Chapter 2: S1 Hidden: Fight or Flight

Sophia Mahoney

Peering up, Sophia comes face-to-face with a green-eyed man wearing a black ski mask.

"Where is it?" He takes a step, bridging the small gap between them.

"What the fuck?" Sophia's breath hitches in the back of her throat. "It's what, eighty-five degrees?"

What the hell is this guy doing in the park with a fucking mask on?

"Where's what? The cats? They went that way." She points in the general direction the trio ran.

His arms, larger in diameter than her thighs, wrap around her upper body and tighten like unrelenting vise grips.

"You will tell me." Lifting her off the ground, he tosses her over his shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sophia pounds on his back and kicks her legs. "Put me down."

Wiggling, she slides off his shoulder and topples to the ground head first. Her vision blurs, and her temples throb.

"You shouldn't have done that." He laces his fingers through her hair, then drags her into the thicket.

"Let go." She claws at the mask-wearing man. But she can't get a good grip because he keeps shaking the shit out of her as if she were a rag doll. That and the fact that buttery leather covers every square inch of his muscular body. Even the form-fitted gloves he has on contain a smooth, slippery surface.

He's going to rape me or kill me or both. The trail disappears. Oh God, no one's going to find me.

She wraps her arms and legs around the trunk of a small tree.

"Let go." He tugs harder, ripping hair from her scalp.

The man reaches for her. His fingers bite into her bicep. He tugs a couple of times, making the tree bark bite into her flesh, but she refuses to give up a single inch.

Searing, hot pain rips through her side and radiates up into her chest and back. Her grip loosens, and he drags her away from the tree. She gasps for air.

"Be still." The man forces her to the ground.

The tip of his boot slams into her side, making her both gag and cough.

A repeat of the initial discomfort washes over her body.

Fuck, she mouths. The pain takes her breath away for a second time.

Wrapping a gloved hand around her arm, he yanks her up and onto her feet, then he proceeds to shake the shit out of her body back and forth once more.

Her teeth rattle in her mouth. When he finally stops, Sophia slams her forehead into his chin then head butts his nose. The jarring contact makes her ears ring.

He relaxes his hold, then groans, saying something unintelligible.

Sophia jerks free of his grasp, then runs.

Long, bony fingers lace through her ponytail, ripping the tie out of her hair. The contact yanks the buds from her ears.

"You can run," he shouts, "but you can't hide."

Footsteps pound on the ground behind her. They're close. Too close for comfort.

Legs pumping, she sprints at full speed.

The trail, it's behind me, she thinks. I'm going the wrong way.

But she can't turn around, so she plods deeper into the thicket, which takes her farther away from the path and other joggers.

Her shoes slide over a mixture of mud and dead leaves. Continuing to sprint, she travels another twenty feet, and the thicket opens to a steep incline.

She claws at the earth, and her fingers sink into a sludgy mixture of twigs, mud, and dead leaves.

Halfway up the embankment, a hand wraps around her ankle and twists her leg.

"Let go." She kicks at him.

The man's grip slips, and he yanks her toe-shoe off.

Losing traction in the mud, she slides down the damp soil and ends up in his arms again.

His fingers wrap around the fabric of her fitted V-neck shirt. The material tears and he drags her under his bulky frame. His large fingers clamp around her neck.

"Be still." Cold green eyes hold her gaze. "And stop fidgeting."

He's full of shit if he thinks I'm not going to fight.

"Let go of me, you son of a bitch."

Sophia seizes the mask and pulls it partially off, exposing a chin covered with blond stubble. Her nails sink into his fleshy face, clawing, and then she rakes her hands across the skin of his neck.

He ushers a low, throaty growl that rumbles deep in his chest. The sound comes across as eerie, inhuman.

A heavy hand strikes the left side of her jaw, whipping her head back. Her vision blurs.

Oh God, I can't blackout. She struggles to stay alert. I must fight.

The tips of her fingers find the opened slits of his eyes. She digs in deep and pulls down.

He shouts something, but the words sound odd. She doesn't understand what he's saying.

A blinding pain erupts over her left eye socket and cheekbone. Her knees buckle, and her body sways. The only thing keeping her on her feet is his body pinning her against the steeply sloped embankment.

"That wasn't very nice, cara," he whispers in her ear. "Now, do what I tell you."

Two of him come into view. Great, now I see double.

Sophia shakes her head, but a foggy haze continues to cloud her vision.

The man grabs her wrists, then cinches them together with a plastic tie.

A gust of wind whooshes, filling her ears with a fluttering sound. Her head whips back, and her stomach flip-flops, then it churns.

Below her, the ground moves farther away. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Tell me where it is." His hot breath oozes over her skin.

Weightless, her feet dangle. "What the fuck?" She squirms in his arms.

"The Book of Light and Shadow, where is it?" His hand closes around her throat, then squeezes.

Grasping his fingers, she pries them loose one at a time. "I don't know what you're talking about." Freeing a knee, she drives it upward just as her uncle had taught her.

The blow is solid, and he releases her.