Page 226 of Evil Hearts

Chapter Five

I n the weeks that followed, as Nora’s leg healed, Madoc and Nora fell into a pattern of conversation, food, sex, and sleep. He joined with her in every way a man can join a woman—and Nora loved every second of it, even as she secretly plotted her departure. Madoc was nearly always at her side. She got better at hearing him approach, and it became a game.

Could he sneak up on her and touch her without her hearing his approach? Could he depart and Nora not notice? The absolute darkness still frightened her, as she feared she’d never see light again. She heard the echoes and cadences of the other members of Madoc’s family, living in other areas of the caves. She came to understand that he wanted her to stay as silent as possible so as not to share her sounds with others.

In all the times Madoc had taken her, he touched and traced her whole body, but he refused to let her touch him. She knew he was bearded and had longish shaggy hair. Nora knew he was thick and muscular but had no idea what he might look like in the light. That was part of the eroticism: she couldn’t see and was rarely allowed to touch.

And she knew he had fur.

She desperately wanted to ask “ what are you? ” but knew instinctively that she needed to let him share on his own time.

The day she stood for the first time since falling down the washed-out road was bittersweet. She had no idea how long she’d been in the cave, and she was weak as dandelion fuzz when she finally was able to climb out of the hammock for the first time. Her whole body shook with the effort of standing on her own. The darkness didn’t help—with no visual frame of reference, her balance was off.

But Madoc was there with an arm around her waist, holding one hand to make sure she didn’t fall.

It also didn’t help that the floor of the cavern was not level. Every time she awoke, she immediately forced herself to stand and stretch, to feel the walls around her, and to start learning the terrain. To her right, there was a slight downward angle to most of the passages, and to her left, there were places of flat planes, and ones that angled up. While she had come to more-than-like sex with the enigmatic Madoc, she knew she had to leave. No matter how good the orgasms were, she did not want to spend the rest of her life in the dark. She wanted to see her parents again. Her sister. Coffee. And pizza. God, even coffee AND a pizza together sounded good.

So each time she awoke, she moved and stretched and worked to regain her strength and her balance. She knew Madoc watched her slowly reclaim her independence, and she knew he would fight her should she try to leave. The wound in her leg was mostly healed. There was a constant bone-deep ache, but she was mobile as long as she gritted her teeth and endured it.