Page 45 of Tortured Soul
Chapter 14
Lola
My head was pounding, a sharp, throbbing pain pressed just behind my eyes. All my muscles shook weakly, my limbs too heavy to move.
It’s been a while since I fell that low.
Since before I methim. That last ghost of my past. The one who kept a piece of my soul even though it wasn’t my own to give anymore.
Oneof them.
I tried to lift my arm to grab the ring hanging low around my neck, hidden under my shirt, but my limbs were unresponsive.Well shit.
“Blondie.”
My already shut eyes closed even tighter.
Something warm touched my forehead and a pained moan escaped my throat.
My whole body ached, muscles too tense but too tired to move.
“What’s happening to you, blondie?” the voice asked in a pained whisper.
I’m hurting, I thought in response.Because I’m too stubborn. Because I’m weak. Because it doesn’t matter that I’m the most powerful Succubus to ever walk the earth, I was meant for something else. I was meant for something great. Something grander than Divines and Hellrisers.
The surface I was laid on dipped to the side. The warm thing on my forehead moved to my cheek. My chin. My head was softly moved from side to side.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” the voice said.
I wasn’t saying anything. Was it Kai? Reading my internal monologue? He didn’t feel like Kai. He felt more familiar, but foreign at the same time.
There was something to him that my empty soul recognized. That my useless heart called to.
“Tell me what’s wrong, so I can make it better,” he whispered, closer to my face. No, to my ear. His breath tickling the side of my neck.
“The barrier,” I managed to answer. My voice was barely audible, even to myself in this completely silent place.
“What about it?” he asked.
I groaned, trying to explain. Words were hard to articulate, my mind and body trying to go into a deep sleep. A sleep I might be stuck into if I didn’t—
“Drained,” I said. “Weak.”
Yes. I could use simple words. I could explain without—
The surface—a mattress?—shifted again. A coldness settled inside me. Inside my bones.Don’t go, I thought.
But he wasn’t gone. The mattress dipped lower as a body slid next to me, holding onto my hip to move me to the side, plastering me against his warmth.
I gasped.
Skin.Nakedskin.
My hand was moved on it, between our two bodies, and I flinched. He froze.
“Don’t touch me,” I rasped. “Please, don’t touch me.”
“I won’t,” he said, removing his hand from mine. “Youtouch me. Recharge for a bit.”
