AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Fuck. Make her stop.” Kase shakes me with a growl. His hands pinch my skin, but instead of hurting me, it distracts me from my aching chest. “You’re just pissing us off, broken soul. Keep that up, and I’ll shove something in your mouth to shut you up. You won’t like what I choose.”
“Please, God. I’ll do anything. Don’t let it end like this,” I say, continuing to pray. Because fuck these psycho assholes. I might not have a strong relationship with the Almighty, but I have faith, and right now, it’s all I have left.
Kase’s face sharpens with anger, and the heat of his body intensifies. Red light flickers in his gaze, casting an eerie glow over his features. He looks evil, demonic. Scarier than Joel ever could look. I tremble uncontrollably, terror snaking around my body, watching as his features shift. I’ve never seen anything like it. It prods at my human rationale. This can’t be possible. The guy can’t be changing in front of me with the tips of three horns breaking through the skin on his forehead.
“Oh, fuck,” I squeak, my body obeying my command to fight. My adrenaline suppresses the pain, leaving me breathless, but a new, more intense agony bursts through me right to my core. I thrash and buck my body. “Help! Please, help me!”
“Shit. She’s fucking determined, isn’t she?” Dante drags me away from Kase and hugs me to him, pressing his chiseled chest to my back. His skin warms me even more, sending beads of sweat dripping from my hairline. His smoky, sweet scent engulfs me, and he tightens his grip on me, waiting until I lose some of my fight.
It doesn’t take long.
Fatigue and exhaustion leave me bleary-eyed and slack in his arms. The spark of hope I cling to snuffs out with the rest of my will to fight.
“That’s a good girl,” Dante murmurs, loosening his fingers in my hair. “Don’t fight the inevitable.”
Inevitable? Like his comment gives me a second wind, I thrash again, breaking from his hold. He drops me, and I land on my knees and fall over from unbearable agony. I crawl forward, each burst of pain reminding me that I’m still alive. I still have a chance. There is no fucking way I’m letting them do this for Joel. If I die, he deserves to rot in prison.
“Please, God. Help me,” I whisper, summoning energy from my adrenaline rush. “Give me the strength. I’ll do anything.”
“That’s enough fucking praying. The Higher Power doesn’t barter with mortals.” Footsteps clomp toward me as Dante closes the space. Swearing under his breath, he steps in front of me and blocks my path.
I swing my arm out, socking him in the shin but it does nothing to stop him. Snatching me from the ground, he carries me toward the end of the building, purposefully swinging me back and forth. A smile crosses his face and he hums under his breath, enjoying playing around with me like I’m just weak, defenseless prey to his vicious predatory side. Even his scent messes with my fear instincts, and I can’t stop thinking about the warm fragrances engulfing me or the strength of this monstrous man’s arms. His diamond-shaped pupils hypnotize me until he breaks his gaze and looks past me.
“That’s a good, pretty soul. Just relax. It’ll be over soon,” he murmurs, his alluring voice like a soft melody in my ears.
But then two fangs peek from beneath his full top lip like a snake’s, shocking me out of my hazy mind. Panic explodes through my essence, and I can’t stop envisioning how awful it’ll be to die alone in a dumpster. How Joel probably packs his bags right now, getting ready to leave. This is so messed up. How is it that men like him get away with horrible acts such as this? I don’t understand.
This is it. I know it. I feel it deep in my soul.
“Please, you don’t have to do this,” I beg, my body more desperate than ever to survive. If praying to God doesn’t work, then I’ll resort to begging and bartering with this beastly psycho. He’s obviously annoyed that he has to clean up Joel’s mess. Maybe I can use it to my advantage. “I’ll do anything. I don’t want to die. Please. I know you’re not human. There has to be something you can do. I can’t die in a dumpster. Fucking Joel can’t get away with this. Please.”
Dante’s footsteps slow with my words, and he stops a dozen feet away from an overflowing dumpster. I release a soft breath, my heart pounding in my ears. “Fuck. Fucking flesh bags and their trash.”
And like that, my hope crushes into a million pieces. I’m not even sure he was listening to me, more concerned about how inconvenient the tenants of the complex make it for him to throw me away like garbage. Who knew a heaping, smelly pile of trash would be a small miracle to me?
Dante lets go of me, and I hit my ass on the ground, pain radiating through my body. Striding away, he flips the lid up and starts throwing trash and garbage bags on the ground. I don’t waste more than a second watching him. Instead, I find my will to live and crawl away on my hands and knees. I can make it to a neighbor’s. I just have to keep moving.
I grind my teeth. “God, pleas—”
Two hot hands rip me from the ground, and I scream and flail, trying to make as much commotion as I can. These monsters are crazy to think they can just leave me in a fucking dumpster. I’m not ready to die.
“Let me go, you fucking asshole! You can’t just throw me in a dumpster!” I buck and slap Kase’s face over and over again without getting a reaction from him.
“Fuck, Dante. She’s got too much fight. I don’t think she’ll stay in the dumpster. We can’t leave her here,” Kase says, flipping me onto his shoulder. It’s like they have some special ability that allows them to ignore me, and it’s really starting to piss me off. “We’ll take her home and get her out of sight until we figure out how we should proceed.”
Oh no.
Hell no.
“Help!” I scream, pounding my fists on Kase’s back. “Help!”
Fingers lock into my hair, yanking my head up. Dante bends my neck to meet his startling green gaze. His eyes do this weird, filmy second eyelid blinking thing, and his pupils morph into diamonds again. Slipping his tongue between his lips, he shows off two silver barbells on each side...and then his tongue splits into a fork and flicks at me with a hiss, grazing my cheek. I cringe at the freaky sensation and try to recoil before he does it again.
“Pretty soul, are you afraid of me?” he asks, the strange hissing noise coming from his mouth again. I don’t know what should freak me out more: the fact that he turns more animalistic by the second or that I’m not as scared as I should be. The dissipation of my fear surprises me. He obviously desires for me to scream and cry in fear but I don’t.
My mouth slackens the longer he stares at me, my heartbeat slowing. A strange sensation buzzes across my skin, numbing me. I can’t move my limbs or anything like I’m trapped in his glowing green stare.
“Tell me,” he says, leaning closer. His warm breath tickles me with his command.
