Page 98 of Infernal Secrets

As her spasms subsided, my grip on her arms relaxed, allowing her to reach for one of my horns as an anchor now that I no longer restrained her.

My chest rumbled with a low growl I couldn’t contain. Pleasure surged, intensifying my instability and powerlessness beyond anything my shadows had done. But I couldn’t release her wound, or she’d die.

Her touch soothed my shadows, and they remained content with the simmering connection her touch created. I didn’t know what I would have done had her touch not pacified them.

I wouldn’t get close to her again.

The consequences could prove fatal for us both.

An eternity seemed to pass before the last remnants of venom receded.

I pulled away from her shoulder with a grunt of exertion, breaking her hold in the process. The scent of her perfume still clung to me as I sat back on my heels, releasing her hands.

She lay beneath me, eyelids fluttering closed. She’d be safe now, but her response—and mine—left me with more questions than answers.

24

BURIED MEMORIES

RAE

Kneeling in front of Grandma’s headstone, I brushed my fingers over the rough surface. The vase of lilacs left by another visitor looked as lonely as I felt.

“I miss you,” I whispered, knowing she couldn’t respond.

A giggle shattered the quiet, and I lifted my head.

Glancing around, I didn’t see anyone at first. But when my gaze passed over the cluster of trees where the delemora disappeared the day of Grandma’s funeral, I saw it.

The delemora moved like a puppet on invisible wires, limbs jerking as it glided toward me, head angled too far to the side as the split mouth covering the lower half of its face gaped open in a “smile” of jagged, rotting teeth.

I stood as it glided closer, ready to run. My family wasn’t here to witness my freak-out, and the guys weren’t here to save me.

A voice, fractured and layered as if several people spoke at once, twisted around me and pressed into my chest until my breath came shallow and weak.

“Ananeva.”

The sound echoed, bending in on itself as if spoken in an empty chamber instead of the open air of the cemetery.

No matter how hard I willed myself to move, my body refused to obey. The reek of sulfur, rot, and decay lingered in the air, choking me, making my eyes water. I blinked away the sting.

Then the infernal was in my face.

But it wasn’t the delemora anymore.

The woman from the parking garage stood in front of me.

With her bright blonde bob, porcelain skin, and face of a child, she looked as eerie as before—unnatural. Under the sunlight, she resembled a doll more than ever: perfect painted lips, blue eyes too large to be real, and a tiny button nose.

When she spoke, her voice was sweet and calm, curling around me, tugging at my consciousness, and leaving behind a whispered secret only for me.

“The heirs won’t save you, Ananeva,” she said in a singsong voice. “So you’d better wake up.”

I sucked in a breath and bolted upright, gasping for air as if surfacing after too long underwater. Coughing, I reached for the glass of water on my nightstand, my hands shaking. After draining most of the glass, I set it down and slumped against the headboard.

I pushed away the damp sheets and climbed out of bed, stumbling to the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror, the memories from earlier crashed into me.

I winced when my fingers touched the distinctive bite mark on my shoulder.