“Uh-huh.” For the very reason of how desperate he was to touch me, I had a feeling I could trust him about wanting to keep me safe. How else could he find another chance to touch me if something happened to me? “You know what? I think I can trust you…somewhat.”
“I think you’re going to let me touch you before the night’s over,” he said while pouring a drink into the glass.
I took a step back. “Is there somewhere I can sleep?” I asked quickly.
He turned his head and watched me. “Why are you so against me touching you?”
I sighed. “It’s not safe. I steal magic and power, the very essence of anyone that’s not human.”
“From touching them?”
I nodded. “The werewolf at the hospital? That was me. He accidentally bumped into me and when I grabbed his arm, he died instantly. That’s how Julius was able to finally track me down after all this time. He sensed my magic.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and tried to smile. “He did this to me, this is what he made me into by altering my magic. I don’t want to kill anybody and even though I know you’re an entity, I still don’t know what I could do to you,” I warned him.
“You don’t steal anything from me, you give me energy instead.”
His smoldering stare as he stepped closer scared and thrilled me all at once. I held my hands out quickly. “Please, don’t,” I told him.
“I’m cursed, Izzie,” he whispered, taking another step closer. I couldn’t help but see that he too had demons that haunted him. It was all in his eyes.
“Cursed?” I frowned.
“You know the sins, right? Wrath, gluttony, lust, envy, and all the rest? I’m cursed with the sin of sloth.” I took a step back every time he came near. “All of my siblings are cursed with a different sin.”
“How?”
“The Devil.” Another step. I finally bumped into the wall. With nowhere to go, I swallowed and waited as he continued. “I sleep, Izzie. Notjustsleep, sometimes I don’t wake up for months because of it. Never once have I been able to wake from it as soon as it happens until you touched me.”
“That’s awful,” I whispered. “But, I don’t understand what that has to do with my touch. It might have been a short nap.”
“I don’t think so.” He loomed over me.
“Sebastian, it’s your safety I’m worried about.”
“Here.” He placed the cup between us. Once I grabbed it without letting our fingers touch, he pulled back. “I’m not worried, so hurry up and touch me whenever you want.”
Every time he managed to make me feel something,anything, that made my stomach dip and my core tighten, the darkness grew and begged for him as well.
My hands were reaching for him as he walked away, I pulled them back to myself but the need to touch him grew worse.
Twitchy fingers. Twitchy fingers.
Not only was I physically attracted to this guy, so was the darkness. To give into one would mean giving into the other. What was with him? What was with me? What wasus?
???
Heat slid across my leg. Not heat, a touch. I shifted and moved away from it but it slid between my thighs. At first, I couldn’t place if this was a dream or reality, but I still pulled away and the hand gripped my leg until it hurt. I winced, eyes opening with complete awareness.
I couldn’t see anything, but I didn’t have to see him to know he was there. I jerked forward but another hand came down over my shoulder, holding me down. “I’ve missed you, Isabella.” I felt his presence everyone.
My skin crawled. “Julius,” I hissed through the darkened room. I hated the very thought of having his touch on my skin again, but my darkness had no problem. In fact, it pulled me further into myself with its need to have Julius again. He created the darkness that tried to control me, in a way, he was its master instead of me. I had no control over it but he did. My disgust rolled into fire. I pulled what magic I could into my palm while I still could and began to whisper.
“Now, now,” he tutted. “I didn’t miss and search for you this long for you to try to blast me with magic.” He leaned into my ear. “Look how happy the darkness is to see me.” He laughed softly.
No. No. NO.
Why was the darkness so happy?
I squinted my eyes shut even though I already couldn’t see. It wasn’t my sight I wished to block out, but him. He was in my head, buried within the darkness and I hated it. Disgust rolled off me in waves.
