Read Online A Mermaid's Ransom by Joey W. Hill - Free Book Online Page B

her skills as an empath were more accessible. She could detect his feelings and emotions. He hadn't been an easy read in her dreams, but what about here? It was possible her own feelings had distracted her there, not any shields he had.
    He'd circled around to the other side, and was trying to touch her again. Lex scooted away and winced as several of her scales rubbed the wrong way. "Stop it."
    "Why? I wish to touch you."
    "You've kidnapped me, thrown me in a pool of blood, threatened me with gang rape by a group of monsters and told me that if you don't get what you want I'm going to be the pawn you kill--painfully and slowly."
    "I did not say I would kill you. I said you would die. You liked it when I touched you before. Why would you not take pleasure from that now, particularly if there may be no pleasure later?"
    Alexis stared at him. "You must be joking."
    Dante's lips firmed. "There is no laughter here. At least, not the kind you suggest. I've seen that," he added. "When the rifts to your world could be opened, I saw it as if through this window here." He nodded toward the archway. "Sometimes the rift opening gave me little except for the colors of the terrain, but sometimes it would open into a smaller place, like a building, and I could see humans.
    "I did not know then what I saw was laughter, but the Dark Ones called it that. What causes laughter? I saw you do it when I followed you in your dreams, before I ever touched you. You laughed a great deal." He stretched out his hand again. "I want to touch your face. Come closer. Or I will come into the circle."
    Alexis held his gaze, her mind whirling. "No. I don't want you to touch me."
    There was a quaver to her voice she could tell he registered, but she held her ground. He could come after her, yes, but she would not move.
    After a long, charged moment, when she wondered if he'd throw her against that electrified barrier himself, he spoke. "If you were not frightened or hurt, would you want me to touch you?"
    When she swallowed, she realized her jaw hurt from holding it so rigid. In fact, her whole body hurt for that reason. She'd never realized how being terrified could turn the body into stone, all the muscles stretched to the point the fibers would break, the stomach in permanent knots.
    "I don't know. You really can't do anything about that, can you? I mean, you just said you'll do terrible things to me if Mina doesn't let you go."
    "That is later. What matters is now. What can I do now that will make you less frightened?" There was a touch of impatience in his tone.
    "Of course later matters." Lex struggled to stay calm. "How can I just forget what might happen later?"
    Dante sat back on his heels, propping his elbows on his thighs. There was frank puzzlement in his expression. "Because here, only now matters. Nothing is hurting you right now. Nothing is happening to frighten you. In five minutes that might change, so you should not waste this moment thinking about what will happen in five minutes."
    It was Zen, but Zen applied in a way she'd never considered. No, that wasn't correct. Something about the words was familiar. Forcing back her anxiety with her circumstances, she searched her mind. Yes, that was it. A book she'd read in a sociology course she'd audited, written by a survivor of the Holocaust. He'd spoken about the need to savor the maximum in every relatively peaceful moment in the concentration camp, because that moment was all you were assured. When you lived in daily horror, there was nothing else to do.
    She took deep breaths, a meditation exercise much easier in the tranquility of her back porch with the sun rising and a day of pleasures stretching ahead of her. "Dante, how long have you been here?"
    "I was born here."
    "Your parents, then. They--"
    "My mother was brought here. I was spawned by the Dark Ones who raped her."
    She knew little of vampires, but natural offspring were very rare and usually hybrids. Dark Spawn, as he'd said. "Is