Page 109 of Conjure

“Want me to ring him?”

“Yes,” I answer, watching a shadow shift behind the fir trees. “Make sure he’s okay.”

I hang up, then lower my phone without taking my eyes off the swaying branches where I last saw the shifting shadow. I can hear them from here—the whispering trees.

It’s a struggle to tear my gaze away, but I somehow turn my back to the window and the forest with its secrets, a sharp pain stabbing my skull, like a pickaxe.

Ittaps, taps, taps.

I press my palms into my eyeballs. “Fuck…”

“Camryn…”

Fear travels throughout my body before I can stop it, and I lower my hands, slowly looking over my shoulder. The forest seems darker and vaster, its shadows thicker. The branches have stopped swaying, and stillness has settled. Rain patters against the glass, but the sound is muted. I exist in a vacuum—a silent void.

Struck with an inexplicable urge to run, I dash for the door and fling it open, only to find Dominic blocking the exit with his intimidating build and dark eyes.

I stumble back, and he leans his forearm on the frame, crossing his socked foot over his ankle.

“Going somewhere, little sister?”

I blow out a relieved breath. “You scared me.”

His response is a raised eyebrow.

I try my hardest to ignore the insistent whispers, but they won’t shut up.

“Camryn.”

“Camryn.”

“CAMRYN!”

Falling onto the bed, I scramble back on the flowery comforter in my panic, my heart pounding as I look from the large window then back to Dominic. His intense expression never falters, not even when a loud bang cracks the glass. I whip my head to the window, and a gasp falls from my lips. Blood…so much fucking blood. And inky feathers.

“You’re pale,” he drawls.

I look away from the broken glass when he pushes off the doorframe and enters my space. The door clicks shut, making me flinch. Slow, deliberate steps bring him closer to me, and I tremble on the bed like the leaves on the branches outside. I’ve never feared Dominic before, not like this. There’s something in the seductive sway of his shoulders as he swipes his thumb over his bottom lip, watching me like prey, as though he’s sizing up his meal. And not in a good way. Something is off.

When his eyes fall to my bare thighs in my jeans skirt, an insistent throb starts up between my legs, and he pauses to sniff the air.

His darkening gaze settles on me.

I flit my eyes past him to the door, but before I even know what I’m doing, my thighs rub together.

“Fear turns you on,” he says, tilting his head to the side and studying me like a rare specimen. “Interesting.” His nose lifts and he smells the air again, an inhuman growl reverberating somewhere deep in his chest. “Very interesting.”

“Dominic? What was that?” I ask, looking back at the blood on the cracked window.

He approaches me and climbs onto the bed, then crawls over me and blankets my body with his hulking, muscly frame. Fear curls around my spine, but I can’t seem to look away from his eyes.

Leaning on his elbow, he grips my chin hard enough to elicit a whimper. While Dominic has always been rough, this is different. His dominant touch has icy awareness prickling my neck. The instinct to recoil and escape from beneath him mixes with the heady desire to stay right where I am—at his mercy.

He bears down and rolls his hips against me as he lowers his lips to my ear. Mine part when his heated breath fans my skin. With a chuckle, he slides his hand from my chin to my throat. “Let me in,” he whispers, squeezing tight, and liquid desire shoots straight to my core.

When our eyes meet, my mouth opens in a silent scream. His are completely black. The color swirls like ink pools—two dark voids leading directly to the fiery pits of Hell.

He leans down to trail his nose over my cheek and neck, then breathes me in. “Let me in.”