Seduced in Shadow (13 page)

She tried to calm down her nerves.
Breathe, you idiot. You can’t help yourself if you pass
out from a panic attack.
She knew that but getting her body to listen was another matter.

For several long minutes, she closed her eyes and blocked out everything but the sound of her breathing.
In, out. Breathe in and hold for five. Exhale through the mouth for five.

Finally, finally, her heartbeat returned to a normal pace and the crushing weight on her chest eased.

99

Stephanie Julian

Okay, what do I know?

Well, she wasn’t dead, so obviously whatever had taken her wanted her alive.

Hopefully not to be served as a main course sometime later.

At that thought, the feeling of dread started to return.
Not a good thing to think about.

Focus!

Ellie opened her mouth to scream for help then thought better of it. She was alone at the moment and preferred to stay that way, thank you very much.

Reaching behind her, she touched cool, dry stone. She reasoned if she’d gotten in the cave, there had to be a way out. She made a full circuit of the space but found no openings. However, the torch flame flickered as if in a breeze, which meant there had to be a way to the outside somewhere.

She just needed to find it.

* * * * *

Antonin grabbed the bedsheets in both hands and stuck his nose into them. Ellie’s scent was infused in the cotton.

Blessed Goddess, they smelled so damn good he got half a hard-on just from it.

But he didn’t have time to get lost in that. He had to get Ellie back.

He was going to make that fucking
bassadone
spell work for him, instead of against him, for a change.

* * * * *

Ellie held the torch above her head, trying to see the hole that had to be there.

As the smoke from the torch rose upward, it drifted toward the left then abruptly changed direction. The way out must be up there. How else would she have gotten in?

The only problem was that the opening had to be at least ten to twelve feet above her.

“Well, shit.”

100

Seduced in Shadow

Could she climb it? She ran her free hand over the wall, holding the torch up with the other. The surface was rough—rough enough that she might be able to find handholds and footholds to pull herself up the wall. She’d never done anything like it before but there was always a first time for everything.

She knew Antonin would be looking for her but she wasn’t about to wait around for someone to rescue her. Though a little help might be nice, especially since she could still feel the panic biting into her lung capacity…

No. Enough of that.
Ellie straightened. Whoever had taken her was probably just waiting for her to fall apart in here. Why else keep her somewhere like this? It was psychological torture. Nothing else. And she wasn’t going to fall for it.

She put the torch back in the holder on the other side of the cave then reached up to find her first handhold.

* * * * *

The trail was easy to follow at first.

Whatever had taken Ellie hadn’t bothered to cover its tracks, at least for a while.

Then the tracks disappeared.

Antonin stopped and looked around at the woods. Which way? Straight ahead? Or had they doubled back and turned?

Closing his eyes, he pulled out the section of sheet he’d ripped off and held it to his nose. He felt the
bassadone
simmer in his blood and instead of trying to suppress it as he normally did, he let it bubble to the surface.

He ached for her, from his chest to his gut and into his bones. He wanted her. His body throbbed and he let the pressure build until the hunger made him grind his teeth.

Ellie.
He had to have Ellie. Which way was she?

Antonin turned in a slow circle.
There.
The throb in his groin intensified in that direction.

101

Stephanie Julian

He opened his eyes and started to run again until he hit the edge of the forest and found himself at the beginning of a newly built housing development.

Before him, the earth had been cleared and leveled. What had once been farmland and, before that, forest now held square boxes of wood, brick and stone.

The scents of torn earth, chemical treatments for weeds and freshly laid asphalt overlaid Ellie’s unique scent.

“Fuck.”

He felt the first stirring of fear shiver under his concentration. “Shit. Where the hell did she go?” And what should he do now?

A small pinch on his ear made him turn his head. A softly glowing female
candelas
appeared by his side, chattering rapidly and pointing down the street.

“Ellie?”

The tiny female nodded and pointed again.

Antonin took off at a run.

* * * * *

Holy shit, she’d made it.

Ellie didn’t know how long it had taken her but finally she pulled herself into the tunnel above the cave she’d been in.

She’d broken more than a few fingernails, was pretty sure she was trailing blood from her scraped knees and every muscle in her body trembled from exertion. Still, she had a grin on her face. She couldn’t wait to see the look on her brother’s face when she told him she’d climbed that wall with her bare hands. Justin probably wouldn’t believe her. Antonin would.

But first she had to get out of here. Considering what had happened at the forest, she was almost sure that the
Mal
Antonin had told her about were behind it. She desperately wanted him here with her. He would know how to deal with them. Still, 102

Seduced in Shadow

she knew he was out there looking for her. And he would find her. If she stayed calm and worked toward that end, everything would be okay.

With one last deep breath, Ellie looked around. A faint light gleamed at the other end of the tunnel. She didn’t have a clue how far it was and she was more than a little worried about what she’d find at that end. But she couldn’t stay here.

Standing up, she reached a hand above her but couldn’t feel the ceiling. The walls were smooth here, as if machine-made.

She made her way as silently as she could down the tunnel, catching the scent of wood smoke in the air the closer she got to the light.

She didn’t hear a thing—until a male voice said, “Please, come join me. It took you longer than I thought it would to get out of the pit. I had expectations about you that were not met. Now I’m sure you’re thirsty.”

For one brief second, she considered running back to the pit and waiting there for someone to come get her. Antonin would find her. She knew—

No, damn it. She
could
do this.

Ellie squared her shoulders, took a calming breath and walked into the light.

The scene before her was so normal it threw her for a second. A dark-haired man sat at a beautiful table set for two. He waved to the seat at the other end of the table.

The space sparkled with light, from the electrified chandelier above to the candles on the table. The walls were made of plaster, the floor wood and the room looked for all intents and purposes like any other room—in a millionaire’s mansion.

Ellie held her ground at the tunnel entrance. The guy, who looked familiar, seemed normal enough but nothing about this situation was normal. Hell, nothing had been normal in her life since yesterday morning.

“Come in, Fiorella. You’re in no danger from me. I merely want to talk.”

She didn’t move. How the hell did this guy know who she was? “You’re one up on me. I don’t know your name.”

103

Stephanie Julian

The man stood and she almost expected him to bow. “Yes you do. I’m Daniel.

Daniel Bonnini.”

Her mouth dropped open. Of course now she recognized him from the photos on the wall at the Winter Group, where she used to work until she’d quit four months ago.

According to his own press, which she’d read often enough, Daniel Bonnini was one canny businessman and a great philanthropist. He owned several businesses, including the one her brother had worked for, BD Enterprises. He had also funded the Winter Group.

According to her father and brother, this man wanted a member of the
Fata
to experiment on. And now she was going to lead Antonin right to him.

“Ah,” the man smiled, “I see from your expression that you know who I am. Good, then I don’t need to do much explaining. Please, sit.” He again waved a hand at the opposite end of the table. “You have my word I won’t harm you.”

Ellie stood her ground. “And I should believe that why? After you had some monster kidnap me? How did you find me? And what do you want?”

Bonnini bared his teeth in a creepy grin. “Let’s just say it wouldn’t be in my best interest to hurt you. And the monster,” he smiled at the word, “I used to find you has an incredible sense of smell. All I had to do was allow it to sniff the sweater you forgot when you left the Winter Group and off he went. Now what I want you for is a little more complicated.”

“Then explain it to me in simple terms.”

The man just smirked. “I’m sure once your bodyguard tells your brother you’ve been taken, he’ll be on his way here to rescue you. Justin imagines himself a superhero now. We’ll just wait for him then I’ll only need to explain things once.”

* * * * *

“Damn, this is weird.”

104

Seduced in Shadow

The
candelas
nodded in agreement, speaking in that indecipherable language then shaking her head in bemusement.

At four thirty a.m., the sky was still dark, but not for long, and the streets were deserted, only a small cat darting in and out of the few trash cans waiting along the curb.

As Antonin walked down the unfinished sidewalk, he noticed that only a few of the large houses were completed. Fewer still had anyone living in them. Only one had light shining from the windows.

He stopped several houses away from that last house, the
candelas
landing on his shoulder, chattering away.

He shook his head. He didn’t have to understand her language to know what she was saying. The place reeked of
Mal
. “Yes, I know it’s a trap. But I can’t leave her there.

I was supposed to take care of her, keep her safe. I fucked up.”

He felt a sharp pinch on his ear and a tiny foot stomped into his shoulder.

“Ouch.” He rubbed his ear. “Okay, okay. I know. Talk later. Act now.”

But what the hell was he going to do? There were some bad-ass wards protecting the building. He could sense them from here. But the front door was wide-open.

Antonin took a deep breath. There must be another way. One that didn’t involve him walking in the front door.

He didn’t have his brother Cam’s ability to teleport without getting hold of a shitload of power, like the sex magic he’d performed with Ellie to get back to the house.

So he couldn’t surprise the bastard by materializing inside the house.

But he was
linchetto
. He had other tricks up his sleeve.

* * * * *

Ellie felt the air around her shift. Someone was in the room.

Not that she saw anyone. That would have been too straightforward now that she lived among
linchetti
,
folletti
and God knew what else. She really needed a crash course 105

Stephanie Julian

in Etruscan magical creatures if—no,
when
she got out of here. She sat at the table and pretended
not
to notice she’d noticed someone had arrived. Someone invisible.

Crazy Bonnini with the freaky cold eyes had gone elsewhere. Earlier, she’d heard him walking around the first floor talking to someone but now everything was silent.

He’d left her with a table full of food she refused to touch and a human-looking guard sitting in the hall outside the dining room. The man had barely glanced at her when she’d stuck her head out of the room but his bulging muscles and the gun at his side made her think twice about trying to get by him.

She might not know much about this new world she’d fallen into but she figured if such things as
candelas
and sex magic were real then, well, she probably shouldn’t eat the food given to her by the man who was using her as bait in a trap.

“Ellie, don’t act startled and don’t try to look for me. Keep your voice down. Are you okay?”

Antonin.
“Where are you?” she whispered, trying not to move her lips in case Bonnini had hidden cameras in the room. “Be careful. Bonnini’s in the house somewhere, there’s a guard in the hall and I don’t know how many others. How did you get in here?”

“I’m right next to you. No, don’t move your head. I figured it was Bonnini who took you though I have no idea how he found us. He’s not as smart as he thinks, because I was able to slip past his wards. I’m going to get you out of here. Just sit tight.”

“And how do you plan to do that?”

A pause. “Still working on that.”

Okay, this was weird. She was holding a conversation with a disembodied voice.

Then again, weird was now a relative term.

“Can’t you just…materialize me out of here like you did before in the forest?”

“Uh… Well, yeah, but we’d have to have sex for me to be able to do that.”

106

Seduced in Shadow

Not the answer she’d been expecting. She sat dumbfounded for several long seconds.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No,” Antonin’s voice assured her, “I’m not.”

Well, shit. Considering the danger she was in, that option was out of the question…

Or wasn’t it?

Ellie mulled over the suggestion. She wanted out of here. And it wasn’t as if sex with Antonin was a hardship. If sex would get them out without starting a brawl, it’d definitely be worth it. Besides, just the thought of feeling Antonin inside her was enough to make her wet—even though she was being held hostage by a madman. She knew she wasn’t under some kind of spell but she had either fallen so hard for this guy that her libido had shut off her common sense or she was certifiable.