With All My Soul
Page 18
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Im seventeen. Calling Tod my lover makes us sound ancient. Like, forty.
An accurate term, though, is it not? You seem decidedly less innocent than when we first met.
Thats number one on a huge list of things that are thoroughly none of your business. Unless it made me less interesting to him. Less worthy of being captured and tortured for eternity. If that was the case, Id happily brand myself a whore, complete with the scarlet letter A. Half the school seemed to think I deserved it anyway. And Tod had no idea what he was ferrying into the human world for you. Hed done it for the chance to help Addison. To keep her sane, even as Avari tortured her damned soul.
But the frost hed brought into our world had hurt countless people, including Marco Gutierrez. How many more were there like him? How many more of Nashs friends and teammates had huffed Avaris breath, unknowingly nominating themselves for hellion possession?
What do you want? I repeated when I realized he was just staring at me. Studying me. Which was somehow even creepier than when he threatened me.
Avari made a tssk-ing sound with Marcos tongueanother gesture not native to human adolescence. That question has been asked and answered so many times surely you are as bored by it as I am. The answer hasnt changed, but the terms have. I want your anguish, both mental and physical. I want to take you apart and see what biological pumps and vessels make you bleed and what psychological gears and levers make you tick. Then I want to put you back together and begin again. I want to hear you scream. I want to see you writhe. I want to taste your flesh, and your blood, and your fears. I want to savor your ill-fated dreams as they burst like berries between my teeth, then melt like sugar on my tongue. I want you, Kaylee Cavanaugh.
I swallowed my own fear, so he couldnt have it, and that left me with nothing but anger blazing like a furnace where my heart should have been. Its always nice to be wanted, but I dont feel like being enslaved and tortured today. Sorry.
Im going to make this simple for you, little bean sidhe. If you dont cross into the Nether and surrendertodayI will come for those you love most. Because he couldnt just take me. Even if hed had a way to make me cross over, and at the moment he did not, he couldnt have kept me in the Nether. Not while I was conscious and in my own body, anyway. Female bean sidhes can cross between worlds at will, which put us among those least likely to be held captive in the Netherworld.
To keep me in the Nether against my will, Avari would have to keep me unconsciouswhich would be no fun for himor dispose of my body and take physical possession of my soul, which was no doubt his intent. The hard partfor himwas getting to my soul. Since my unfortunatedemise, hed decided it would be easier to coerce me into willingly surrendering than to forcibly part my body from my soul.
I rolled my eyes, displaying my disbelief in spite of the fear tightening my chest. That threat has been posed and ignored so many times surely were both bored by it. Throwing his words back at him felt good. Seeing the anger rage behind his eyes felt even better.
He moved faster than Id thought possible for a human body. One second he was three feet away, at proper threatening distance. The next, he had one hand around my throat. He slammed me into a support beam beneath the bleachers, and the blow reverberated down my spine in echoing waves of pain. My mouth fell open and I tried to drag in a shocked breath, but no air came. It couldnt get past his fist squeezing my airway shut.
You will give me what I want, Avari said into my ear with Marcos voice. Or I will destroy what you treasure most.
My heart pounded almost painfully while my back throbbed, and it took me a second to realize that my fear was remembered fear, virtually irrelevant to my current predicament. I didnt need to breathe. Sure, I couldnt talk with his hand around my throat, but I wasnt going to suffocate, either.
Remembering that helped me push fear back again, even farther this time, and anger roared in to take its place.
And frankly, Miss Cavanaugh, every time we meet like this I am less and less inclined to leave you unbruised. Standing here, touching you with this borrowedbut very realhand it occurs to me that not all of my corrupt pleasures have to wait for your arrival in the Nether.
And suddenly my fear was back, and very relevant to the situation. I could blink out anytime I wanted, but if he was touching me, hed come with me.
Ive never truly understood the human fondness for nude rutting and the eager exchange of bodily fluids. He stared down into my eyes, studying my panic while I clawed at his hand, but I saw nothing of Marco in Avaris expression. I saw only hellion, and the dramatically dilated pupils that told me he was feeding from my fear. He was nearly drunk on it. But this borrowed body seems willing, and youre clearly terrified by the prospect of such an encounter. And naturally, fear makes you taste so much better.... He leaned toward my neck and inhaled, and my stomach churned, though I hadnt eaten much in days.
Avari stepped back without letting go of my neck, and his gaze assessed me with almost clinical detachment. Its the strangest thing. I dont understand what all the fuss is about, but every time I borrow a human form, my sense of touch is... Well, its exaggerated. Sensitive. You mortals feel everything so intensely. Is it the same for you, or is this a trait exclusive to the human male?
An accurate term, though, is it not? You seem decidedly less innocent than when we first met.
Thats number one on a huge list of things that are thoroughly none of your business. Unless it made me less interesting to him. Less worthy of being captured and tortured for eternity. If that was the case, Id happily brand myself a whore, complete with the scarlet letter A. Half the school seemed to think I deserved it anyway. And Tod had no idea what he was ferrying into the human world for you. Hed done it for the chance to help Addison. To keep her sane, even as Avari tortured her damned soul.
But the frost hed brought into our world had hurt countless people, including Marco Gutierrez. How many more were there like him? How many more of Nashs friends and teammates had huffed Avaris breath, unknowingly nominating themselves for hellion possession?
What do you want? I repeated when I realized he was just staring at me. Studying me. Which was somehow even creepier than when he threatened me.
Avari made a tssk-ing sound with Marcos tongueanother gesture not native to human adolescence. That question has been asked and answered so many times surely you are as bored by it as I am. The answer hasnt changed, but the terms have. I want your anguish, both mental and physical. I want to take you apart and see what biological pumps and vessels make you bleed and what psychological gears and levers make you tick. Then I want to put you back together and begin again. I want to hear you scream. I want to see you writhe. I want to taste your flesh, and your blood, and your fears. I want to savor your ill-fated dreams as they burst like berries between my teeth, then melt like sugar on my tongue. I want you, Kaylee Cavanaugh.
I swallowed my own fear, so he couldnt have it, and that left me with nothing but anger blazing like a furnace where my heart should have been. Its always nice to be wanted, but I dont feel like being enslaved and tortured today. Sorry.
Im going to make this simple for you, little bean sidhe. If you dont cross into the Nether and surrendertodayI will come for those you love most. Because he couldnt just take me. Even if hed had a way to make me cross over, and at the moment he did not, he couldnt have kept me in the Nether. Not while I was conscious and in my own body, anyway. Female bean sidhes can cross between worlds at will, which put us among those least likely to be held captive in the Netherworld.
To keep me in the Nether against my will, Avari would have to keep me unconsciouswhich would be no fun for himor dispose of my body and take physical possession of my soul, which was no doubt his intent. The hard partfor himwas getting to my soul. Since my unfortunatedemise, hed decided it would be easier to coerce me into willingly surrendering than to forcibly part my body from my soul.
I rolled my eyes, displaying my disbelief in spite of the fear tightening my chest. That threat has been posed and ignored so many times surely were both bored by it. Throwing his words back at him felt good. Seeing the anger rage behind his eyes felt even better.
He moved faster than Id thought possible for a human body. One second he was three feet away, at proper threatening distance. The next, he had one hand around my throat. He slammed me into a support beam beneath the bleachers, and the blow reverberated down my spine in echoing waves of pain. My mouth fell open and I tried to drag in a shocked breath, but no air came. It couldnt get past his fist squeezing my airway shut.
You will give me what I want, Avari said into my ear with Marcos voice. Or I will destroy what you treasure most.
My heart pounded almost painfully while my back throbbed, and it took me a second to realize that my fear was remembered fear, virtually irrelevant to my current predicament. I didnt need to breathe. Sure, I couldnt talk with his hand around my throat, but I wasnt going to suffocate, either.
Remembering that helped me push fear back again, even farther this time, and anger roared in to take its place.
And frankly, Miss Cavanaugh, every time we meet like this I am less and less inclined to leave you unbruised. Standing here, touching you with this borrowedbut very realhand it occurs to me that not all of my corrupt pleasures have to wait for your arrival in the Nether.
And suddenly my fear was back, and very relevant to the situation. I could blink out anytime I wanted, but if he was touching me, hed come with me.
Ive never truly understood the human fondness for nude rutting and the eager exchange of bodily fluids. He stared down into my eyes, studying my panic while I clawed at his hand, but I saw nothing of Marco in Avaris expression. I saw only hellion, and the dramatically dilated pupils that told me he was feeding from my fear. He was nearly drunk on it. But this borrowed body seems willing, and youre clearly terrified by the prospect of such an encounter. And naturally, fear makes you taste so much better.... He leaned toward my neck and inhaled, and my stomach churned, though I hadnt eaten much in days.
Avari stepped back without letting go of my neck, and his gaze assessed me with almost clinical detachment. Its the strangest thing. I dont understand what all the fuss is about, but every time I borrow a human form, my sense of touch is... Well, its exaggerated. Sensitive. You mortals feel everything so intensely. Is it the same for you, or is this a trait exclusive to the human male?
