Dirty Aristocrat

‘God, you’re fucked,’ he said.

‘Profoundly fucked,’ I corrected him, my voice slurring.

Then I passed out.

Lord Greystoke

I looked down at her blue-tinged lips on the dusty, rough wood floor of my old tree-house and felt like upper-cut punching the coward who had done that to her. I took it personally. As

if every inch of her body belonged to me and some god-dammed bastard had harmed what was mine.

I felt such fury that it drove me to tears. It actually filled my eyes and leaked down my face. I swiped them away with my palms. Fucking hell! Where did that come from? Never thought I

had it in me to care that much for a woman. Let alone the gold digger!

Easy, Ivan. You’ve never met anybody like her.

I knew I needed to get her somewhere warm fast so I concentrated on that. But I swore that if it was the last fucking thing I did, I would find the worthless piece of shit/shits who did

that to her and get even.

Fuck it to hell. Robert gave her to me.

CHAPTER 10

Tawny Maxwell

When I came to I was alone in a huge bed, in a room I had never seen before. The heavy curtains had been pulled shut and it was very dim, but I could make out that it was large with high

ceilings and sparsely furnished. I sat up and listened intently. Nothing. It was dead quiet. No music. No sound of human activity.

I shouldn’t really have been frightened, but because I had no idea where I was and I felt so disorientated, I became suddenly petrified. How did I get here? Who brought me here? What was

their intention? Was I someone’s prisoner? The fear totally changed the trip of the drug I had been given. It was like going from thirty miles an hour to one hundred and fifty. The

wonderful high from when I was outdoors in the snow felt like a dream.

I felt my heart start beating so hard and fast that I could hear it. My breath came out in short sharp gasps. Then my hands began to tremble uncontrollably. I looked at them in horror.

Indescribably frightened and horrified at what was happening to my body, I curled up into a tight, shivering ball, and peered out into the gloom. I was absolutely and inexplicably

convinced that monsters were going to come out of the darkness.

Suddenly my petrified gaze was pulled to one corner of the room. I thought I had seen movement. With my heart racing like a mad thing, I fixed my eyes in that bit of gloom, and to my

horror I found that there was a crack in the wall … and oh God! The crack was growing, becoming bigger and bigger. Inside the crack were moving shadows. A cold wind blew through it.

I suddenly understood its significance.

The crack was a door to another dimension and something was trying to come through, but I knew without any doubt whatever it was, it was not a good thing.

I wanted to stand up and run out of the room, but I had no control over my body. It was locked solid in its fetal position. Frozen with unnameable terror and dread I stared at the

widening gap. Suddenly I heard a scuttling noise, an eerie scratching.

Oh sweet Jesus! It was coming!

I wanted to scream for help, but my mouth was numb and useless. All I could do was stare helplessly at the gap in the wall.

Something was coming.

Another scratching sound. This time closer. Louder. It sounded like nails or claws.

I began to pray fervently. I had never been so afraid.

Then it popped out.

The squirrel.

My eyes bulged with surprise. The squirrel I had given the cookie to? No, this one was different. This one had fierce eyes. I knew instantly without being told that it was related to the

squirrel I had eaten all those years ago. It was hopping mad at me. It began to grow. Until it morphed into Rosalind!

She advanced into the room and looked around with crazy, bulging eyes. Spotting me cowering in the bed, she gave a murderous howl of rage and began swaying like some kind of demon from a

horror movie towards me. My teeth chattered and my whole body was shaking with abject fear.

I wanted to beg her not to hurt me, but I could not. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would burst. I had never felt such fear. She was coming closer and closer. Silent tears

started to pour down my face. This was it. I was going to die. Killed by my stepdaughter. Somehow I managed to force open my mouth and let out a scream.

The door to the room flew open and a man came in. Instantly the squirrel disappeared into the crack and the crack began to close. I turned gratefully towards the man who had come in, but

he had a mean face and he was nearly as tall as the ceiling. He was saying something, but his voice was so distorted it sounded like a demonic wail.