“For what purpose?” Hudson asked.
I placed my bloody gloves into a plastic bag and sealed it before dropping it into my work case. “I don’t know. My gift is normally reserved for the human variety. I don’t get reads off of animals, so this is a long shot.”
“What are you go?—”
I knelt and placed my bare hand on the largest victim, a tawny cow whose entrails littered the ground. My vision went black. Not so long after all.
Except I wasn’t in a cow’s mind.
The fever sweptup my spine, and I rolled to my side. When would this end? The pain, the exhaustion, the clinging to life. Just let me go. I was ready. Where was God? I needed salvation in the arms of the Lord. Maybe then I could be at peace as I followed my beloved into the afterlife.
Bloodshot eyes stared back at me from my reflection in the full-length mirror positioned against the wall. My once golden hair that glistened in the sunlight hung limp over my reddened face. Bloodied cracks lined my perpetual pink plump lips, and my breath rattled in my chest, the oxygen fighting my lungs for dominance of the infection which would claim my body. Lotte, my beautiful daughter, sat on a stool in the corner, weeping silent tears as she read from my favorite book. Her lips moved, but I couldn’t focus on her words as my lungs seized one final time. Black dots decorated the edges of my vision, and I begged them to suffocate this pain. They answered my call, and the pain-filled world bled into the past.
I jerked awake, finding myself in the arms of a terrifying yet beautiful angel. His features were so stunning, it hurt to look at him. He smiled down at me.
“Time for you to wake, Sera. You have a new purpose.”
No. I was happy, at rest. I had done my time in the world, fought my battle with the devil and won the contest for my eternal soul.
I shook my head. “No, leave me here. I want to stay.”
“I have chosen you for my army.” His voice was a smooth symphony, coaxing yet demanding.
“What army?” I asked.
“You will see.”
The ever-present warmth bled from my limbs the farther we retreated from the light. I wanted to claw my way back. My heart wouldn’t cope with being away. Tears sprang into my eyes, and I struggled against him.
He clutched me tighter. Then boom, I was beneath the ground. The dirt pressed in around me, the sodden earth filling my nose with a combination of life and death. I could feel the worms moving against my skin. I was buried. No, no, no.Panic clutched my chest, and I fought the bonds of nature.
A clawed hand wrapped around my stomach and yanked me from the suffocating space before forcing my soul into a shadow. No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t a shadow; it was a vessel, one which would consume me. I fought, clawed, scratched, screamed, and begged to escape its clutches. It won, and a dark hunger enveloped me, one that burned my stomach until all I could think about was how to feed it. Blood, destruction, death. I scented their life force on the air and felt their heartbeats in my chest. Thump, thump, thump. Pain rattled my ribs. I needed to stop their hearts. Tendrils of my power wrapped around those vulnerable beating organs.
“Cora,”a masculine voice snapped.
I needed to destroy. Create suffering and chaos. My soul longed for it, and it was the only way the painful banging in my chest would cease. Power flooded my veins, and agony arched my spine. Flesh tore, and I gasped as my eyes flicked open to meet the hazel gaze of my mate.
He kneeled in front of me, his hands cupping my face.
“You back with us?”Indigo asked with thinly veiled amusement.
“Yes.”
“Good, because there’s only room in here for one bloodthirsty soul-sucking being, and I called dibs.”She sunk back into my mind, and the wings on my back sagged under the weight. I’d never carried them without her power before. Damn, they were heavy.
“You need to release us,” Dave growled.
Release them? What was he talking about?
Hudson’s thumb stroked my cheek. “Our hearts, Cora. Release our hearts.”
My eyes flew wide.Oh. Oh shit.I dropped the invisible grasp I had on them, and they both blew out a relieved breath. My body slumped forward, and I smiled at my mate.
“Sorry about that,” I whispered. “I need a little sugar.” That retro read had done a number on me.
Dave thrust a juice box with the straw already in at me. I took it with a grateful smile and swallowed the entire thing in thirty seconds. He swapped it out for another one.
Three juice boxes later, and I had fought off the rising tide of unconsciousness. That was progress.
