Page 145 of Phobia

I couldn’t fucking forget the way my entire body became alive at the mere thought of getting caught by him.

My blood flamed through my veins, pumping in and out of my heart, rushing through my bloodstream and pushing me to go faster and faster and faster until I couldn’t hear anything but the whooshing in my ears.

The claiming, the reckoning, they were all coming for me, and I was ready. I was finally ready for this life, for him, for the new chapter that would allow me to be who I was always supposed to be. The blood on my hands was just that—blood. The stains on my soul were just that—stains.

I was free. I was remembered.

I knew who I was.

The cold air slammed into my face as I ran faster and faster and faster, but I didn’t mind. I wouldn’t mind anything right now if the end was the same. I wanted to brand myself into his heart, into his very soul, so that the only being he could ever think of would be me.

I wanted to carve my name into his skin, to show him who he belonged to. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t here only tonight—this was my eternity, my fucking happy ending.

My mother had no say anymore in what I did and where I went. I saw her frantically locking all the windows and doors at night. I saw her changing the lock on the doors the very next day after I left. I saw her going into the police station to report me as missing.

What a fucking cunt.

I wasn’t missing… I was finally found. I found myself, my true purpose, and tonight, we would paint this town red.

Something snapped somewhere behind me, and the grin I had on my face only widened at the mere thought that he was near. That he was coming closer and closer, coming for me. My pace only quickened the closer I came to the center of the maze, because I knew that this was where we should start. This very center I found a couple of months ago. When I came to his property to see the place, to find every hidden nook, I stumbled across the maze, knowing that it would be a perfect fit for what I had planned.

The knife I strapped to my thigh was slowly cutting into my flesh, and the gentle trickle of blood down my thigh only made me smile more.

I would bleed for this man a thousand times more because he helped me remember. He helped me see my true potential.

A scream came somewhere from the direction of the house, followed by the loud laughter of a female and a man mixed with the heavy breathing of someone behind me just as I reached the center of the maze.

A hard body slammed into my back, sending us both to the ground. His scent drove me nearly insane—the smell after fresh rain, the pine trees and something that was so uniquely him.

“Lazarus,” I breathed out, smiling as I turned my head to the side, feeling the debris and dirt sticking to the side of my face. “You caught me.”

“You fucking ran from me,” he grunted, rubbing his already hardening cock into my backside, pulling out a moan directly from my soul. Lazarus’s lips latched onto the bare skin of my neck, marking, his teeth biting, pulling blood out, embedding himself deeper into my soul. “I’ve missed you,” he murmured, licking the fresh wound on my neck. “I wanted to go after you.”

“Why didn’t you?” I asked, even though somewhere deep inside of me I knew the answer. He wasn’t letting me go per se. He was letting me be me, and I couldn’t fault him for that. He waited, just like he said he would. Just like he promised he would, and I came.

“I couldn’t.” He huffed as his lips dragged over the length of my neck, all the way to my shoulder, pressing soft kisses as if he couldn’t get enough. “I wanted you to figure things out on your own. To remember.”

“What if I didn’t come back?”

He suddenly flipped me around, caging me in between his arms as he stared down at me with something akin to a look of a feral animal.

“Then I would’ve chased you. It wouldn’t matter where you went, my Dark Star, I would’ve found you.” His tongue darted out, licking my neck, quickly replaced by his teeth. “Because you’re mine, Danika. I don’t give a fuck about anybody else, but you’re mine.”

His.

Only his.

The promise of forever, of eternity together, shone in his dark eyes, his pupils swallowing the entirety of his irises, turning them pitch black. Something wild broke free inside my chest, growling and pushing closer and closer to this man, to my monster.

“Then you’re also mine,” I bit out, dragging my nails over his neck, tearing open the skin as I went, while my soul danced at the desperate sounds rippling from him and the shivers racking through his body. “Every fucking inch of you is mine. Your soul, this heart,” I said as I placed my hand over his chest. “This body.” I moved my hands to his hips. “All of you belongs to all of me, Lazarus Morass. From that first moment I saw you, my soul knew what it needed, what it was waiting for.”

His lips smashed against mine—bruising, punishing, filled with need and a yearning that made it so much harder to breathe, both of us fighting for dominance through the kiss. But neither of us was going to win.

We were equal.

Two monsters that found each other in the middle of this insane little town, that hid more secrets than the entire country altogether. The very essence of Winworth fed people like Lazarus and me, giving us exactly what we needed even before we realized that we needed it.

Lazarus’s hands roamed over my body, his lips barely moving away from mine—nipping, kissing, biting, soothing. His touch was the drug I needed. His lips were the poison I craved.