Page 29 of Scarred Temptation

A shrill cry heard over the city’s roar.

A squeal of tires being pushed to the extreme.

I reacted without thinking, without mulling over consequences or danger, bolting toward them just as one of the two finally realized something was off.

That something terrible would soon destroy their world.

Whether I’d uttered a sound or not would likely never be determined. The vehicle causing the disturbance flew around the corner. More screaming. A blur of activity.

And suddenly I was flying.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

As the world seemed to crash down around me, I hit the ground, taking a stranger with me. The force from my momentum managed to pitch us forward, yet I heard a horrific cry, a loud and dense thud that would forever be remembered in the back of my mind.

There was a momentary silence as I was flung onto my back, extreme terror crashing against a new and extremely painful rush of adrenaline.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

More gunfire. More screams.

A quiet calm settled through my system even as the ache intensified.

I forced my eyelids open, but the world was a smear of gray and white. Was it fog? Or was my brain refusing to process the input? Shapes flickered at the edges of my peripheral vision, distorted and swimming. I squinted, trying to anchor the shifting colors into something concrete, but it just made the world tilt violently.

A face appeared hovering over me, dark eyes penetrating mine while his thick, dark eyebrows knitted together.

“What…”

“Don’t try and talk,” he said, the tone as dark and husky as his expression. He was handsome, stubble covering an angular jaw.

Screams caught my attention off to the side, blurred images shifting and changing. I couldn’t make sense of anything, yet I noticed taillights in the distance. In trying to process what had happened, I noticed someone lying in the road, the shimmer of overhead streetlights capturing his condition.

And the dark stain pooling under his limp body.

A short, painful gasp left my throat and it was suddenly difficult to breathe. Fear claimed my mind, anguish my body.

Then there was an intense cold seeping through my clothes and shifting down my spine.

“Stay with me.” The deep voice penetrated the terror as I recognized sirens. “I’ll get you some help.”

His features remained contorted and when he moved, I noticed blood staining his crisp white shirt. Just as the lights began to dim once again, I found the strength to cup his cheek.

My thumb brushed against the pale, uneven ridges marring his cheek. “You’re so… beautiful.”

The dark stranger flinched, a silent plea for me to pull away, but I pressed closer.

“Ty—prekrasnoye sozdaniye. YA zhe—vsego lish’ chudovishche.”

I had no idea what he’d said, but the low, husky voice was soft and comforting, his eyes boring into mine with such concern.

“I’m cold.”

His upper lip curled. “Fuck.”

Beneath the tough, scarred exterior, I could feel the delicate pulse of his life and the sudden, raw vulnerability visible in his dark eyes captured an ounce of my soul. It was a beautiful kind of broken.

Yet the moment was lost, another wash of agony and my hand slipped away. As my eyelids fluttered closed, I heard him calling for help.