Free Soul Bound by Luxie Ryder Page B

have known to keep my mouth shut about
the voice I'd heard, but post traumatic stress robbed me of my common sense I
suppose.  A month spent sitting at home watching daytime TV drove me stir
crazy, so I followed the wild impulse to get out of Seattle and leapt on to the
next available flight to anywhere.  Until I saw his name on the billboards
lining the route to my hotel from the airport, I didn't know Nathan would be
here too.  Random luck had brought me to Vegas, but now I was here...and
he was here and, well, maybe everything happened for a reason. 
    "Don't be scared, Jess.  I'll look after you."
    Nathan's breath caressed my cheek and I started, surprised to
find him so close.  Jess .  Nobody had called me that for
years.  Not since the summer after he'd left town, taking my heart with
him, and I'd forbidden anyone from uttering that word ever again.  To hear
my old name on his lips took me back in a way nothing else ever could. 
For a moment, just for the briefest second, the glitz and glamour of Vegas
faded away and all I could see was the mysterious and enigmatic young man with
the spiky hair and the sad smile who had ignored my fragile teenage heart up
until about six months before he moved away.
    "What do I have to do?" I whispered, conscious of the
strangers watching our every move.
    "Just help tie me up, that's all."  A suggestive
glint in Nathan's eyes did nothing to make me feel better, despite the enticing
image of him bound and at my mercy that flashed into my mind. 
    His gaze flicked over me and I prayed the hot weather hadn't
frizzed my hair.  Taming my unruly curls into a sleek sheet of burnished
bronze had not been easy.  But I'd wanted to look good without coming
across like I'd tried too hard, and smooth, sexy hair, tight but not too
obvious black jeans and a simple white peasant blouse had been all I could come
up with at such short notice. 
    "I don't remember you being this much of a wuss at
school."
    I didn't let the challenge slide.  "I'm still braver
than you, Cain."
    The corner of his mouth hitched up into another quirky grin and
his fingers tightened around mine.  "I've told you before, Jess,
people with brown eyes shouldn’t try to tell lies."
    A thundering guitar riff tore out of the speakers, filling the
theatre with sound and leaving no chance to protest further or come up with the
kind of sassy reply I wanted to give him.  Acting like a frightened little
virgin wasn't part of the plan.  Okay, so I didn't actually have a
plan, but if I did, squirming like a bug under a microscope definitely wouldn't
be part of it.
    Nathan turned toward the crowd I had forgotten for a moment, who
were watching and waiting, and I sucked in a shaky breath, released at last
from the prison of his all-seeing, penetrating stare.  He was different
than I'd expected somehow and it was more than just the fact he'd grown into a
gorgeous man and developed a decidedly Gothic taste in clothing.  There
was... something .  Something dark .  Maybe something I
should be afraid of ?  
    Bright light flooded the stage, not a single beam but many beams,
giving the illusion of dappled moonlight filtering through trees.  The
black stage curtain, adorned with satanic symbols and strange hieroglyphics
began to rise, revealing an area bathed in red light.  In the center,
stood a large object, so big it dwarfed the assistants dressed as executioners
standing beside it. 
    Nathan left me at the edge of the stage and walked over to the
rectangular box, making a show of sliding away a large bolt and revealing that
the shape was made up of two equal sized parts, joined by a couple of
hinges.  The heavy looking door creaked open when Nathan and the two
assistants braced their weight against it, their muscles bulging with the effort. 
As the interior of the box was revealed to the light, hundreds of long, sharp
spikes jutting out from the inner walls of the casket came into view.  On
Nathan's count, the men let go