Page 3 of Nowhere to Hide

Anything but the ghostland of empty vessels.

I glanced back to find him at the top of the incline.

My heels clomped into the wood, directing him to my location. I kicked them off, hoping my bare feet would give me a chance. I glanced back, but he kept walking. His long legs kept up with me at a fast clip, but he definitely wasn’t exerting himself as I was.

I felt along the edges of a boat, looking for a weapon or something. Nothing—not even a loose rope. I moved to the next slip, this one had a smaller craft. I was just about to hop off the dock when a hand yanked my hair, hauling me back against him.

I struggled. No way was I going down easy. I kicked out and twisted in his grip, my voice sharp on the air. My scream quickly muffled by the leather gloves. I struggled, but he wrapped his other arm around my middle, crushing my ribs, pushing all the air out of my lungs.

He pinched off my mouth and most of my nose lifting me easily to drag me along the dock to an empty slip. I tried to dig my nails into him, but the long sleeves and gloves protected him. I slumped in his arms, and it worked enough for me slide down his torso.

He only grunted and changed his hold from my mouth to my throat, banding his forearm across my windpipe. The lights of the pier turned to a kaleidoscope of colors as my trapped screams dissipated into black dots around my vision.

Suddenly he dumped me onto the pier and the back of my head cracked into the wood.

I must have lost time because I woke to a rope around my ankle as he jerked my legs apart. I couldn’t move because a thick rope held my head to the ground. The pier?

Was I still at the pier?

I immediately tried to loosen the rope, but intricate knots climbing from my forearms to my hands kept them above my head. I struggled, kicking at the man. He looked up at me then cinched the loop tighter until my legs were wide apart.

No.

Fear rolled into panic, washing my whole body in a cold sweat.

I arched my back.

I twisted my wrists, but the more I moved the tighter the rope on my neck became.

He paused, his leather clad fingers still over my ankle, watching me struggle.

His face was half hidden by a hood, but there was no mistaking those cheekbones from before. His harsh mouth kicked up in the corner, enjoying my fear. Thin, mean lips pulled away to reveal straight teeth.

Cosmetically straight.

“Keep struggling.”

His low, altered voice made a sob rise in my chest.

Not human.

No. I tried to blink away the fuzziness from being knocked out.

He tipped his head up and I saw more of his face. Eyes that didn’t make sense. I tried to push the fear back, but they were so black. Endlessly black and shiny in the overhead light of the pier. I jerked and my ties pinched tighter around the skin of my neck cutting off my air.

He pushed his tongue along the back of his teeth, his jaw slack with excitement.

The light dimmed and I stretched my arms up hoping for a little slack. A tiny bit of air slipped in, and I forced myself to sag and was rewarded with even more air.

The smile slid away, and he jerked at the rope around my ankle and caused the one at my windpipe to tighten again. “Don’t just lay there like a fish.” The tinny, inhuman voice held anger under the discordant tones.

I bowed my back and felt the tendons in my shoulders pop as I reached farther over my head. The rope at my neck eased, and I dragged in a deep lungful of sea-tinged oxygen. I pulled my other leg wider and got another millimeter of give.

“Fuck,” he growled in that odd voice. He rose and moved between my legs, kicking the skirt of my dress up.

I shut my eyes and focused on breathing instead of his black gaze. No whites to his eyes, just an endless black. The breeze off the water skated over my thighs. A sob strangled me, stealing the precious oxygen I’d managed.

The thunk of a something embedding into the wood made me jerk. I thrashed and the rope stole more of my precious breath. I tried the trick of pulling my arms up higher, but this time there was no give.