Page 189 of The Invite
The soft and commanding voice penetrates through the fog like a knife.
With a cry, I jerk awake.
My heart jackhammers behind my ribs and I gulp in deep breaths. My whole body is covered in sweat. As I blink back the haziness from my eyes, I glance at my surroundings and the panic doubles when I find myself in an unknown room.
I can tell it belongs to a man from the dark undertones and masculine vibes.
A movement along my arm cuts through my inspection, causing my head to snap toward it. The inked wrist I know all too well banishes the memories of the previous hour leading to the moment I submerged into darkness.
Augustus.
I feel his body heat and quiet intensity behind my back. It calms me down immediately and eases Evil’s shadow enveloping me.
Did he bring me to his place?
Under the dim lights, I study the large room encased with new eyes, taking in the high ceilings with the walls painted in a light gray shade. Random knickknacks are thrown on a low coffee table with a dark red beanbag chair in front of it.
Right across the king-sized bed is a luxurious fireplace with a plasma screen TV mounted high above it. It looks like a room well lived in, unlike my place which has the gloom of a graveyard.
What if his mother or sister catches us?
Ever so slowly, I turn around once my breathing has calmed down. When Augustus’s face comes into view, I forget about my worries. His eyes—always so menacing—are unreadable for the first time.
I’m scared to learn what’s going on behind them.
I take in the rest of him. He’s shirtless and wearing low-hanging black sweats. The softness against my skin and his strong scent in my nostrils tell me I’m in one of his hoodies.
How long was I out?
When he continues holding and watching me, I break the tense silence by whispering, “August.”
“You blacked out on me again, Nessa.” His tone is raw and bleeding as he grits out, “And on top of that, I find out your night terrors isn’t a one-time thing.”
I nod at his statement, unable to keep up my defenses. Strangely or maybe foolishly, I don’t want to hold them up. I’m just so tired.
As I shudder from an aftershock, Augustus grabs the blanket lying at our feet and tugs it over us. Sliding an arm underneath my head, he looms over me, and asks in a concerned tone, “Tonight wasn’t the first time, was it?”
I have them every now and then. However, there was a time when I had them every night. In a broken whisper, I confirm to him, “No.”
A crushing pain tightens at the corners of his eyes. Inhaling deeply, he collects himself, but it doesn’t work because he angrily barks, “I hate that I can’t protect you from the demons in your head.”
“You do, August.” He stills. Caressing the snake slithering up his arm, I softly smile at him. “When I’m with you, you become my entire focus. There’s no room for anyone else, especially not my demons.”
The helplessness bleeds from his gaze. Once again, he amazes me with his tenderness by pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“What was it that triggered you?” he prompts.
“The basement.”
I avoid them at all costs. Finding myself in one without a heads-up just made me slip into the past. Hallucinations were a common occurrence after the tragedy I went through. It took years of therapy and medication before I healed enough to live without depending on the meds. Nevertheless, certain triggers can never be fixed.
You’re not scared of knives anymore.
“Tell me who hurt you, Nessa,” he softly demands. “Let me in.”
I can sense his struggle to keep his wrath at bay and I haven’t even begun to tell him the harrowing tale.
“My boyfriend and I were kidnapped when I was sixteen.” Augustus’s entire body goes rigid. His eyes go round, and that’s before I shatter his illusion of thinking I’m so innocent. “And I had to kill him to survive.”
