Page 73 of Touched By Darkness

ChapterSixteen

AURELIA

Kinsale, Ireland. A small town with a population of 5,300. Out of all the places in the human world, this is where I’m hiding.

It was a last-minute decision to step out from behind the crates and escape through the window. If I want to escape Daemon, I have to run, and I have to run far away.

But now that I am here, huddled in the corner of a small yet cozy country pub, with a frothy beer in front of me, it dawns on me that I have no plan.

I’m a rogue runaway.

Hunted by the Devil’s son.

Unless he’s given up by now.

It’s been two days since I arrived here. Two days of very little sleep, expecting him to barge into my bedroom upstairs.

It was my first time coercing a human with my powers to let me rent a room, and it was surprisingly easy.

Almost too easy.

The scent of cologne, sweat, and washing powder permeates the air as a man wearing a checkered shirt and dark jeans slides in beside me on the bench. “You look lonely, sweetheart.”

My grip on the pint glass tightens as I slowly let my gaze slide in his direction. He’s in his late twenties and attractive in that rugged kind of way.

My lack of a reply doesn’t bother him. “You want another beer?” He gestures for the barmaid, then settles his attention back on me. “You’re new in town.”

“You’re observant.”

“It’s a small town.”

My eyes trail down to the pulse point in his neck, and my incisors begin to ache. His collar is unbuttoned, revealing tanned skin. My blood lust is insatiable, and I’m reminded of it now when he stretches his arm out on the back of the bench, unaware of how his hand brushes my feathers.

“What brought you here?”

His heartbeat is loud, and each individual thud is as tempting as the organ playing such a beautiful, haunted tune. The urge to rip it out of his chest and sink my teeth into the bloody chambers makes me dizzy.

“Difficult to find on a map.”

He frowns, but then he smiles at the waitress when she places our drinks on the table. I watch him lift the glass to his mouth, his throat jumping with every swallow before he puts the glass back down and wipes the froth off his lips.

“Want to go somewhere?” I ask, forcing myself to drown out the delicious sound of his heartbeat.

My question takes him by surprise, if the widening of his eyes is anything to go by.

“Sure.” He sounds almost uncertain, but then he slides out from the bench, pays for the drinks, and nods his head for me to follow.

We step outside into the cool fall air, and I set off down the side of the pub. The human follows like I knew he would—a lamb led to slaughter.

When we turn the corner, I spin around and lean back against the brick wall. It’s dark here, except for the starry night sky that casts his face in shadow, and without the pollution of nearby towns, the sky is lit up in all its glory.

He opens his mouth to speak, but I pull his lips down to mine, careful not to cut him with my elongating, throbbing incisors. I don’t want him to try to escape just yet. Not until I’ve had some fun.

The darkness slides out from the nearby shadows that lurk, hidden inside a cluster of trees. It travels along the ground, kissing each individual blade of grass. A thickening mist with tentacles that crawl, drag, and push forward. It comes for him like the reaper while he’s lost in my kiss.

His hands grip my hips, and he hoists me up against the cold brick, our gusting breaths visible in the cold air. My eyelids fall shut, and I lose myself in the sensation of his scratchy stubble as his lips descend on my neck, kissing, nibbling, biting.

When I blink my eyes open again, a red mist falls over my vision like the curtain during the final act on stage.

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