Page 20 of Smoke and Lure

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Michaela blinked andattempted to clear her eyes, but when she opened them, nothing had changed, and her mind didn’t feel like her own.She had a problem sorting everything out and making heads or tails of anything when all her senses were overloaded.

She recognized that she lay on something soft while something light rested over her skin, and a deep, well-like structure sat above her head.But it caused her brain to ache to decipher anything more.

It was too much to sort out.The desire to close her eyes and drift back into the sweet abyss where only the most melodic sound filled her mind, calmed her thoughts and body.

However, as much as she wanted to disappear into nothingness, her body’s demands made it impossible.Hunger like she had never experienced before in her life, not even during the months and years of living on the streets at home.

Home.Such a strange word wrought with images and loneliness made her heart ache.She shoved that away and forced herself to focus on the hunger because it demanded she concentrate on that need, thirst.

Yes, thirst.That was the better word for it.Even though the gnawing ache started in her stomach and magnified through her lower abdomen to the point of pain, it spread out into every cell of her body.

Even her fingers and toes curled in want.The dryness of her mouth made her tongue stick to the roof, and she could do nothing to soothe it but lightly rub it along the ceiling of her mouth.

Then she heard it.

Thump, thump.

The slow, subtle beating of her own heart.Or the other tiny ones, which she didn’t quite understand, except to know that their lust for the liquid filler was infused with her own.

Thump, thump.

She swiped her stiff tongue over her cracked, parched lips to taste something.As the sound filled her ears again, she intuitively knew it was not in the room with her.But it was coming closer, and it made her more alert.She fixated on it.

Thump, thump.

Thump, thump.Thump, thump.

It wasn’t a knocking against anything hard and solid, but it struck against something delicate and tender.It caused a roar in Michaela’s veins, that she knew she had to seek out.

It was so close.

Then came the smallest of knocks.

Knocks?

It’s here.A woman hasit, and I must take it from her.

Fighting through exhaustion and hunger, Michaela didn’t take time to analyze how she knew it was a woman approaching when she could not see her, but she knew.

In a flash, with speed and accuracy she had never known, Michaela found herself off her resting place and dashing across the open space of a room—the grandest she’d ever seen.But even as her mind instantly processed that information, she still had only one goal.

Blood.Get to the blood.I must have it.

She reached her hand out for the handle of the wide door only to slam into something solid and unmovable.Michaela tried to push past the impossible boundary and grasped the door just out of range as the tips of her nails barely grazed over the wood.

“No.”

“It’s alright, little angel.”

The euphonious sound from the abyss was back.

~YH~

“Shh.”He kept his arms wrapped tight around Michaela’s slim, nude form even as she fought the hold, attempting to get to the door.He’d been standing at the window watching the sunrise when the energy in the room shifted and became charged.

Turning, he’d seen the moment Michaela's nude, long, lithe form rose from the bed.She was majestic in her beauty.A fragile shimmer danced right along the edge of her skin, not quite a glimmer.But she was still lovely.He’d expected her to awake that evening, and the unexpected sight of her had him fascinated and rooted in place long enough for her to bolt.

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