Page 28 of Loved By the Orc

My thoughts were cut off abruptly when someone grabbed me from behind and something wet and cold was slapped over my mouth and nose.

“Hey!” I shouted—or tried to shout, anyway. But whoever had me was strong—much too strong for me to break free. And besides,something strange was happening—the cold wet thing on my mouth and nose smelled oddly sweet and I was beginning to feel woozy.

“That’s right,” a familiar voice crooned in my ear. “Breathe it in—take it deep into your lungs!”

“What…who…?” I tried to say but the arm around my waist tightened sharply, making me gasp in another breath of air through the damp cloth.

As the world around me began to go gray, I realized that I was in trouble.

I just didn’t know how much.

13

HARMONY

What woke me was a pounding headache and sharp pains in my wrists and ankles.

“Ohhhh,” I groaned and tried to move, only to find that I couldn’t.

“Don’t bother trying to get up, Miss Ward,” a familiar voice snapped. “I’ve made certain you’re not going anywhere.”

I blinked my eyes and looked around. I was sitting slumped over in a sturdy wooden chair. Someone had zip-tied my wrists to the arms of the chair and my ankles also had zip-ties in them—they were fastened to the chair’s thick wooden legs.

“What in the Hell?” I muttered. My brain still felt like it was full of fog and my head was throbbing.

“Not quite Hell, but close,” the voice said.

I looked up at last to see who was speaking and was surprised to see Mr. Price standing there in front of me. We were in an empty apartment with no furniture and no air conditioner—I was already starting to sweat, I thought, feeling miserable.

“Mr. Price, what are you doing?” I asked, frowning up at him.

“Whatever I want, Miss Ward.” He gave me an evil grin over therims of his reading glasses. “Whatever gives me pleasure and satisfies my hunger.”

“What?”As the fog in my brain began to clear, I began to feel panicky. It didn’t help that when I moved my feet I heard an ominous rustle. Looking down, I saw that the chair I was sitting on was right in the middle of a large, clear sheet of plastic. “What the Hell are you talking about?” I demanded. “What is all this?”

“This, my dear Miss Ward, is the last thing you’re ever going to see,” he told me, grinning maliciously. “Because you’re going to meet your end in this room—butnotuntil I’ve had my fill.”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but there was no way I was sitting there waiting to find out.

“Help!Help!”I screamed as loudly as I could. “Help, I’ve been kidnapped! Help me!HELP!”

Through it all, Mr. Price simply stood there watching me with that same smirking grin on his narrow face.

“Shout as long and as loudly as you want,” he told me when I finally stopped, panting for breath. “This building is abandoned. Nobody can hear you and come to interfere with my fun.”

“With yourfun?”I was beginning to get a bad feeling—areallybad feeling in the pit of my stomach. “What are you talking about? Why…why did you bring me here?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” he said. “Are you frightened yet? Because youshouldbe.” His long nose twitched and he leaned closer to me and inhaled deeply. “Ah yes—nowI smell the terror. Good, good…more! It’sdelicious!”

“What?” I sounded like a broken record, but nothing he was saying was making sense to me. How could he smell and taste my fear?

He was right though—Iwasterrified. My heart was pounding and my palms were clammy with sweat. Why would he bring me to an abandoned building and tie me to a chair and put plastic on the floor like an episode ofDexterunless he meant to kill me? There was no way he was letting me go—I was trapped here and I couldn’t get loose!

Just as all this was racing through my head, I noticed something strange. There was a line of what looked like nearly invisible vapor flowing from me—right from the center of my body. And it was drifting up towards Mr. Price. Not drifting, exactly—he had his mouth open and it almost looked like he wassuckingit out of me.

Oh my God—heissucking it out of me—is that the terror he was talking about?

It was so weird and also scary. But it would have been scarier if I hadn’t spent that last three weeks going back and forth to Hidden Hollow. By now, I was beginning to recognize magic when I saw it.

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