Page 90 of Of Mercury and Mist

Samuel came around the table, confident he had all the time in the world. Quickly, I grabbed the salt dish and hurled it at the glass. It bounced back, remaining whole and unbroken, and rolled across the floor leaving a white trail. The little spoon dinged against the floor.

He’d almost reached me, and I swiveled my head, trying to decide which way to go. There was another door on the other side of the table, and I shot across the room, intent on reaching it. On my way around the dining set, I tore the chairs away, flinging them to the ground best I could.

They were heavy and unwieldy, and I suddenly felt incredibly stupid as Samuel followed me. He wasn’t even chasing me. I was destroying the room for no reason as he could’ve grabbed me any time he wanted to. It was like a toddler throwing a tantrum, my histrionics.

I was going to have to figure another way out.

“Why would you give me up for death? If you want me, I mean?” Blinking, I straightened my shirt and took a couple deep breaths.

I’d been almost purely survival focused since the minute I’d arrived, letting my head cloud with fear and worry, not really taking in my surroundings under any other lens. As I let the environment sink in, I felt a hollow sense of void. There was an absence, deep and profound, of life. It almost felt like the basement of an old house, the kind of place that terrorized one as a child where only spiders and the creatures of one’s imagination lived.

My skin prickled and my breathing shallowed as the man came to a stop in front of me. It was on the tip of my tongue to apologize for the mess, but I refrained. He stood before me, his eyes glowing with a thin orange ring around his pupils. It looked like lava, his gaze, the fiery colors twisting and turning in a ring.

“I have to answer to a higher power. We all do. But I’m sure we can come to an arrangement.” He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me closer, the heat of his palm sinking through the material of my shirt. His hot breath caressed the skin of my neck, and I heard him inhale as a strange sensation coursed through me.

Warmth wound through me as I felt a light tug. He was feeding from me, I realized, but it was different than a vampire. It was relaxing, and I wavered on my feet before grabbing his forearm. But hadn’t Micha done this, too?

“Stop,” I pushed at him, trying to use enough force to make it end without insulting him. I was going to have to be careful how I acted if I were ever to be free.

His long hair dragged against the side of my face as he pulled away. “It will take a while to get rid of him. You’re thoroughly infected. I hadn’t realized it’d be so bad with a crossbreed.” He let out a sardonic laugh. “We have our work cut out for us.”

He glanced down at me. “You didn’t know, did you? Your lover, though he may live as a vampire, is half demon. Oh, you didn’t know. How amusing.”

My back hit the edge of the table, and I held the ledge.

“You ran away from him, yet I can see you love him. He can see it too, thanks to his mixed blood. Now you have two powerful beings in pursuit of you. You don’t stand a chance out there on your own.”

Quietly, I said, “He lied to me.”

“Can you blame him?” Samuel turned his head toward the door and Mandy came in, scowling at me before she began cleaning up the mess. “You’ve been claimed by him and now marked by me. Your options have been obliterated.”

“What did you do to my neck?” He’d moved to leave and for lack of anything better to do, I followed.

Casting a glance over his shoulder he answered, “Feeding. The human spirit fortifies us.”

“I didn’t say you could have that.” Could he kill me that way? I was assuming so.

He whirled on me and opened his mouth before seizing me by the shoulders and inhaling. “Your anxiety is a delicacy.” His irises widened, a fire storm raging and brightening his pupils.

My heart was thumping in panic, and I tried to force it to slow down by shutting my mouth and inhaling deep breaths through my nostrils. It helped, slightly, as I swallowed.

Whispering, I asked, “What are you going to do to me?”

“We’ll be friends,” he declared. “You sought me out, remember? You would’ve run from me in the woods the first night you met me if you didn’t want me to be a part of your life.”

“I didn’t know what you were, and I thought I was dreaming.”

“They always do,” he mused.

This time, the artwork on the walls didn’t come alive. I eyed them, waiting for a limb to spring out from the canvas, an eyeball to wink at me, but nothing happened. I relaxed a bit and tried to focus on placing on foot in front of the other when we came to the guest room.

Samuel held the door open for me. “Get changed, we have an appointment to keep.”

Mandy was waiting for me, standing by a closet. “If you don’t choose a gown, one will be chosen for you,” she said, staring down her nose at me. She was shorter than me, but she still managed to glare at me with her yellow, bloodshot eyes and peeling lips curling in permanent distaste.

Curious about her, I asked, “Do you have family here?”

“I’m your family, now.” She slapped her hands together. “Chop, chop.”

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