Chapter 2

The transition wasn’t some smooth journey it was  a straight-up violation. One second I was shaking on the side of the road, with my heart slamming against my ribs, and the next the air turned thick and stale, like I’d been dropped to the bottom of the ocean.

My lungs burned as I tried to suck in a breath. It tasted like old dust, cold stone, and that nasty sweet smell of funeral flowers left rotting in a closed room.

When the spinning in my head finally stopped and my eyes focused again, I wasn’t on the rainy road anymore. I was standing smack in the middle of a massive foyer that looked like someone had carved it straight out of a mountain.

Everything was black marble and brushed steel. Sleek, super modern, and completely soulless. It didn’t feel like a house, it felt like a fancy tomb that somebody had scrubbed clean because they hated anything warm or alive.

I stumbled, legs were heavy as lead, and I caught myself on a sharp-edged console table. The steel bit into my palms like ice. I glanced down at myself and almost threw up. I was still in my soaked waitress uniform, covered in mud and road grime from the crash. I looked pathetic next to all this cold perfection.

He was standing a few feet away with his back to me. He’d ditched the coat, and the tailored black shirt underneath hugged his shoulders like it was painted on.

He didn’t even look at me. Just moved with that smooth, dangerous grace toward a huge wall of glass overlooking a city I didn’t recognize at all. The skyline was all jagged edges, glowing with neon lights that pulsed like veins. The sky above it was this weird bruised purple. It looked completely alien, but it was beautiful in a messed-up way and it made me want to scream.

“Where the hell am I? And who the hell are you?” I demanded. My voice cracked, sounding tiny and way too human in that giant empty space. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to stop the shaking, but it wasn’t just the cold. It was the heavy weight of his presence pressing down on me, it felt like I was  standing next to a live power line.

He turned around and looked at me. He didn’t rush or snap, but he moved slow and deliberate, like a predator who already knew his prey was trapped. His boots echoed on the marble with every step, like a countdown.

“I am Caius Kane, Andrea,” he said, stopping just inches away. He was so close I could feel that unnatural chill rolling off him, totally opposite to the burning heat in his eyes. “And you’re in my sanctuary. A place where the rules of your world are just suggestions.”

“I have a life,” I spat back, letting my anger cover up the terror clawing at my throat. “I’ve got a job and  rent to pay. People are gonna notice I’m gone. You can’t just grab me off the street like some damn trophy.”

He let out a low, dark laugh that crawled across my skin. He reached out, his hand hovering just above my shoulder without actually touching me, but the pressure alone made me stumble back.

“Your ‘life’ was barely hanging on by a thread you didn’t even know about,” he murmured, his eyes locking onto mine so hard it felt like a physical grab.

“You really think I’d leave loose ends? That accident was meant to be final. To everyone back in your world, you’re just another name on a coroner’s report. You’re a ghost now.” he said and the floor felt like it was ripped out from under me. 

All the air rushed out of my lungs. He hadn’t just kidnapped me, he had erased me. I wasn’t a person anymore, I was a blank page he’d already decided how to fill.

“You’re a monster,” I whispered. The words tasted like blood in my mouth.

“I am a King,” he corrected, his voice dropping into this silky, dangerous purr. He finally touched me,his fingers brushing my throat. It wasn’t gentle, it was firm, a reminder that he owned me. His thumb traced my racing pulse at my neck, his skin was so cold it left a mark. “And you are the prize I’ve waited ten years to collect.”

He leaned in even closer, his face right there, and I could see that subtle, hungry shift in his eyes. “You spent your whole life thinking you were just some ordinary girl, Andrea. You were wrong, you were being cultivated. Every choice, every crappy job, that shitty apartment, the way you saw the world, it was all leading you right here. To this floor. Into my arms.”

He pulled his hand back and the sudden lack of his touch left me feeling weirdly exposed, shivering in the cold sterile air. He waved a hand at the huge empty room like it was nothing.

“You’re going to want to run,” he said, his voice flat like he didn’t care either way. “You’ll try to find a way out, try to get back the life you think you lost and  I encourage it. That is what makes the chase more fun.”

He turned away, his presence pulling back like a tide, leaving me standing alone in the middle of a room that felt way more like a cage than a home.

“My guards are waiting at every exit,” he added over his shoulder, voice echoing through the huge space. “If you try to leave, they won’t be as patient as I am. You belong to me now, Andrea Alfonso. You’re the heartbeat of this kingdom, so I suggest you figure out your place really quick.”

He disappeared down the shadowy hallway.

I stood there trembling in the silence. I wasn’t just scared anymore I was pissed. He thought I was some pet he could stick on a shelf. But when I caught my reflection in the dark polished wall, I saw something else in my eyes: that stubborn spark that refused to die.

He’d taken my world, but he hadn’t taken my fight. If he wanted a war, fine. I was going to turn this cage into his worst nightmare.