W\\CKED

Truth, Carve My Flesh...

[Jul]

I lay on the bed, my eyes closed to the world and my senses open to his lips against my lips, my face, my neck. I didn't know where he was going to touch next and I loved it.

"I've waited so long."

I felt no fear, not even a hint of anxiety.

"So long to claim you." His voice lowered, becoming more primal, more familiar, as his cheek pressed against mine. "Your captors kept us apart for too many years, but I'm finally here to save you, my lonely girl."

Deep in the depths of my mind, a voice began to scream. It was coming back, all coming, a mad whirl of memories rushing toward me. My fingers scrambled for the necklace that usually soothed me, but it was gone. The monster was coming for me, and this time I could not escape.

Jordan, where are you?

I stand in the hallway of our old apartment, sucking my thumb.

Jordan, I need you.

The front door drifts open. A figure stands behind it.

The monster is here.

The voice I don't want to hear sings sweetly: "Let me in, lonely girl."

Dae.

Dae's is the voice I don't want to hear.

Dae is the monster standing on the other side of that door.

I opened my mouth to scream. His hand clamped over it. Then his gaze clamped onto mine. "This moment is for us alone."

I struggled against his grip. He drew closer, until I could see nothing but his eyes. Darkness slid underneath their glistening surfaces, like oil debasing a pure sea.

I shuddered as that darkness entered my mind, seeping in through our locked gazes. I fought to throw the strange presence out with nothing but my willpower. He pressed into my defiance, making it bend, my soul shuddering from the effort of resisting him.

I had to get him out. I couldn't lose myself to him, not to the monster who murdered-

His mind broke through into mine. His presence rushed into every crevice of my thoughts, filling every corner of my being, seeking out the most secret parts of my soul, ripping away all veils until my emotions lay exposed before him. His will twined around my fear, taking it into himself, reveling in it. You're right to fear me. There is so much I can do to you. But if you are obedient...

I felt his thumb slide down my jaw, leaving an icy trail of sensation on my skin. The desire within me pulsed wildly in response. I fought to suppress it. I didn't want this monster. Not now that I knew who he was.

You knew who I was the moment you saw me. His words rippled through my mind as if they were my own thoughts. You knew I'd come for you. You want what I can offer. His will withdrew to the edges of my mind as he sat up. His gaze eased back from mine, so that I could see the room again through a strange haze of gray.

My mouth was free of his hand, but when I opened it to scream, nothing came out. My voice was gone. The monster had stolen it.

"There is so much I can give you." He lowered his mouth once again to my cheek. "I can make you forget what you don't want to remember. I can banish from your heart those who abandoned you." His breath tickled the edges of my scar. "Give in to me and I promise you will never be alone again." His tongue ran up my scar, a cat's tongue, meant to comfort its trembling kitten.

As his tongue drew away, I felt something damp sliding down my cheek. My knuckles tried to brush it away. The scar stung where I touched it. I lifted my knuckles to gaze at them.

They were covered in blood.

The scar had opened at his touch, and now it bled red tears of grief.

"Red tears of joy," he murmured. "It bleeds for me, because it is mine." The tip of his fingernail ran along the raw edge like the tip of a thorn caressing a soft petal. I shuddered from horror.

"Just as you are mine." His head lowered, this time to devour the sweet nectar of my life, and as his mouth parted I saw for the first time the fangs beneath his lips.