AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mei shrugs. “I’ve been here so long, I don’t even know if I could find my way there now. Plus, it’s not time yet.”
With a sigh, I drop the subject. The fact that challengers enter a bargain with me willingly has been of little consolation when it comes to Meilin and what she lost playing this sick game. I lower my gaze to my ring-covered fingers and clench them hard. The thick black bands that wrap around my wrists, literal cuffs that hold me captive in this world, move as I flex my forearms. My fingers rub the one on my right hand before I can stop myself. What I would give to be able to let this game go. “Do you reckon… if I resist it…”
Mei reaches a hand for my shoulder. Although she’s not corporeal, I feel her touch as a real weight, cold and clammy. After all, we belong to the same side of the Veil — we’re both foreigners to this world. “One of them will find a way to break the curse, Tei. They have to.”
I don’t have a good answer to that. Instead, we both watch in silence as the funeral wraps up; the coffin is lowered, fresh dirt shoveled over it. The people in attendance dissipate.
There’s no reason for us to stick around here. It’s obvious, whomever the curse has chosen, is not among this lifeless crowd.
“Shall we get the show on the road?” Mei asks.
I nod, running a hand over my face. All I need is a few moments to gather my thoughts. “You go ahead, I’ll meet you back at the mansion in a minute.”
She sighs but doesn’t argue with me, dissipating in a cloud of mist.
I scan the lifeless, gray cemetery a few times. Just as I get back to my feet to leave, a figure emerges from the shadows of a mausoleum. Somehow, her mere presence makes my body stand to attention.
The thrumming in my blood, the incessant heartbeat that threatens to rip my chest open are back with a vengeance, stronger than I’ve ever felt them before. The challenger is here. And the girl now crouched by the freshly dug grave is the only human in the cemetery, and she’s shaking like a leaf. I am too.
Another challenge begins.
chapter 3
flirting with the abyss
teizel
I approach her the same way I would a spooked animal, with slow steps and the softest expression I can painted on my face. She’s crying, wailing from a place deep within her soul, and doesn’t notice me until I step on a twig and snap it.
She gasps and shoots to her feet, smoothing her hands over her black ripped jeans. She’s tall for a human, inching close to six feet, but she stands hunched, as if to minimize her own height. Her body looks soft and inviting, with slim shoulders and waist but noticeable flare to her hips and thick thighs.
She steals a glance to the cemetery around us as if to gage what help she could get should I be dangerous. It’s a futile exercise considering we’re alone out here aside from the spirits, and she wouldn’t be able to get one step before I’d catch her. When she turns back to me, eyes wide and full, pouty lips parted, I’m caught off guard by the most intensely colored gaze I’ve ever met. Bright, burning green. Comparing it to a gemstone would be a disservice to the astounding shade.
Doing my best to paint a friendly smile on my lips, I say, “it’s okay, I don’t bite. It just looked like you might be struggling.”
She seems to consider my words, her eyes darting from mine to my lips. I can sense her quickening heartbeat from the pulse at her neck, long and inviting. This girl is temptation personified.
Finally, she shakes her head and sighs. “Just a shitty night. Nothing new.”
My lips pull down in a frown. “Care to talk about it?”
She crosses her arms over her chest, highlighting the softness of her breasts that had been hiding beneath her tattered jacket. Passion and desire are tastier emotions to feed off than fear or anger, and my whole body twitches imagining how sweet her pleasure would taste dripping down my throat like honey.
“With you?” she huffs, tucking a wild strand of copper waves behind her ear. “A complete stranger who just accosted me in a cemetery?”
As if catching herself saying something she shouldn’t have, her eyes widen, and her lips twist in a frown. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t very polite of me.”
There’s genuine hurt in her voice. It tinges the air of a pungent smell, like bitter almond and smoke. It’s not unpleasant, but there’s something sweet hiding underneath it, something that unearths in me the desire to make the hurt go away so that I may smell her true scent.
I cock my head. “Whoever told you that you should be polite to strangers? For all you know, I could have the most wicked of intentions.”
She snorts and rolls her eyes, wiping at the tears still streaking her cheeks. “Right, of course.”
When she looks at me again from under her long, dark eyelashes, I find it hard to turn away. The pull of the curse is stronger than I’ve felt it in centuries, and it makes my head spin. “Thank you for checking in on me. That was kind.”
I keep myself from sneering at the statement. There’s nothing kind in my interest for her. From the way she keeps herself shielded with her arms, looking circumspect, deep down she knows that too.
Humans tend to fall in one of two camps when it comes to my kind. There’s the ones who subconsciously feel something isn’t right with me, whose survival instincts kick in as if they’d seen a predator. Then there’s the people who find me hard to resist, either too shallow to realize they’re in danger, or too enamored with flirting with the abyss. The last kind makes the best meals.
