Page 10

He turned, cocking his head to watch me with those eerie eyes. Jerking forward, I slipped out of his grip easier than I anticipated.

I licked my lips and inched back a step.

Maybe it was best that I enraged him to the point that he killed me now. I didn’t want to find out what he had in store for me. If my hearing and seeing stuff started when he began to ‘watch me,’ then he’d been keeping tabs on me since I was eighteen, making it close to two decades now. Clenching my teeth, I lifted my chin and met his scary eyes head-on.

Instead of saying anything, his shadows exploded out of him and wrapped around my wrists. They pulled me, stumbling and tripping, into the branching hallway.

“I won’t sleep on the ground.”

He heaved out a breath, sounding more annoyed than he had the right to be. The shadows half-carried, half-dragged me down the hall. My feet gave out from under me and the cement rasped against the side of my sneakers. He entered a door, and it opened to another open, empty area. This place was huge, and every hall and room was so similar that it felt like I’d gone nowhere, which I knew wasn’t the case.

Torches illuminated the path, and he crossed to another stone hall.

“You have pleased me, so I will reward you,” he suddenly said after what felt like hours of silence. A reward? Was he letting me go?

He waved his hand, and his shadows opened a nearby door.

Once the shadows pulled me up to the threshold, I gasped and yanked until I was released. My bed! I shot toward my familiar violet bedsheets. I fell onto the mattress, bunching the rumpled blanket. The familiar smell of my detergent reached my nostrils. I was home.

I let out a gusty sigh of relief . . . then I saw the surrounding walls. Stone walls, similar to the rest I’d seen, made up the structure of the room. It was justpartof my bedroom.

I sat on the edge of the bed before I fell to the floor. The bed creaked with the familiar squeak of the wooden frame. With my hands on my lap, I could only stare.

“Mortal.” His booming voice ripped me out of my thoughts. The corner of his eyes pinched slightly, and the feline-esque nostrils flared. He narrowed his eyes. “Your soul is pulsing.”

The comment was so odd that it took me a second to compute.

“My soul?” I whispered. “You can see my soul?” I said with more volume.

He made a sound that sounded like an affirmative hum, but it rumbled with a deep purr.

“I can see what is mine.”

“My soul is yours?” I scowled up at him. “How?”

“It does not stop pulsating.” He was suddenly peering into my face. “What emotion are youfeeling?” His lip curled with disgust as he placed emphasis on the last word. I jerked back, my eyes widening. He grabbed my jaw in a harsh grip. “Answer.” I winced at the push of his fingers into my face.

“Disappointment.” He cocked his head. “You’re not going to let me go . . .” My voice cracked.

“Ah,” he straightened, releasing my face. He said it like it was a huge discovery, but I was so lost. I didn’t know what went on in this inhuman creature’s head, and I didn’twantto know.

His proximity overwhelmed my senses. I stood so quickly that my chest brushed against him. The pleasure on his face when he’d come played in my memory. It lit the still simmering heat in my stomach. I backed away from him, fearful of the craving.

I was attracted to the monster.

My body had reacted to his forceful touches. He’d woken something dark inside me. A lust I didn’t want but couldn’t deny.

I eyed him where he still stood at the side of the bed, in deep contemplation.

His shadows crept out from him, like tendrils, reaching for my leg. It wound around my ankle, the cool sensation spurring the heat to flood south. I was close to panting now.

“Didn’t I please you?” I whispered, desperation seeping into my voice. I needed to get away from him; this sick perversion would only become worse if I remained here. “I know I did, you orgasmed.” His wings fluttered behind him, and he didn’t say anything, so I continued with my spiel, “Then why can’t I leave?”

He bared his sharp teeth, grabbing my hair in a harsh hold.

“My mortal.”

“You saidmy soulis yours.” The shadows licked up my thigh like the graze of a gentle touch. He yanked me forward by my hair so hard that I screamed, agony rippling over my scalp. I smacked against him. My harsh panting caused my nipples to graze against him, and the pinch of him gripping my hair turned up the flame that he’d caused. I gritted my teeth, and his chest vibrated. Suddenly, he tossed me, and I landed on the mattresswith a grunt. With one of his sharp claws, he carefully grazed it across my forehead to move my hair to the side.