Now it’s a lifeline.
The device is still unfamiliar to me, and it takes a frustratingly long time for me to use until I finally get what I want.
I planned for this. It felt like a betrayal at first, but all regret melts as I focus on what I need to do.
What Aura needs.
A sexual encounter.
The internet is a hub where most flock when they need the promise of touch or release. It takes almost no time at all to setup a rendezvous with someone. I wish I had more time to vet the situation, the target, but I don't.
I grab the pack I’ve stashed under the couch. All I need now is to collect Aurora.
This time, I find her on the bed, crumpled in a ball, rocking back and forth, eyes shut tight from the pain of starving.
"Come on. We're going." Even as I command it, I go to the dresser and pull out a few of her items.
Aura's eyes open, glossy and bloodshot. "What? Where?"
Thank fae lords she is up, but I still see her actively being eaten alive.
"You are going to do exactly what I tell you, when I tell you."
She sits up, her spine stiffening. "What's happening? What did you do?"
“What I always do.” My words are harsh, not with anger but with stress, but she recoils all the same. “Take care of things. You are going to feed."
Aura stands, hands visibly trembling as she pulls on the baggy clothes I set out.
It kills me to see her like this, but I shove down those feelings. I will do what must be done.
Fifteen minutes later, we are in a motel room I paid for in cash, keeping Aura out of sight. Though the attendant seemed as though a bomb could go off around him, and he'd barely blink.
Once in the shabby room, Aura paces, rubbing her arms with growing agitation.
"I can't, Talon. I'll kill them. And we don't know this person. We don't know?—"
"No. You won't." The words shoot out so firm, so commanding she stops dead in her tracks. "I won't let you. Now put this on."
I pull the crystal chains out of the small pack I brought and put them on the bed. Aura backs up quickly as she regards the familiar dress of jewels with a mixture of terror and revulsion.
She doesn't want to go back to this. She doesn't want to be what she's always been. It's why she ran.
But I can't let her be in this pain. No, fuck that. I won'tlether be in this pain.
"Aura."
She lifts her tortured, miserable gaze to meet mine. My insides crack, but I don’t let it show.
"Do you trust me?" I ask as if I have everything under control.
A beat, and then she nods slowly.
"Put it on," I say a little more gently this time.
Aura's shoulders slump as she walks to the bed, eyes glassy with unshed tears. As she touches the jeweled strands, her expression hardens.
She knows what she needs to do to survive.
