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Just my soul?
I struggled insanely to get free. The pounding ensued downstairs, growing louder and louder. Danté nuzzled my neck in a grotesque action of playfulness. I realized I was crying, petrified and panicked. Then something tingled inside.
I shut my eyes, searching in the dark. There it was, a glimmer of white, sparkling silver deep within. I called to it, praying the words of protection in my mind. A swish of silky blonde hair brushed my cheek in memory. Swathed in my mother’s embrace, she cooed soft words from long ago. Shining, beating brighter, a moonbeam pulsed out and out.
The enraged pounding downstairs grew more relentless, rebounding through the castle. Sharp pain in my wrists as Danté repositioned and bound them both in one hand. I battled to regain a hold on my power, but he was too strong, overriding my thoughts with his dominant will and piercing pain.
He gripped my jaw, snapping my face toward him. “Open your eyes, Genevieve!”
The compulsion to obey him tore a streak of pain through me when I refused, a whip licking bare skin. My power was building, growing from that inner place.
He pressed his lips against mine, grinding to try to open my mouth. My scream muffled between our mouths, I wrenched my face away. His free hand roved my body and squeezed as he hissed in my ear.
“I’m not done with you yet. Open your eyes and look at your master.”
I couldn’t, I couldn’t. I’d never get away if I did. Burning pain seared down my spine, the penalty for fighting his will.
“Ahh!”
“It hurts, doesn’t it, sweetheart?” His voice had lost every ounce of civility, now only the grating of a monster. “I can make it worse. Much, much worse.”
An agonizing sharp stab bowed my back. I screamed. He chuckled.
“Open your eyes.” A sultry command, like the voice of a lover.
I did, peering into the blood-red gaze of a true monster. Tears streaked hot from my eyes, slipping into my hairline.
“There now. Relax.”
I stopped struggling. The pain ebbed when I obeyed his will.
“That’s my girl.” He pecked a light kiss on my cheek, pressing his body harder against mine. I stiffened. “No need to fear. We’ll wait for our first coupling when your body and soul are one.” His grin cut a sinister line across his beautiful face. “Now, as for your soul, I believe I will take a taste.”
His lips pressed to mine and pried them open. When his tongue swept in, my mind folded inward. The sensation of being flipped inside out melted over me. I tried to suck in a breath, but no air came, as if I were paralyzed, as if I’d lost all control of myself. Then…
Darkness. Nothing but infinite darkness. I could breathe again. So cold here. But I wasn’t alone. He followed me. No. He brought me here. His presence—a web of tangible evil wrapped me in his net. If I moved, he sensed the motion, following with stealth. His cold breath brushed the back of my neck. His voice was a hollow echo in this place.
“Mmm... You’re even lovelier on the inside.” Panic gripped me hard. He was inside me, his ghastly essence strangling my soul, taking hold of me from within. His voice, a sibilant whisper, breathed close to my ear, “So many delectable memory scars.”
A flickering of light, then I stood in my mother’s studio. I was nine years old, braids in my hair, eyes wide and staring at the horrifying canvas before me, the paint still wet. In a vast ocean of blue, nude bodies of dead women and children floated on the waves, bloated in death, hungry shadows lurking beneath them. In the sky, a bright golden sun shone in mockery of the floating dead. My mother stepped from her washroom, drying her hands.
“Sweetheart, I didn’t hear you come in.” She stepped behind me, resting one hand on my shoulder as we both gazed at the horror in oils. She brushed a hand down my back, a soothing gesture of hers. I trembled before her artwork. “Remember, death is always waiting for the innocents. Waiting to reach up and pull us down to the world below.”
“Lily! What are you doing?”
I spun, finding my father in the doorway, his expression dark, his posture tight.
“Just showing our daughter my latest work.”
He stormed across the studio. “You are never to show her this so-called art of yours.”
“Why keep her from the truth? Evil lurks. I want her to be aware.”
“Are you crazy!”
I pressed my hands to my ears as the arguing escalated to shouts. I backed to the doorway till I was outside and running from their raging voices.
Darkness again. Coldness seeped through me.
