Page 358 of Evil Hearts

I could see the red thrumming of her heartbeat as her mortal body pumped blood quickly through her veins. Fear suffused the area around her as panic gripped her, and she backed into her kitchen counter, too close to her block of knives for my liking.

Pushing them down the counter just in time to avoid her searching hands, I solidified my corporeal form, still black as my darkness and blending in.

“You could hurt yourself with those.”

She screamed, throwing punches at the air in front of her and missing me by a mile. As Akirako scrambled in the dark for another tool to use as a weapon, I probed for the barrier in her memories. Finding a loose section near my appearance in the subway, I knocked off a single slice, allowing her to remember the brief glimpse of me before I spoke next.

“What the—Ugh!”

Akira fell to her knees, the memory hitting her with a mental pain that was unavoidable. I could see the vision I released, and she blinked through tears as she remembered my black claws appearing around the first man who’d grabbed her.

Seeking a bit to counteract the shock of that vision, I pulled her memory of the other night forward—the sleep-heavy darknessshe’d experienced with me and the way my claws and shadows had found her body underneath her sheets.

A delicious moan cut through the black as the sensations bloomed through Akira once more.

There you are, sweet flower.

The memory was potent even to me, and I was flaring to life in a way only one of my companions could elicit. I wanted that again, wanted more, wanted all of her—my newmate.

I stalked closer, sneaking behind her on the floor and fisting her hair in my semi-solid grip. Sinking to my knees at her back, I felt all of her through the shadowed air and reached for more with my other hand. I found the pooling wetness between her legs, tasting and smelling through the darkness that clung to her skin.

“Do you want answers, flower?” I sliced a claw through the flimsy fabric of her underwear. “Do you wantmore?”

Her breaths shuddered, Akirako’s fear and arousal choking the air with their intoxicating perfume.

“Y-Yes.”

The whisper barely broke through to make a sound. Forcing myself to retreat from her, I moved my grip to each of her shoulders, readying us for the jump.

“We cannot come back here. This life is done.”

As I spoke, the air tinged with warning, but I knew all too well that this was happening, whether she agreed or not. It had to. She already knew too much about us—the monsters that lurked in the dark who could not be brought to light.

She raised her head, looking out into the darkness even as she was unable to see. “I want to know.”

I spirited across the city to my home, the home of us all who’d been content enough to watch her—until now.

As we landed within the dank underground chambers of my home, a relic at the edge of the city from an era long gone and much missed, the shadows followed us. They cloaked the space, giving Akirako no vision of where she stood.

I could sense the others lingering on the upper floors, giving me this chance to get Akirako more complacent. What’s more, at the edge of my shadows, I sensed the torches that flickered to life in the long hall in which we stood. They could do nothing against my darkness, but if I let it fall, Akirako would be able to see somewhat.

“How—Where did you take me?! What’s going on?!”

The fear coating her words had amplified, and this new threat dulled our connection, but I still felt a craving buried within her. It was delirium, decadent, and delectable. I wanted inside her flesh, feasting on her blood and arousal.

But first, I wanted her to see. I wanted her to understand what was coming for her and how inescapable it was.

“I will drop the shadow, but do not bother screaming unless you seek to entice me with your delicious terror. After all, no one will come for you here.”

Akirako stilled, facing where my voice had come from. I saw her in the dark, eyes wide with fists clenched, a warring mixture of panic and fury. I imagined her squirming beneath me, fighting until her body relinquished itself to the exquisite torture I had planned for her.

“D-Drop it then.” Her voice was low, hardly above a whisper. “Show me who you are.”

I slithered through the shadows to pull my corporeal form up against her body from behind. Akirako gasped, trembling as Ipressed my length against the sensuous curves of her ass. She sucked in a breath, a hand going to her forehead.

“I-I know you. You…” She shook her head. “You were in the subway.”

Her voice was a shaky rasp as her pulse hammered, the flaring bright red of her veins sparking in my unique eyes.

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