Sacrifice

I came back to consciousness with pain exploding in my head. Taking my hand I rub through my golden curls, feeling the bump in the back of my head.

God, what happened?

Opening my light eyes I look around the darkened room. I was able make out a dresser, a bed that I was sitting on, and an oddly shaped shadow to my right.

Wait, did the shadow just move?

“Hello, Princess.”

Letting out a scream I try to back away, but the shadow wraps a large hand around my leg, pulling me back, “Now, now., none of that. I just want to have a little chat.”

“Then let me go,” I growled, my anger growing.

Normally I’m a pretty level girl, but piss me off and I’ll rip your head off.

I get it from my mom.

“Can’t do that, Princess, I’ve-“

“Stop calling me princess.” I grit out, stressing each word

He may have chuckled, “Feisty, I wasn’t informed of that.”

I narrowed my eyes, struggling to pull my leg from his grasp, “Informed?”

I tried to make out his features in the shadows, just barely seeing his smile, “You’re family has made quite an enemy, Ariella,” he stressed my name, “I’ve been hired to transport you into his care.”

I gaped, “But… why would you do that?”

The man shrugged, “He’s doing me a favor in exchange for you.”

I glared, “Then why am I still here? Why not give me to him right away?”

He smirk, “’Cuz I wanted to see if you and your royal family would do me an even bigger favor for you.”

“You’re kidding, right? My family would never negotiate with a criminal, especially one that kidnapped their daughter!”

He sighed, “Shame, looks like I’ll have to continue to deal with Braeden.”

Before I could respond he pulled my ankles to the bed posts, tying with rope and moving to my hands.

“Quit! Let me go!” I fought, reaching out to hit him.

But he just knocked my hands down, quickly tying them to their own posts.

“There, now I don’t have to worry about you getting away.”

He turned, walking past the bed. When he opened the door I gasped at the sheer size of his wings, the think feathers covering his body as if it were a cape, his thick head of hair reaching down his neck to graze over his feathers.

He looked at me over his shoulder, “Hope you’re comfortable, Princess. You might be here for a while.”

~*~

Mordecai shut the door behind him, stepping into the cabin’s dark living room.

Carefully walking past the shadowed couch Mordecai flipped the light switch near the front door.

And almost jumped in surprise to see his little sister staring at him from the couch.

“Kyna! What are you doing up?”

She pushed a few strands of dark hair from her face, “Her screaming woke me up. You’ve never brought one of your jobs here before.”

Mordecai shrugged, “I didn’t have time to secure another cabin.”

His sister, who was always too smart for her own good, smiled, “Or you know this job isn’t right and you’re having second thoughts.

Mordecai narrowed his eyes, “What do you know about this job?”

She shrugged, “Just that this demon, Braeden, wants Lord Hunter’s daughter.” She glared at Mordecai, “Do you really think he’s going to do something good with her?”

Mordecai glared back at her, “Do you really think I care? This is just another job, Kyna, not a community service.”

She sighed, getting up from the couch and walking down a hall to her room, “I love you Mordecai, but I’m so tired of being the reason why you live in a world of crime.”