I kept my mouth shut and preceded the two back into the house. My gun was still in my holster at my hip. If I could get to it, I might have a chance.
Tom shoved me forward again. Guess I wasn’t moving fast enough for him.
I held my hands out before me as I entered the room. Elinor looked up, frowning at the interruption. Her frown changed to a wide smile, showing her fangs.
“You’ve brought my little friend,” she exclaimed.
I looked to Liam and Brax. Their faces showed no reaction to my presence. Not good. I’d hoped their immobility was a feint, designed to fool her into lowering her guard.
Peter still showed no sign of life, and Caroline stared blankly up at the ceiling.
“Do you like what I did to your librarian?” Elinor said silkily as she came to stand at my shoulder. The skin on my arm closet to her shivered and crawled.
There was a darkness that brushed against me and clung. With my left eye, I could see the oily residue it left behind. I stilled the urge to brush it away. I had a feeling the type of taint that clung to me couldn’t be so easily washed off.
Elinor grabbed my arm, digging hardened nails into the skin and leaving five crescent moons filled with blood.
I hissed.
“I’m going to do worse to you,” she said. Her eyes found the blood and gleamed. She raised her hands to her lips and licked each red drop from her fingers, her eyes closing in bliss.
That was a picture I could have lived without.
My eyes flicked to the seething mass of darkness gathered behind her. It was faint, but I could almost imagine a shadowy figure standing there. Its tentacles disappeared into Elinor’s body and every so often it looked like a little piece of her amber center was sucked into one of the tentacles and fed into the dark mass. Almost like it was sucking down her soul, one small piece at a time.
I glanced around the room, noting thin filaments attached to all of the people in the room. I fought to swallow as I noticed the gossamer thin strands attaching me to Elinor and then feeding into that shadowy mass. The demon I was guessing.
Elinor was the focal point; all threads led to her. If she was to die, perhaps they would all be cut.
“I’ve never tasted anything like you,” Elinor said, her voice dreamy.
My eyes drifted back to the dark mass. For some reason I was more horrified at what I saw there than I was at the very real and present danger before me. Maybe it was the human part of me that still believed in a heaven and a hell, but the thought of that thing sucking down any part of me, my soul in particular, repelled me on every level.
You see me.The voice was like a thousand out of tune bells chiming at once. A sound to make ears bleed.
Fire raked down my arm. Elinor bent to take in the blood she drew.
The mass shifted closer. I kept my attention focused on the vampire currently lapping at my wounds. Her tongue was rough and dragged painfully on the flesh. I couldn’t help it as a thin sound of pain escaped me.
The mass shivered. My pain pleased it.
Don’t play coy.The thing sounded amused. I think. It was hard to tell as his voice was a discordant jangle in my ears.
The darkness shifted closer, its tentacles enveloping me. I fought against a flinch, knowing that’s what it wanted.
A sharp line of pain opened on my other arm and a tongue slid along it, capturing every drop of blood.
The demon, for that’s what I thought he was, moved against me. I could endure that. The sensation of its touch sent every instinct I had screaming, but I could endure. What almost sent me into a meltdown was the feeling of those tentacles reaching inside me, brushing up against my inner core.
I projected as much of my shields as possible, trying to protect the very essence of me from its taint.
That won’t work,he crooned.But keep it up. This is fun. It’ll make my inevitable victory that much sweeter.
His black smoke delved deeper, filtering through my mental forest as if it wasn’t even there, leaving ruin and charred husks in its wake. Pressure built in my head as I struggled to hold onto the last scraps of my shields.
I haven’t run into someone who could see me without a contract in place in centuries. What’s your secret?
I kept my mouth clamped shut and concentrated on holding on.
