Page 64 of Oh, Sacred Dark
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ROMAN
Roman dragged himself awake. His body was aching. His head, his wrists, the corners of his lips.
He blinked, colours swimming in front of him. His eyes focused. A woman stared at him through a rear-view mirror.
Reality slammed into him.
He was tied up, ankles and wrists bound, a piece of cloth tied around his mouth, digging into him. He was lying in the back of a rumbling car with a strange woman at the wheel.
“Make a sound and I’ll break your fucking jaw,” she threatened. She had a melodic voice, but it was edged in ice. Her dark hair was pulled into a loose ponytail, pale skin sallow from what little Roman could see.
He didn’t recognise her. He had no idea where he was or where he was going.
Roman stayed quiet, curling up even tighter, thoughts a greasy tidal wave. The memories of the last couple of weeks belonged to someone else. There were distorted, missing patches, woven together unreliably. What he did remember was Tyler turning up at his house. Tyler asking him to see a doctor. Roman ordering him to leave.
Moon above, the way Roman had talked to him. The acidic way he’d felt then, looking at Tyler, as if he were an intruder instead of the best friend he’d ever had.
And now Roman was trapped in a car with a strange woman going to a strange place.
Roman closed his eyes and tried to hope.
*****
Eventually, they arrived at a motel. The woman untied him with a knife and then pointed it at his face. “We’re walking straight to the room. You do anything and I slice your neck. Understood?”
“Yes,” Roman said quietly, mouth dry and tacky.
The room had two beds, and the woman handcuffed him to one after letting him use the bathroom, door open. Roman watched from the plasticky bed cover as she prowled around like she was searching for curse bags that would listen in on them. She finally sat on a chair by the window, peering out.
A long silence stretched, so thick Roman had to break it just so he could breathe. “Where are you taking me?”
The woman’s head snapped towards him. Her eyes were a dark, dark brown. “You’re going to tell me where my sister is. You and your fucking coven killed her, and you’re going to tell me where her body is,” she said, the threat implied in her tone.
“Oh. I…I told the High Council what I knew,” Roman admitted. His heart was pulsing loudly, a persistent tapping in his neck.
“Bullshit,” she spat. Her eyes widened, losing coherency, body practically shaking. “You’re that bastard’s son—don’t think I don’t know. You were part ofeverything, and now you get to walk free? After all that?” Her lips were wet with spittle, finger pointing right at him.
Roman had nothing to say to that. He hadn’t killed anybody, not with his own hands, but he’d been part of that coven. Had been silent for much too long. “What does—what did she look like? Your sister.”
That seemed to catch the woman off guard, grief marring her face. “She looked like me. We were twins.”
Roman nodded slightly. He hadn’t recognised her face, so the likelihood that he’d seen her sister die was low, but he kept that to himself. “Okay. I’ll try to help you find her.”
The woman narrowed her eyes, assessing him suspiciously, but nothing else was said.
The next day was much the same. Roman jolted awake as the woman tugged at his bound wrists. “Don’t try anything funny,” she hissed.
Roman was compliant, letting himself be tied up again in the car, although, thankfully, the gag was nowhere to be seen.
Miles passed, and Roman was left with nothing but his own mind, drifting away from him and right towards Tyler.
There was no doubt the Dom would be out of his mind with worry. A few months ago, maybe Roman would have made himself believe that Tyler didn’t care enough to notice, but now he could see how worried he’d been the last few weeks. How desperate to have Roman tell him what was wrong.
There was no way Tyler would be able to find him, though. Unless this woman was tremendously stupid and hadn’t blocked scrying, there was no way of tracking him, and he hadn’t left any trace behind.
He hoped Tyler knew this wasn’t his fault. That, even when the woman killed Roman, he didn’t think he had played any part in it.
