Page 139 of Phobia

One way or another, Danika Eleara Ascelin was going to be mine, and no one else’s. I followed along with most of Judah’s plans because it was funny allowing him to think that he had an upper hand on any of us. He knew nothing about me, and he spent every waking moment trying to dig up dirt.

But I covered my tracks and hid the corpses far away from everyone else. Judah Blackwood was just another pathetic, spoiled rich boy who thought he could control someone like me. His family may have owned this town, with their Order and the rituals they did every single year, but they couldn’t own me.

I knew that Judah’s father sent him to befriend me. I also knew that Gabriel Lacroix wanted nothing to do with them, but it wasn’t up to him. None of them had the freedom I did, and tonight showed it.

The moment I gave the serum I personally played with to Danika, something awoke in me. Something primal, unhinged, something that wanted to take her far, far away from here, from these people, these men, because none of them could understand her.

Just how nobody else could understand me.

I found her file in my father’s old office. He played with words like sociopath, borderline personality disorder, and an array of other things I didn’t bother reading, prescribing pills and possible hospitalization, but for me she was perfect.

She would’ve been even better if they hadn’t given her suppressants, letting her think she was just an ordinary girl, letting her suffer in loneliness because her mind wanted to be set free. She wanted the same things as I did, I saw that, but they hadn’t let her.

Now as I stood in front of her house, looking at the peeling facade and the ratty old door, I knew she didn’t belong here, with this woman. Her mother was one of the reasons why she never came to me, but I couldn’t just take Danika with me.

I had to let her come willingly, because only then would she stay forever.

What I had planned, that wasn’t only for a couple of months. I wanted a lifetime with her. I wanted her to fucking remember me. To finally fucking look at me like she had years ago.

My eyes zeroed in on her perfect face, and the smeared blood on her temples. Her pain excited me, stirring my cock, my entire body coming to life after so many years of living in this dark void of misery and loneliness, waiting for something to happen, for her to come back.

I wasn’t going to let go.

Not now.

Not ever.

She stirred in my arms, and I hurried toward the front door, holding up the keys I took from her pocket when I undressed her. Judah wanted to do it, but one look from me was all he needed to step back and let me be with her. It was enough that he got to see her half naked—him and his little buddies—but he wasn’t going to touch her. Not while I was alive.

The lock clicked within seconds, and just like I knew everything else about her, I knew this house. Her mother never suspected, never even heard me coming, but during the past year while Danika was away at college, I snuck in more times than I could count on one hand, needing to be close to her. Needing to feel her in any way, even if it was only by sleeping in the bed in her old childhood room.

I sharpened my senses over the last few years, and the silence of the house told me her mother wasn’t home. When was she ever home anyway? She had an amazing daughter who she avoided at all costs, leaving her to her on devices, when Danika needed her, just how I needed my father. But they could never understand us.

Instead of seeing our true potential, our brilliant minds, they focused on the blatant lies society told about people like her and me. They thought we were monsters, when all we needed was just a little bit of understanding and freedom to be who we wanted to be.

Carrying her through this house felt like another goodbye, but I saw the truth in her eyes when she finally woke up after the electrocutions—she knew everything. She remembered everything, and it didn’t matter when, but I knew she would come back to me, once and for all.

The door to Danika’s bedroom was already open, and with slow steps, I entered inside, lowering her down on the bed. Something in my chest squeezed at the sight of her. Before I could stop myself, I sat down on the plush surface and lowered myself down, wrapping my body around hers. She moaned in her sleep, pushing against me, with her butt against my hardening dick.

I wanted her, but not like this. Not now.

She was too weak, too sleepy, and I wanted her to scream my name when I entered her for the first time.

“Lazarus,” she suddenly moaned, arching her back against me. “Please.”

The little demon sitting on my left shoulder snickered, urging me to take her, to show her who she belonged to, but when I looked down at her, she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were closed shut, her lips open and her cheeks flushed.

“Please,” she whimpered, pushing harder and harder against me. As if they had a mind of their own, my hands started dragging over her sides, my fingers splaying over her toned stomach, traveling slowly toward the button on her jeans. The sound of our breathing filled the room, and as I unbuttoned her pants, I let my hand inside, exploring the soft skin and silky panties she wore tonight.

Seeing her earlier only in them and her white bra was almost my undoing, but I stopped myself before doing something in front of Judah that could jeopardize this entire thing.

“Danika,” I growled into her neck, just as my middle finger slipped through her folds, feeling how wet she was. “Fuck, baby girl. You’re soaking wet.”

“Lazarus,” she breathed out, turning her head toward me. When the sky blues of her eyes slammed into me, I couldn’t fucking breathe. “Please,” she begged. “I need—”

“I know,” I said, pressing my lips to her shoulder. “I know, baby.”

I pushed down her pants with one hand, and pressed her clit with the other one, having her cry out momentarily.