Page 99 of Heathens

I swing open the door to the next floor, the sound of her blood roaring like a raging river in my ears. My fists clench at my sides and I take a step forward, my foot meeting the cool stonework. I can hear her breathing, smell the sweat that clings to her skin.

I’ve missed this.

I know exactly what room she’s in, not completely trapped, but with no actual way to make it outside. Impressive that she made it this far, only a few floors away from the lobby. I slow to a meandering stroll, inhaling the fear in the air that gets me harder by the second. Maybe I should turn her after all. She’d be able to handle my strength, my urges. It really is such a shame that I always have to hold back. I want to show her everything I can do to her. With her.

I stop in front of the door and click my tongue, raking my claws across the surrounding wall. There’s nothing but this glorified plank of wood between us; I can hear her toes curl, sliding against the floor. Her heartbeat is like a hummingbird’s wings as I turn the doorknob, standing in the threshold of a nearly empty room.

I take a deep breath, sniffing the air. Her pussy might as well be right in front of my mouth, taunting me. I turn my head to the side, seeing the door shift just a little. She’s right behind it, struggling to control her breathing. She doesn’t know how loud she’s screaming her location to me.

“Come out, come out, Sofiieee,” I sing. “We’ll forget this whole thing ever happened, I promise. I won’t even rip you apart. Not completely.”

Suddenly, a deafening crack echoes through the room, accompanied by a dull pain that crushes its way into me. I can feel bone fracture in the back of my skull as I stumble forward, and can already taste blood as I reach back to feel a large gaping wound. The echoing sound of a violent scream pierces my ears. I have no clue if it’s mine or hers.

I don’t even get a moment, my face crumpling as I turn straight into another blow. I feel a wet heat pouring out of me.

By the time I get my bearings, she’s already sprinted from the room, and with a rumbling growl, I give chase. When I make it out into the hall, she’s halfway to the staircase, straight for the lobby. There’s no other option.

Thank God I ate today. Healing won’t take too long.

And then she’smine.

My feet pound against the floor and I leap forward, clearing half the hallway and just barely missing her as she rushes into the stairwell with a panicked scream. I’m right on her tail as she makes her descent, a vicious sneer on my face as blood pours down my torso from the wounds she made, already half-knit. Is this what she wanted? To see me at my most brutal? I hope she knows what she’s done, because all I want right now is to fuck her raw, until she’s begging me to let her rest. Until she’s completely broken.

Her fiery hair trails behind as she flies down the stairs, skipping steps and hopping the railing to hit the landing twice as fast as I expected. Fuck, I love this. I feel free, like a wild beast let out of a cage. As angry as I was that she’s tried to escape, I should thank her. If she lives, at least.

Even after I leap down one of the final flights of stairs, landing just a few paces behind her, she still doesn’t look back. I slow myself down, prolonging these last moments of the chase. Every so often I reach out to brush my fingers against her hair, or leg, or arm, barely missing just to tease her. Each time she shrieks and speeds up, but I can tell her legs are growing sluggish, her breathing becoming more and more ragged‌.

The smell of sweat and desperation hangs thick in the air.

On the second floor landing she slips through the door ahead of me, turning and slamming it down my fingers with a brutality I don’t quite expect. I yelp, feeling the crunch of bone as they break. Before I have a chance to pull them away, she smashes them again, this time with that goddamn mallet. I let out another sharp scream as I hear her feet slam down the hallway. This isn’t just fear and panic. She wants me to hurt. Wants me to suffer.

I swallow the pain, using my mangled fingers to tear the door open just in time to see her dash inside of a waiting elevator. She roars, smashing the button over and over, but it doesn’t light up.

Of course it doesn’t. Does she really think I’m that stupid?

I stride toward her, my slow and methodical footsteps echoing through the hall as I spread my arms.

“Come on, Sofie. I shut it all down. You had to know I would.”

She turns to me, her wild eyes struggling to see in the dark hallway as she brandishes her shockingly effective weapon.

I smile.

“This is what you want, is it? To play hard to get?”

“I want to leave, you piece of shit!”

I stop, maintaining the distance between us. She snarls.

“I told you, little dove. You’re here for your own protection. That, and to give me what I want. You’re not going anywhere.”

She’s white-knuckling the handle of the mallet as she draws herself up to her full height, her copper hair like angry flames licking the air. As much as she professes to hate me, there must be a part of her that’s just as enraptured as I am with her. The scent of her arousal is heavy on my tongue, and the jackhammer of her heartbeat drives me even wilder. Still, I hold myself back for the treat that’s still to come; the realization that soon eclipses her angelic face. That there’s no escape.

But that’s the best part.

She’s going to try anyway.

There was something about her that first night I saw her, a darkness in her eyes that seemed to permeate her entire being. It’s the thing that draws me to her, regardless of how much she pushes me away.

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