“Stop.”
“There you are,” an unfamiliar male demon called to me. There were a lot more like him all around. “We need you to harvest this one’s power too.”
Too?
How many had I? Once again, glimpses of things I did while under Julius’s control bombarded me. I shuddered and stepped away.
“He wants to see how much of her power you can hold,” he informed me.
I glanced between them and saw the figure of a woman curled up. A circle of demons was around her. Blonde curls tumbled over her shoulders. They wanted me to hurt this female with my touch? This darkness Julius had created had stolen the breath of so many already, to kill another? No… no. Not while I was present inside my own mind.
Only I didn’t have to worry about that because a shadow of death swept over us so quickly all I heard was screaming. The last fearful cry of every last demon in the room but me. The chill that ran up my spine was there for days after. One by one the demons’ blood bathed the room in every color—green for the fallen imps, black and red for the demons. The twists and cranks of bones breaking had me following the shadow around the room with my eyes as it sought to kill everything in its path.
I was quite a distance away when the shadow stopped and in its place, a man of coal black skin surfaced… Not really a man. More like a monster. Horns rested on his head and although it wasn’t the first time seeing a demon with horns, there was something truly frightening about him in a way that Julius dreamed to be.
I feared the breath I needed to breathe would give me away, but he knew I was there because his eyes landed on me before focusing on the woman unconscious on the ground.
The darkness in me didn’t care about my fear, it still slithered and crawled inside of me.
Twitchy fingers. Twitchy fingers.It wanted to go to the woman. It didn’t care about the monster, despite the vast amount of power that rolled off him.
“I need you alive, Isabella.” I shivered from the thickness of his voice, the thrum of power his voice alone wielded. There was a thud, and I looked down to see a portal chip at my feet. I just looked at it momentarily stunned, blinked, then looked up at the authoritative monster. “You’re the start… but not this way.” His eyes trailed over the female again. “Leave.”
When I didn’t do as he said, he added, “I know her sin calls to you, so leave.” I still waited and his eyes flickered red. “You’re only alive because this isn’t the day I need you to die.”
Ignoring his own haunting words, I finally found my own. “What about her?”
“Her family is coming for her. They’ll be here soon.” His gaze lingered on her. “She’s safe…for this day.”
He disappeared after that, but only I knew he wasn’t truly gone. I felt his presence in the shadows as if he were watching me to make sure that the darkness inside me didn’t win over and seek out the girl.
It didn’t. I picked up the portal chip, and I was gone, imagining a world, a better place far from here. I’d never gone to the human world. I had no clue how I’d live or survive on my own, but when I ported to somewhere random and stepped into a place that sold food, I manipulated the person into giving me a burger with my magic and that first bite was heaven. I couldn’t remember the last time I had actually eaten real food unless it was what the darkness fed me.
Still…
The darkness was a part of me. That meant Julius was too. My hope faded, and I slumped in a booth alone while the burger rested heavily in my stomach… Unless I didn’t use my magic…
But how could I make it in this world?
I stood quickly, manipulated the sales lady out of ten more burgers before I hurried outside and snuck into the bed of this huge thing that moved on rubber circles that I’d later learn was called a truck. While I hid in the back of the truck, eating another burger, leaving the place where my magic had touched, I tried to remember what reason there was for me to be alive. And then it hit me. Because I had never lived to know what it was like to be alive.
I awoke to a weird sensation rolling around in my mouth. Why must old memories always come to haunt me while I slept? I barely knew what I did when I was with Julius and wasn’t sure why my dreams thought I should know them now. I blinked my eyes open and found myself nibbling on an arm covered in blond hair… That would explain the feeling in my mouth and the flood of desire rolling through me. I raised up and wiped the drool from my mouth. Only now that I wasn’t touching a part of Sebastian in some way, the desire should have faded into nothing, but it hadn’t dulled, not in the slightest.
He sat up against the bedpost with one long leg stretched out over his other and his entire focus was on me. I patted my head in hopes that my bedhead wasn’t as bad as it most likely was and in the process, my gaze drifted down to the long thick shaft trapped in his jeans. I was comfortably flushed as I met his blue eyes and the warmth in my stomach was quickly turning into fire. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled.
“Are you okay?” He tilted his head and studied me as he asked.
“Yeah, I think so… Why?”
“You looked like you were having a nightmare there for a while and then it quickly turned into you nibbling my arm.” He pointed toward the wet spot on his arm where my mouth had been. I covered my lips and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Not that I mind. At all. But you did cause this in the process.” Hetipped his chin up to make me look at his obvious erection a foot away from me.
I laughed awkwardly. “I tend to relive some dark moments of my past when I was trapped with Julius,” I admitted, not meeting Sebastian’s eyes. “And if you think that those nightmares scare me, they don’t. I’m used to them. The way I see it. I was lucky to escape his grasp when I did… What does scare me is landing back in his clutches.”
“Do you know why Julius made your touch into a weapon?” Sebastian leaned up and asked me.
I finally met his gaze head-on and was met with softness. There was no underlying judgment or fear… But he hardly knew enough to fear me just yet, right? I hated that the thought of him looking at me in disgust was quickly becoming a haunting theme in my head.
“I wish I knew, but I only remember bits and pieces of my time spent with Julius. He kept me in some sort of trance over the years. I’ve managed to recover fragments. Sadly, when they return, I wish they’d stay gone forever.” I shuddered, and Sebastian placed a hand on my bare leg. I grabbed the sheet and lifted it to my neck when I realized I was naked and Sebastian’s eyes were devouring me whole. It was weird how oddly normal and comfortable this felt sitting in a bed with a guy I barely knew. I cleared my throat. “I remember Julius taking me to random demons. He’d always say something about harvesting their power. I think that’s what I do to demons, I steal whatever magic or power and abilities they have along with their lives.” I paused. “Is your brother okay?”
