Page 124 of Touched By Darkness

“The rich and famous?” laughs Alaric.

Dariana shoots him a glare. “You know far well what I mean. It’s a prestigious school.”

No one argues with that.

I down my drink in one go, then stand up. “I’m going in.”

“If you want to make the angel jealous, why not just fuck someone in front of her?” Ronan asks.

Without taking my eyes off the human girl, I reply, “It’s not the same thing. I’m teaching her a lesson.”

“Right…” replies Alaric, “and when was the last time you managed to fuck a human as part of the hunt?”

I frown, looking back at Alaric. “What’s your fucking point?”

Did he have to bring it up now? I’m here to soothe my ego, not fucking incinerate it. I don’t know what weird voodoo shit the angel is doing to me, but she’s all I can think about and apparently also all I can touch. And that pisses me off. No one gets to have that power over me.

“My point is that you can pretend all you want, but we all know you won’t be able to go through with it.”

I point my finger in his direction and narrow my eyes. “Watch and learn.”

They chuckle when I stride toward the woman with determined steps. I don’t care what it takes; I will get her scent on me so I can go back to the mansion and taunt the little brat with it. She says it’s part of the hunt, so I’ll give her a taste of her own medicine.

Part of the hunt…

My teeth gnash as my vision turns red. The human whose cock she bounced on is fucking lucky he’s in pieces, or I’d make her vicious treatment seem like a fucking trip to the spa.

The sickening scent of lilies, musk, and sweat fills my nostrils as I walk up to the woman. I’d normally like it, but not anymore. It doesn’t smell like my little angel.

My little witch…

Hunting humans is fairly easy, as they’re hard-wired to find us attractive and fall under our spell. I don’t have to do much work on my part other than to pull her into me, grip her waist, and guide her hips to sway in time with mine.

“You’re so big,” she shouts over the music, then blushes. “I mean, your shoulders and your height.”

“And you’re so small,” I reply.And easy to break.

Five minutes. That’s all it takes before I’m leading her outside. She tries to steer me into the bathroom, but I pull on her wrist, and she follows willingly. For some strange reason, I release her from my spell.

Call it curiosity.

As far as I can gather, Aurelia gets off on the fear. She feeds on it for hours while toying with her prey and inflicting as much pain on their damaged bodies as she possibly can.

She drags out death, like a lover seducing the reaper.

A frightened whimper escapes the girl’s throat when my friends step through the door and exchange confused glances. I know what they’re thinking. Why am I not trying to seduce the girl?

I should. I’m here to hunt, but it’s quickly dawning on me that I’m trying to understand Aurelia’s darkness.

How else can I own every last part of her?

But unlike Aurelia, I don’t feed the monster inside me with my prey’s fearful cries. If anything, my own darkness is restless, pacing its cage and demanding we go back to Aurelia so we can unleash our pent-up frustration on her instead.

“What are you doing?” Dariana asks, alarmed, when I band my arm around the human with the sole intention of dragging her back to Hell so that I can bring these games to my little witch.

“Playing with my prey,” is my simple response before taking flight.

Dariana and the others soon catch up. “I think we all know the human isn’t your prey.”

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