Page 29 of Grave Devil
I take a deep breath and force the bile down. “Yes. He feeds on my lust. On my arousal.”
“Do you enjoy it?” Draven asks. There is no malice behind his tone, only genuine curiosity.
“Yes. But it hurts even when it feels good. He splits me open on a cellular level. Like a disease.” I fold my arms over my chest as I remember the agony inside the orgasm he gave me.
“What does he look like?” Bones asks.
I’m afraid to conjure his image in my mind. As if that might summon him… “His eyes are like Draven’s. They’re the color of amber resin… like burnt honey. His veins are black. Inky. His face is… monstrous. Half of it is bone, like a deer skull has been fused to it.”
“What the fuck? Does he have antlers?” Bones’s face twists in horror.
I nod. “He made me hold onto them when he was… touching me.”
The fury in the room grows. “You do not belong to him, Mia. You’re ours. I’m going to fucking kill him,” Draven roars.
“I-I know. But when he’s in my head, I belong to him too. That’s why I have to keep him out. It’s wrong and unnatural. Please. Don’t take away my poison,” I plead.
He grabs me by the shoulders. His eyes are wide, his expression wild, chaotic, and as unstable as it was that night he crashed through my front gates. “I won’t let him have you.”
I caress his cheek. “You haven’t been sleeping. I can tell. This darkness is coming for you too. I can’t lose you, Dray.”
Aries hands me a vial. “No one is losing anyone. Now drink. Until we can figure out more, I need you to be less sober.”
Nox starts to snatch it away from me when Aries intercepts him. “It’s a diluted dose. It won’t keep him away completely, but at least she won’t end up catatonic in a bathtub again. If that happens, then we have to give her bloodroot to bring her back, which is basically like heroin. So calm the fuck down. All of you.”
Aries commands the room with the confidence and arrogance of a true Thorn. And I’m grateful. He’s the only one who seems to be making logical decisions. The rest of us are too emotional to think clearly.
My breath hitches as soon as the liquid touches my tongue. I drink, wincing as it stings my throat on the way down. A light tingling spreads across my skin, replacing that lingering icky feeling of dread that the Skelker had left me with.
Aries rubs my back. “Good girl. We’re going to fix this. We’ll keep you safe.”
I nod to placate them. To ease all of their fears. But they have no idea who they’re dealing with. I don’t think I’ll ever feel safe again. Because the day I stop hearing the Skelker in my head, will be the day I start looking over my shoulder for him.
DRAVEN
On my knees before him, I feel like I can forget. He holds my head, pressing my cheek to his abdomen. I stroke his thigh as his forked cock throbs against my neck. The anticipation is agony. The waiting. He won’t indulge my body until I’ve satisfied his mind.
“Tell me about him, dark one. How does he make you feel?” Nox threads his clawed fingers through my thick black strands.
I take slow drags off my cigarette and blow smoke rings against his thigh. “He’s always been there. Just on the fringe. He’s more visceral now. Closer. I see him creep through my halls like a shadow that exists only in the corner of my eye.”
Nox strokes my head, gently scratching my scalp with his pointy tips. “You didn’t answer my question. How do you feel when his darkness surrounds you?”
I choke on my shame. It’s as thick as the smoke that billows from these glowing embers. “I feel sick because I feel whole. Like a piece of my existence has been returned after being ripped away from me at birth. That lost fragment I’ve always been yearning for. His presence fills that. Heismy father. Not in the way my mother’s husband is. And certainly not in the way thatRodrick has been. But he is my creator. My father. And I don’t even know his name.”
“We don’t have names. We are nothing until claimed. Mia gave me this name. Your mother may have given him one as well. But it doesn’t matter. You can call him whatever you wish. It means nothing to our own identities.”
I choke back a sob. It’s filled with bile and disdain and rage. One of these nights, I fear I will unleash a scream so unhinged that I will not be able to stop. I’m afraid that the violence in my voice will cause all living things to wither and die in seconds.
I stub the cigarette out in my palm, then toss the butt into the hearth behind us. “Have I told you enough? Will you give me what I want now? What I need…”
Nox’s twin cocks pulsate against me. His grip on my strands tightens. “Not yet. Wrap your hands around me. One each.”
A rumble stirs in my chest as I fist each of his cocks. “Please… How much more must I confess?”
“Do you feel less shame when there’s darkness? When it hurts?” His voice is merely a husky breath, tickling the edges of my psyche like feathers.
A hot tingling stirs in my belly. An ache. I turn my head and gaze up at him. His eyes are pitch-black, dangerous. “I feel more. And that is my gluttony. The more the bad things consume me, the more I hate myself, and yet the harder I cum. And for those fleeting moments of pure fucking euphoric release, I feel nothing but that intense pleasure. And it’s worth every fucking degrading thing I tell myself.”
