Page 27 of Calling Quarters

My fingers flexed at my sides, itching for more contact. To reach out and touch her cheek. To feel that sweet agony again and know for a fact that someone else was feeling it, too.

“You're more dangerous than you know.”

“And you're more trouble than you're worth,” she quickly countered, her chest puffed out defensively.

She had no idea how much trouble I could be for her.

We held each other’s eyes for a few lingering moments. I felt her stare deep inside my marrow, as if she were seeing right through to my core. I’d never felt so exposed, completely at the mercy of someone else.

She could destroy me.

I don’t doubt that she will. But something told me that being destroyed by her would be the most exhilarating thing to ever happen to a person like me.

A pawn. A tool for others to use and abuse and place blame onto when nothing seems to go right.

She’d been holding her breath. I watched as her lungs filled and her chest rose, my eyes falling to the skin that her low-cut shirt left exposed. When she released the breath, it was slow and shaky. Somewhere along the way, she’d taken a step toward me, closing the short distance between us so we were now standing nose-to-nose.

Not a single part of our bodies was touching, but I felt the vibrations of her skin bouncing off mine as if we were. She was buzzing, and I was completely wasted on her.

I drowned in her pools of violet. They pulled me in and refused to release me from their depths. She was a siren, and I was a mere mortal trying to resist her deadly call. But I’d failed.

My mind went completely blank, as if she somehow managed to turn off all thought processes and render me defenseless. I leaned into the vastness of the space between us, and my lips were met with fireworks.

The pain from before had returned, but it was no longer an unbearable ache that left me with conflicting urges. No, the longer we kissed, the deeper she leaned into me, and the more places our bare skin met, the duller the ache became, turning instead into something completely different.

Something addictive.

Like a fiend with their vice, I couldn’t stop. The moment I gave into the urge to use, I became her slave. She owned me now, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Her mouth opened the slightest bit, granting me permission to explore with my tongue. And gods, she tasted so sweet.

But then, without any warning, she pulled away and ran, never once looking back at the wreckage she’d left behind.

Chapter 16

Storie

My body took me to him faster than my mind was able to comprehend what was truly happening. I awoke from my deep meditation tangled in floral sheets and covered in sweat and bruises. Those were my first indication that any of it was real. Then, before I could grab shoes or my purse, I was in my car driving in the general direction I knew his property was in—the same way we walked in the woods together. I recalled an old map of Beacon Grove I'd found in the library and hoped it was still accurate enough to get me there.

It wasn't until halfway through the drive that I realized what a dangerous thing I was doing, but I couldn't back out. Something about him called to me and the sound was impossible to ignore. By the time I reached the familiar beach from my visions, I lost all momentum.

His home was larger than I pictured it to be, surrounded by the same unique black sand and stone I'd just seen from the balcony.

My courage grew wings and flew away as soon as I stopped my car and shifted into park. Fear took its place, as if finally, my brain had kicked into gear and realized how dangerous it was for me to be there. In the mouth of my predator's den.

I walked to the beach instead of going to the front door like I originally planned, my eyes avoiding the beautiful sprawling mansion that overlooked it in fear of finding those coal black eyes gazing out at me. The ocean waves lazily nipped at my feet, somehow feeding the frenzy that was my mind.

I wanted to scream every frustration I had built up inside of me at it. To see the water split and shift with the sound waves as they vibrated off me, releasing every negative feeling into her depths.

A monster had grown inside of me, green with envy and red with fury. He fed off me for so long—my fears, my weaknesses, my complacency—that he managed to become a being all on his own.

I'd grown tired of other people making decisions for me. Of being at the mercy of everyone else for information about myself and where I came from.

There was a mystery surrounding my identity and why I was in Beacon Grove. I could feel the weight of curiosity in every stare as I passed by the town's locals.

Could they tell that I was just as clueless as they were? Was it obvious that while I'd spent a lifetime as a girl named Storie Graves, I had no real idea who that person was?

A piece of me was always missing, even as a child. A hole of ignorance about my purpose in this world that no one wanted to fill in.

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