Page 149 of Taken By Touch and Torment

“You won’t be alive for much longer, so I’ll tell you my secret, little demon.”

I went rigid, my heart banging so violently against my ribs I feared they’d bruise.

Liza watched my reaction with growing pleasure, relishing in my terror.

“If I touch you, I may see your deepest, darkest truth in a dream. Some secrets come quickly. Some are harder to decipher. But there are ways of speeding things along.” She laughed, cocking her head and showing me faux concern. “Don’t look so glum! You had a spectacular run, truly. I’ve only begun to understand the influence you’ve had, now that I see you for what you truly are.”

She took another step toward me, and my fingers twitched.

“Brennan is a whole new man. Your handiwork, I presume?” she said casually, picking at a cuticle before trailing her catlike amber eyes back up my body. “Durian is losing his mind, conveniently…” Her eyes narrowed. “Now that I think about it, ever since you entered the palace, all manner of chaos has been stirred up. Almost as if we’ve been infiltrated by a cunning demoness hellbent on sowing instability and destruction.”

I mirrored her look of condescension. “Have you considered the possibility that you suffer from psychosis?”

Liza’s lip curled. She leaped for me at the same time as I moved for my dagger.

Just as it had been during training, vampire speed was my biggest obstacle. Liza clawed my arm as she yanked me back, and I swung with my dagger where I thought her stomach was.

She was quicker. My dagger met air, and I was thrown to the ground. Where the fuck were my guards? Had she told them what I was?

Who else had she told?

This flurry of thoughts was background noise as I wildly swung again, nicking Liza in the arm. She hissed, fury in her eyes as she easily straddled me and pinned my arms down.

The blood onyx magick would enter her bloodstream and weaken her, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough. I’d barely scratched her.

“They’re not going to care what the fuck I do to you once I tell them what you are and what you’ve done,” she said maniacally. “Not Brennan nor Durian. Not even pathetic Kole.”

She flashed her fangs, grinding against me as my lips twisted in disgust.

At that, she spat on my face. I let out a gasp of surprise, shutting my eyes briefly to avoid the saliva.

“How dare you act like I repulse you, you good for nothing whore,” she screeched. “You should be fucking pleading with me for your life.”

My dagger was just out of reach, taunting me with its proximity. That was how little of a chance Liza thought I stood against her.

She suddenly lifted off me, stomping on my hand as soon as I reached for the hilt.

I screamed, and she laughed, kicking the dagger under the bed.

My hand throbbed, but still I tried to rise to my feet, only for Liza to pull me up by my hair. Tears brimmed my eyes from the sting.

She saw through my glamour. I was now weaponless and powerless. My only saving grace was that she wouldn’t kill me before she exposed me.

Liza continued to drag me by the hair as I flailed, uselessly clawing for my freedom. She threw me down on the wood floor.

I was closer to the second dagger now, the pet bed a few feet away.

Stars shot across my vision, my head still aching from when Evangeline had smacked it against the wall. Everyone had it out for my poor skull today.

“Bet you fucking love it when vampires throw you around like the nasty slut that you are,” she said, her eyes homing in on my jugular. “I can’t wait to watch how they torture you, to listen to those sweet, useless screams.”

Her tongue ran across her fangs. I used my bent knees to propel myself closer to the pet bed. Liza once again pounced to sit on my torso, and this time she went in for my neck, the same side as Rune’s fading marks. She sunk into me, grinding against me again as my blood flowed into her vile mouth.

The venom was not going to help my already inferior reflexes. But at least Liza was too preoccupied and crazed by my blood to notice my hand slip underneath the pet bed.

I brushed the hilt. So close.

My skin was scorching, unwanted waves of sickly pleasure rolling from the puncture wound outward.

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