Page 24 of Follow Her Down
Entity
Iremembertheblood.Copperand salt, thick and warm.Mine?It doesn’t matter.It was life leaving, and I drank it like communion wine.Even as the dark pulled me under, my last thought wasn’t fear, but hunger.Always hunger.
And now I watch her.
In this endless dark where I live, she is the only light.Sera…Penny, sleeping, breathing.The slow rise and fall of her chest beneath that thin blanket.I know every hitch in her breath, every sigh that escapes those perfect lips.I know the exact rhythm of her sleep—when she drifts deeper, when she trembles on the edge of a nightmare.I know where she’s softest.Where she’ll bleed the sweetest.
If she knew I was always watching…would her pulse leap?Would that smooth column of her throat flutter?I imagine her eyes snapping open, wide and dark, finding me in the shadows.I imagine her fear, and it tastes better than blood.
But she doesn’t know.Not yet.So I watch, and I dream.
I dream of weight.Of flesh.Of being solid enough to mark her skin.I dream of her kneeling at my feet in this damp, whispering dark.Her head bowed, but not in submission—in offering.Those clever blue eyes looking up at me through her lashes, full of secrets and sharp edges.I’d wrap my hand around her throat, not to choke, just to feel the jump of her pulse against my palm.
A claim.
Mine.
“That’s right,” I’d whisper, the sound like stone scraping stone.“Take it all.Take my whole cock like a good girl.”
My other hand would fist in her long, dark hair, pulling just enough to arch her neck, to open her mouth wider.I’d push in, deep, until she gags, until tears streak her cheeks.I’d watch the stretch of her lips around me, the desperate flutter of her eyelids.Her submission would be a lie, of course.She’d be biding her time, waiting to bite.That’s why I love her.
I’d fuck her mouth slow at first, savoring the tight, wet heat.Then harder, deeper, until her throat opened for me, until she took every inch.Until she wore my hunger like a brand.Her tears would be salt on my tongue when I finally kissed her.
Then I’d lay her back on the cold floor.Spread her thighs.Find the hot, slick center of her.She’d be wet—for me, for the danger, for the promise of ruin.I’d push inside that sweet, tight cunt, and she’d gasp, a broken, beautiful sound.I’d move in her, deep and relentless, my hand back on her throat, feeling every cry vibrate against my palm.I’d mark her from the inside, leave bruises like fingerprints on her soul.
And when I finally spilled into her, it would be with teeth at her throat, biting down, tasting blood again.Her blood.Our communion.
“You’ll bleed where I tell you to bleed,” I’d promise against her skin.“You’ll wear my marks until the grave claims us both.”
The fantasy is so vivid I can almost smell her skin—warm sleep and fading perfume and something sharp and sweet, like poisoned honey.I crave it.Crave her.The vulnerable realness of her, the raw, jagged edges she pretends she doesn’t have, the ones she tries so hard to hide while inside this house.
But the basement… The dark down here isn’t empty.It’s full of whispers, and they’re restless tonight.Hungry.They smell your warmth, Sera, your life, your delicious gathering storm of revenge.
They remember promises too.
Like the one you whispered into your bedroom vent last Tuesday, your breath fogging the cold metal: “Help me ruin him.Please.And I promise I won’t ever leave you.”
I remember.
I always remember.
Now…come find me.Let the dark have you.I’ll keep you safe, or I’ll devour you whole.Either way, you promised.
12
Sera
Theknockonmyfront door is too polite to be James.Three measured raps, evenly spaced, the sound of someone who doesn’t want to scare me.Not at all like James’s explosive single knock when he delivered the severed hand.
I open the door, and the snack of a detective stands on my porch, raindrops clumping his dark eyelashes and sliding down his leather jacket.His brown hair is wet and slicked back so I can fully see his heart-stopping face, and his shoulders are tight with tension.
“Miss Vale,” he says, his voice low and even.
“Detective…” I lean against the doorframe.“Are you lost?”
A flicker of amusement crosses his face.“No.Can I come in for a minute?”
A woman with as many secrets as I do would make excuses, but the rain is falling harder now, and there’s something in his blue eyes that makes me curious.And I don’t think I could resist staring at that epic jawline of his even if I tried.
