For three nights, I had a nightmare that terrified me when I woke up. It started with being in a room with Rogue and his friends. One minute they were laughing, and the next thing I knew, they were stabbing me. When I woke up, I was shaking. Rogue's twisted games were starting to get to my head, and I felt like I needed to breathe, but most importantly, I needed Veronica.

The third night, it decided to change into something else. I had a dream that forced me to wake up in the middle of the night, panting and sweating, soaked panties, and completely left aroused. My insides had twisted into knots when I remembered the two of us tangled in the throes of passion. My subconscious was leading me down to a road that I shouldn't walk on. Rogue wasn't mine. I couldn't have anything with him. He was bad for me. Dangerous. He scared me to my very core. Every time I was in his presence, I felt like pulling him to me, but every time I was also in his presence, I felt the urge to run away. These thoughts and feelings needed to be rid of.

Three days until Veronica gets me out. Three days. I just needed to hold on to that.

I rubbed my tired eyes and tried to focus on the person entering the room. Rogue took the armchair at the opposite wall. The sight of him turned the blood in my veins into molten lava. My breath caught reflexively as if breathing in his presence was forbidden. Nervously, I grabbed a pillow and squeezed it to my chest.

"Rogue," I said with a slight nod. He didn't reply. He just stared at me, watching me... unnerving me like he did the first time. There was something different about him that I couldn't put my finger on, but if he wanted me to fear him, I was giving in to that desire.

I swallowed against the dryness in my throat. "What's happening?" Before my mind could register his advance, he was already on the bed, crouched over me. He stabbed a fist in the headboard above my head, pinning me in with his body. Heat rolled off him.

In my dream, he would have been kissing me right now, taking my pants off, and fucking me until all I could scream was his name, all I could think about was him and that moment. I blinked once, trying not to shake. His nose was a mere inch from mine, and I could see a scar under his left eye that I hadn't seen before.

I pushed against his chest, but Rogue was made of steel and stone. He was close that I could feel the heat of his breath and the brush of scruff along his jaw. His eyes bore into mine, emitting all sorts of emotions. Even his gaze seemed different. It wasn't as intense as I knew it to be.

I felt the brush of his hair against my cheek, and I sucked in a breath of surprise when he dipped his head and pressed his forehead against mine, our noses, our chins, our lips, just a breath away.

What are you doing? Wasn't he trying to stay away from me? I felt his body shudder above mine.

"Rogue, get off me," I pleaded, a whistle of breath coming out from my mouth. He pulled back to stare with eyes that held me in place, brewing with longing, pain, and anguish. They swirled with chaos, coaxing me, pulling me into hopeless depths of despair.

I felt him. I felt his pain and agony. I felt loneliness. Horror and evil. A soul so dark that it made me shiver. My soul cried for him, thrashing against his agonized and tortured gaze. I felt myself trying to reach into him, to grab hold of his so I could see what he was hiding from me, but it was enough to make him pull away fast, taking everything with him. He was off me with lightning speed, rushing out of the room without a glance.

Just what the hell was wrong with him?

*

I woke up in the library with a blanket pulled up to my chest. There was a glass of orange juice on the coffee table that I hadn't gulped down before I went to sleep but found half of it gone. I was alone, but the door was opened. Pushing myself to a sitting position, I rubbed the back of my head. There was a feeling in my gut—a strange, twisting notion that something was going to happen. I couldn't deny it.

I heard chatter as I slowly made my way down the dimly lit hallway. I paused and closed my eyes for just a moment. The memory of the nightmare I had popped up in my head. I couldn't think about it again. It was just my thoughts scaring me.

I entered the open living area and allowed myself to adjust to the bright room. Sleek and elegant, filled with light and opulence.

"Beth!" Miriam thrilled when she came from behind me. "I was about to go wake you up. Mr. Slade has guests over, and he wants you to be there with him. Do you have anything good to wear?"

I couldn't catch my breath. I sucked harshly, forcing air into my lungs, but it wasn't enough. Weight crushed my heart and lungs, and my vision winked out. Dizzy, I started to back away from Miriam while she stared at me in confusion.

Rogue was having guests over? The nightmare I had of his guests stabbing me until the life was sucked out of me whirled itself back into my head, and I found myself gasping, bending down with my hands on my knees as I tried to come into terms with the news.

I felt Miriam's hand on my back. "Shh, take a deep breath."

Doing as she had said, I calmed down, sucking in deep breaths and releasing them slowly.

"There you go, sweetie. In and out. Why did you freak out like that?"

I straightened and clutched my heart. I went with honesty. "Because I've had nightmares about Rogue's friends stabbing me." Turning around, I clutched her hands in mine. "Please, Miriam, I don't want to be there. Please, make an excuse for me."

She gaped at me. "Those are nightmares, sweetie, silly things just to scare you. Mr. Slade isn't a bad man, and the company he keeps are not bad men either. You had a nightmare that scared you, but it doesn't mean they will come true."

"No!" I wrenched back, running my fingers through my hair in agitation. "I'm not going! I don't want to go!"

"Okay, okay!" She held her hands in surrender, her eyes brimming with pity and sadness. "I will see what I can do, but I can't guarantee you that Mr. Slade will like it, Beth."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

I had been pacing back and forth, waiting for Miriam to return with the news that I wanted to hear. I struggled to rest my mind, and when minutes turned to an hour, I decided that Rogue must not have accepted my decision, or else she would have returned by now.

I ran to my room and locked myself in the bathroom. I knew the door would not block Rogue from getting to me, and it wasn't my intention to lock myself anyway. In the bathroom, I scrounged around and found what I had been hiding from them. There was a spare razor blade at the back of a cabinet drawer that must have been forgotten there.

If Rogue was forcing me to dine with his guests, I sure as hell wasn't going empty-handed. If my nightmares were to come true, I was going to save myself from them. That's what I needed to do. I used the edge of the razor to slit open the side of my bra and tucked it through the slit carefully, between the padding and the wire. I pulled my top back over my head and stared in the mirror.

When I walked out of the bathroom, he was waiting for me. My breaths were quick and shallow. I looked into his eyes.

"I heard an interesting thing." He smiled, and his eyes went blank, as though focusing on something in the far off distance.

"Oh, yeah?"

His eyes refocused on mine, and I saw them narrow. "You have a wild imagination," he said, then arched a brow. "Do you think I invited you to dine with my guests so they could stab you? You're very funny, Bethany."

"There's nothing funny about this." I glared at him, still unable to shift from where I stood.

Rogue shook his head slowly, keeping my gaze with his intense stare. "We're not monsters, you know?" He spoke so quietly I could barely hear him. "You're insulting me." The way his voice came out with so much sincerity would make anyone believe him. But not me.

I eyed him warily. His eyes were the softest shade of green; they could be cold and callous, or forgiving and sympathetic. He could use them to charm anyone and sway them away. They were eyes filled with deceit. I didn't trust him. I would never trust him. "That's not what you keep telling me."

"Let me correct myself, then. We're not the monsters you keep painting us to be. We're not messy. We target the mind, not the body. I've never held that from you."

In an instant, my annoyance dissipated. My throat seemed to swell with a lump that wouldn't go down. "Are you here to force me to come?" The terror gripped my heart and wrenched it.

"Who am I to take away your choices?" He gave me a grin that twisted my stomach. His statement was the biggest joke of the century.

I bit my tongue to keep from telling him to go fuck himself. He moved closer to me slowly, stalking until he stood before me. He pulled me into his arms, and although I didn't fight back, I didn't lean into him either. Rogue's hand caressed my cheek, and I flinched at his cool touch.

"Take off your top."

My eyes widened. "W..w..what?" I stuttered. I started to back away, but he shot his hand out and caught my upper arm.

His eyes narrowed. "Take it off, Beth. You have to obey me, either by choice or force. That's entirely up to you, but it's going to happen."

I grounded my teeth and shook my head. "Fuck you." My body crawled with nerves, my heart exploding. I bit the inside of my cheek until it bled to keep from screaming at him. "I'm not taking anything off," I tried to speak confidently, but my voice came out raspy. I knew if I did, there was a chance he would find what I was hiding. I couldn't let him see it.

"If you don't take it off, I promise to cuff your hands and legs to the table for all my guests to see, and you know when you're offered as a buffet, no one can turn it down," he snapped, growing impatient.

"You're a bastard." I ignored the part of me that was dying to disobey him. I gritted my teeth. He wasn't joking. He would really back up his words.

With shaky hands, I lifted off my tank top, wringing it in my hands before letting it drop on the floor. I was left in my bra. His eyes were looking straight into mine when he ate up the distance between us.

Should I be upset and embarrassed that he wasn't even trying to take a glance at me? His eyes held no desire, and it didn't flame with lust. Did he not find me attractive? Was that it?

My breath hitched when he lifted his hand, then stopped and cocked his head, watching the air that was escaping from my lips. My heart was drumming fast and wildly. When his fingers touched the curve of my breast, I inhaled sharply and closed my eyes.

I was shaking. My heart was rushing so fast that I thought it would explode. His fingers were cold and soft. When he slid two fingers gently into the side of my bra, I nearly moaned, and then he was drawing out the blade. I pried my eyes opened. Rogue's eyes were so heated.

I quickly bent and picked up my top, throwing it over my head. The look in his eyes turned more deadly. Fear washed over me when I saw him looking at the blade in his hand, and then they fell back on me. Eyes blurry, my throat constricted, air supply dwindling. I didn't know what to say. I was caught again. I had no choice. It was for my safety.

"What did you plan on doing with this?" he asked calmly. His voice was loud in my ears, the force of it marking time with my heartbeats.

"To protect myself," I replied.

"Did you have a plan? Or were you just going to start swinging at every person that approaches you?" he asked in that low, threatening voice that somehow fooled my body into thinking it wanted him.

My heart thudded, and my head swam, trapped in a fog. "Whatever it takes to protect myself. I'll hurt you too if it comes to it."

"I will hurt you too, Beth. I always say you can't learn how to play a game without having a player on the table." He grabbed my hand and forced me to take the blade. I gasped when he forced me to draw blood from his index finger. He lifted the finger for me to see, and I found myself entranced by the blood.

Rogue grabbed my jaw and pried my mouth open, forcing the bloody finger into my mouth. The taste of his blood on my tongue was bitter, but I surprisingly found myself sucking the blood away. His eyes heated before he withdrew his finger back. I was stunned by what I had done. When I tried to retreat, he clicked his tongue and held me down.

"Haven't you heard of tit for tat?"

Before I could protest, I felt a sharp pain, and I swallowed my gasp when he inserted the finger he had pricked into his mouth. Warmth and wetness, I felt it all. When Rogue sucked off the blood, he dropped my hand and backed away. Without saying anything, he turned and left the room.

He left me to stumble back as I lowered myself to the ground. My heart was beating erratically. The memory of what had occurred moments ago played again and again in my mind and made me ache so badly.

What had that been?