Page 185 of Sinister

And at the same time . . . they’re mating.

She’s beneath him now.

And he’s pumping into her as if she were a real woman, his hands digging into her flesh. Groans and moans erupt in the air.

“I’ve seen enough. Please take me away.”

“Your wish is my command.”

The shadows coil around us once more. I blink, and we’re suddenly in a room—a library? Tall bookshelves line the walls. A study is by the window with a chair placed neatly under it. There is nothing out of place, almost as if no one lives here.

“Where are we?”

“My home,” he answers casually.

“Your home? The one in the tunnels?”

He nods.

“I assume we will need some privacy for our discussion.”

“And you just kidnapped me from the party?”

He shrugs.

“You’re infuriating! At least tell me how you brought us here. Those . . .” I point toward the shadows around him. “They’re alive?”

“No. They are not. They are just shadows. But I can move within them at will.”

“You . . .”

“And before you ask,” he adds with a laugh, “I did not sell my soul for this ability. Unfortunately, I was born with it.”

I stare at him in shock. He . . . what?

54

PETRA

Present day

I jolt awake to find myself in my bedroom.

What the hell did I see?

Thankfully, Sin is still sleeping next to me, his chest rising and falling softly. I blink rapidly to chase the image away from my mind and draw deep breaths to calm myself further.

What time is it? When I check the bedside clock, it’s a little after three in the morning.

The witching hour, my inner voice points out wryly. But I am still too unsettled from the dream to find any solace in her witty quips.

I sit up slowly as a strange tension coils tightly around my chest.

Again, I remember the debacle from the OB-GYN appointment: the tremors, the flickering lights, and most terrifyingly, the technician’s worried face when he had seen the ultrasound display on the screen.

What did he see? And what if something is wrong with the baby?

Even now, when my heart cracks in pain at the thought of the slightest harm to the you-know-who inside me, it’s hard to accept that he is almost here.