Into the Darkness (Darkness #1)(12)

He stepped closer, not hearing me, or not caring that I spoke. His eyes looked at me like I was a life-sized riddle. They delved, searching. He took another step, forcing me to retreat two steps to keep distance between our bodies. Another step back had my back to the wall.

A small smile curved his lips. “I exude pleasure, you run. I exude fear, you come calling. You want me, I can smell it. I can feel it, almost like a palpable thing. Give in to it. Yield to me.”

Oh God I wanted to. His body was mere inches from mine, his intense eyes looking down into my soul from a face out of a Renaissance painting. The power of him, the sheer strength, had strange, primal fantasies running amok through my head. My core tingled, my chest surged, and my ni**les were so hard they could cut this stone wall.

Why had I come here, again?

He bent, sucking in a big breath through his nose. His face dipped to my neck, hot breath soaking into my fevered skin. A large hand landed on the swell of my hip, firm and in control.

“Nu-uh.” I pushed at him, unable to help my sigh. His leg slid in-between my thighs, pressing up against my core, applying warm heat to an area sodden with desire. My hands fell to my sides weakly as his tongue flicked out, tasting my hot skin. He moaned, a deep sound resonating from the base of him, licking down my body like a tongue.

“That’s right.” His mouth lightly sucked at the base of my neck. Lingering on my pulse. A scrape of tooth had me moaning, honing in on his fingers as they lightly grazed my skin.

“Shouldn’t,” I muttered, my eyes fluttering as his fingertips trailed over my body. His groin was moving against me in slow, rhythmic thrusts, unhurried and self-assured I would submit. “Can’t.”

His mouth glanced across my chin then up to my lips. As his full lips touched mine, my thoughts started to swirl. He tasted like wild wine and spice—decadent heaven. His tongue entered my mouth in needful thrusts, expertly playful and sexy at the same time. His bulge was hitting my sweet spot, turning my body into liquid fire.

Logic screamed at me to push away. To get away from this.

But I had never felt like this before. Never been touched like this.

I’d never had the pounding of my heart echoed in another, almost as if they were two halves of a whole. As if I finally fit somewhere; a niche where I’d always belonged, I just hadn’t found until right now. Every ounce of my being begged to give in; to submit to him totally.

Then the fire and crazy thoughts started to frost over, starting with my throat and working down the meat of my body. My bones felt like they were turning brittle. Lust was replaced with a tingling of warning, pricks of ice cold pain.

This wasn’t the logical side of my brain, it was something else. A warning.

I put a tentative hand to his shoulder, stilling his movements.

Suddenly he was off me, air replacing his scorching body. He whirled, leather duster billowing out behind him. A gleaming, curved sword blossomed in his hand out of nowhere, the other hand twirling a knife.

“What the hell?”

Chapter Five

Freezing cold cracked my bones as my fingers and toes were taken over with frost bite. A pressure filled the air, condensing around me, pushing me back against the wall.

In the middle of the street, like a heat wave taking form, materialized two shapes. They were like disproportioned humans with a monster-like flare. The one on the left had grotesque, burly shoulders. Its arms were stringy, like exposed muscle. Its legs were similar, each limb ending in long, three inch claws. A head like a bull, it had no eyes, just a large, gaping mouth filled with two rows of sharp teeth.

Next to it was a taller shape, like a man made of leather. Its face was an oval, completely smooth; the only feature were two glowing, green orbs posing as eyes. Its hands and feet also ended in claws.

What was truly strange was not the monster-like quality, but the fact that as they stood, they threw off an aura of darkness. It wasn’t like the Boss, who cloaked himself in shadow—these suffocated light, killing it until hope turned into despair. It was like an endless night, knowing you’d never be greeted by the sun again.

I huddled against the wall, too terrified to run, not sure what they were, or what they wanted, but knowing the thread connecting me to life was a meager thread indeed if they came after me.

The one with the bull head stepped forward, long claws flexing, its gaping mouth opening wider. The maw issued forth a swarm of insects in a plumb, the buzz nearly deafening my ears. Five foot by five, the giant cloud rocketed out from its body, heading straight for the Boss, who stood protectively in front of me.

He surged forward, meeting the plumb with swinging sword, the blade glowing a burnished gold. It sliced through the insect hoard like a stick through sand, cutting a path that immediately turned into wisps of smoke. Sword moving in a figure eight, over and over, the Boss was pushed back, struggling with the hoard as if it was a solid unit instead of thousands of small insects clustered together.

The Leather-Man-Monster sprung upwards, a huge arc flying through the air. The creature caught and sucked in the light, a streak of darkness slicing through the glow of the distant streetlight. It landed with a soft squelch, claws sinking into the Boss’s flesh.

It was here I could play hero and save the day. Deep in my bones I knew I could stop this. I could banish these things, rip them from the Boss’s back and ground them to paste.

I also knew those thoughts were illusions of grandeur, because if a giant man with a sword couldn’t handle this mess, what the hell could a small woman with a rape whistle do?