Chapter 48: Andre Dumont

Sage feels my concern just as the attendant reaches me.

"Can I help you?" She's trying to be polite, but it's obvious she'd rather kick me off the plane. I look up at her, still in shock, and hold out the card.

"He's starving," I say, my American accent slipping a moment. "Whatever you have with meat in it."

She frowns, about to argue.

"I know we're supposed to wait for the cart," I say. "But please. If you could?"

She sighs heavily, but nods and walks away. Sage leans in to me, scowling as I lower my head and breathe slowly through my mouth to calm myself.

"What?" His tension mirrors mine.

"We're not alone." I know if I look back up the aisle, through the partially open curtain, I'll see Jean Marc again. And likely Kristophe. And those two don't travel alone. Which means...

Andre is on the plane with me.

I'm trapped.

-in a cage, crouched in filth, my body aching from beatings and other things, my mouth dry and hot with illness I'm just recovering from. I don't know how much more I can take, but my wolf demands we survive, so I let her take over. Let her be the one who paces the inside of the tiny enclosure, shoulders hunched forward, long, blonde hair hanging in scraggly strings to brush the dirty straw on the stone floor. Waiting for him to come back-

Someone stirs up front, breaking the memory in half, allowing me to return to myself. I raise my eyes in total dread, my wolf knowing, me, the girl inside me, all of us well aware of what's coming, of who is coming. My heart beats rapidly, a tiny bird in panic, the whole world narrowing to a tunnel of black, the center of it inhabited by the tall, angular form of the man I've known most of my life.

-he's come back, back to hurt me some more. Back to add to my torment, to teach me, offer me an education, he calls it. But my soul only hardens against him with every visit. And I grow stronger for the abuse-

Strong, yes. But terrified none the less. Of Andre Dumont.

He stands from his first class seat, adjusting his suit coat as though such things matter, decorum and appearances. It gives me a moment to draw air into my lungs through my gaping mouth, gone dry from memory, hands clenching in my lap. He lazily turns and walks down the aisle, through the curtain, Jean Marc and Kristophe grinning at me around the backs of their seats. I ignore them, doing everything I can to hold myself together, as Andre's shiny shoes stop next to me. The scent of him washes over me, choking the little air I'm able to draw.

-he smells of sandalwood and vanilla. I will never be able to bear that smell again-

And to the empty seat beside me.

He settles into it, crossing his legs, a soft smile on his face, as fake as the rest of him. I can see the fine lines showing in his carefully maintained illusion of youth. He hasn't gone so far as his insane mother, Odette, who used massive doses of family power to disguise her decline. But he's not going easily into age, his skin thinning on his cheeks, the lids falling ever so slightly over his icy eyes. Age will not treat Andre well, I can only imagine. And hope.

I still can't believe there was an instant when I was a child I thought him handsome. With his aristocratic features and ice blond hair, his intense blue eyes and polished demeanor, I wondered when I was given to him if he would be a good master, someone honorable I could bond to without regret, with pride in my pairing.

I was so wrong.

Andre doesn't try to touch me, simply smiles, looking back and forth between Sage and me. The attendant arrives with a sub sandwich wrapped in foil. I pay for it with trembling fingers, hating the traitor way my hand shakes in front of the man I hate the most in this world, the monster who made me what I am. It burns in my soul Andre sees my upset. The attendant leaves us alone as Sage devours the sandwich in giant bites. I know he can't control himself, but I despise the way Andre watches him with cold calculation, a tiny smirk lifting the corner of his mouth while his empty blue eyes measure Sage's state of being.

"So lovely to finally find a moment alone with you." Andre's French accent always gives me the creeps, reminds me of being a little girl again, unable to fight back. And though I know it's not their fault, every time I hear a French accent now, I have a hateful reaction to whomever is speaking.

"What do you want?" It's obvious he's managed to trap me here. But there are no Enforcers I can feel, no pressure of threatening magic. Even Andre's is dormant, without challenge against my shields. Which means the Dumont leader has plans of his own that don't involve the authorities.

"I've done my best to keep them from finding you," he says, the most shocking thing I've heard leave his mouth in a long time. "Seems to have worked, when you've not chosen to be a stupid girl and get others involved."

I'm still a girl to him. And though I wish she would stop her savage screeching inside me, I have no control over the screams of the very child he speaks of.

"You've been protecting us?" Not very damned likely. Unless... "Why?"

"I would think that would be obvious, my dear Charlotte." His smile turns sharp and cruel. "You are in a position that puts me at an advantage. No one else can save you and get away with it, not even your beloved Sydlynn. They would guess where you've gone, watching her closely, the Enforcers." He nods as I silently curse. "Yes, even on my new adopted continent. Erica Plower and the North American Council are on watch for you as well. Though they have no idea how close you've come to leaving Europe. At least, not yet."

I glare at him, wishing I could stop the trembling that has taken over my body.

"Now," he says, brusque, but cheerful, "mon animal de compagnie," he loved calling me his little pet, "to answer your question. Since you can't go home, and have nowhere to turn, you are out of options. I'm going to give you one." He straightens his tie, plays with his cuff links, hooded eyes making my stomach churn. "I help you," he says, "because I want you for myself."

The girl in me wails her denial, terror breaking out sweat all over my body. It is only sheer force of will keeping me from attacking him.

"I know you better than those fool Enforcers," Andre says. "I've been following your lovely scent ever since you left the palace. No one knows you like I do. And no one deserves to own you, but me."

Never again. Never. Never. Never. Never-

"I want you to come work for me." I know what that means. "Work" equals "slave" to Andre. "And, in return, I'll protect your petite pet project," he flicks his fingers at Sage who glares with wolf eyes, still chewing his sandwich. "I'll even do my best to find a way to save him, if that pleases you."

Why would he do that? "I don't believe you." He's never given me a reason to trust him. The opposite, in fact. I fight memories, the girl inside me wanting to fall into the darkness of them, but I can't do it. I have to stay present, if only for Sage.

"Believe me or not," Andre says, "it's the truth." He leans toward me despite Sage's rumbled growl of a warning. "I owned you once," he hisses in my ear. "And I will own you again, Charlotte Girard. Mark me."

-I crouch, naked, in a corner, my tiny girl's body shifting into wereform as Andre laughs, shedding his belt, pulling at the zipper of his expensive dress pants-

I jerk back from him, though his hand grasps my wrist and holds me.

"That's the deal," he says. "I save your revenant, keep him safe, and you submit to me."

I can't, I can't, but how can I not? I turn to look at Sage who shakes his head, wolf eyes retreating.

"It's not worth it," he says.

"You don't have a choice." Andre releases me. "I have you trapped on board this plane. One message from me, and the Enforcers will come. Say no, and your boyfriend dies in fire. Say yes, and I keep them from him."

"Or I kill you and your filthy children." I've never felt so fierce. Is it Sage's influence? But now the girl in me is no longer afraid. She's furious.

Andre flinches a little, just enough I know I've scared him. "You can try," he says. "And the boy dies. You can't take all of us out at once without making a scene in front of normals. And if anything happens to me or mes fils, the revenant will suffer for it."

No, I won't be trapped. But I am, and I allowed it to happen.

Despair surges inside me, the old hurts waking and trying to swallow me. The little girl I was wails her desperation. I turn to Sage, feeling panic devouring me. I reach for his hand, feel his fear for me, not for himself.

Charlotte, his mind touches mine.

I can't let him die.

But I can't give in to Andre.

Cold fingers run over my cheek. I turn my head, meet those ice blue eyes and something in me snaps.

My power surges, reaching for rescue. And finds the veil between planes. I jerk at it, a desperate action, and I'm suddenly falling through a slice in the veil, seatbelt doing nothing to hold me in place, Sage held tightly to my hand.

My last view before darkness is Andre's angry face disappearing as the tear snaps closed.



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