Page 271 of Evil Hearts

“Okay, I can’t take this any longer.” I swing my legs over the bed and lay my hands on my lap, setting my eyes on Ismael. “You were going topunchme?” I demand with incredulity.

At first he just blinks. Then he glances at Ebon as if for guidance. Then he steps to the side like I might just be talking to myself somehow. But when my eyes follow him, he steps back and cocks his head.

“Ebon, I think she’s looking at me.” He whispers not at all quietly.

“Yes, Ebon, I’m looking at him. I’m looking atallof you.” I swivel my head to make eye contact with each of them. When I make it to Resheph, he poofs into the wall and out of sight. “Wait!”

“Leave us.” Ebon growls.

“But-” Ismael begins to challenge and with a stern look from Ebon he concedes and drops to all fours in his fully wolfish form and slinks down the hall as if all were normal.

So, as I had predicted, Ebon is the boss man.

I do my best to hold back a cartoonish gulp and keep my back straight as he bares down on me with calculated and intimidating steps. Some predators you’re supposed to run from, some you play big with. So what do you do with ethereal shadowshifters with a penchant for mind torture?

“I don’t suppose we could skip the introductions and go straight for the make out session?”

“Who has given you the Sight?” He demands harshly as he crouches into my face.

“What?” I blink dumbly.

Glittering claws appear from his shadows and I feel them like cold static as he grips my face. A deep tingling sets it like novacaine through my jaw as he pulls me towards him and whileI’m sure he’s expecting me to recoil in fear, my eyes droop in submission and I sigh in relief that he’s finally touching me.

“I’ve always seen you.” I nearly whimper as I peer into his eyes.

They’re a black so pitch I can feel them pull the breath from my lungs. I involuntarily lean into him, trying to get closer, trying to see into the center of him. I just want to see what makes him tick. What gives him this power over me? This incredible power that renders me senseless.

“Who!” Stars burst in his maw like snapping teeth as he shakes me with impatience.

“No one!” I gasp and shake my head as best as I can without pulling away. “I don’t know what you mean!”

“How do you see us?”

“I-I don’t know, I just always have!”

“You lie!” He snarls and forces me onto my back, his face morphing into an epic void.

Suddenly, I feel myself falling. It’s like waking up in a panic and trying to catch yourself, but you’re already on your bed and safe. Your heart is racing and you swear you felt your body drop to the sheets. My skin goes clammy and my lungs shudder, the feeling doesn’t dissipate. I just dangle on the edge of falling and never landing. Floating in space.

“Tell me!” His voice echoes through my skull and down my limbs, furthering my descent into his black hole of terror.

And still, my panties are soaked.

He might actually kill me and I can’t muster a single ounce of concern because I’m so delighted that he’s touching me and knows that I know. For once I’m not pretending he’s not here. That I’m not just having some fevered dream he’s inducing.

“I have always seen you.” I croak through my drying throat. “You came through my window. I thought I imagined you at first. I was afraid to blink. I was afraid that if I did, you would go away and I would be alone again.” I feel a tear trail down myface and crash into his matter on my flesh. “But you stayed. And then you came back. Like an answered prayer. Like I was maybe allowed to keep you.”

“Impossible.” His voice would barely pass as a whisper.

“And then Ismael came. A wolf in my hall, I thought I’d dreamed him up. Just another unfulfilled wish. Another figment to share my space with.” My body feels heavier as I speak, but I continue. “Gnocchi showed up on a night when I’d nearly given up on everything. I intended for it to be my last. But he was so beautiful, and he looked at me like I was his whole world. I couldn’t leave him.”

I swear I feel him draw a deep breath.

“I couldn’t leave any of you.”

“That desperation to go, it’s what brought us.” He breaks the silence after several moments. “So why, after you’ve chosen to stay, are we still here? And how, do. you.see.us?” Slowly his agitation rises back up and I can’t help but try to crawl back on the bed this time.

“I don’t know!” I cry out with a shaking voice. “I have no idea, you can’t tell me?” I try to sound authoritative and I’m sure it’s laughable at best.

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