the flesh, darling. Now, I think I won fair and square. You have nowhere else to run. So, are you ready to go fetch the grimoire, or do you need a little more convincing?” I paused, enjoying how small she looked there on the pew: just an innocent little church girl accosted by evil. “You’re so cute when you’re irritated. Even your freckles are red.”
She growled. She was fighting with herself, squirming between my arms. The scent of her arousal made me want to rip off her clothes, bite her flesh, take her —
“Convincing?” she scoffed, but her voice shook and the laugh she forced out was nervous. “What convincing? You’re just trying to play nice, as if that will...make me…”
I was toying with the top button on her sweater. Her heart was pounding beneath my fingertips. It had been a long time since I’d looked at a mortal and felt that much desire — and it was only made worse by her unshakeable defiance. She was determined to challenge me at every turn, where any other human would have had the good sense to keep retreating.
“Demons don’t play nice, doll,” I said. “We play tricks.”
A spark lit up in her eyes. I’d given her an opportunity; I was allowing her the chance to give in without surrendering too much of her pride. It was awfully generous of me, but hell, I wasn’t entirely evil.
“Tricks?” Her voice had shrunk to a whisper. “What tricks?”
I’d shown her my eyes, so I decided to give one more taste of what I was. I brought my lips close to hers, so close our breath mingled. I licked my tongue over my lips, its forked sides spreading to start from opposite sides of my mouth until they slid down to meet in the middle.
Her eyes were the size of saucers. She seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. The possibilities of a split tongue tended to have that effect, but I’ll admit it was particularly pleasing to see her shaken. She was squirming again, but this time, it wasn’t in hopes of escape.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered. Thoughts of what this tongue could do would be running rampant through her head. Her defiance was wavering, her desire overpowering her.
I grinned, and brought my face down to whisper against her neck, “So, shall I show you my tricks?”
Bang!
Raelynn leapt up from her seat, crushing herself against me at the sound. The chapel doors had swung open so hard they slammed against the columns behind them. The wind howled inside, carrying with it yellow leaves and a pungent, sour smell.
“What is that?” Rae’s voice choked up as she peered around me. “What...oh my God…”
I sighed heavily. The click and scrape of nails across the chapel stones sounded its arrival, as did the low, rumbling growl in the Eld’s throat.
“The game is on pause, doll,” I said, pushing her further behind me. “Don’t think I’m done with you yet.”
The monster that walked through the chapel doors was straight out of my nightmares. I’d thought the bizarre, canine-skulled thing in the woods had been an art piece — but seeing it move, seeing it sway low to the ground and gurgle as its long black tongue dripped thick saliva across the floor, absolutely shattered my belief.
It shouldn’t be real.
It couldn’t be real.
But it was. Snarling, white eyes shot through with reddened veins rolling about in its head, it stalked into the church and rose up on its thin, deer-like back limbs. Its teeth clipped eagerly, a sound like the chattering of a cat chasing a bug emitting from its bare bone jaws.
“Leon,” my voice was a hiss, tense and desperate. My hands were knotted up in his shirt. “Leon...do something…”
“Do something?” He shot me a narrow-eyed glare, and said mockingly, “Oh Leon, do something! Save me, please, oh please! What happened to Be gone, demon? What happened to trying to bash my head in with a crucifix?”
The creature snarled at the sound of his voice. It was swaying in its stance, sizing up an attack. The smell rushed in my nose again and I nearly gagged. In the church’s dim light, I could see the beast’s body in all its wretched horror: skin that was gray and moldering, the bones pock-marked with little holes of decay, the teeth blackened, sharp, and jagged.
“What is it?” I whimpered, too terrified to be angry at Leon’s sass. “What the hell is that thing?”
Leon cracked his knuckles and rolled back his shoulders. “One