Midnight Rising(27)
“Now that you’re awake,” he said, “I’ll see that you have something to eat.”
“And give you the opportunity to drug my food? No thanks, I’d rather fast.”
He exhaled a low chuckle. “I’ll bring you some food. Whether or not you choose to eat it will be up to you.”
Dylan hated that her stomach seemed to churn eagerly at the thought of eating. She didn’t want to accept anything from this man or his associates, even if it meant starving to death in the process. But she was beyond hungry and she knew that even if he brought her a bowl of lumpy, ice-cold gruel she’d gratefully gobble it down.
“Don’t get any ideas about leaving this room,” he added. “The door will be locked from outside, and I’ll know the instant you try anything. I think you know that you wouldn’t get far before I caught you.”
She did know that, in a place inside her that was all raw, animal instinct. This man, whoever he was, now held her completely at his mercy. Dylan didn’t like it, but she was smart enough to know that whatever she was dealing with here was deadly serious. Like the woman in her, the journalist couldn’t deny a certain fascination too, a need to know more—not only about what was truly going on, but also about the man himself.
About Rio.
“What, um…what happened to you…to your face?”
He threw a scowl at her, one that said of all her many questions, this one angered him the most. She didn’t miss the way he turned his head slightly to the left, an almost unconscious move that helped to hide the worst of the damage. But Dylan had already seen the burn scars and pebbled skin. From the look of them, she guessed that they had to be combat wounds. Very grave, frontline combat wounds.
“I’m sorry,” she said, although whether she meant she was sorry for asking or sorry for what he went through, she wasn’t totally certain.
He reached up with his left hand and raked it through the thick hair at his temple, like he didn’t care if she stared now. But it was too late for him to call back his initial self-conscious reflex, and no matter how darkly he glared at her, Dylan knew he was bothered by his condition.
And as he moved, she caught a glimpse of an intricate pattern of tattoos on his forearm. They peeked out on both arms from under the rolled sleeves of his shirt, quasi–tribal markings done in a unique, variegated color blend of pale scarlet and gold. On first glance, she thought maybe they were some kind of membership markings, like the kinds American gangs used to show their allegiance.
No, not like that, she decided the longer she stared at them. Not like that at all.
The markings on Rio’s arms were very much like the symbols and strange writings that were on the walls and crypt inside that cave.
He brought his hand down and the flash of warning in his eye all but dared her to question him about them.
“Tell me what they mean,” she said, looking up to meet his hard gaze. “The tattoos. Why do you have the same kind of symbols on your body that were in that mountain cave?”
He didn’t answer. In silence, he stood there unmoving, looking even more dangerous in his civilized, tailored clothing than he had in the tattered rags he’d been wearing before. She knew he was immense, tall and broad and covered in lean, hard muscle, but he looked even more so as she approached him, determined to have this answer.
“What do the markings mean, Rio?” She took hold of his arm. “Tell me.”
He stared down at her fingers wrapped around him. “It doesn’t concern you.”
“Like hell it doesn’t!” she replied, her voice rising. “Why would you have the same kind of markings on your body that are in that cave—on that crypt?”
“You are mistaken. You don’t know what you saw. Then or now.”
It wasn’t an argument so much as a complete refusal to take the conversation any further. And that really pissed Dylan off.
“I’m mistaken, am I?” She grabbed her long, loose hair and lifted it around to one side of her neck. “Look at this and tell me I don’t know what I saw.”
She bent her head, putting the exposed base of her neck—the patch of skin that bore her unusual birthmark—in plain view to him.
The silence seemed endless.
Then, finally, a hissed curse.
“What does it mean?” she asked him, lifting her head and letting her hair fall back in place.
Rio didn’t answer her. He backed up as if he didn’t want to be near her for another second.
“Tell me, Rio. Please…what does all of this mean?”