Page 43 of Tortured Soul
I ignored the buzzing of my phone in my made up jean’s back pocket. Probably Aymeric politely wondering if I was still meeting them home for dinner, or Marcus rudely asking where the hell I was again.
But I knew from a reliable source—Ann—that Kai wanted to talk to me.
And I didn’t want to.
Because if he asked me about our little deal and then saw the memory…
Nope. I was not ready to face KainorArc.
Arc and I have been successfully avoiding each other for the last week, and I’ve only thought about what happened in Carrie’s office twice today, which was a wide improvement.
The energy I took from Darren was quickly depleting—not surprising given the…low quality of our encounter.
One, all of our clothes were still on, reducing the amount of skin contact.
Two, he came before we could actually really touch each other.
Three, I didn’t.
The fact that he was a virgin would have given me three good weeks worth of energy, if things had been done properly.
But the transfer could only truly happen through actual contact. At least his hands and mouth were on me when he came in his damned pants, otherwise I would’ve had to hunt someone else the very next day.
Once again, my power was stretching too thin, and I was risking exposing more people to my pheromones.
The second I managed to escape the City Hall without being noticed by anyone of importance, I released a charged breath. But there was no way I would go home like this. Not when my own pheromones were intoxicating me.
Ignoring the suffocating heat, I summoned a thin but dark jacket and pulled the hood over my head to hide myself with shaky hands. Most people were surrounding the park, scattered at the bar and restaurant’s tables.
It seemed safer to avoid the crowds, so I kept to the little streets, walking close to the walls, taking small strides so my combat boots wouldn’t make any noise on the ground.
I was so focused on my destination and objective that I didn’t feel the demon following me. Not until my back was slammed to the rough stone and his booze breath was hitting my face.
“What do we have here?” he crooned, pushing his whole forearm against my throat. His eyes were closed as he leaned toward me, inhaling deeply. “Fuck, you’re a tasty treat, aren’t you?”
“Let go of me.” I coughed, struggling to breathe.
I tried to push him away in vain, my arms too weak. He grabbed them easily in his free hand, pressing harder into me, grinding his pelvis against my stomach. Bile rose to my throat.
He tsked, shaking his head. “You smell like you’d look really good bouncing up and down on my—”
He hissed as my nails grew long and sharp enough to pierce the skin of his chest through his shirt. That slightest shift caused my head tothrob, my vision blurring for a second. Long enough for him to turn me around and pin me back against the hard wall.
I muffled a scream as my face collided with the rough stone.
“There’s no one here; you don’t need to pretend that you don’t want it. Unless it’s your move? Putting up a fight? Want me to tie you up real nice?” he rasped in my ear, grinding himself some more against my back side.
“I want you to let me go,” I gritted my teeth, but he only pressed harder. My spine stiffened as it worked another shift, my head swirling again.Don’t fucking faint,I thought to myself.Don’t you fucking faint you useless weakling.
He screamed in agony as long spikes erupted from my back and speared his chest. Air filled my lungs, and I turned around sharply, shifting on my feet, ready to attack him. Gouge out his eyes or rip out his cock with my freshly grown claws.
“You slut,” he hissed, looking down at himself, the dark blood pouring from the deep holes lining from his sternum to the bulge in his pants.
“Oops,” I said in a ragged breath, shrugging. I nodded toward the black stain on his crotch. “Looks like you won’t be able to use that for the time being. Rain check?”
The spikes in my back retracted of their own accord.Damn it.I was too weak to hold anything, there was no way I could fight him for long. I strained to keep my nails as long as possible, beads of sweat dotting my forehead from the effort.
The holes on his chest were slowly starting to close, new skin weaving itself. He grinned, his face looking wicked.
