Page 18 of Tangled Fates

God, I hope I wasn’t being ingested while alive.

The pain in my head made it hard to open my eyes, another hiss in my ears and my eyes flew open to a grumpy looking cat hissing at me. My first thought was he looked adorable all pissed off like that famous grumpy cat. My second thought was I couldn’t move.

Grumpy cat swatted at my head growling at me when I growled back, and he hissed again. We were in this weird standoff when I heard a little laugh. My eyes immediately looked around the cat to the open door. There was nothing but darkness, but I knew someone was out there.

The cat hissed again as if he wanted to catch my attention and I growled back at him, wishing I could swat him away. My arms were tied against my body as I sat in a chair. I felt sluggish, like I had been hit with one of those magical canceling potions. Everything felt stiff and sore, but my head felt like I had been hit over and over again.

The cat finally looked satisfied with whatever he thought he was doing, and jumped off me to walk out the door. The room was mostly dark, other than the moonlight coming in from behind me. I looked around the room. It was a modest bedroom that had minimal decorations.

How the hell did I get here?

I tried to remember what had happened, but my mind was foggy. The last thing I remembered was finally finding Soren after he disappeared for several hours, worried that he had been eaten by those stupid cats.

He looked to be in a daze because he had found what we had been looking for by accident. Oria. He had found the supplier or maybe the manufacturer, he was so excited and pumped up. Soren had also found something to create a portal and all we needed to do was get the Oria and get out of here. The downfall was, only one of us could use the necklace to get through the portal at a time.

We all tried holding hands, holding the necklace, but each time only one of us was allowed to go through. The necklace was only good for one of us.

We argued about it all night into the next morning, how we would go about it. While Soren didn’t see anyone except a fucking hot-as-fuck woman—his words not mine—we were uncertain who else was in this secret tower. So, like any mission, we decided we needed more intel, and since Soren sucked at getting intel; they sent me in.

It seemed I had been caught and I was glad it was only me, but if I was the only one with the necklace, they couldn’t get in. I didn’t know how they were going to get me out. Taking a deep breath, I started cataloging everything because it seemed I only had myself to rely on.

My restraints were tight, and no matter how hard I tried to get out of them, they wouldn’t budge. My legs were tied to each leg of the chairs, just as tight. My hunger was a little stronger than before I had ventured inside, either it had been days since I came in or the potion had heightened my hunger.

The sound of someone walking brought my attention back to the open door. I inhaled, trying to scent the person but all I could smell was sunshine and that fucking cat. I didn’t know what sunshine smelled like, but this person smelled like it. Their scent was like warm spring days, with hints of flowers, grass and lemon.

The scent made me feel a calmness I had never felt before, but also anxiousness slowly invaded my system. Was it the woman my brother had encountered? If it was the woman he saw. I wanted to see her, no; I needed to see her. I don’t know where the desperation came from but I was past caring.

“Hello?” I yelled out, thinking it sounded idiotic. “Anyone there?”

My eyesight was usually impeccable, but that stupid magical eraser had taken everything that made me supernatural and canceled it out. I felt human, loathing the feeling and wishing I had been more careful.

Another scent caught my nose and it was musky. Jealousy roared through me wondering if they were together. It was a stupid response to someone I had never met, but for some reason, from Soren’s description, I felt like I had some kind of possessiveness of her.

Irritation clawed at me when I was met with nothing but silence. The cat strolled into the room again, circling the chair before sitting right in front of me. We stared at each other when his head tilted to the side and then the other side, which wasn’t very cat-like.

“Dude, can you go find someone who will talk to me?” I asked, debating if I should mention the woman.

He stared at me, before walking around me again, but this time walked out of the room, without looking back. I heard footsteps outside the room as I strained my ears to hear something. I spent the rest of the night wondering where the hell I was and when I would see this beautiful woman.

“Fuck,” I growled.

A hiss sounded in the dark and that stupid cat scratched my face. I bared my teeth at the furry fucker as I tried to tear through my restraints getting tired of this little shithead.

I blinked a few times realizing that I had fallen asleep or they had put me to sleep again. Unease unfurled in my gut, wondering how much time had gone by.

“When are the others coming?” A voice cut through the darkness outside of the room.

I squinted trying to get a good look out of the room, but it was still too dark.

“Others?”

“Yes, others.” The woman’s voice snapped, making my body shiver from the sound. “How many men are coming? When will they arrive? Who told you about this location?”

I don’t know if it was the pounding in my head or my lack of food, but I didn’t understand what she was asking. Did she expect an army? Who the hell was she expecting?

“It’s just me,” I said.

“Liar,” she said calmly. “Who would be stupid enough to come alone? Did you know she was leaving?”

---