Page 21 of Stalked By Pestilence
Chapter Ten
Emily
Iwas in shock, I realized. I didn’t remember the entire walk back. Was it even a walk? One minute I was in a side street watching a weird creature explode into blackness, and the next I was being led into an apartment I vaguely recognized as the one on the fourth floor.
The gentleness with which Zelus led me over to a surprisingly soft couch didn’t match the terrifying monster he’d become when he found me in the street.
Shivering and teeth chattering, I stared at nothing and no one. My head was still back in that street where the creature attacked me. I’d suffered a mental break, I wassure of it. What I’d seen was some elaborate illusion my sick brain concocted to ruin my life after I’d only vowed to change it.
“What?” I asked, missing the soft rumble of his voice. He’d said something, but I hadn’t heard a word.
Zelus’s unique reptilian eyes were suddenly in front of me after the giant took a knee, and I stared into them without really seeing them. “We need to get you out of these wet clothes, pet.”
“Convenient,” I heard myself reply, teeth chattering. “You just want to see me naked again.”
That sultry smile of his was oddly calming after everything. “Can’t exactly argue with you there, but I promise most of my motives are innocent.”
“Most,” I said with a shaky huff. “So, am I crazy, or are we crazy together?”
A part of me really hoped he confirmed I’d gone crazy, because the alternative was far scarier. Asha was the chick who believed in supernatural beings wandering this plane. I didn’t. But I couldn’t argue with what I’d seen leading up to the weird shadow offender. Last night, Blue Eyes was something out of a nightmare, too.
Zelus’s soft chuckle calmed my nerves the same way his smile did. “Only those two options, Viper? Feel like there’s probably a third one if you really think about it.”
The third option being supernatural beings who, until now, I’d been totally unaware existed. My pulse thundered, my fear response activated by the mere thought. Turned out, I didn’t have fight or flight. I had the fucking freeze response.
Absolutely fabulous.
Guess I could thank good ol’ Daddy’s friend for that one.
More importantly, had I fucked a demon before? Was Blue Eyes a demon when I tied him to my bed and spanked him with apaddle until his ass turned red? That didn’t feel right, but it fit the theory about demons being pain-loving fiends.
My skin crawled at the thought I might’ve been unintentionally humping demons this whole time. One for absolutely sure…
My eyes dropped to Zelus’s hands, but they’d gone back to the black nail-polished ones I remembered and not the beastly claws I saw in the alley.
I didn’t cope well with fear and panic. I always got extra funny when I was scared. Asha and I had that in common. So, I bundled my desperation neatly into a funny question: “Well then, what else could it be? Are you secretly one of the Winchester brothers out here to rid the city of demons?”
His hands wrapped around mine, and he snickered to himself. “Unfortunately for you, no. But you’re right about one thing, Viper. Thatwasa demon. I guess me and those saucySupernaturaltarts have that in common.”
“Great,” I chattered, unamused and chilled to the bone in ways heat would never resolve. The pang of fear I’d barely dispelled was back. It didn’t take long for it to shred my pulse. “Demons? On a Thursday? What are the chances…”
“Don’t they know hunting is always better on Taco Tuesdays?” he teased back, though his tone was far softer than it should be. The tone someone adopted with a scared child or animal, neither of which I was.
I was a grown-ass woman having an incrediblyhumanresponse to the discovery of things that went bump in the night. Acompletely reasonableresponse.
It took nearly all my control not to hyperventilate on that information alone. Jury was still out on the joint crazy option, but it wasgetting harder to believe that was true after what I’d seen with my own two eyes.
The smile I gave him was empty. Another shiver wracked my form, and I wrapped my arms tightly around myself in an attempt to assuage the tremors.
I hated feeling weak. It was the whole reason I dominated in the bedroom. Weak moments always brought me back to those years spent under my parents’ thumb, their perfect little doll.
It took me back to the moment when that man—my father’s friend and business partner—stole my childhood and sense of safety. I promised no one would take that from me again, but here we were, safety gone and weakness restored.
A victim.
Zelus stood and stared down at me. My head dropped back to take in the size of him, not sure if I should fear him or thank him. “I have a few things you can wear, or we can go downstairs and grab something from your flat.”
I didn’t want to be alone. I’d vowed never to lean on any man, not after the one who was meant to protect me from the world failed to do even that, but…this was no man. The idea of going back to my apartment and being alone or letting him leave in any sense of the word made panic rise in my throat.