Page 85 of Infernal

Ignoring her plea, I jumped from the edge of the coffee table to the sofa and then leapt over the back of it, closing the gap between us. As soon as my hit feet the wooden floor, she took off running in the opposite direction, barreling for the nearest exit. My heart filled with delight upon realizing how drastically the tables had turned.

Sprinting forward, I caught her by her long blond hair and yanked her backwards, sending her sailing several feet behind me. Realizing she wasn’t going to outrun me in this lifetime, she jumped up to her feet and took a fighting stance.

I snorted, because by the looks of her sloppy posture and limp right arm, she was in way over her head. At least she had enough self-respect to put up a fight. However futile that would be.

“I don’t wa-want to d-do this,” she said, her voice shaking almost as much as her closed fist was. “You’ve m-made you’re point, okay?”

But I hadn’t made my point. In fact, I hadn’t even gotten started.

Darkness coiled in my stomach as I took two giant steps towards her and then dropped to the ground, kicking my leg out and using it to swipe her feet out from under her.

She hit the floor with a loud thump, the air rushing out of her lungs with a grumble.

“You won’t get away with this,” she bellowed, staring up at me with unabridged terror in her eyes, arms outstretched and trembling between us. “He’sgoing to make you pay for this!”

Her words only served to further enrage me. Visions of Trace’s vacant eyes assaulted my mind, blurring out the edges of my vision until all I could see was red. I dropped down on top of her and pulled my trembling fist back as I held her jaw with my other hand.

I had reached my boiling point, and like a rubber band with no more slack to give, I snapped.

31. DRIVEN TO KILL

The rain was still pattering down against Dominic’s windshield as we sped away from Trace’s house. The last thing I remembered was sitting down on Annabelle’s chest with my hand balled into a fist, ready to make her pay for what she had done to Trace. Everything had gone black after that point, and I realized I had lost complete control over myself. I wasn’t sure how many times I had hit her or how long the beating lasted. The only memory I had was that of Dominic’s arms around my chest, dragging me off her bloody body as she lay motionless in a pool of her own blood.

I looked down at my fists and swallowed hard. I couldn’t recognize them as my own. They were swollen and cut and covered in blood that I was sure didn’t belong to me.

Turning my head slightly, I glanced back at Arianna’s motionless body slumped over in the back seat. Dominic had thrown her over his shoulder and carried her out to the car while I followed in my post-murderous haze behind him.

“How many times did I…?” I asked without meeting his eyes. He knew what I wanted to know. He knew I’d lost track of time and needed to put the missing pieces back together.

“As many times as she deserved,” he said evenly and then stroked my cheek with the back of his knuckles. He was trying to comfort me, to lessen my burden.

“Was she dead?” I asked him, my voice hoarse and distant.

“She was still breathing when we left.Barely,” he added almost too softly for me to hear.

“I lost control,” I said, dropping my gaze when he met my eyes. “I’m not sure what happened. Everything just went…black.”

“The only thing you need to remember is whattheydid toyou.” He leaned over and took my hand in his. “They came into your life, angel, not the other way around,” he reminded.

I knew he was right—they had caused this, asked for it even, but something still felt off inside of me. I was numb. Hollow. The faint ray of light that once lived within me seemed to have disappeared.

All I felt now was the darkness.

Less than forty-five minutes later, we pulled up to the abandoned mine on the outskirts of town. With no houses or businesses for miles in each direction, we knew that we’d be completely alone here, and that no one would be able to hear the screams that were inevitably going to come.

With Arianna draped over Dominic’s shoulder, bound and gagged, I followed him into the cavernous mine. Long tunnels stretched out into the rocky mountain, some going up while others took us further down into the ground. We walked for what felt like an eternity, blindly following the railed tracks until we came upon a cave-like opening.

He dropped Arianna face-first onto the ground and then rolled the kinks out of his shoulders. When she didn’t immediately wake up and spring into action, I walked over to her and poked her with the tip of my foot.

She was out cold.

“What now?” I snapped, staring down at her, irritated. It was going to be pretty hard to beat the information out of her while she was already unconscious.

“We wake sleeping beauty,” he said and then crouched down over her.

“Any idea how to do that?” I asked as I tried not to be bothered by the fact that he called her beauty.

“I’m a Revenant, angel. Who do you think?” he said and then brought his wrist to his mouth. He pierced two small holes in his flesh and then brought the bloom of blood to her lips. Rubbing a small drop of his blood on her lips, he pulled his wrist back and then straightened to his full height.

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