Page 2 of Seducing Hope (The Hope Legacy)

I dart my gaze around the room again. Some of the rats huddle underneath a chair leaning against the wall, squabbling to get farther away from whatever kind of crazy is happening. For the first time in my life, I wish I was a rodent. My vision blurs as he gives me a brief shake.

“Stop! I don’t understand,” I tell him.

Pink Stilettos sighs. “Are you human?”

“Of course I’m human. What kind of question is that?”

My synapses spring to life, and connections spark, allowing me to make sense of the world again. Glancing “down,” I find my feet attached to hooks. I’m dangling from the ceiling of a room in the sewers with three crazy people—oh yeah, and they think I’m an extra-terrestrial.

Expensive Shoes turns toward the others. “Describe it to me again.”

Beat-up Sneaks shuffles about excitedly. “She was glowing.”

My hands smack across my mouth to hide an escaped giggle.

“What color?” Expensive Shoes continues, ignoring me.

Oh, this is priceless. I’m a glowing alien.

“Different ones, with a shiny outline,” Beat-up Sneaks tells him.

I lose it. Blame it on the stress of being kidnapped, drugged, or hanging upside down for too long, but I lose it. In a futile attempt to control my thunderous laughter, I clutch my aching stomach.

Expensive Shoes frowns at me like I’m insane. “Get the girl.”

My chest tightens, and my heart races. Pink Stilettos tip-taps her perfect heels out of sight. Scuffling sounds accompanied by a symphony of pained cries blare behind me. Eve is dragged into view by her hair and thrown at Expensive Shoes’s feet. Her pretty hazel eyes are rimmed with red, and pink blotches mar her flawless complexion.

Expensive Shoes catches a tear trickling down Eve’s cheek with his thumb and licks it.This guy really freaks me out.He smiles, showing his commercial-worthy teeth. “Drop your shields, Natia.”

I focus on Eve, trying to silently reassure her it will be okay. “I don’t understand. I don’t have any shields.”

Expensive Shoes grabs Eve’s short dark hair and slams her forehead against the concrete floor without breaking eye contact with me. Eve screams in agony as blood trickles down her face.

“I don’t know what you want me to do! I don’t understand—”

A thousand diamonds explode across the floor, cutting me off. A gray cylinder the size of a can of beans rolls into the center of the room from the broken window, releasing a dense fog and filling the room in seconds. Maybe the mothership has returned to rescue me? Expensive Shoes mutters curses as he sheds his clothes. I want to close my eyes, but I’m so confused about the impromptu strip that I can only stare. “Aren’t you a little old for a starring role inMagic Mike?” I mutter.

A terrifying roar vibrates across my skin, raising every last hair on my arms. Clenching my jaw, a primeval urge to stay extremely still takes over. I curse the slight sway of my body, torn between leaving it be and using my hands to steady myself. I shiver, and my breath mists the air as the temperature drops, my shorts and summer halter top offering little protection. Scanning the smog for the source of a sudden steady, rhythmic growling, I risk using my fingers to spin myself around. Hot breath passes over the base of my exposed neck. Ignoring the pain, I grind my short nails into the concrete in an attempt to stop spinning. It’s not enough. My eyes remain wide open as I await my fate.

Two sets of solid black orbs hover inches from my face. Blindly, I reach behind me to grasp Eve’s hand as she continues to sob quietly.

“Guard her!” Expensive Shoes barks.

A grunt sounds from one of the creatures, blowing a decaying animal odor in my face. I swallow the burning bile boiling its way into my mouth. An extended snout pushes into my hair, earning it a nip to its neck from its twin. It pulls away with a snarl. Both creatures have four sets of sharp black fangs that hang over pale, translucent skin pulled tightly over bone. A familiar pair of sneakers lies underneath one of the beasts’ bellies.

My eyes widen. “Beat-up Sneaks?” Large, triangular, pointed ears angled toward the back of its body twitch in response. I glance at the second creature, confirming my suspicions when a pair of pink stilettos sits upright before it. I’m processing the ridiculous notion that two people have turned into unidentifiable canine creatures when blue fire whizzes underneath my dangling head to lodge firmly in one beast’s gut. Stunned, my mouth gapes open. What I fail to realize is I’m about to be covered in demon dog, so when he explodes, I get a mouthful of barbequed meat.

I’m still spitting it out when I feel eight sharp points vibrating against my neck as the rhythmic growling begins again. I freeze. Obsidian pupils glare at me in accusation.

The sensation of something otherworldly prickles across my body. An electric-blue flame concentrated into a fist-sized ball circles the room, looking for its target like a heat-seeking missile. The beast applies more pressure. Two points sting as they pierce my throat. I hiss—a senseless reaction, as it pushes the fangs deeper.

Closing my eyes, I attempt to shut out the danger and run through the ways we could get out of this alive, but my fantasies are interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps.

I drop Eve’s hand; she whimpers in protest.

“Play dead,” I whisper. Surprisingly, she becomes silent. I let myself go limp.

“Heel,” a deep, masculine voice rumbles. The beast snarls around my throat. I continue to play opossum, but my heart beats double time. “You were warned,” the same voice growls. A slight scrape against my neck and an animalistic whine make me rip my eyes open. The blue fire is attached to the rear of the beast, dragging it out of sight through the smoke.

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