I set my hands on the stone, one in front of each of my shoulders, and pushed away from the wall. He watched me lean to the side and peek into the room. I wasn’t surprised to see it was empty. But this move wasn’t about checking the room. It was about showing C’adon the rules of our new game.
After a few minutes of peering into the room and listening to C’adon’s puzzled comments, I backed away from the wall and closed the door.
C’adon followed me to the next room. Before I even set my ear to the door, he started his usual rant about blood and pain. He even threw in the word “reckoning” this time.
Rather than skipping the door, I took a step to the side.
His tirade ended abruptly.
“She changes the game? I don’t like games.” His moody tone bordered on anger.
I exhaled slowly, set my forehead on the wall, turned so my cheek pressed the stone, and put my hand on the latch. Then, I waited to see what he would do.
He growled agitated nonsensical words under this breath, but nothing started to shake. So, I lifted the latch and pushed the door open.
“Why am I not enough? I will fulfill everything she desires. Have I not done so already?” He paced beside me and ran his hands through his hair in agitation. Perhaps, because of his presence outside the door, the souls within didn’t drift out, which was fine with me.
Acting as if he weren’t partially blocking the doorway, I repeated my performance from the last stop and leaned around the edge of the door to peer inside the room. While I was in that pose and searching transparent faces, I lightly patted the wall.
“She touches the stone. Those touches should be mine.”
That a boy,I thought. He was finally catching on and not getting nearly so upset this time around. Was I a jerk for messing with a crazy man’s head? Probably. That didn’t mean I was going to stop doing it, though.
I needed to check these rooms for my uncle, and C’adon needed to keep his cool while I did it. If he started getting too attached to all the touching coming his way, I’d simply stop playing this new “game” and come up with something else.
As soon as I felt like I’d looked over every translucent face and had given each cowering soul a chance to see me, I closed the door and went to the next one.
C’adon was quiet when I listened at the door but quickly moved to stand beside it anyway. Since I wanted him focused on the reward instead of what was inside, I stuck with my newly established routine.
He moaned when I set my forehead against his sternum and only mumbled a few “no, no, no’s” as I opened the door. This time a couple of ghosts drifted out.
His protests grew a little louder, and the stone beneath my feet began to tremble. I quickly leaned to the side, sticking my head right into a soul’s chest while patting C’adon’s.
The soul jerked when it saw me and bolted back into the room. I barely noticed its weird reaction, more focused on the abrupt stillness in the stone and in C’adon. His groan echoed around us.
“She touches me willingly. I want this to be real.”
And I wished it weren’t when he leaned in and inhaled close to my neck. Gooseflesh rose on my arms, but I managed to suppress the shiver that wanted to go with it. I felt too many things because of my current situation. Like the way his pectoral twitched under my fingers and how warm he was. The smooth texture of his skin. How much I wanted to run my hand over his chest and just explore him.
Stupid supernatural lure,I thought.Yet my breath still shortened and my pulse sped at our continued contact.
Keeping my expression passive, I focused on scanning the room’s occupants while considering the trouble I might be in. I knew better than to feel any type of physical attraction to any creature. That was a path of self-destruction, and I was too smart to fall for it.
Ihadto be too smart for it.
His good looks and amazing smell were nothing more than bait for simple prey. And I wasn’t prey or simple. Those brief moments of sympathy for his madness had to stop. Sympathy meant caring. I mentally scolded myself for being so stupid and stepped back once I was finished looking at the room.
As soon as I retreated from him, he bent slightly, trying to get me to meet his gaze. Mine stayed firmly fixed on the floor.
“Withdraw now, but know there is no escape. You are mine.” The deadly growl in his voice erupted into a rage-filled yell. “Mine!”
Giving no indication that I’d heard him, I moved away to the next door. I almost hoped it was empty since I was on the verge of peeing myself with all the in-my-face shouting he was doing.
It took courage and determination to repeat the process. My reward didn’t come in the form of my uncle but in a little less yelling from C’adon. By the fourth door, he no longer yelled. He eagerly strode ahead of me and stationed himself by the door when I closed the current one.
“Come to me. Touch me. Show me you are mine.”
I could only imagine what fantasies his warped mind was spinning each time I leaned against him or patted his chest. But I refused to let his mercurial behavior stop me.
