AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I told her when we first met that if it came down to her against me, I’d put my hands behind my back and let her flay me.
And if anyone ever hurt her again, even to defend me, I’d fucking kill them.
I put my hands behind my back and planted my feet under my hips. “Do it again, monstre.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Youwantme to hurt you?”
“Show me how you feel. Get it all out.”
Her jaw pulsed with how hard she was gritting her teeth, and I made a mental note to get her a mouthguard. “Fuck you,” she grunted as she backhanded me across the face hard.
My head swung all the way to the other side from the force of her blow. I turned back to her and straightened up again. “Good. Let it all flow through you.”
“Shut. Up!” She kicked me in the balls, and as I fell to my knees, groaning, her knee connected with my nose on the way down. The sharp crack was followed by an all-encompassing pain radiating through my entire face, blinding me for a second. “Don’t take this away from me, too, you. Fucking. Asshole!”
“Fuck,” I snarled, pulling my hand away from my face. The blood splattered on the carpet, her shins, the edge of the bedspread. In this position, she couldn’t see my raging hard-on for her and that ferocity inside her. I had to get up and show her. “You hate me that much, monstre?”
“Yes,” she spat viciously. But she didn’t hit me again. I smiled up at her and planted a foot to stand. “Get up!”
Keeping my eyes on the floor, I shook my head. “I can’t.”
She hesitated before responding. “Why not?”
“You’ve kicked my ass, Tess. I need a minute.”
“You’re such a fucking liar. I can’t actually hurt you.”
I gazed up at her. “Yes, you can, monstre, I am as vulnerable as a kitten with you.”
She gasped and stepped back. Her eyes turned red and glassy. She retreated again, choking back her sobs with sharp breaths. “You bastard.”
Chapter Fifty-Six: Eternal Twilight
Tess
After he told meI was his weakness, I fell into a numb, dissociated state. I think I started wailing on him again, pounding my fist into his face, neck and chest over and over and over again until I couldn’t even stand up. I vaguely remember he was bruised and bloodied, but he still picked me up and laid me in bed, pulled the covers over me and kissed my forehead good night, like I was a treasured doll instead of the person who’d just beat him to a bloody pulp.
It felt good, or it felt like it should have felt good had I not been so numb. But it didn’t change the warmth inside that glowed for him through it all anyway. It pissed me off, but none of it made that go away.
I must have fallen into a short stasis again because I woke up withthat raging thirst and found the glass of water on my nightstand, knocking it back in seconds. Then I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling like a rag doll. It took a long time for my brain to kick in and start thinking again. At first, it was like the best meditation of my life, but it wasn’t intentional; it was more vegetative. Slowly, I scanned the room, wondering what time it was, wondering how my life had turned into such a bloody fucking circus.
All I wanted was my freedom. Instead, I’d traded one obsessed psycho for another.
I just wanted to run my shop, learn to do witchcraft for myself, and live a peaceful life. But somehow, I’d managed to get myself bound to a seraphim and turned into some kind of immortal hybrid.
How would I possibly cope with foreverwhen normal life was so damn exhausting?
I didn’t understand how the power stores worked, and I hated the idea of having to be so careful about them or else going into stasis.
Ivan’s wraithshade needed to be fed with fear regularly, or else he would have to sleep for days on end, too. He asked me for a talisman that could store his fear-based power longer, and I thought it would have to be inserted into his body to work the automatic way he wanted. We were considering a series of piercings when I thought about trying to enchant the ink.
I guessed all Hellborne creatures, whether they were seraphim, demons or entities like wraithshades, worked the same way. With a jolt, I sat up, swung my feet to the floor and stumbled off the bed.
I raced out to the main floor where Lux and Stone were sitting opposite each other at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, staring at their laptops.
“Oh, you’re up. How do you feel?” asked Lux.
“Like shit. I have an idea.”
