Tears flood my face, and Joshua swings wildly at the space above me. He can’t see Mastyx, but he knows something is there, something is killing me in the darkness.
My eyes flit to the windowpane, the sky lighting up with another round of thunder and lightning. Just outside the window, a small fire flickers across the ground, ignited by sky-to-ground lightning, giving Mastyx a way in—a way to find me.
Mastyx’s face, engulfed in flames, holds no human form. He’s a beast, a predator, and I am his prey. His tail wraps around my chest, squeezing it tight like a constrictor, forcing what little air I have left from my lungs.
“She’s mine.” His voice booms.
Joshua stands back, shaking his head, his eyes locked on mine. He heard Mastyx. He can’t see him, but he heard his voice just now. Urine soaks the sheets beneath me, and my arms fall away from Mastyx’s tongue. I can’t beat him. I’m not strong enough.
Words flood from Joshua’s mouth as he reads passages from the bible, trying anything to set me free.
A loud, ominous, diabolical laugh fills the room, Mastyx amused by his attempts. Mastyx’s claws clamp down on the bible, tearing its pages and ripping it out of Joshua’s hand. He launches it at the window, shattering it with a devilish grin.
The book tumbles across the ground, landing in the small fire, making the flames rise higher. “Our contract is binding.”
My body leaves the bed, levitating just above it. Joshua dives on top of me, trying to keep me from hitting the ceiling. He wraps his hands around my face, my eyes wide with horror. “I don’t know what to do. Tell me what I can do.”
My body convulses—the lack of oxygen affecting my brain. Mastyx yanks my body to the side, knocking Joshua off me, then rips my pants off and tears my shirt from my body, throwing them at Joshua before forcing me face down on the mattress, completely naked.
His cock enters me, completely on fire. My silent screams go unheard, but as the room begins to darken before me, Joshua’s tear-filled eyes widen, seeing everything that’s happening—the flesh of my pussy widening and smoldering as Mastyx rams his giant flaming cock in and out of me, the burning handprints pressing into my skin, the scent of my scorched flesh.
He’s witnessing my assault, my inevitable death.
My eyes drift closed for the last time, and my body melts into the mattress, weighing heavier by the second as I give up hope, give up fighting, and let him have me.
The pounding in my head and the rush in my ears grow distant. I fade into the darkness that is death, my soul floating away from my body, the last solemn words of Joshua’s filtering into my head before death consumes me.
“God forgive me.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Another Life
My eyes flicker open, and dark branches from blackened trees hang over me. Where the sun should be is a deep-red circle from which something is continuously falling.
I curl my fingers into the hot, damp earth beside me, and something crawls across my hand. My eyes dart to the left, and a black serpent with crimson eyes lashes its tongue in my direction before slithering away, disappearing beneath an oozing leafless bush.
“Where am I?” I say to the emptiness around me.
No one answers. I’m alone. I sit up slowly and rub my eyes, trying to focus on the sky and what’s falling from it.
That’s when I see it. The closer the items falling through the hole in the sky get to the ground, the more they take shape.
A body slams into the ground beside me, its face twisted in a permanent state of horror. I back away from it, and the ground vibrates behind me. When I turn around, a woman, her body fully intact, reaches for me. “Please don’t kill me.”
My eyes scan the area around me, wondering who she’s speaking to. She reaches her hand out to me, and when I reach back, I realize my hands don’t look the same. My nails are long, black and pointed. The blood coursing through my veins is like crude oil, leaving lines similar to the branches hanging aroundme. I glance down at my feet and gawk at the long, onyx talons that took the place of my toenails.
Something touches my leg, and I spin around to see what it is. A tail wags at me, and I snatch it quickly, squeezing it tight. My eyes widen and rage floods through me as I realize it’s mine.
He killed me. Fucking Mastyx killed me, and I’m in hell.
The woman on the ground staggers to a slow stand and wanders away. A few seconds later, another body drops in her place. I toss my tail behind me and storm away. If I stay stationary, a body may drop on me like a house. This isn’t fucking Oz, that’s for sure.
I follow the same path the woman takes, keeping my distance. The black pebbles on the ground massage my feet, and the scorching heat feels nice on my skin.
My skin.
I twist my arms out in front of me. Outwardly, they look the same, with the exception of my blood being black. I touch my face. Nothing feels different.
