Fear the Wicked (Illusions Series Book 2)(20)
“Do you feel better?”
Why did it sound like he was speaking from inside a tunnel?
"Do you feel better?" he repeated.
Blinking my eyes, I felt them come into sharp focus. My heart rate continued to increase, my fingertips and toes feeling like pins and needles. Where the pain had once held court, anxiety now reigned, the rush of blood in my head like softly rolling thunder. "The pain is gone," I answered honestly, unsure why I felt out of breath and spoke with clipped words.
A familiar buzzing beneath my skin came to life, a need to move, to rage, to dance and sin. "What's happening to me?" I whispered, unsure how I'd gone from one extreme to the other. Confusion settled in, made more certain by the fact that the fuzziness inside my head had subsided, replaced with a desperation for something more.
"It's the tea," Elijah explained. "I prepared a blend that would alleviate the pain you suffer, but it comes with a kick."
A smile pulled at my lips. "It's quite the kick. I feel like I could climb a mountain, or run a marathon."
His hand brushed down my arm and I shivered at the sensation. The buzzing inside me was a pulse now, every sense I had coming into such keen focus that I felt like I could accomplish anything, if I tried. Was that pride I felt, or something else? My heart beat with the warning that pride was just another deadly sin.
"I'll chase the demons from you, my love. And you will feel many things as I do so. Some you'll remember, others not. But through it all, you can rest assured that I'm with you."
Gripping his fingers over my bicep, he drew me close to wrap me in the warmth of his embrace. I sucked in as much air as I could, my eyes rolling back as the lids closed. I wanted to move against him. I wanted to eat him alive. I wanted so much, so suddenly, that I couldn't understand what was happening to me. Trust. Such a funny thing. But it was the only option I had when it came to him.
He chuckled when my fingers traced up his sides, when my body inched closer to him hungry for the pleasure I knew he could give me. Catching my hand in his own, he squeezed it. Even that small contact sent a shiver through my bones.
"Not yet, Eve. Not like this. Not until I can speak to the family and deliver my sermon."
A sense of pure need rushed through me, so violent it pulled the breath from my lungs.
Taking me by the shoulders, Elijah stepped back to watch me, his brows pulling together as air hissed over my lips and I trembled beneath the strain of whatever was happening to me. True fear was a blanket over my heart, the candlelight in the room becoming too much to bear.
"Elijah," I cried out, not able to control the jerkiness of my movements, the fisting of my fingers over my palms. I wanted to move. Needed to move. Was so desperate I fought against Elijah's hold just to expel the energy exploding inside me. "What's happening," I asked again, my entire body shaking now.
"Open your eyes, Eve. Tell me what you see."
His voice was a subtle whisper beneath the noise inside my head, the pounding beat of my heart that pulsed beneath my skin. Forcing my eyes open, I cried out to see that his face no longer looked human. What had been a beautiful man now looked alien, red eyes in place of blue, sallow skin in place of the sun kissed color I remembered. His features morphed and shifted, his mouth curling until a demon stared back at me.
Beyond him the candlelight roared like an inferno, smoke billowing to become shapes, evil dancing behind him until more demons stared back at me, all gnashing their sharp teeth in hopes of being the one who would devour me whole.
I screamed, the sound cutting through the air as I fought against the man holding me.
Speaking to me in quick bursts of urgent words, Elijah held me in place, refusing to budge even an inch from the platform where he kept me seated. His hands were like clamps over my arms, his strength too much for me to rage against. I had to get out, had to run from the nightmare my world had become, and just as I pushed forward to attempt to budge him, movement caught my eye, a door opening to allow in the last of the sun's dying light, three people inching forward that were as frightening as the man holding me in place.
ELIJAH
The sun was setting to the west, what little light it fought to beam across the horizon sneaking in as Richard dragged in the damned.
Exactly as I'd asked, he brought me a man dressed in a expensive looking business suit, and a young woman with long brown hair that reached her hips. I hadn't been specific about what I needed in the woman because she didn't matter much for my display, but she looked like an angel, and from what I could tell by the way the man struggled, she meant something to him.
She was younger by far, most likely in her teens based on the pressed white shirt and pleated skirt. I knew well by the emblem stitched on her shirt pocket that whatever school she attended was religious.
Oh, goody.
The girl's eyes darted to Eve, the fear on her face deepening to see another woman in a state of panic. I would have timed it better if I'd realized Eve would react so quickly to the drug, but with the lack of food in her system, the special recipe I'd given her would have soaked into the bloodstream a lot quicker. It was my mistake to not think about the possible effects, but oh well. A show is a show.
"Welcome," I called out, my hands gripping Eve with such strength I was leaving bruises. Shoving her back on the platform, I tugged her wrist to a restraint and locked it in place. She was going nowhere for the moment.