Mine

He came full circle again and stopped facing her. He still hadn't touched her. Neither of them moved as they just stood looking at each other. His eyes still hadn't changed from the solid black. She met them squarely with her own brown ones. She would at least die with a little pride. Until he actually moved to do something. Then she would scream and beg.

He suddenly smiled--if you could call a feral flash of teeth a smile. Very white, rather sharp looking teeth that really didn't look human. Combined with the eyes and animalistic growling, it made a very imposing picture, a demon or a beast.

She was a little disappointed though. She had expected fangs like a vampire. But according to blood vampire were overrated. You should get an immortal or a wizard.

He suddenly made a gravelly growl that rolled through his chest. It took her a frightening moment to realize he wasn't getting ready to pounce on her; he was laughing. Not that she was going to ask the huge scary man, but what was so funny?

He stopped abruptly and looked down at her again with his dark eyes.

"Mine."

Many emotions flickered across his face with that one word.

Lina was fascinated. Relief, happiness, anger, confusion, regret. They moved so fast from one to the next that she couldn't be sure if that was really what they had been.

She had to work past the sultry, gravelly deep cadence of his voice to register the real meaning of the word. And now she was pissed.

What the hell?

What's 'mine' supposed to mean?

Was he some sort of illiterate?

He couldn't form a coherent sentence?

He leaned down and looked hard into her eyes. His face was a blank mask once again, but the intensity in his eyes was a little scary.

"It means exactly what I say. You. Are. Mine."

So much for being illiterate. Just listening to his voice gave her heart palpitations, especially because he spoke slowly and clearly, enunciating each word carefully with that same strange cadence to his speech. It was a lilting but harsh accent that she couldn't place. But that was beside the point. That was more than a little on the creepy stalker side. It was almost like he could read her mind.

He smiled his sharp white smile and leaned in even closer. Major personal space invasion. Even with that thought in her mind, she stood frozen as he brushed his lips lightly against the side of her neck, inhaling deeply. It was almost as if he was trying to imprint her scent to memory, in a way a blood mate would. Lina paused.