I glanced over at the phone on the far corner of my desk and began sliding my hand in that direction.
The tall man stepped around behind me, put his hands underneath my jaw and pulled my head back, somehow rendering me powerless. He bent down, brought his mouth next to my ear, and whispered, in a very sensuous voice, ‘I’ve heard so much about you, I thought it was time we were formally introduced.’ He grabbed the hand moving towards the phone.
‘Who are you? What do you want?’ I tried not to sound as worried as I felt.
His hand trailed across the hair at the back of my head and he moved to sit directly in front of me on my desk, jamming his legs into the space under the desk with mine.
‘No!’ I stifled a scream and reacted instinctively, making an unsuccessful attempt to push away. He bent in close, his hands gripping both sides of my chair and effectively blocked any move on my part. I was glad I’d worn a trouser-suit instead of a skirt, because I wanted as many layers between us as possible.
Think, Kismet. Don’t let the lunatic know how afraid you are. Don’t give him that power.
He lowered his mouth to within an inch of mine and I twisted my head to the side, shifting away from his hot, unpleasantly sweet breath. He grabbed my chin between his thumb and first finger, holding tightly enough that I knew there’d be bruises, and forced my face back level with his. ‘I’m Bryce. I believe you’ve heard of me.’
‘Stop it! Let go of me—’
He swallowed my words with his mouth, clamping his lips on mine with enough pressure to cause my teeth to break the skin on the inside of my lip. Then he sucked my lower lip into his mouth and held it between his teeth until I gave an involuntary yelp of pain. Only then did he pull back with an evil grin and gazed at me with his dark-green eyes, which were suddenly magnetic. I tried to look away, but I couldn’t. I literally couldn’t. It was as if his eyes were pulling me. I managed to briefly squeeze my eyelids shut, but he dug his fingers into my chin again, jerking my head roughly. ‘Open your eyes,’ he roared.
My breath caught and my eyelids flew up. His eyes were directly in front of mine, the green darker than before, almost black. I fell into them and the edges of my vision blurred. A strange haze settled over everything as part of my mind drifted off on a cloud.
I felt as if my arms and legs were encased in armour, that even thinking about moving would require way too much effort, and that it really wouldn’t matter because they were too heavy to lift anyway. Nothing really mattered.
Bryce watched me with a smirk. ‘See? You’re feeling much more relaxed now. Aren’t you sorry you made such a fuss?’
‘What do you want?’ I mumbled.
I made what I thought was another valiant effort to raise myself out of the chair. Since nothing happened, I could only assume the message hadn’t travelled from my brain to my body. My muscles were pudding and my mouth was dry as the Sahara. Maybe I’d had a stroke and was spending my last moments on Earth in the company of a psychopath.
He laughed. ‘I enjoy it when you struggle. It excites me. I’m not sure you really want to know what I want. Let’s just keep it a surprise, shall we?’
Bryce lifted a piece of his long hair and brushed it against my cheek. ‘You really are quite lovely. All that long, dark hair and sexy eyes – I can see why Devereux is attracted to you. I’m here because I overheard him talking about you to my little servant, Midnight. I think he’s quite smitten with you, and nothing would make me happier than to keep Devereux from having something he wants or, even better, to take it away from him once he has it.’
‘No one has me,’ I said, despite the fact that I had no idea what he was talking about and the part of my mind that had floated away was still missing in action. False bravado was one of my favourite defences. Never let the violently delusional know you’re afraid.
All this time the smaller man had been laughing and slapping his leg with one hand. I slanted a glance at him and he showed me his top row of teeth, exposing a very real-looking set of fangs. He definitely had the best pair of fakes I’d seen so far. I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction he thought I’d have to his cosmetic dentistry, but I obviously didn’t give him whatever facial expression he wanted because he lurched at me. I recoiled from his touch.
‘I could rip your throat out with these,’ he growled.
Abnormally fast, Bryce reached over, grabbed the small man by the throat and threw him onto the floor. ‘Leave her alone, Raleigh. I told you – she’s mine.’
Raleigh glared at Bryce, making noises that sounded more animal than human. Then he got up off the floor, stumbled to the nearest couch and stretched out, lacing his fingers behind his head.
She’s mine? What does that mean? Am I his to harm, or—? This is bad. I wish I could find the ‘on’ switch for my brain.
I hadn’t worked with any physically dangerous or psychotic clients since my residency at the psychiatric ward during graduate school. Now I tried to remember the skills I’d learned for dealing with them. Since I’d seen Bryce throw the small man around like a cardboard cutout, I knew I had no chance of doing anything that required physical strength. I thought my only hope would be to use my tools as a therapist. Maybe I could reason with him. Or maybe I should just keep my mouth shut. I definitely needed to keep a clear head and that had become a problem.
Bryce turned his attention back to me and searched for something in my expression. He leaned in, ran his tongue over my lips and then kissed me again.
I twisted my face away. ‘Stop it! Get away from me!’
He angrily shoved my chair back from the desk, stood up, and lifted me, holding me like a child in his arms.
I pushed ineffectually against his chest and kicked my legs, trying to get him to put me down, and for one sick moment I was reminded of a scene from that old science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, where the robot picks up the woman and she can’t get away. Bryce felt that cold and alien to me.
I still had little control of my limbs, and I was forced to acknowledge that this situation wasn’t likely to have a happy ending. ‘Let me go! What are you doing?’
He walked me over to a couch back against the far wall. The motions I made with my arms and legs were pitifully useless. I hated feeling helpless. I thought about all the opportunities I’d had to take self-defence classes and how I’d always come up with some excuse to avoid them. I didn’t know if learning to take down a man wearing a big foam helmet would have helped me fight off these two vampire wannabes, but it would have been better than nothing.
‘Let’s have a therapy session.’ He sat on the couch and held me tight in his lap. I kept pushing against him, getting more and more pissed off about whatever he’d done to cause this bizarre almost-paralysis, but his arms were steel bands. The sweet, coppery smell that rode his breath was stronger now.
‘What do you want? Why did you come here?’ I demanded, trying to sound more confident than I felt.
‘Maybe I need someone to talk to,’ he replied in a fake whining voice. He opened the top button of my blouse and ran his finger across the exposed skin. ‘Maybe I’m just a lonely vampire searching for my soulmate. What do you think?’ He laughed, enjoying some private joke, and then he recovered himself. ‘Actually, I’ve already found my soulmate, but Devereux isn’t cooperating. In fact, he was obsessed with you, even before you physically showed up. How pathetic is that?’
Devereux? His soulmate?
‘But never fear,’ he said. ‘I will deal with you and show him the error of his ways. He might be angry with me for a while, but he’ll come around. Now, let’s talk about you. I hear you don’t believe in vampires. I thought I’d change your mind. Watch.’