He ran without looking back until he reached the lair, trusting that Holly was smart enough not to let go of his fur. Her small weight never left his back, so he knew she managed to hang on the whole ride.
For her part, Holly just held on and let him carry her away from the danger. She pressed her face into his fur to keep the wind from impacting her breathing, and just waited for him to stop. No, she had no idea where she was going, but one wolf would be much easier to escape from than that whole room of creatures back there, and as long as he was taking her away from it, at this point, she didn't really care.
It seemed like forever before the wolf finally drew to a stop. He slowed down and then ducked, as if climbing under or into something, then stopped completely and gently set her down.
Holly scrambled away from the wolf as soon as it dropped her. Her heart pounded in her chest, hard, and the sound of her own blood rushing through her head pounded in her ears. She moved as far away as she could, moving blindly backwards until her back her back hit the wall. The wolf wasn't following her, just sitting in the same spot he had when he'd dropped her, watching attentively but still with surprising wariness. Almost as if it was worried that it had scared her. But it was just an animal, right?
Maybe not. After all, she was seeing more and more evidence that these weren't normal wolves. Like the rescue… and the startling intelligence in their eyes… The thought made her flashback to not even an hour before, the black wolf leaping from seemingly nowhere out in front of her, snarling protectively and ready to attack. She remembered the look of complete, intense intelligence in it's deep blue eyes. No, she decided finally. There was no way that they could be normal animals.
Suddenly the wolf across from her was on alert, standing up and quickly turning back towards the door. For a second, Holly thought it might be leaving, but as she peeked up around it, over it's shoulder, she saw it had only turned to greet it's friend. The black wolf, the one that had protected her earlier, was back.
It brushed past the brown one with a few steps. The brown one whined softly, and the black wolf nodded it's head a little, as if in understanding. All the while it stalked closer, until it was standing right over her, it's piercing blue eyes locked on her once again.
She stared at it with wide eyes, not moving, not making a sound. The barest hint of a whimper slipped through her lips.
The wolf seemed to sigh, and then, much to her surprise, it sat down in front of her and lowered it's head. Almost as if... It wanted her to pet it?
Tentatively, she reached out her hand and placed it on the top of it's head. It didn't move, and she let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. It wasn't going to snap at her; she was fine. That had been what it wanted. It wanted her to pet it.
If she'd had any further doubts about the normalcy of these animals, they were gone now. Slowly, she stroked down the wolf's face, between it's eyes, to the nose. She did it once and twice more, and then sighed and removed her hand. The wolf lifted it's head to look at her for a moment, and in a second their eyes meet. Then it stood up and just walked away, pacing through an unseen door behind her and out of sight.
She turned to look back at the other wolf, then blinked a few times in surprise. It wasn't there anymore. Instead, in it's place, stood a man.
He was dark haired and dark skinned, incredibly so, as if he'd gotten a bit too much sun, and tall as some of the people who'd kidnapped her. His body was toned and muscled, "ripped" as she could imagine someone describing him, and his eyes were deep, chocolate-y brown as he stared at her almost tenderly. The dark leather of his jacket rubbing against the jeans he was wearing made a strange sound as he stretched out an arm and walked closer to her.
Her eyes about popped out of her head as she stared at him in shock. She flinched and cringed as he neared her, drawing back into the wall with her face braced for a blow, but it didn't come. Instead she opened her eyes after a minute to see it hanging in front of her, just a few inches away, but no closer.
Her eyes flicked up to his. The man cracked a half smile at her, flashing his white and yellow teeth. "You don't have to sit on the ground, you know," he said gently. "There's plenty of places on the inside for you to actually sit."
"I-inside? I thought this was inside..."
He laughed. "No. We're outside, though technically inside the cave. Artemis's actual house is that way." He pointed, and she glanced over at the seemingly solid rock face behind them. She remembered the other wolf going over there and disappearing through. There had to be a door somewhere right around there.
She looked back at the man to see him looking down at her too. "There really is a door built in," he assured her. "I promise."
"No. I mean, yes, I know, I believe that. But I need to go," Holly said. She ignored his hand and stood up, feeling ridiculous to be still sitting there all crunched up. This was all ridiculous. Her head was spinning as she tried to comprehend the events of the past few hours… or was it days? How long had she been in that cage? She didn't know.
He dropped the hand and sighed. "I knew you were going to say that. He said you would..." The man shook his head. "Look, I'm sorry, Holly. You can't leave. Especially not right now. Let's just go inside, alright? We need to talk about all this."
He lifted his hand again. Holly frowned at him, distrust clear in her gaze, but nonetheless, this time she took it. She had already debated her chances of making a run for it and knew they were next to hopeless - it was best if she just stayed with them for now. After all, they hadn't hurt her yet. In fact, they'd done just the opposite. It would be silly for them to save her just to hurt her again, wouldn't it?
She placed her small hand in his large one and let him lead her back to the unseen door in the wall. He placed his palm against an overlarge stone in the wall, and she about jumped out of her skin when it started to glow red, and then, to her further surprise, slowly swung open.
He stepped inside and gestured for her to go with one hand, holding the door with the other. "After you," he said quietly.
Holly had no doubt that these words were not an offer. They were an order. She glanced over her shoulder one last time, but then with a soft sigh went through the door and into the heart of the cave.
She swept her eyes over the interior and stopped in her tracks, unable to contain a gasp.
For a cave, the interior looked pretty damn good. If it weren't for the stone walls, she wouldn't have even been able tell that she was in a cave. It opened up into a wide open area, which she was almost certain had to have been hollowed out by a person, and it was lightly but comfortably furnished and lit. The enclosure was circular, and there was two black leather couches laid opposite from each other, forming a semicircle around a small fireplace set into the wall to the left of her. On the wall across from it was a huge, towering bookcase. It looked handmade and had seven long shelves, each probably able to hold at least forty-something books. Straight ahead, square in the middle, there were two doors, and in the center of the room's ceiling was a large crystal chandelier. Even the stone floor was done over with brown carpeting.
It didn't look anything like a cave. It looked more like the living room of a spoiled rich kid's playhouse.
"Oh, wow," Holly murmured, looking around the room in awe. "This place is.."
"Awesome?" suggested the man wryly, grinning at her with a knowing look on his face. "Believe me, I know. I thought the same thing the first time I'd seen it completed." His grin faded just a tad as he said, "Oh, yeah, and my name is James. I forgot to tell you in the midst of everything."
She looked up at him and grinned a little back despite herself. "Well, I'm Holly, but you already knew that." Her gaze flicked back up to the chandelier and she shook her head again in amazement. "And yeah, I have to say, I think awesome is the best word to describe this place. I've never seen anything like it. Did you build it?"
"Me?" James threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, hell no. I didn't have any part in this. Artemis built this place all by himself."
"Seriously?" Her tone gave away just how much that impressed her as she glanced back at him. "Wow. I wouldn't have guessed one person could do this. That's impressive."
"Why, thank you," a voice interjected, with surprising chilliness.
Both Holly and James jumped a little at the sound of another voice. Holly stared at him as his eyes appraised her again. This man, she presumed, must be Artemis. A strand of his long, dark hair fell over his eyes, and he swiped it out of the way with easy grace as they watched each other.
Artemis was obviously freshly showered - his hair was wet, and his clothes were too clean and straight to have been worn for more than a few minutes. He was dressed in a pair of dark, skinny blue jeans and a muscle-hugging grey sweater. If he was wearing an undershirt under the sweater, she couldn't see it. His feet were bare.
"Well, well," chuckled the man as he stood up completely from his former position leaning on the doorway and stepped forward, appraising her up even closer than before now. His arms were crossed firmly over his chest, but that didn't make her feel any more secure, and she took a step back from him as he approached. He chuckled again. "What the matter, Holly?" Artemis asked, but there was something in his tone, a cold, knowing edge, that told her it was more a rhetorical question. He already knew. He could sense her fear. "Scared?" he added mockingly.
Holly gulped a little and stared up at him. There was fear eyes, but also determination - determination not to let him get to her and allow the fear to take over. She'd spent most of the day struggling to push down her fear while trapped in a cage by a bunch of unknown creatures, for lack of a better word - standing her ground against one man seemed like it should be easy in comparison. "Maybe a little," she said quietly, and was proud to hear her voice didn't tremble or crack. "But it's not every day I get kidnapped twice by separate groups of bloodthirsty lunatics."
He laughed again. "You think we're bloodthirsty lunatics?" he asked, a crooked grin splitting his face in half. Holly found herself mesmerized by it for a half a second before he turned away. "Did you hear that, James?"
"Yep." She snuck a peek at James to see he was grinning too. He caught her gaze and shook his head, obviously amused. "Well, while I don't believe we're bloodthirsty lunatics, I do believe that if we were, she might just be in trouble."
Holly felt her ears prick at that. Artemis feigned interest too, though he already knew what he was talking about. "Oh?" he murmured quietly. "And why is that?"
"Well, she's pretty small," James replied with a shrug. "There's not very much of her to go around. If we really were bloodthirsty, trying to share her would end up badly, no doubt."
Artemis's eyes flicked back to her. The coldness in them, crystal clear blue like that of an enchanted spring or lake, cut through her so easily... She shivered a little at the thought. He didn't move. "Well, that would be a problem, now, wouldn't it?" he murmured softly. His eyes were firmly locked on her face, and she jumped as he reached out a hand and tilted her head up. Her breathing hitched, and she couldn't help but feel like maybe he was staring at her throat in particular. "But I suppose that means it's a good thing I don't plan to share, doesn't it?" finished Artemis, and then with a soft flourish, he pulled away from her and headed back the way he had came. He paused with his hand on the knob of the door farthest to the right. "Come," was all he said, and then he disappeared through the door.
James chuckled and shook his head, even as Holly stood frozen where she was. Her head hadn't dropped from where he'd moved it, and she felt like she could still feel the ghosts of his touch and his gaze on her throat. Her skin seemed to tingle in both areas. "So possessive," she heard him murmur, and then, unexpectedly, he burst out laughing. "And I'm a jackass? That's sweet."
"What?" Holly demanded. She was too confused, too startled and tired and upset to have to deal with trying to figure out why this man was standing here talking to himself like he was having a conversation with someone she couldn't see. It was all just too much, and it was making her cranky.
He seemed to remember she was there quite suddenly and his eyes lost all traces of mirth as he stood up again. "Right. We should go. Artemis obviously has something he wants to show you - or, more likely, tell you. I should warn you, he's not a very overly sentimental or even gentle person, and his patience level is almost pitifully low when he's in moods like this." He shrugged a little. "He'll snap pretty easily."
"Guess we shouldn't keep him waiting then, should we?" she sighed. "Fine. Let's go."
Ooh, bit of a cliffhanger. I had to. Also, for reference, my mental model for James is Taylor Lautner. Just throwing that out there. :P
Please review and let me know what you think! This and DB are my biggest priorities right now, but let me know if there's anything else you guys want to see. :)