I couldn’t handle a crazy stalker bitch.
“I’ll go talk to her.” Randal wiped his mouth with the edge of his napkin. He stood and was walking toward her before I could dispute the idea.
I watched him. There was something commanding about the way he walked. Every movement screamed authority. As he neared her table, my eyes drifted to Natalia. Her game face was softening with each step closer he came. I half expected her to be pouting by the time he reached her, but she wasn’t. She, however, did resemble a frightened puppy. For a moment, I wished I were on the opposite side of the room, so I could see his face because I was sure the look he was giving her was brutal. Every muscle in his body stiffened the moment he paused at her table, verifying my thought.
I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but from the look on Natalia’s face it wasn’t something she expected. My hand grabbed my wine, and I brought it to my lips while watching them. Something from the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I turned to check it out.
A man was standing at the entrance to the hallway where the restrooms were, staring at me intently. This wasn’t what I found odd though; it was his aura color that gripped me. A silver, mist-like aura clung to him, moving as he breathed. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. The guy flashed me a smile and beckoned me to him with a finger.
Who the hell was he? What was he?
I had seen everything, or so I thought, in the last year or so—vampires, werewolves, fairies, various demons, and even witches. This guy though was something else, and my curiosity was strong enough for me to want to find out what.
After I set my wineglass down, I glanced at Randal and Natalia. They were still locked in a deep argument. Mascara ran down her alabaster cheeks as she cried. Obviously she was attempting to give him the guilt trip, remind him of what they shared over the last half century. Maybe I should be focused on this, but I wasn’t. Instead, my mind had shifted to the handsome guy with the silver aura beckoning me to join him in the hall. I was walking toward him before I realized I had made up my mind to do so. His grin grew, accenting the twin dimples in his cheeks.
“I wasn’t sure you would come.” His voice was like ice slipping over my skin. “You seemed to be curious, but I wasn’t sure it was enough to be honest.”
I blinked, wondering which question to phrase first. I had so many. “What are you?”
A glimmer of something I couldn’t name passed through his bright blue eyes. “Taste me and find out.”
My lungs paused in their capability to force oxygen through my system. Was this guy for real? My gut churned. Right away, I knew I shouldn’t have left my booth. There was something wrong with this situation; it had taken me until now to figure it out.
“I’m sorry. I should head back to my table.” I flashed him a forced smile. A look of anger slipped across his features. It was then I realized that had been the emotion I had seen earlier. I just wasn’t able to name it because it seemed at odds with the charming smile he was giving me. I noticed it now though. “My date will be wondering where I slipped off to.”
“I think he’ll be occupied for at least a little while.”
I glanced at Randal; he was still standing at Natalia’s table. His shoulders were tense as he listened to her say something, her finger digging into his chest. Now would be a good time for him to walk away from her. It would give me the best damn reason to blow this guy off.
“I should still get back though.” I turned around, but he moved in front of me and deliberately blocked my way. Chills swept along my insides stemming from his touch.
“I don’t think I’m ready for you to go just yet.” There was something sinister in his eyes.
My mouth opened to argue with him, to say something smart-ass, anything I could think of, but I couldn’t speak. My vocal cords had been frozen solid. My eyes widened, and I attempted to jerk my arm free from his grasp, but it was as though the coldness had penetrated each of my limbs and was making me weak and exhausted, as if I was standing outside naked in a blizzard.
Was he Jack Frost? Did he even exist? My mind slipped to Randal and of him being the inspiration for Dracula; suddenly, the idea didn’t seem so farfetched.
I was pulled down the hallway and toward the men’s room against my will. My only hope was for someone to come out of the restroom and see the two of us. Surely, my face would alert them something was wrong. I saw no one though. Instead, I was tugged into the cinnamon-scented men’s room against my will.
The moment the heavy door closed behind us, my captor pressed me against the wall beside it and snaked his icy fingers through my hair. I couldn’t turn away. I couldn’t scream. I was stuck.
“This is going to be good.” He skimmed his fingers across my cheek. Even though he was barely touching me, I could feel his coldness seep to my bones. “A succubus is exactly what I need. The girl was right.”
My heart pounded in my chest as his thumb slipped along my bottom lip, leaving a trail of ice in its wake. He was inches from my face now. The coldness of him teased me as it caressed along the fine hairs of my arms.
“Look at me.” He gripped my chin, forcing my gaze to his. “I want to see your eyes when I enter you.” His eyes narrowed with a dangerous glimmer of malevolence I had yet to see in anyone.
My breath caught in my throat as I replayed his words when I enter you. Was he going to rape me? Oh, God.
With every ounce of my being I struggled to move, to slip from his grasp and free myself, but it was no use. I couldn’t move my damn pinkie to save my life right now. What had this guy done to me?
“Oh, this is it.” His lips nearly grazed mine when he spoke. “The anticipation is about to kill me.”
He was excited, aroused even. I could feel the proof pressing against my thigh. A gargling noise escaped my frozen lips as I attempted to scream. It wasn’t nearly loud enough for anyone else to hear. A crazed smile twisted his lips before they pressed against mine.
A silver fog emanated from him the moment our lips touched. I attempted to pull away, to release myself from the kiss, but I couldn’t. It was as though my lips had been fused to his by whatever force he possessed. The vapor circled me in a taunting manner, teasing me with its icy touch as it slipped over my exposed skin.
He pulled me closer, his mouth devouring mine. I was unable to break away, watching as the silver mist encased us in its frigid grasp. It seeped from his pores and every orifice of his face. A scream built in my chest but never made it past my parted lips.
My lips grew numb as the icy vapor made its way inside my mouth. In seconds, I felt as though I was drowning in ice water from the inside out. My muscles tightened and constricted as my lungs began to ache and burn. I struggled to breathe, but my chest fought against me. I slumped forward, the weakness and fatigue from the cold completely overtaking me. My eyes fluttered closed. Moans of pleasure rippled through the guy’s throat as he continued to fill me with his foreign essence. I needed to break free from him. My thoughts slipped through my mind at a sluggish pace as I searched for a solution. Nothing came to mind. Nothing.
They say that just before you die your life flashes before your eyes. As my mind gave into the arctic sensation coursing through me, I waited for the flashes to begin because there was no mistaking Death’s icy hands. The flashes never came though. Instead my vision blurred and darkened around the edges. The mist grew thicker, encasing me in a beautiful light as my heart pounded with fear.
Yes, Death was finally coming for me, and a small part of me thought that maybe I should embrace it.
Chapter 22
Warm hands replaced the cold ones I remembered feeling before I slipped into nothingness. I wasn’t sure who they belonged to, and part of me was afraid to open my eyes and see.
“Kenna, can you hear me?” Randal’s sultry voice was filled with concern. It was enough to force my eyes open.
A piercing pain stabbed me behind my eyes. This room was too bright. A dull ache radiated from the bac
k of my head. My fingers found the area responsible as I moved to sit up.
“There will most likely be a knot there.” Randal helped me into a more comfortable sitting position.
“Here’s some ice for the back of her head,” someone said.
“I don’t need any ice.” Not now. Not ever. Not after what had happened. Something had happened, hadn’t it? Something that had to do with the cold.
Randal smoothed a hand along my forearm. “But you do. You have quite a bump growing on the back of your skull.” He pressed the ice pack to the back of my head. My stomach turned as more images flooded my mind. The memory of something cold pressing against me, filling me, drowning me in icy water from the inside out made me flinch. “I’m starting to wonder if entering the men’s room is a ploy to meet guys for you.” There was a slight amount of humor etched into his words. I knew it was to lighten the mood, but at this point I didn’t think anything he said would do the trick. “What were you doing in here?”
The entire story rested on the tip of my tongue. Fear that he wouldn’t believe me kept me from spouting it off quickly. How were you supposed tell someone something you weren’t even sure you believed yourself?
“I don’t know.”A wave of heat flushed my skin. I closed my eyes to keep the tears blurring my vision at bay. “There was this guy standing in the hallway when you were talking with Natalia. I knew I shouldn’t have gone to him the second I reached him. He pulled me in here.” My words were frantic and jumbled together. “He grabbed hold of me and pulled me in here. I thought he was going to—” My voice broke. I couldn’t say the words any more than I could think them. While I was glad nothing of that nature had happened, I wasn’t sure exactly what had, and that was even scarier.
“Please, give us a moment.” Randal’s voice echoed off the tiled walls of the men’s room.
I opened my eyes and watched as random people filed out of the room, closing the door behind them. Randal leaned into me, and his face morphed into the epitome of concern. “Did he harm you?”
I knew what he was asking, and I was glad to be able to give him the answer he seemed to hope for. “No, not in that way. I’m not sure what he did though.”
“What do you mean?” He released the ice pack into my grip and moved to lean against the wall beside me.
I placed it on the floor and stared at the frosted crystals coating the outside of the packet. The sight of it made my stomach coil with sickness. “He was different, the guy. There was a silver aura around him. I’ve never seen that on anyone before. And cold, he was incredibly cold.” A chill swept through me at the memory of his touch. It circled my heart, and for a moment, I panicked that it was still inside me.
Neither one of us spoke. When I finally risked a glance at him, he was staring at the tiled floor with an unreadable expression stretched across his face. The fear that he might not believe me left my mind, and it was replaced with questions because the look on his face had me thinking he knew exactly what I had witnessed.
“Do you know what he was?” I couldn’t sit in silence anymore. If he had answers to what that guy was, I wanted them.
“A wraith.” He said the words in a whisper twisted with pain and heartache.
I blinked. That couldn’t be right. My mind drifted to what I knew about wraiths. Wasn’t a wraith a ghost of sorts?
I shook my head. “He couldn’t have been. I could feel him. He was solid. If he were a wraith, he wouldn’t be solid, would he?” My heart pumped harder in my chest. Was it possible I had just survived a close encounter with a ghost?
Randal ran a hand through his hair and pulled in a shaky breath. When his eyes lifted to meet mine, they were dark and worried. “Wraiths inhabit bodies. That would be why he felt solid to you. Supernaturals are a favorite of theirs due to our longevity, but they can occupy a human too. I could see why you would be a target because they thrive off energy. Succubi and vampires are great hosts for them because of what we feed off.” His voice fell flat.
My heart pounded out an erratic rhythm as the seconds passed between us. I couldn’t believe I was hearing him right. Wraiths were real? After all I had seen and learned in the last year, I wasn’t sure why this came as such a shock to me.
“Did he kiss you, or were you able to fight him off?” The seriousness etched into Randal’s words made fear prickle along my insides.
Vivid clips of the guy’s lips brushing over mine pushed into my head. My heart felt as though it would explode inside my chest as I formed my answer. “Yes, he did.”
“He kissed you.”
I nodded, even though he wasn’t asking me anything; he was simply reiterating what I had said.
“Did you feel it, the coldness seeping into you?” His head fell back against the tiled wall and he closed his eyes.
My throat was dry and achy. I cleared it before I spoke. “Yes. Why?”
Too much time passed as I stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate, to tell me something that might ease my nerves a little. He obviously knew more about the situation than I did. While I wasn’t a fool, I knew there was something horribly wrong the second I felt the coldness of the man’s touch. I could have never prepared myself for what Randal would say next.
“Kenna, I believe you’ve been infected with a wraith.”
Chapter 23
A slow breath passed through his lips, and for a long moment, Randal refused to meet my stare. Infected with a wraith. Infected with a wraith. Infected with a wraith. The words repeated through my mind in sync with my erratic heartbeat.
It wasn’t possible. How did a person become infected with a wraith? Was I possessed? That’s what he meant, wasn’t it?
Saliva pooled inside my mouth. As if becoming a succubus wasn’t enough shit to deal with, now I’d been infected with a wraith?
Infected.
The word latched onto me like a cancer, unwilling to let me be, to give me a moment to process. Instead it twisted my thoughts and darkened my mood, feeding the fear spreading through me.
“I can’t believe this is happening. Again.” Randal’s hands ran through his hair. “I don’t know how to fix this.”
I didn’t say a word. Even though I wanted to know what his whispered again had meant.
Randal knew what had happened, but didn’t know how to make it go away. He had seen this before, and from the looks of him the outcome hadn’t been good.
I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. For what felt like the longest time, we sat there, locked in our own thoughts, until I couldn’t take it anymore.
“What’s going to happen to me?” I whispered into the silence.
Randal didn’t speak right away; he didn’t even move. I counted my heartbeats while I waited for him to respond. Twelve. That was how many passed before he decided to say something.
“Nothing.” Pure determination flashed in his gray eyes when he met my stare. He exuded a sense of calm that I wanted to bask in. It was exactly what I needed to snap out of my pity party. “We’re going to find a way to get rid of it.”
Hope blossomed in my chest. If I was infected with it, then there had to be a way to cure the infection.
“Okay.” It was all I could say. All I could think. A reminder of sorts.
I was okay. I hadn’t been raped. I hadn’t been beaten. I hadn’t been kidnapped. I had been infected with a wraith, and I was going to find a way to get rid of it. To get rid of it, the words replayed in my head. Where did the guy the wraith had infected before me gone? How had he gotten rid of the wraith? My eyes darted around the men’s room, as though I would find the man slumped in a corner somewhere, recovering from the shock of the situation and basking in relief.
There was no one to be found though.
I wondered if he had slipped out of the men’s room the instant the wraith left him, abandoning me with the parasite that had haunted him for who knew how long without a second thought. I couldn’t say that I blamed him. I scanned the area near the tw
o stalls to my right, searching for shoes beneath the doors. A heavy layer of dust sprinkled across the tiled floor as though it had been wafted around by a fan caught my attention.
Was it possible the wraith had been in the guy for so long that he turned to dust the moment it transferred into me? My stomach quivered with the thought. If that was the case, then ridding myself of the wraith didn’t seem as though it would be an easy task.
Randal stood and held a hand out to me. “Let me pay for our meal and get you home. I’m sure you would like to rest.”
Rest sounded nice. I was exhausted, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be alone. Fear prickled through my veins. What would happen once I was? Would the thing inside me take over like a true possession?
I slipped my hand into his and allowed him to help me to my feet. As we passed the mirror above the sinks, I glimpsed my reflection. My knees buckled at the sight of myself. My aura wasn’t its standard vibrant red anymore; tiny dots of silver were bleeding through. The second I noticed this, I could feel the wraith’s coldness slither along the skin of my throat. Its icy touch stroked me as if I were its pet. I felt violated. My lips pinched into a straight line. I wanted this thing out, and I wanted it out now.
Chapter 24
“Are you going to be okay?” Randal handed me the glass of tea he had made for me. We had made it to my apartment, and I was resting on the couch wrapped in a blanket. I took the mug from him, but didn’t answer his question right away. How could I?
I hated that question. Always had, always would. When my father was first diagnosed with lung cancer, I’d asked him the same question. His answer had been, “Only time will tell.” I thought he was being sarcastic, but it was just my father’s way. It was how he dealt with things of that magnitude. I understood, eventually.
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