Say it, the wraith demanded.
I licked my lips, unsure if I wanted this moment to continue. Surely what I had gained in the short span of time would be enough to curb the wraith’s hunger for at least a little while. A small taste of normalcy was all I wanted, and that couldn’t be found by feeding from this guy. I wanted my strategically thought out feeding plan back. The need to flirt with a guy, so he would ask me to dinner and a movie pulsed through me. I wanted to reel someone in using my allure and nothing more.
“What’s the matter?” Trent asked. A worried look creased his brow.
“I can’t do this.” I spun to face my car. Emptiness was all I saw. It had disappeared. Damn it. Where had it gone? I didn’t feel like walking.
The keys for the convertible dug into my palm. Just because I was turning away one of my gifts for the night, didn’t mean I had to turn them both away. I clicked unlock on the keys.
“Where are you going?” Trent called to me as I climbed into the car. He placed his hands on the door, and leaned toward me. “We aren’t finished yet, miss.”
“Yes, Trent, we are.” I cranked the engine. Hearing the roar of it rumble through the night made goose bumps prickle across my skin. “Tell my mother I said thank you, but no thank you.”
Shifting into reverse, I backed away, leaving Trent behind looking dazed and confused.
You should have continued with him. He was willing. Why you turned him away, I will never understand, the wraith chimed in. He was pissed. I could feel his icy rage crystalizing my insides, but I was still in control, and that was what mattered.
Ignoring him as best I could, I focused on the way the wind felt blowing through my hair and against my face as I continued away from Club Lure. I had never ridden in a convertible before, let alone driven one. It was exhilarating.
Flying would feel even better. Trust me on this, little succubus.
My sudden change in mood darkened. While I had no doubt he was right, I still feared my wings. Hopefully that fear wouldn’t last forever though, because I was positive they were an everyday part of me now. There was no reversing what I had done to awaken them. My wings would be my constant reminder of the most horrible moment in my life.
Chapter 21
When I made it home, Lexy had left a light in the kitchen on. Guilt sloshed through my stomach from having lied to her about where I was going, but Club Lure felt like a dirty secret I needed to keep to myself.
After setting my things on the catchall table inside the door, I kicked my shoes off and headed toward the kitchen. Exhaustion made my movements slow, but I couldn’t go to sleep without my tea. Drinking it had become a habit. In the beginning, it was a good habit to have, but now, when the wraith was so much stronger, I questioned how much her teas truly helped.
Even so, I was too afraid to skip them.
As I filled my mug with water, the conversation with my mother trickled through my mind, followed closely by images of Trent. I still couldn’t believe I’d kissed him. Before I could focus on my behavior too much, my mind jumped to thoughts of Darius and the car he’d bought me. I wondered what had happened to my original one.
The timer on the microwave went off, and I opened the door to retrieve my hot water. After grabbing the correct bag of tea, I headed down the hall toward my room. The door to the guest bedroom was shut, and the light was off. It was no surprise Lexy hadn’t waited up for me. I hoped she was able to get some rest tonight and not worry about Luke the entire time. While I doubted Bianca would hurt him, I knew she would if she felt forced to. I prayed it never came to that. My conscience wouldn’t be able to handle it.
I flipped the light to my bedroom on and closed the door behind me. Once I set my mug on the dresser, I began pouring the contents of the tea in and stirring it with my finger. The potent stench of black licorice floated to my nose.
It’s not going to work. Why do you even waste your time, my sweet? the wraith hissed.
My shoulders grew tense at his words. I gulped down the contents of the cup, hoping if I finished it fast its effects would hit all at once, and the wraith wouldn’t have a chance to pull me into any sort of nightmare with him.
Wishful thinking, because the moment my eyes fluttered closed, I was pulled into the wraith’s clutches, same as always.
The coldness from the hellish place he always dragged me to brushed against my skin. I was naked—imagine that. I glanced around, realizing there wasn’t much that had changed. This worried me. I wondered if it meant he was strong enough to overtake me completely.
“Beautiful, absolutely beautiful,” an all too familiar voice muttered from behind me.
I spun to face the wraith, hating I had given him the chance to sneak up behind me. I should have known better. As I turned, something black moved with me from in the corner of my eye—feathers. My heart thundered in my chest. There was a large set of wings protruding from my back.
Panic stabbed through my core. How had I not felt them spring free? Last time there had been a rippling sensation shifting along my spine, and pain, lots of pain as they erupted from beneath my skin. This time there was nothing; they were just there.
“Oh, don’t look so surprised,” the wraith teased me. “You should know by now I control all that happens here. This is my realm, so to speak. Even you are not in control of your glorious wings while here.” His eerie red eyes locked on mine, pulling me into their darkness.
I remained silent. There was nothing I wanted to say to him; words wouldn’t help my situation. I had learned this the hard way quite a few times.
My eyes darted toward the cabin on the hill. It was still the same size as before, and through the windows I could make out the colorful souls floating around inside. I searched for a midnight blue one, but couldn’t see one standing out. Clara must not realize I was here. Either that, or she knew Randal wasn’t with me.
“You can’t run from me.” The wraith stalked closer, taking slow, calculated steps as he assumed my searching eyes meant I was looking for an exit. “Haven’t you figured anything out about these dreamscapes yet?” His lips pinched together as I continued in my refusal to speak.
Oddly enough, I was calm. Biting my tongue and refusing to play into his word game of torture seemed to be the trick to remaining calm. From the look on the wraith’s face, it didn’t seem as though he was happy about my realization. Nothing in the dream world he created surprised me. I had seen it all—the creepy cabin of souls, the eerie pulsating red light that beat in sync with my heart, the wisps of smoke he seemed to control as though they were his pets, the birds.
In the short time I had been infected by him, I had come to see it all.
The look sweeping across his face let me know he realized this as well. A slight amount of fear seeped from me then, because I knew he would do something to ramp up his game and draw the emotions he wanted from me somehow.
“Do you know what I love most about this whole wraith bit?” He paused in his slow steps and crammed his hands into a pair of slacks I could see the outline of but nothing more.
He looked pensive. I could handle pensive. It gave me time to focus on myself—to find a way out like I had last time. I drew up a mental image of myself lying in bed. My sheets tucked around me, my head buried in my pillow, I imagined myself being one hundred percent content while asleep.
“That I get to continue down the vicious path I started while I was alive,” he said when I didn’t reply. His hollow eyes remained on the frozen ground, but his feet started moving my way again. He paused when he was about a foot away from me. I didn’t recoil like I had in the past. Instead, I remained where I was and focused even harder on the image in my head. “You see, I was a killer even before I became a wraith.”
When his words didn’t shock me like I was sure he had expected them to, he continued with his story.
“Women, children, men, I had no preference when it came to my victims. All I wanted was to see their lives leave their eyes. Age does
not discriminate when it comes to such things.” He reached a hand out and trailed one of his icy fingertips along my forearm. My heart picked up its pace at the feel of his sudden touch, and I noticed his lips twist into the most vile smile. He licked his lips. “Your fear always tastes so sweet, yet spicy. I’ve missed its flavor.”
I closed my eyes, choosing to shift my focus back to the image I was building in my head. I imagined a slight breeze billowing in through the cracked window in my bedroom, causing the fine hairs along my forehead to flutter. I envisioned my chest rising and falling with soft movements.
“There were many ways I chose to kill my victims, but my most favorite was…” He trailed off. The desire to open my eyes swam through me, but I refused to give in to the temptation. “Like this.”
His hands were wrapped around my neck in the next instant. I couldn’t breathe. His hold was too tight, causing my windpipe to clamp shut from the force. I struggled to keep focused on the vision in my mind’s eye as his fingers seemed to tighten.
“Strangulation was the best way possible to see that light, that glimmer of liveliness, leave their eyes. I so enjoyed watching it fade.” He said the words slowly, emphasizing each one. “After a while, I could pinpoint when it was about to happen. I learned to pull back then, so I could prolong my fun.” He squeezed tighter, causing gargled sounds to push past my lips. Pain radiated from where his hands clamped my throat, slumping my shoulders forward. My hands gripped his icy ones in an effort to free myself.
He released me abruptly. I fell to my knees, gripping my neck, unbelieving how real the pain felt. I gasped to catch my breath.
“It’s been so long since I screwed a succubus with her wings out.” He had bent at the waist, and his body pressed against me from behind. The wings protruding from my back shifted to allow him to get close to me, as if they weren’t even there.
Maybe they weren’t. Maybe they were just another trick.
The weight of him startled me. My knees buckled, and I fell flat to the ground. His hand roamed along my bare side. Once he reached my right breast, I wanted to jump out of my skin. Finding my voice, I let out an ear-splitting scream.
“And there it is,” the wraith muttered against my skin. “The fear I knew you’d been trying to bury.”
Another scream erupted from me as his hand slipped below my navel. Silence only worked when there was distance between us, I realized. My focus had long ago shifted away from the vision of me peacefully asleep. If I wanted out of here now, I needed to scream loud enough to wake Lexy.
“This place was where I used to take them, my victims.” He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to my knees. The frozen ground beneath me rushed past as he carried me up the hill at an astonishing speed. “It was where I would watch the light fade from their eyes and feel my strength grow even as a human. Now that I’m what I would deem immortal—because you can’t kill what is already dead—I find it quite comforting to store my souls inside. And my sweet succubus, I think it’s time I add you to my collection.”
Fear froze my veins.
Where was Lexy? Why was she not waking me up? Wasn’t I screaming in reality as well? I had in previous times. Opening my mouth wide, I let out another blood-curdling scream, praying she would hear me. I wasn’t ready to die, not by the hands of the wraith. Not yet.
Chapter 22
The wraith’s cold hand clasp over my mouth, suffocating the scream I was releasing to a mere whimper. He pressed me against the rough wood of the shack and trailed his fingertips over the base of my neck. Pushing my palms against the cabin for leverage, I struggled to gain enough distance between myself and the planks to attempt to wiggle free. Screams and moans, more torturous than I remembered them being, floated through the rickety walls of the cabin to my ears, becoming a haunting chorus to the nightmarish moment.
The icy sensation of the wraith’s fingertips grazing my skin had my stomach churning. I forced myself to grasp the mental image I had of myself lying in bed before all hell broke loose. I closed my eyes. While the image was hazy at first, it didn’t take long to sharpen and add more clarity to it. Before long, I was seeing the slight breeze from my open bedroom window fluttering the fine hairs along my forehead once more.
“I know exactly what you’re doing, my sweet succubus,” the wraith insisted. “I’m in your head now, embedded within your veins, connected to your breath, attached to your soul.” His icy breath glided across my cheek as he whispered the words in a mocking tone. “You can’t escape me so easily.”
Ignoring him, I focused on the cool sheets beneath me, the slight flutter of my lids as I dreamed something peaceful. The rise and fall of my restful breath as I dove even deeper into my wonderful dream.
“You can’t escape me,” the wraith insisted, this time with venom lacing his words and less mockery. His face had grown closer to mine. I could feel it, but I still refused to open my eyes.
Looking at him would merely break my concentration, which was something I couldn’t afford to let happen.
The wind fluttering my hair in the dream image picked up abruptly. The vision seemed to fade before I was able to pull tight on it once more. When things came into perspective again, the wraith lay next to me in my bed. His unfeeling eyes with their hollowed out sockets and red glowing embers locked on me as his lips twisted into a wicked smile.
“I told you, you couldn’t escape me, my sweet, and I meant it.” He laughed. “We are connected in more ways than ever before since you became fully awakened. I will be taking you over very soon.”
“No.” My voice trembled. While I did not intend to speak to him, his sudden appearance in my fake reality world I was trying to escape to had shaken me. “I will be rid of you before too long.”
“Think again!” The wraith’s words boomed through both the reality world I was attempting to create and the nightmare the wraith had dragged me to. His hands reached out and clamped around my neck like before. Again, I felt my windpipe being crushed as he increased his hold. I wanted to scream, but no air was making its way to my lungs for me to create one.
Dark spots feathered the edges of my vision. I struggled, clawing at his hands, and kicking my legs, but all I managed to do was cause the smirk playing across the wraith’s face to widen. He was enjoying this.
Of course he was. I was feeding him with fear, allowing him to get stronger with every breath. There was no way out of this situation. Suddenly, I wondered what would happen if I died here, inside this dream realm the wraith had created. Did it mean I died in real life too? Or at least that my control over myself did?
Panic forced my heart to pick up speed as I wondered if this was how it all ended. Was this how the wraith went about taking over its host?
In the past, I had worried I would find myself trapped inside my head, while the wraith had free rein over my actions and thoughts. Now, I wasn’t so sure. Maybe this was how it happened; maybe he killed the soul of his host while in this dream realm, or weakened them so he could toss them in with the other souls inside his creepy cabin.
I couldn’t let this happen. I wouldn’t!
My fingernails dug into his hands, but it didn’t seem to faze him. My vision faded in and out, causing my stomach to burn with fear. I was on my way out. If I didn’t get out of this situation now, it was all over for me. I would never see Randal again, and never make it to Bree’s beautiful wedding. I would never be me again. Snuffed out like a candle, I would be crammed into the cabin with all the other poor souls the wraith had overtaken in his time.
Kenna Blake would be no more.
A numb tenderness coursed through my limbs as I attempted to continue in my struggle against him. My body was giving up on me, but my mind refused to quit.
“Open your eyes,” the wraith coaxed. “Let me see your life fade, let me enjoy the moment when your essence dies to nothing.”
I refused to listen, to give in to what he wanted. If this were the end, I would not let him have the satisfa
ction he craved. I wouldn’t let him watch my life fade in the colors of my eyes. If I could control nothing, at least I would be able to control that.
“I said open your eyes!” he snapped. His grip around my throat tightened, even when I didn’t think it possible, and he shook me to accentuate his words and anger at my resistance.
I allowed my body to grow slack beneath him. My eyes remained shut out of spite. Calming my mind, I chose to focus on the field of lavender Randal had once taken me to. I imagined the warm breeze blowing against the royal blue dress he had placed me in, and the feel of the sunshine kissing my skin, warming the places the wraith touched me now.
If this was it, then I wanted to go in peace, and the most peaceful I had ever been was there in that lavender filled, wrapped in Randal’s strong arms.
As the wraith tightened his grip on my throat, I allowed myself to go deeper into my mind. I felt the wind blow harder against my skin, this time ruffling my hair away from my shoulders and causing my dress to billow around my knees. I could feel the warmth from the sun seeping into my skin, warming me from the outside in. For a fraction of a second, I swore I could smell Randal’s spicy scent, which I had come to love. I spun in my mind’s eye to face the breeze, and there he was, standing feet from me, dressed in his trademark dark polo shirt and slacks. A smile graced his handsome face as he started to erase the distance between us. Had my mind conjured him, or was he actually here with me, interjecting himself into my dreamscape from wherever he was?
“Kenna, you are a fighter. Do not let him win this easily.” His words brushed over my skin on the warm breeze. “You are stronger than this. I know you are.”
Succubus Kiss The Complete Series Page 60
