There was none of that Aubrey left right now. There was panic and arousal warring just beneath my skin and making me feel sick to my stomach, because how broken did I have to be that this was getting to me?
That he was getting to me.
That the sound of his heavy footsteps crunching on the glass of the broken window I’d scrambled past was nearly enough to make memoan.
He was the physical manifestation of every time I’d run into danger, every time I’d pushed myself to see how far I could go before I collapsed.
I needed torun.
I sucked in a sharp breath and carefully looked down the hall. It was so dark in the damn building that I could barely see anything in that direction, and the only reason I didn’t hate it was because that probably meant he wouldn’t see me either when I ran.
I needed to get back onto the street and keep running until I was out of the city.
I needed?—
“Every second you hide from me only makes this worse, you know?” Phoenix’s voice was smooth, warm, a threat sent into the air to sizzle along my nerves in an attempt to giveaway my position. He was taunting me to see if I’d react, wasn’t he? “I’m not patient. I’m not Order, Aubrey. I’m not some bitch who will let you put a bullet through their skull. I’m going to catch you. Don’t you get it? You’remine.”
Mine.
Mine?
What kind of psychopath said someone belonged to them when they abducted them off the street?
Probably the same kind who ate people, but…
I darted out, my eyes fixed on the room in front of me—it was lined with windows, and at the far end was a door. If I could get to it, if I could make it…
“Bad dog.” Fingers twisted in my hair, jerking me around and slamming me against the wall. It knocked the breath out of me, and that was all he needed to grab my wrists and pin both of them above my head with one hand.
One hand.
Fuck, he was so big.
“Fuck off.” It didn’t sound that menacing when I could barely breathe.
Phoenix leaned in, running his nose along my jawline slowly, like he was claiming a prize.Fuck. My heart was beating too fast in my chest, because some part of mefeltlike a prize.
“Now, how do you want to be punished?”
That spike of adrenaline wasn’t gone. It was burning through me, tearing into my veins the same way the red rain did when it fell, and I…
I screamed when the sensation of his teeth setting into my shoulder sent licks of agony and pleasure racing throughmy body, arrowing along my spine and making my head throb while my cock jerked in my pants.
No.
Thiswasn’tthe response I was supposed to have to being hunted. To being caught, to beinghurt. Why could I only feel things now when theyhurt?
I…
Phoenix moved his mouth over the wound he’d left, and the stinging sensation when he licked roughly against it let me know he’d broken skin, that he was probably flooding his tongue with the taste of my infected blood.
And he didn’t care.
How long had it been since I was around someone who didn’tcareif I was infected, broken?
“Fuck, you taste sweet.” Phoenix’s low growl was enough to tear me out of my thoughts, and his hand squeezing my wrists hard enough to draw a pained sound out of my throat reminded me that I was still in very real danger.
Danger.
