“No, Tyler is a demon. I’m a man.”
“That makes no sense.” I groaned. “None.”
Heavy weight settled onto my back, and the blindfold, which had been around my neck, was tugged up and over my eyes. I attempted to shove Tyler off me, but it was like trying to move an elephant.
“I love this blindfold,” he murmured into my ear and confused my body. It sounded so much like my totally sane Tyler, who would never hurt me.
Fuck, he had me half believing this demon stuff.
“I never would have wanted someone like you,” he said coldly.
My heart twisted.
“You’re already ruined.”
I drew my unhelpful hand closer to my body. “Fuck you,” I whispered, tears burning in my eyes.
“But he tried so hard to hide these pretty eyes from me. Made me want them more than I would have if he’d just left them alone. I couldn’t see them, and that made me want to take them out so I could look at them whenever I wanted.”
Cold metal slid down along my cheek.A knife?I panicked, flailing, elbowing backward. There was a surprised hiss when my elbow landed directly between his legs. I could feel that his cock was hard, and I’d really fucking jammed it. There was a pained grunt. I was able to squirm forward and push back with my upper body, giving me enough room to slide out from underneath him.
Shoving up the blindfold as I went didn’t help because the house was dark, and I was forced to pick my way along until I hit the stairs and a glimmer of firelight illuminated the bottom steps where it glowed from the archway to the sitting room. I rushed as fast as I could downstairs, going for the front door, but I groaned when I spotted the couch blockade that wasn’t doing a damned thing except keeping me trapped in here with….
Well, okay, maybe Tyler was kind of a lunatic.
Demons weren’t real.
And I needed to get away.
But then I’ll get him help.My resolve firmed up. Even if he had to go to prison, I’d at least make sure I got him what help I could. Holding on to that thought, I clutched my aching arm—maybe I’d done something to it—and spun away from the front door, tearing off toward the sitting room. I’d kick out a window and go that way. The porch was directly outside the one on the front wall.
But I’d taken too long.
Tyler wrapped his arms around me from behind in a crushing bear hold that knocked the wind out of me. He picked me up. I kicked, aiming to hurt, but he dragged me into the sitting room and tossed me on my back on the floor in front of the fire before he fell to his knees on top of me. He snagged my hands in both of his, then trapped them in one unholy strong grip above my head while he grinned. His teeth looked too sharp. His eyes were too wide.
My heart hurt because this was the face I loved, but it wasn’t quite the same—there truly was something different.
I sobbed, and he cracked a harsh hand across my face that had my head whirling. “You’re the demon.”
“No.” Pain rippled across his features as if something was hurting him, then he laughed and brought the knife up to my face. My heart felt like it would pop out of my chest, and I turned, throwing up what I’d eaten earlier. He didn’t seem fazed—rather, amused. My throat ached from the bile.
“I don’t have this shade of blue. Somewhere between cobalt and sky,” he mused. “Beautiful.” I shivered, and warmth twisted in my gut because that compliment sounded so much like something he’d say to me during sex.Your eyes are so beautiful.But then the knife came into sight of my right eye, and I froze.
“Tyler, Tyler, please, what are you doing?” I tried to tug my hands free, but he moved and sat all his weight on my chest, making it almost impossible to breathe.
He dug the knife point into the corner of my eye and kept going. The pain shut down my mind so that the only thing that existed was the blaze of fire in my skull. It seemed to go on forever. There was a scooping sensation in my eye socket that had me gagging again. Chills washed over my body.
Eventually something was lifted from my skull, and I tried to blink but my eyelid wouldn’t do anything on the right side. Heat ran in rivulets down my right cheek—blood. I sobbed and shrieked and couldn’t stop. Tyler finally let my hands go. He stood, looking down at something in his hand. Dizziness had me resting my head back as agony thudded in my face and I stupidly touched my empty eye socket. He crouched down and turned his palm to me. I saw my eye and rolled away to heave out the rest of what was in my stomach. It hurt all the way from my gut to my mouth, and that sent fire ricocheting through my skull.
He laughed, and I twisted around to curl into a ball on the floor with the fire at my back, slapping my hand over the hole in my head.
“I’m going to take care of this one. I like to get the preservation started as soon as they’re out, to save the best color,” he said in an almost friendly way, like a painter talking about a particular palette that took him a lot of care to mix up. I sobbed and huddled into a smaller ball, and his heavy footsteps clomped away from me. “They’re so beautiful. I’ll be back for the other one.”
Tyler cut my fucking eye out.I watched him go with the eye I had left. He didn’t move, fluid and graceful, like Tyler did. His shoulders were hunched and he stomped more. I was beginning to feel fucking crazy, but maybe this man truly wasn’t my boyfriend?
Or Tyler had a serious fucking issue. I should have never trusted him. I shook my head. Now I was going to die here. I’d never be able to fight him off. I glanced across the room toward the couch and something underneath it had me squinting.
His gun, still in the holster, was exactly where he’d tucked it.
