Book 2, Chapter 7: Zemra Ime
**Madison**
I was staring at the very tall, very muscular, very smoking hot man in front of me. He was no longer the young immature boy I grew up with. He was no longer the young man that I had an obvious crush on for all those years. He was a man in every sense of the word. His whole body had changed, but his eyes, his beautiful chocolate brown eyes were the same.
I couldn’t form any more words. I was practically gaping like a fish and blinking as fast as a cheetah.
Damien just continued to look at me with an amused smile on his face. When I remained silent in shock, “It’s good to see you after so long Zemra ime (my heart).”
Snapping out of my shock, “Zemra ime prapanica ime! Nuk mund të më quash ashtu. Unë nuk jam zemra jote. Duhet të jesh i vdekur. (My heart my ass! You don’t get to call me that. I am not your love. You are supposed to be dead.)” I responded with a bit of bite to my words, feeling vulnerable and angry at being so close to him in the speeding car.
He chuckled lightly. “Your Albanian is very good Zemra ime. I am surprised you kept up with your studies. You were always a quick learner. And I am supposed to be many things, but dead is not one of them.”
I scoffed and hugged myself, feeling insecure, I tried to look outside but the tented windows didn’t help with the darkness of the night. I didn’t realize I was crying until I felt the wetness on my cheeks and I quickly tried to wipe them away.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked softly, still looking outside the window.
I heard him exhale a large breath. “Home.” That one word had more tears silently flowing knowing all too well that ‘home’ was not my home, but his.
We traveled at high speeds in silence. The dark space outside passes by in a blur.
“I have so many questions, I don’t even know where to start.” I finally spoke, looking over at Damien who turned to look at me. I could see a flash of compassion flicker across his face that was illuminated by the bright dashboard.
“Ask. I will decide if I wish to answer.” He responded with a simple hand gesture encouraging me to continue.
Taking a deep breath, “Will I ever see my family again?” It was one of the questions that plagued my mind. The thought of never seeing any of my family again was breaking my heart. They were everything to me. I saw him draw his lips in a tight line as if he were mentally at war with himself. “I don’t know. Maybe one day,” he replied. My heart started to beat faster; the air in the car was becoming hotter.
“Please, Damien! You of all people know how much my family means to me. We didn’t do anything to you. I didn’t do anything. Why are you doing this? Don’t do this to me! Please. Please let me go!” I was on the verge of ugly crying but I tried to stay strong. His face turned stone cold, a face I knew well as my brothers always wore the same mask, no trace of emotion and a promise of pain and suffering. I gasped at his sudden change. I wished I could move further away, but I was already at the edge of the seat by the door.
“Oh my little butterfly,” he said with a dark chuckle. My heart squeezed tight at his old nickname for me. “Your family did EVERYTHING to me. Your family tried to kill me. Your family is why I am what I am. You will soon learn your purpose in the bigger picture my love, but know that you belong to me mind, body, and soul. You are now mine. I have waited my entire life for you. You will never go home. If you ever see your family again, it will be because I allowed you. Follow the rules, be a good girl, and we will see about you seeing them one day. But I WILL NEVER LET YOU GO! Kuptoje (understand)? His anger coming out.
My jaw tightened at his words, and more questions started turning in my mind. “Understand?” He asked again with a very low and frankly scary tone. I nodded my head and he grunted his approval. He whipped out his phone and was furiously typing away.
I needed to get out of here. One thing was clear, if I ended up at his home, wherever it was, escaping would be much more difficult. Being conscious and not drugged was a blessing and I needed to use it to my advantage. I began to slowly observe my surroundings trying to note where we were and what the guards in the front of the car were doing. It was something my fathers drilled in me from a youngling, only I was too emotional at first. I tried to be discreet.
Before I could even get a proper look at the driver and passenger guards, Damien spoke again, without even looking up from his phone. “Don’t even think about it little butterfly. Even if you could somehow overpower all three of us and get this car to stop without killing yourself, there are six more vehicles with armed guards that you will have to get through. Just relax. We are almost there.”
Damn it. Of course he would know. He fucking trained with my family for twenty years. Asshole. So I sat there, brooding. He was right. Trying to overpower three grown mini hulks going at such a high speed would be suicide. I just need to be patient. I still needed to process that Damien was alive and well. And damn it, super hot too. Like why did all the deities have to come together and make this man such a fine piece of edible art? It would be so much easier if he was an old, fat, and ugly man. But no, the universe loves to make the bad boys freaking yummy eye candy for the soul and make my insides all spicy.
Little did I know that only about fifteen minutes later, things were going to heat up. And I do mean that in more than one way.
The abyss of the night soon began to light up with the amber streetlights and before I knew it we were pulling through large industrial warehouse buildings and stopped in front of a FUCKING PLANE.
“What the fuck?” I voiced. This was bad. Really bad. I get on that plane, getting home will be ten times harder.
Ignoring me, the guards had already stepped outside and opened the passenger door for Damien to step out. He stood at the car door and offered me his hand.
“Come butterfly. Let’s go home.” He said with a bored tone.
“No thank you! I’m good here.” I said with a fake smile. He tsked and I saw his jaw tighten. The next thing I knew, he had leaned into the car and grabbed onto my thigh with super claws. His grip was incredibly tight and he effortlessly dragged my body across the seat. I leaned back on the seat trying to get distance and hopefully leverage to kick him, but he just shifted his arms and got a better grip on my legs, pulling me clear out of the car and hoisted me over his shoulder in one graceful motion and started walking.
I was hanging upside down and my head was now facing his very finely sculpted back. I could see his muscles through the silk shirt. I also saw the gun in his back but the guards from the car were right there watching so I knew better to grab it. Instead of fighting and flailing my limbs, I leaned closer to his body, wrapped my arms around his torso for support, and bit down on his flesh.
“FUCKING HELL! OW!” He screamed. And I bit harder. Even through the shirt I could taste a little metallic flavor so I knew I was drawing blood. “Damnit Madison! Let the fuck go!” He yelled again. Then he did something I was not expecting and I was forced to let go because he bit me back on my exposed thigh which was conveniently near his face.
“OW!” I screamed. He let go of my flesh and then swatted me on the ass, hard. “Lesson one. You bite, I’ll bite back,” he exclaimed. “Asshole!” I hit his perfectly round ass back, but I am sure I popped a few blood vessels in my hand and no damage was done to him. This asshole was going to be the death of me. He just threw My Abba Kai’s first rule of training in my face.
My world was righted suddenly when he set me down inside the luxury flying machine of death.
“Sit.” He commanded and pointed to an oversized cushioned chair by a small window.
“Make me.” I shot back and he raised his eyebrow at the comment.
“Sit down Madison.” He said through his teeth. He was trying to tame his anger, you could see a vein pop out of his neck. I sighed and walked up to him and put my hands on his chest.
“I’m sorry I bit you. A lot has happened in the last two hours. Forgive me?” I asked sweetly, looking up at his handsome face. He sighed in resignation and cupped my face. I had to ignore the little sparks I was filling and the heat pooling between my legs.
“Oh, Zemra ime. You are going to be the death of me. Of course, I forgive you.” He said and leaned down to kiss me and he claimed my lips before I could do anything else. It was just as hot and passionate as the first one in the club. I moaned at the force and smiled while his lips were still attached to mine. In one fast movement, I snaked my hand around his back, grabbed his gun from behind his back, and shoved his chest hard enough to put a little distance between us.
Breathing heavily and still feeling the tingles on my lips, I pointed the gun right at him.