Page 59 of To Crave Truly

“Fine. Do it.”

Close your eyes, Lori.

And I did.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jasper

The world started to slip away. Light faded. Sounds were muffled. I tried to hold the skin of my neck together, hoping against hope that I could heal it, just a little, to keep it together, but my fingers were covered in blood, and I was running out of time. I was dying.

I could make out the moment when Lori changed. When the demon took over and Lori was no longer in charge. Her eyes changed to the ring of fire I had become so used to seeing before and her voice dropped to a low rasp.

“You need to let me go, pretty boy,” she said, her hands tightening around his wrists.

“Or what?” Mordecai said, oblivious to the change in Lori.

The demon smiled and it was strange to see such an evil grin on Lori’s beautiful face.

“I’ll make you scream.”

Mordecai laughed and I wasn’t sure how the demon was going to get away from him here. Lori couldn’t hurt him and the demon because she was descended from the original three, couldn’t kill him. So, what was the plan? To catch him by surprise?

Lori’s fingers glowed and Mordecai’s eyes went wide.

“Take that, fucker,” she hissed right before Mordecai let out a piercing scream. Lori slammed her elbow into his chest and then threw her head back into his face. He fell backwards onto the bed. His hands clutched at his head, fingers gripping and twisting the strands of his hair.

“Come on,” the demon rasped as she grabbed my arm and tried to haul me upright. She thrust her wrist in front of my face. “Drink this.”

I shook my head and pushed her away. “No, leave me. I’ll slow you down.”

“Don’t care. I need to get you out of here and I can’t do that if your head is about to fall off. Drink.”

“Lori…No. Leave.”

“We don’t have time for this!”

Mordecai’s scream lessened and I knew she was right. He was powerful, and whatever the Sin Reaper had done to his mind, it was soon going to wear off.

“For fuck’s sake,” she growled and sank her fangs into her wrist, ripping the skin. Before I knew it, I was gulping down her blood and the skin of my neck was stitching itself back together. As soon as the wound healed, I pushed her arm away. I was still weak and a liability, but at least my head wasn’t falling off any time soon.

As I scrambled to my feet, Lori grabbed her boots and trousers before grabbing my hand and running from the room.

“We need to get to the surface. If we can do that, I think Lori can call the Shadow Fiend.”

It was weird hearing Lori talk about herself in the third person. Except it wasn’t Lori. Not really. I didn’t fully understand her relationship with the demon but seeing the Sin Reaper up this close had me understanding a little more.

“Is Lori still there?” I asked, as we paused at a corner while she threw the clothes and boots on.

The Sin Reaper snapped her head round to look at me, her gaze direct and unflinching. “Yes. She is here but quiet.”

It was strange. I was looking at the face of the woman I loved, but I couldn’t sense her at all. The Sin Reaper held herself differently, with an arrogance that Lori didn’t have. And her eyes were colder. Harsher.

“Come on. We need to move,” she said before grabbing my hand again.

I followed her down the endless corridors and thought it odd that there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Even when I’d been given the option to roam freely, I always bumped into someone, but now, the place seemed to be deserted.

“Something’s not right,” I mused aloud.

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