Page 76 of Fractured Fates

“Who are you?” I snarl, peering up into nothingness.

The body leans into me, solid flesh warm against mine, hot breath whistling over my cheek.

I can hear them now, too. The panting of their breath, the thundering of their heart.

They hold me tight against the tree.

The forest is silent. The dark oppressive.

They inhale, right by my ear, sucking in my scent. I hear it rush through their mouth. Hear them wet their lips with their tongue.

The hook hums in my stomach, the sensation shivering through my body.

I shudder as sharp ridges of teeth brush against my throat and warm lips press against my skin. Then a wet tongue slides over the point where my pulse thrums and a mouth sucks gently, tenderly, almost like a kiss.

My eyes flutter shut as my head tips back, the pair of lips trailing lower and lower, to the base of my throat, along my clavicle, down to the neck of my top.

I should be struggling. I should be demanding they stop. But to my shame, it feels too good.

A needy sigh escapes, unbidden, from my mouth.

And then just as suddenly, I’m free. The grip at my wrists releasing, the body stepping away.

Immediately, I lower my hands and, despite the fact I’m shaking and confused, send magic shooting through the dark. The bolts hit a tree in the distance, sparking and splintering the bark. I curse, drawing my arms wide and firing again, hoping in my wildness I’ll hit whoever the hell that was.

My magic flashes through branches and overhead but after a few minutes I have to admit defeat. I’m fighting blind here and that tug in my stomach, the magical awareness I possess, grows weaker. Whoever that was, has gone.

24

Rhi

I stumble backthrough the forest, dazed and confused and determined to leave this goddamn place as soon as I can get my hands on my pig.

Soon the trees start to thin and that eerie silence returns. I’m nearly at campus. Nearly at campus, when my senses tingle all over again, that tug in my stomach pulling like mad.

I lift my hands ready for them this time.

“If you try anything you mother fucker …” I yell. “I swear I’ll–”

“You’ll what?” a deep voice says. A familiar one. I strain my eyes through the darkness in the direction of heavy footfall.

Then the man in black comes crashing through the trees.

“It’s you,” I gasp, my arms still raised.

He glances at them with disdain. “Are you planning to attack me again?”

“Again? It was you?” I say, confused. I have a feeling I’d have known if it was him. Besides, it doesn’t seem like his style. He’s more of an attack-you-face-on kind of man, not a sneak up on you.

“What?” he says.

But before I can explain, my gaze has dropped to his arms and the squirming bundle he’s cradling.

“Pip?” I gasp, darting through the trees towards him, forgetting altogether that this might be the man who attacked me only moments ago.

“Yes,” the man in black says, passing him to me with a look of clear disgust. Once he’s safely in my arms, snuffling madly at my face, the man in black wipes his hands on his cloak. “That thing needs a bath. He stinks.”

“Wh-wh-where did you find him?” I pepper my pet with kisses, letting him lick at my face in excitement while I search his body for any signs of harm. With relief, I find there are none.