Valentine Rose, Page 2

  “Okay, I keep most of the backup logs here…” I said, twisting around him to reach the old removable hard drive. The tight arms and girded fists relaxed letting a breath slip into my lungs. But as I pushed past him to reach the storage room, I stumbled upon a computer massacre.

  Machines lay gutted on the floor, their chips cracked and trampled by hasty feet. Wires dangled helplessly off of the counters like veins ripped from a bleeding corpse. One single computer clung to life, the power cord straining out of the wall. It flashed in pain, the screen glitching to show the last debugging check, until it shivered once more and died.

  “What in the hell hap—”

  A fist clamped around my neck and sent me scrambling back on my heels. I clawed at the fingers digging into my flesh, but it felt like scratching copper tubing. “Wha…ah!” escaped my lips before he squeezed so tight my trachea collapsed.

  Sparks shot across my vision as my head bashed into the wall. Eyes blacker than ink glared into mine. “Where is it?”

  The hand squeezing the life from me relaxed enough I could breathe. Sucking in air, I spat out fast, “I told you. It’s all in there.”

  Oh God, what was happening? Would he kill me for the research? Was I going to die just so someone else could publish first? Would anyone even care?

  Five fleshy leeches enveloped my throat, squeezing and grinding it. My mouth gawped for air, trying to get anything in, but I had no recourse against the vice seal. “Then you’ve served your purpose,” Shiro said.

  Fuck!

  My foot lashed up without any input from my fading brain. It swung straight for the middle of his crotch and kicked with everything it had.

  “Aahh!” I screamed, dooming my final breath of oxygen, as my toes crumpled in agony. Pain throbbed up my foot as if I’d broken something, but it didn’t matter. I’d be dead soon and the dead didn’t feel pain. Right?

  Fog crept in around me, my ears buzzing with an unending ringing. I knew this sensation from reading about it in books. Oxygen deprivation. Lightheaded, dizzy, slightly nauseous. Funny, they didn’t mention the chill. My skin grew numb, as if I sat on an ice block. For once in my life, I didn’t struggle to look someone in the eye. But all I saw staring back in those pitch depths was my dying reflection.

  “Hey!” a new voice shouted. I tried to raise my head, to call for help, but Shiro didn’t let up. His head turned to find whoever it was when wetness rained from above.

  Freedom! The fist opened and I collapsed to the ground. But air wasn’t coming. Why wasn’t I breathing? The man trying to kill me stumbled back, hands swiping at his shoulders, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t… A great cough rattled through my trachea, burning hotter than pure tequila. Another puffed it up again and sweet, pure oxygen filled my lungs.

  Arms wrapped around me, and I flailed out to strike. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” the same voice tried to soothe me as hands yanked me across the floor on my ass. I skidded away, the world whipping past in a senseless blur, when a scent rose first. Whatever struck Shiro landed on me as well and it smelled like…

  “Ethanol?” I tried to speak, my voice flailing in a croaky groan. Bewildered, I turned to find a sea of stars in my rescuer’s eyes. “Nolan?”

  “In the flesh,” he said with a strained smile as he bent over. Hands cupped around my waist, hoisting me into his arms like a bride on the proverbial conjugal visit. Shit, how many brain cells did I lose from O2 deprivation?

  I tried to shake off the thought, or notice how closely Nolan held me to his broad chest. There were far bigger problems at hand. Like pressing charges on Dr. Andersonn.

  Incensed, I whipped my head to the man about to face a long stay in prison. He kept wiping at the ethanol streaking down his face in a panic. It might sting, but it wasn’t toxic to…

  A massive tear broke from the middle of his forehead. The skin just shredded apart like tissue paper in rain. I waited on tenterhooks for blood to gush out, or the skin to keep peeling until only muscles and bones remained. But a vein squirmed under the mushy skin and, two-foot-long jet-black tentacle punctured through the skull and out the hole.

  It slapped around the room, striking at random before it dug into the glass window above the door behind. The tentacle swiveled the head to face us just as two more burst from Shiro’s eyes.

  “This is when we leave,” Nolan somehow spoke neutrally as I started a scream that would never end.

  Continues in Cutie Pi

  About the Author

  Ellen Mint adores the adorkable heroes who charm with their shy smiles and heroines that pack a punch. She has a needy black lab named after Granny Weatherwax from Discworld. Sadly, her dog is more of a Magrat.

  Her first two books, Undercover Siren and Fever, are available in both ebook and paperback. If you enjoyed the adventures of a sexy fairy prince you’ll salivate over her next book Pride & Pancakes to be released by Totally Enchanted. Look for it Christmas 2019.

  For more information, you can sign up to her newsletter or join her Street Team.

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