Pursued Read online

  “What the hell?” he muttered.

  Elise used the momentary distraction to try and get away. Wriggling with all her might, she managed to squirm halfway out from under her stepfather’s crushing weight.

  But her movements brought Charles’s attention back to her in an instant. “Oh no you don’t, you little bitch!” he snarled, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back. “You’re gonna give it up for me, just like you did before. Just like—”

  There was a heavy, ringing tramp on the metal of the fire escape and Elise’s bedroom window exploded inward, spraying shards of glass everywhere.

  “Get the fuck off her, now!” bellowed a deep, familiar voice.

  Merrick? Elise could hardly believe her own eyes, but there he was—standing just inside her window and looking angrier than she had ever seen him. His eyes finally matched—instead of blue and gold, they were glowing red like two hot coals—and the look of rage on his face was terrible to see.

  “Who the hell are y—?” Charles began and then Merrick had him by the back of his shirt and was yanking him off Elise. “Hey!” Charles protested and then Merrick slung him against the wall, as though he weighed no more than a rat. With a loud thump, her stepfather hit and fell to one side, silent and stunned.

  At last Elise found her voice. “Merrick?” she whispered. “Is it…it’s really you? But how…?”

  “Never mind how. Come here, baby.” He held out his arms and she ran to him, sobbing, and threw her arms around his neck.

  “Merrick…Merrick, I thought you were gone. I thought you were dead. I never thought…”

  “I nearly was dead, but it wasn’t my time—I was sent back for you.” He hugged her tight, almost cutting off her air, but Elise didn’t care. She pressed herself against his hard, muscular body, breathing in his familiar, comforting scent of smoke and fur, letting herself believe at last that he was real. That he had really come for her.

  At last Merrick pulled back from the embrace and looked at her anxiously. “Was I in time? Did he…?”

  Elise shook her head rapidly, her hair swishing around her face. “No, not this time. He…he tried. He would have if you hadn’t come and…oh, Merrick…” The sobs rose in her throat again, choking her with their intensity.

  “I know, baby. I know.” He pulled her close again, stroking her hair gently.

  From the corner of her eye, Elise saw her stepfather getting to his hands and knees. He cast a quick glance at Merrick, and began to slink away, crawling along the perimeter of the room like the rat he was, heading for the door.

  Apparently, the motion caught Merrick’s eye too. Gently, he disentangled himself from Elise and set her down on the floor. “Hang on a minute, baby. I need to settle some unfinished business.”

  “Merrick?” She looked at him anxiously, noticing that his eyes were still glowing red. “What…what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to take care of him.” Merrick caught her stepfather by the scruff of the neck, twisting the back of Charles’s crisp white dress shirt until it strangled him, effectively cutting off his air.

  “You…stop,” he managed to sputtered, grasping at his neck as his face turned red. “Stop now…talk about…this.”

  “Oh, you want to talk?” Merrick appeared to consider this. He loosened his grip slightly on Charles’s shirt, allowing him to breath. “Go ahead—talk.”

  “This…” Charles coughed and cleared his throat. “This is all just a big misunderstanding. I don’t…don’t know who you are, but you seem like…like a reasonable man.” He eyed Merrick uncertainly. “Just name your price and we can all forget about this and…and go.”

  Elise could have told him it was the wrong thing to say. Merrick’s eyes narrowed and blazed crimson, as though someone had stirred the embers behind his pupils into a roaring flame. “Name my price? Name my price?” he snarled. “You think you can put a price on what you did to Elise? On the way you hurt the female I love?” Reaching into his boot, he pulled out a long, sharp, silver knife and showed it to Charles who turned as white as a sheet. “I’ll show you the price—it’s right here.”

  “N-now wait a minute,” Charles blustered, trying to get away. But Merrick still had a tight grip on his shirt—he was caught. “What…” He eyed the knife, his eyes rolling nervously. “What do you think you’re going to do with that?”

  Merrick gave him a smile so cold it sent shivers down Elise’s spine. “I think I’m going to cut off your raping cock and feed it to you, you sonofabitch. And if you happen to bleed to death in the process, that’s just too damn bad.”

  “No! No, please…” Charles began blubbering but it was clear Merrick was paying no attention. He was wholly intent on revenge—revenge for her sake, Elise realized.

  “Merrick?” she whispered in a small voice. She didn’t know how to feel. Part of her was horrified at the impending violence. But another part, a part which had been buried for years along with all the other memories and thoughts in the now-defunct vault, felt a fierce sense of triumph.

  Good, screamed that other part of her. Good, that’s exactly what he deserves! But still, how often had she been lectured in law school about due process? About never taking the law into her own hands? I shouldn’t let this happen, whispered the sane, rational part of her—the part not obsessed with vengeance. It’s wrong, I should take him to court instead. “Merrick?” she said again, a little louder this time.

  Merrick turned his head and looked at her. His eyes were still blazing red, yet there was a coldness to him too—a chilly blast of violence and death that seemed to breathe from his skin like an arctic wind.

  The killing frost, Elise thought, and then she knew. Knew there was no stopping this slaughter. No stopping what Merrick was about to do to her hated stepfather.

  The killing frost was on him, and only blood could quench its cold and thirsty rage.

  “Go on, baby. This is nothing you need to see,” he growled softly, nodding at the broken window. “Get up to the roof and wait in the ship. It won’t take long.”

  Elise started to protest, but then she looked in his eyes again. This was going to happen, whether she left or whether she stayed. And as much as she hated her stepfather, she really didn’t want to see it.

  Slowly, she nodded. “All right.”

  She turned her back and climbed carefully out the window, concentrating on avoiding the few ragged shards of glass that were left. As she gripped the hot metal of the fire escape’s black iron railing, she heard the hoarse, wordless screaming begin.

  The temptation to look back was so strong she nearly turned her head, but then Merrick’s words echoed in her ears. This is nothing you need to see, he’d said and she believed him. She had enough nightmares to contend with, without adding another one. As the screams sounded again, Elise began to climb.

  She did not look back.

  * * * * *

  After it was over, Merrick washed the blood from his hands in the bathroom sink and tried to straighten his stained clothes. His pants were already stiff with his own dried blood, but at least they were dark. His shirt, however, was a total loss—it was spattered with his blood, troll blood, and fresh blood from his recent kill. Merrick ripped it off and left it lying on the floor. He splashed water on his bare chest and toweled himself off. There. That would have to fucking do.

  He took a deep breath and looked at himself in the mirror. His eyes had gone back to normal, which was a relief. The combination of rage and the killing frost which had come over him when he saw Elise threatened by that bastard had been a system overload in the extreme. When Merrick had broken in the window and saw him on top of her, he’d felt like the top of his head was about to explode. Well, he felt nicely contained now—now that the killing was done.

  Walking out of the bathroom, he stepped over the bloody lump that was all that remained of Elise’s stepfather. Merrick was sorry about the mess in her domicile—he hadn’t meant to get blood everywhere that way. But in order t