“Look, I'm sure it’s stopped bleeding.” She tugged at his hand. “Thanks for your help.”
The abrasions on her palms scraped across his skin, yanking him back to another place, another time…
His wrists bled, rubbed raw from the manacles. Unimaginable pain shimmered through him, rendering him breathless. His old wounds opened and new ones formed.
“I should thank the bitch-goddess for drugging you first before tossing you my way,” the demoness, Kalinin, said with an avaricious smile. “So rare to have one of your kind in my care.”
“Fuck…you.” His snarl sounded more like a drunken slur.
She laughed, flicking back hair the color of coagulated blood from her pale, frighteningly exquisite face. “That beautiful power, that light, is all mine. Imagine, I can take your blood and revel in the brightness without becoming demonii.” Her laughter spilled out and flayed his flogged skin like broken glass.
And he, the most powerful of his kind, lay there like a fucking statue, unable to move, to fight. While the succubus bitch he’d been trapped with relished in his torture.
Urias, he had to find a way out of this hellhole—had to—
Kalinin smirked, as if she knew his thoughts. “None can escape me, Empyrean…you’ll see.” A taunting gleam lit her malevolent black eyes. “I always get what I want.”
Never! Unmitigated hatred burned his soul and lanced his skull—
“Hey? You okay?”
His grip tightened around the slender throat. The fragile bones beneath his inhuman strength made little impact on him.
The sound of harsh coughing slammed his ears. Frantic fingers clawed at his hands. “Stop—stop it!”
Fear hit him hard, bringing him back fast. Reynner stared into panicked green eyes and tried to shake off the red haze stealing his mind.
Kalinin was dead—dead!
Hastily, he let her go and she stumbled back, hitting the basin. She rubbed her throat, fear and anger welling in her eyes.
He had to get out of here before he totally lost his fucking mind and did the female irreparable harm. The bitch was dead! And still his past continued to haunt him.
Willing her pain into him, Reynner tore out of the restroom like the gateway to Hell had reopened and would haul him back.
A short distance from the club, he stopped and fought to calm down. He’d never lost control like this before. Too many unpleasant memories surfaced. It had to be because of the green-eyed female. Her soft peach-like fragrance saturated his senses and messed with his mind.
He rubbed a shaky hand over his face. A coppery odor drifted to him. Beneath the silvery moonlight, he stared at the traces of her blood on his fingertips. Compelled by some unseen force, he licked the smear…a faint melodious note hummed through his body.
Magic? Inher?
His heart thundered in his ears. Was she the one?
If she could awaken the scroll and locate the Stone—he had to go back. Speak to her. And ask her for more blood. He needed to get a proper reading.
Yeah, right.
After terrifying her, she’d probably knee him in the balls and call the cops. But determination rode him. Despite the unexpected complication of his reaction to her, he would let nothing stand in his way. Saving his fading realm was all that mattered.
***
Eve rejoined her friends, her mind reeling, grateful they wanted to call it a night.
In the cab, she closed her eyes and stroked her neck which strangely didn't hurt. Her thoughts returned to the bizarre episode in the restroom.
The only time she’d ever been more terrified than tonight was when she desperately tried to drag her parents from the burning car wreck so many years ago. Absently, she peeled off the Band-Aid from her fingers. She honestly had no idea what had set the man off. It wasn't as if she’d seen his thoughts or felt his emotions, for which she was grateful…
Eve froze. Her heart banged against her ribs. She’d touched him—touchedhim with her bare hands—and all she’d felt was blessed silence. Not a jolt of an image, a whisper of a thought, not even color. Nothing. Except for his pain that had constricted her chest like a rubber band, before vanishing like it’d never been.
