’d been out for a night and half a day.

I crawled on the bed toward them, dragging the blanket with me down to the floor, and ran. It took me way too many precious seconds to reach the windows.

Shit.

I was high up. Old ruins and dilapidated buildings filled in the gaps between the standing survivors, surrounded by open fields of verdant greenery. Mountains loomed on the horizon instead of the familiar concrete wall.

I wasn’t in the city anymore.

I yanked the window handle and ducked to avoid the glass hitting me from my rush. Hot summer air blasted my face and a non-refreshing breeze tousled my hair. A bout of noise floated from the street below where a mass of people crowded the road, shouting greetings, chatting, and loudly opening and closing doors to what I supposed were shops and stores. Everyone was beaming, full of life, not contempt, irritation, or arrogance like in Ilasall.

A woman in a white flowing dress looked up and waved at me. I slammed my back to the grayish wall next to the window. Careful not to expose myself, I dared another peek outside, but she was nowhere to be seen. Was she coming here now that she’d noticed me?

I was not willing to wait and find out. I had to get out of here. Now.

A kick of adrenaline dissipated the last wisps of fog clouding my mind, and I searched the stupidly vast room for my target.

There. A black door.

My bare feet carried me across the bedroom, and I cursed as the wooden floor changed into white-and-black marble tiles, chilly under my soles. A massive bathroom. With a bathtub that could fit more than one person.

But there had to be an exit. I scrambled back to the bedroom and noticed another dark wood door. What was up with all the matching furniture here? Nobody cared about that in Ilasall. Not in the apartment buildings assigned to the black band wearers. Now the spaces dedicated to green-banded people… Lavish was an understatement.

As I pulled and pried the door handle, it rattled from the tension, but refused to budge. As if the world was mocking me, using the tiny metal rod in the door to play games with me.

A yell to be let out simmered inside me, but I kept my mouth shut. Never let them know you were awake. Never give them the advantage of knowing your plans.

Ceasing my efforts, I retreated and paced the expansive room. If he viewed me as prey lost in his trap, he was terribly mistaken. I could play his hunting game. Let him think he had me. Because I needed him close to be able to cut him into a thousand pieces from this noose he thought to have me in.

For now, I had to come up with a solution. Only the fact that I had no clue where I was complicated the matters.