Page 37 of A Dance With Devils
Flying – I’m flying. Spinning.
Twirling.
“Beauty,” he says. “Beauty and offerings. Who are you little Alice?”
My feet lift from the floor, his hands somehow managing to keep me aloft. Quick steps. Smooth steps. All of them moving me around through the dark. Over and over again until I’m giggling and losing myself in the flow. I can hear people, music. It’s like it was in that cavern, hundreds of us moving seamlessly around each other. Only this time it’s me in the middle with Malachi, me feeling him all over me.
It’s all low and rumbling, like the bass is bleeding through him into me to bind us closer. Dense notes, stifling and strange as they land on my skin and heart. Chilling almost, but for him holding me so tightly. There’s still something, though. Some wind I can’t find – some elevation or pitch I’m not blended with.
The dance stops as abruptly as it began, and a shiver runs over me as he lets go and leaves me swaying to nothing anymore. I blink, rubbing my arms as I search the darkness for his light. He’s gone. Just me again and the room still moving to a dance I was in. My hand wafts the air, searching for light and music. It was here – with me. He was. And I was giving in, falling maybe.
Enjoying it and him.
“Come.”
I jump, startled by the sudden sharp tone in my ear. His face flashes by, dark eyes and angled cheekbones making him seem so stark in the soft streaks of light fluttering gently. But he’s smiling under that harsh tone, eyes crinkling as he takes hold of my hand again to pull me closer.
“Time to fly, Alice.” My mouth brightens into a smile. Yes, fly.
Chapter 16
Malachi
She lands heavily on my back, both her legs wrapping around my waist and her arms clinging to my shoulders. All I can feel is skin on me, the heat of it bound and smothering everything else this home of mine offers. Close, entwined. I’d forgotten that, disregarded it.
“Where?” she whispers. Her body moves sideways, head looking over one side of my neck and then the other quickly. “Run. We should run. Find them. Be quiet.”
I smile, unsure what I’m smiling for, and start walking towards the stairs. Birds? I could show her birds. Several of them. We could hunt together, watch as flesh rips from bone and painful wails sound out in the dead of night. Together.
My head shakes, brow furrowed at the imagery beginning to circulate in my thoughts. Beds, dinners. Laughing and normality. I’m in a fucking dream. Must be. Tempted there by her odd reaction to the pills she’s consumed and my unusual reaction to her because of it. I don’t dream. I wait. I wait and watch and find ways to stimulate myself. All these people and their woes. All their problems. All the strategy. Wait. Watch.
“Outside, Malachi. Up.”
I swing right up the steps, climbing them until I reach the doors to Faith's room. Clothes for outside. Cold and wind. She’ll need it for hunting, need it for waiting in the shadows. And the claws are so sharp, piercing. She scrambles further up my back the moment I open the door and enter, shrieks and curses coming out of her mouth. “No. No, no, no. No fucking beds.” And then my head’s in her hands, as if she’s trying to direct me out of the room again.
“Clothes,” mutters from me.
She stills, her face coming over my shoulder. “Clothes?”
“Cold outside.”
She peers, eats into the corners of me somehow with her questioning stare. “No skin. Not until I can fly, Malachi.” She scrambles again until she’s almost off my back but for me holding her securely. “I’ll run. Outwit you.” I don’t want that now. My grip softens, then tightens because of the traction lost on her. “I will. You’ll lose and I’ll fly and then we’ll know who’s free, won’t we? Promise me.”
“I don’t make promises.”
“But you have to. You know. I know you know. I can feel it.” She moves again until she’s close enough that her lips are ghosting off mine, her breath slipping across my skin. “We’ll be free if we fly. No falling then. No worries. We can kill. I can. Then we’ll have skin. Yours and mine. Together. Safe.”
Soft kisses. Fluttered. I can’t remember soft. So long ago. My eyes blink, chest heaving at the feel of it on me, as she moves closer and coils tighter. This isn’t right. I need screams. Pain. Fear. And she’s not afraid. Not of me anyway. And her lips are moving, tongue licking over the side of my face until she’s lapping at the cut that she caused.
“You taste like mine,” she whispers. “All mine. Are you? Trust me. We can be free.”
I’m not anyone’s.
My hands let go of her legs sharply, my chaotic mind remembering loneliness and the comfort in that. I’m not part of two. Haven’t been for so long that the consideration confuses and muddies the air around me. I stagger, watching as she scampers back towards a corner and crouches in it. Pretty little Alice. High cheekbones. Long dark curls bouncing as she swishes it around. Eyes like fire now she’s laced them with my blood.
She looks left and right, quickly flicking her head around. “Fly. We need to fly.”
And then she’s running.
