Page 95 of Veil of Shadows

“Bex!” Jacob barked. “This isn’t funny!”

I scrambled to get onto my feet. I had no idea where the hell Delilah had gone, but I needed to get the fuck back to my room, at the very least. As I scrambled to my feet, something knocked me off course again. Something slammed into my right side, throwing me into the wall to my left before my feet came out from beneath me again. I was tossed around like a goddamn ragdoll while my partner cried out for me, and before I knew it, Delilah had me pinned on my back.

With her legs straddling my body.

And her freezing cold hand wrapped around my fucking throat.

“Like I said,” Delilah said as she smiled. I watched her fangs protrude from her canine teeth, “you can die for all I care. But either way, you’re mine.”

“Bexleeeey!” Jacob cried out.

As Delilah’s head whipped down to my neck, she moved her hand long enough for me to cry out.

“JACOOOOOB! HELP ME! NOOOOO!”

I heard feet scrambling against the floor. The firelight from the sconces on the walls flickered all around me as something pierced the skin of my neck. And almost immediately, my body shook with pain.

Excruciating, unending pain.

“Aaaaaaaa-AAAAAAAAAH!” I bellowed.

“Yes,” Delilah groaned between her gulping. “Oh, yes. You taste fantastic.”

I tried to move my arms, but I couldn’t. I tried to buck my body, but I couldn’t. The pain harnessed me, as if attaching me to the floor, and all I could do was shiver. My back bowed and my bones felt as if they were breaking. My joints ignited with fire as Delilah kept a hold on me with her mouth against my neck. I felt her drinking. Swallowing. Chugging my very life force.

Then, I heard him.

I heard Jacob.

“Get off her, Delilah! You’re gonna kill her!”

In a flash, something whooshed across my body, and I felt the piercing pain of Delilah’s fangs fall away from my neck. Blood trickled down my skin as my eyes rolled into the back of my head, and I felt my body shaking uncontrollably.

Delilah cackled in the background.

“You should take a drink before it’s too late, Special Agent,” Delilah said. “She really does taste just as good as I figured.”

“Bex,” Jacob said as he hovered over me, tapping my cheek with his hand. “Bex, can you hear me?”

Tears poured down my cheeks. My arms flexed at an unnatural angle as my jaw unhinged. I wanted to scream out in pain. I wanted to cry out for my boys. I wanted someone to chisel my fucking heart out and stab it before I turned into a goddamn monster.

But all I saw were Jacob’s panicked eyes as he cupped my face and gazed down at me.

“Just agree,” he whispered. “Agree, and it won’t kill you.”

I grunted and groaned with pain. I ground my teeth together. I bit down onto my own tongue until it fucking bled, but it did nothing to calm the raging storm inside of me. Searing hot pain buried its way into the marrow of my bones. Joints popped out and snapped back in, pulling pained whimpers and hisses from my chapped lips. Oh, God, it was worse. It was worse than any torture I ever endured on the job. I wanted to be waterboarded. I wanted to be chained up and beaten. Anything other than this.

Anything other than the agony I was in.

“Bexley, please,” Jacob begged, “don’t make me bury you. I’m not as strong as you. I-I-I—I can’t do that.”

Delilah clapped with delight. “Begging! Oh, I love a good spot of begging. Do it again.”

“Shut up, Delilah,” Jacob snarled.

Delilah’s voice became hardened in an instant. “I said, do it again.”

Jacob placed his forehead on mine. His skin didn’t feel as cold any longer, and I knew that wasn’t good.

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