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Fuck, think Gwen!
Her eyes scanned the bathroom frantically before she rushed to the sink. She pulled a drawer open and cursed when she didn’t find the scissors there. Gwen hadn’t put it back after cutting her hair—she had foolishly taken it to her work table!
Falling to her knees, Gwen yanked the cabinet doors open. It was sparse underneath, but Gwen found her target. She could hear the door giving way as another hard hit echoed in the bathroom. Gwen was running out of time.
Frantically, she yanked the rubber cup from the wooden handle. It came off easily enough, since it was cheaply made and Gwen had picked it up at the dollar store. Gwen dropped the rubber cup, tightening her hand around the wood. It was an improvised weapon that she fully expected to fail, but at least it wassomething.
Gwen stood, weapon in hand and faced the door. As another slam rocked against the door, she tightened her grip on the wooden handle. Her heart was racing as she readied herself for the inevitable.
“Don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream,” Gwen whispered to herself.
A moment passed.
Then another.
The silence was somehow worse than the violence done against her bathroom door. Gwen eyed the doorknob. The demon could have been lulling her into a false sense of security. He could be waiting for her to get near the door, waiting to pounce on her like she was some kind of unsuspecting prey. It infuriated her to think he saw her that way. Like so many men had thought about her.
Fair game. Easy. Prey.
No,Gwen thought.If you want me, you come to me.
Slowly, she backed herself up until her heels hit the bathtub, eyes never leaving the bathroom door. Gwen licked her lips and felt the rough bit of skin from her mostly healed lip.
She didn’t have to wait long.
The nightlight began to flicker, and Gwen couldfeelsomething behind her. A sense—no, a tickle at the back of her neck. Something as sharp as a needle danced up her spine. Gwen had been ready for him to come through the bathroom door, not from behind her! Quickly, Gwen spun on her heel, swinging her weapon hard where she guessed his ribs were.
Gwen missed.
A hand caught the wooden handle, but that wasn’t what stalled Gwen’s brain. No, it was the fact that the hand that held her improvised weapon was not a hand at all. Gwen wasn’t even sure if it could be considered human, every line was jagged and sharp. The hand was twice the size of her own, with long, spindly, claw-like fingers stained obsidian.
The hand extended from behind her shower curtain. Between the flickers of the light was an imposing dark shadow behind the shower curtain. She couldn’t clearly make out the shape—it was too confusing the more Gwen looked at it. But it was proportional to the hand that snapped her weapon with very little effort. The pieces fell to the floor with a clatter.
“Gwendolyn…”
The unnatural voice from behind the curtain shook her. Before Gwen could let her hand fall away with the broken end of the weapon, the monstrous hand was already moving. She watched as the spindly fingers entwined with hers and felt the awful sting of the claws as they slid between each digit along the way. The sharp points rested against the back of her wrist. Gwen knew if she tried to pull, he would shred her skin if they were to separate.
A chill went down her spine.
“You’ve been a verynaughtygirl,” the voice growled.
And something warm curled in her belly.
19
Fascinating
Ambrosius
It took Ambrosius a moment to come back to himself.
He hadn’t anticipated showing his more demonic form to Gwendolyn, but naturally, she had been completely unreasonable when he finally manifested in her home. It had been slightly amusing at first, seeing how quickly she tried to escape him. Like a brand new fawn stumbling from danger. By the time she closed the second door, something else had taken over. Something ancient,baleful,that Ambrosius hadn’t felt in quite some time.
Malevolent intentions to hunt, to chase, to torment had bubbled to the surface like lava. And it had been so very long since he had properlyhaunteda human. The temptation was strong, and she had beenright here. He had taken extreme pleasure in catching her off guard, and now her hand was ensnared with his.
“I haven’t,” Gwendolyn denied, hand trembling slightly within his. “I wasn’t…”
Ambrosius knew she wouldn’t try to move away from him. She knew his sharp clawed fingers would shred her hand like fresh slices of meat.