Well, there goes the ten days. I hoped my contact could move up the schedule. Of all the contingencies I'd thought through, I hadn't foreseen this happening. Nodding, I emptied the glass once more. Turning, I set the glass in the sink and turned toward my suite. "I'll call the front gate and let them kno - "A feral, pain-filled sound had me whirling around so fast I had to grab the back of a chair to keep from falling over. Ransom was leaning on the kitchen island. Arms locked, muscled rigid and twitching. Head thrown back as pain etched a grimace on his face. His legs shook like limbs on a tree in a tornado. I tried to harden myself against his suffering, his anguish. I turned back to my rooms. He'd chosen to walk away from the ritual. From the healing. I was now free to do the same. I made it two more steps before another yell sounded from behind me. Sneaking a look over my shoulder, the severe angle of his body, arched backwards in torment, clamped its sweaty fist aro
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" The words whispered through my pain-wracked mind, even though I'm pretty sure I wasn't the one who said them. Hell, I was having a hard time focusing on anything outside of my own body. Over the last couple of months, the pain had been building, but this was something I hadn't been prepared for. The pain was incandescent as it washed in and through my body like a nuclear bomb. As I felt my stomach bunch up with the need to vomit, a chilling sensation washed through me. Like a cool breeze swirling through the trees on a bright Fall morning.The cessation of pain was so unexpected, I felt tears build behind my eyes. Fuck. I was almost afraid to trust it. To believe that my pain could just be swept away with a light wind. I pulled a deep breath in through my nose, slowly - so slowly - filling my lungs. When I was able to exhale without pain, I felt like crying like a newborn baby thrust into the cold, hard world. For the first time since this stupid il
Finally, the pulsing black magic of Ransom's spirit was encased in my own. All around me, the brilliant flashes of pain died down to the normal bland stillness of the magical landscape. The myriad of colors faded as if bleached by the sun. I felt my magical essence shudder and waver as if a spectral hand had shifted through my physical form. I stilled. That had never happened to me either. Everything about this stupid ritual was fucked: upward, backward, and sideways. The fading colors flared to life once more. Like the blinding sun had slipped behind a cloud, the colors seeped back into Ransom's spirit. Just as quickly as it started, the colors died away again. The vast field of gray filled my vision once more. If I'd had shoulders in this form, they would've settled down into their normal position. If my heart still beat in this form, it would have slowed. This was familiar. This I could do while sleeping.I inspected the rest of Ransom's body. The same slightly sick
I raced after the woman who'd settled the torture of my body with one touch. My shoes slammed against the floor in a sharp drum beat that matched my pounding heart. "Kiema! Wait!" I almost shot past the door she'd escaped through. The sounds of violent retching reached my ears, pulled me to an abrupt halt. She was hunched over the toilet. Her hair had fallen from her messy topknot. Now it hung around her head, a dark curtain shielding her face. I winced in sympathy as her rib cage expanded and contracted heavily. Heavy splattering followed the guttural groans. Let it out, sweetheart. Stepping around her bowed form, I pulled open drawers. One after the other until they all stood open like the gaping mouths of dazzled spectators. On the wall, a rack held a huge collection of matching towels. Sitting on the top of the mound, I found the smallest washrag known to mankind. Shaking my head, I turned on the faucet, and shoved the rag under the cold water. Barely wringing
My heart in my throat, I watched Kiema's chest for the longest minutes of my life. Completely ignoring the shape of her breasts, I just needed to know if she was even fucking breathing."Kiema?" I called softly. I didn't recognize the soft tone that came from my own mouth. Women had never been anything more than convenience and novelty to me before this one. But damned if she hadn't made a big impression on me in a short amount of time.Her chest rose and fell in an even, if slow, tempo. Out cold.Her petrified warning not to touch her filled my mind again. I couldn't fucking leave her like this. Not after she'd saved me. Left with nothing else in the small room, I finally ripped the shower curtain down. Rod and all. Throwing the rod into the bathtub, I kept one eye on the unconscious woman. Not even a twitch to indicate she'd heard the crash.I was out of patience; I had to get her off the floor. My entire being was screaming at me to get her moved.I shook the curt
I was stuck. My body was full of cement, and I was stuck at the bottom of a well. Opening my eyes, I could see a wavery slice of light, but it was so far away. My mind reeled as I tried to make sense of what was happening to me. I remembered the ritual. That was normal.Wait. Something about the ritual had gone wrong. Horribly wrong. A zing of electricity flashed through my tired and aching body. Tasting the coppery flavor of fear, my mind cleared in an instant.I'd touched him. Without precaution. Without ritual. Without safeguards in place. And the biggest issue of all: the fucker had magic of his own.I was so screwed. So freaking screwed.Damn it! I'd known this was going to be a big, fat failure. From the changed duration of the ritual, to him not playing by the rules. Hell, he hadn't even known what was going to happen. How the fuck did Mother and Father think this was going to be okay?They might have broken their golden goose. A harsh bark of laug
Wiping my lips with the back of my hand, I stood up. An embarrassed smile pulled at my mouth. Good thing the guys weren't here to see that one. I turned on the faucet, leaned down and took a drink from the stream. Swishing the water around in my mouth, I spit it out. Repeating the process until my mouth no longer tasted like vomit. Getting a good grip on my stomach, I turned and examined what was in the toilet again. I covered my mouth and nose with one hand as I leaned over the edge of the sink.My brain couldn't figure out what my eyes were trying to tell me. Whatever Kiema had thrown up was actually pulsing in the water. Like a sluggish heart, it beat and throbbed, causing ripples in the shallow bowl of dirty, chunk-filled water. There's no way she could still be alive after throwing up an organ, right? I took my phone from my pocket, switched it to video and took a short shot of...whatever that thing was. I would send the video to Atlas later.Right now, I needed to
I woke up on the couch again. Damn man moved me around like I was a mannequin. Dusk had fallen, the looming shapes of the trees just on the border of the yard stiff fingers spearing into the sky. When I was a kid, I'd been afraid of them. I thought something was trying to rise up from under the ground to come capture me.As an adult, I wished a mythical beast would come capture me, spiriting me away from the hell of my life. Those monsters had to have been better than the ones I called Mother and Father. "Shit!" Ransom said from somewhere behind me. I pushed myself up on one arm, looked over the back of the couch. "What are you doing?""You're awake!""No, I'm not. You're hallucinating." I laid back down. "Wait, wait, wait. Are you feeling better? Does the house still stink like sweaty man-ass?" He leaned over the back of the couch into my line of view."Yes, I'm feeling better. Yes, the house still stinks," I said, my tone flat.He snorted. "I think I am hallu