Page 41 of Highlander Unraveled
I shook my head, that idea never having occurred to me.
“She’s gone,” I hissed.
“Not for long.”
Was that the vibrations then? Mrs. MacDonald trying to jump back through time?
The feelings of helplessness I’d so often felt in our marriage returned. Of being oppressed, suffocated, left with no control over anything in my own life.
“Say it, Emma, say what you’re really thinking.” Steven’s eyes were wide, maniacal.
“You don’t want to hear what I have to say.” This time it was me who sneered with disgust.
“Oh, but I do.” His voice had taken on a jovial note. The kind he used when he was truly pissed.
Well, I was pissed, too. And I was ready to let him have it. “I hate you. I loathe the very ground you walk on, the air you breathe. I’d rather die than spend another minute with you in this lifetime or any other.”
My outburst only made him laugh. His head reared back, mouth agape and the sound that issued was what I imagined a possessed donkey howling was like. The laughing stopped just as abruptly as it had started.
“I won’t let that happen, my love. I want you nice and warm.” He bent low, trying to kiss me, but I bit his lip, drawing blood.
The metallic taste of it rolled over my tongue and I gagged.
He let go of my arms, but only so he could wrench back and slap me hard on the cheek.
The pain was instant—face throbbing, vision blurred.
Even still, if he tried to kiss me again, I’d bite him once more. Harder, and I wouldn’t let go, like a savage beast, I’d tear at his flesh.
“You vicious little bitch. Is this what you learned while you were away? While you were off fucking some barbarian? I’m going to teach you a lesson in respect. I dare you to ever make a move against me again.”
Steven climbed off of me and I tried to sit up but he shoved me back down roughly, and I hit my head hard enough on the back of the headboard my teeth rattled.
“Don’t move,” he growled, stabbing the air between us.
But I did. I was not going to be his victim. Not anymore. He was several feet away from me, if I could just get away…
This time when he lunged at me, to shove me back down onto the bed, I dodged out of his way. I bolted for the door, but he caught me by my hair, yanking me backward. I teetered on my heels, but lost my footing and fell hard on my ass. Not expecting me to fall, he stumbled slightly, but didn’t crash.
I quickly rolled over and leapt back up to my feet, trying to run again, but he grabbed me by the arm and whipped me around. My foot caught on the decorative carpet and I fell again, but this time, my head hit the ground making an awful cracking sound, with a deafening echo.
I blinked, but I couldn’t see. The room was dark, and then Steven’s voice, telling me to get up, to move my lazy ass, slowly faded, too.
I guess I was going to get my wish, and death would be mine after all.
* * *
LOGAN
I opened my eyes,the pain in my skull a distant thud. I couldn’t hear the moans and sighs of my friends as they made love. Nor the rustle of the trees overhead. All around me was white, like thick clouds. As though I slept in a cloud. The ground was white. The sky was white. The very air was white.
I sat up, rubbing my temples, but the dull ache didn’t fade. Climbing to my feet, I turned in a circle as the white slowly faded and my surroundings became clear.
’Twas night.
I blinked. What in bloody hell? I’d never seen this place before.
I was inside a small, fenced-in enclosure. Short, oddly created buildings loomed at my back and several more beyond the one in front of me, which seemed to be somehow attached to this wooden fence—a poor excuse for a wall.
