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Her jaw tightened. “What are you going to do?” She sneered, bolder now that she had distance between us. “Threaten me more?”
“I don’t make idle threats. If you run out of here”—and I knew she would—“then I’m going to hunt you. I’m going to catch you. And when I do—”A thousand possibilities flashed through my head. A thousand sweet tortures. A thousand ways to stoke that arousal inside her until she burst. “—when I do, I’ll make you scream.”
The little shitsmirkedat me. “Right. More threats.” She tugged her bag closer. She was almost out the door. “Don’t follow me. Just...just stay away.”
She turned and ran, and I didn’t even bother to give chase. I sauntered after her, pausing when I reached the doorway. The wind howled and rain pattered down, the sun obscured by the thick clouds above.
The smell of blood and magic was in the air; an intoxicating concoction, a sure lure for the Eld. I wasn’t the only one that would be on her scent. I watched her figure disappear deeper and deeper into the trees—fleeing blindly, stubbornly, naivety egging her on.
I’d meant what I said. I didn’t make idle threats. But I wouldn’t even need to hunt this one.
She’d come to me. She wouldn’t be able to resist. For now, my only concern was ensuring she made it out of these woods without being eaten alive.
I sprinted through the pouring rain, stumbling over roots, twigs snapping under my feet. The leaves above rustled in the wind, their boughs groaning like the voices of the damned. Despite my raincoat, my hair and pants were swiftly soaked and I was shivering with the cold.
With every step, I expected to feel Leon grab a hold of me from behind. That absoluteasshole. How had he done it? How had he managed to sneak into the church and hide without me knowing? How had he known I would be there? How had he made blood congeal, smoke gather, and my chalk circledisappear?
Only when I feared my legs would go out did I slow down and dare to glance back. The trees were thick and the shadows even thicker, the world made blurry by the pouring rain. I had to keep going. I was lucky I hadn’t lost the trail in my frantic sprint. I checked my phone, hoping I could text someone, anyone, but there was still no service—why hadn’t I done that in the first place? Why did I have to be so damn stubborn that I didn’t even tell anyone where I was going?
I hadn’t toldanyone, so how the hell had Leon known?
At least I’d gotten him on video, at least I had proof—not only of his prank, but of his threats. I still wasn’t sure if he’d been threatening to hurt me, or...or do something else. Something that made my brain go hazy and my thighs clench with desire. The moment he’d pinned me against the pulpit and lowered his voice to that dangerous tone, I knew I was done for. Done for mentally and morally, if not physically.
Snap.
I whirled around. That twig hadn’t snapped under my own feet, it had come from somewhere else, somewhere behind me. I pushed up my rain-spattered glasses, straining my ears for the sound of footsteps, expecting to see Leon standing there beneath the trees.
But the woods were empty. Utterly empty.
The wind gusted, and when it did, a strange scent prickled my nose. Sickeningly sour and slightly sweet—the stench of rotten meat.
The smell of something dead.
Goosebumps prickled up my back. I’d smelt that before. It was the same sickening odor I’d smelled when I’d seen that strange statue. Unbidden, the memory of its eerie bone face and long black tongue filled my mind.
I forced it away before I truly terrified myself. That wasn’t the thing to be thinking of as I walked the woods alone.
But what was thatsmell?
I kept walking, my ears straining for any sounds of being followed. It was just a forest, the same forest I’d walked through earlier without an issue. Creatures died in the forest all the time...
Except I hadn’t smelled that on the way in. Logical or not, my brain was sounding the alarm.Move, move, move. Don’t stop.I wanted to run, and I felt the tension up my back and down my legs, adrenaline demanding I sprint. But part of my brain told me otherwise.
When I was little, an overly excited dog had scared me in the park, and when I’d run, its big body had slammed into me from behind, sending me sprawling into the grass. As I’d cried, my mother had told me gently, “Dogs like to chase. Don’t run. Don’t give them something to chase.”
Don’t give them something to chase. I didn’t know why I remembered it now. I didn’t even know if that advice would do me any good. But I forced myself to walk, quickly but as calmly as I could manage. I walked until finally, with a gasp of relief, I saw the gate ahead and my Subaru parked beyond it.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, doors locked, gripping the steering wheel, I flipped on my headlights and stared into the trees. I must have sat there for five minutes just staring…waiting…watching. The rain poured down on the car, and the heater and seat warmers finally began to chase away the chill in my body. I was dripping wet, tired, shaken; I wanted to go home.
I wanted to go home and see what the hell I’d just managed to capture on video.
Back home, the first thing I did was turn the shower all the way on hot and melt under the scalding water. The heat eased away the cold, soothing the tension in my muscles, and washing away the dried blood on my hand. I let it pour down my back, eyes closed, steam rising around me.
Usually, the unexplained was exactly where I flourished. Iwantedto see something I had no logical explanation for. But this was different. This wasn’t just a disembodied voice, or a vague apparition. This was a living, breathing man of flesh and bone—a man whose very presence seemed to reach deep into my inner darkness and draw out every secret shameful lust.
Why had he been there?How?
His eyes were burned into my soul—the way he’d looked at me as his fingers traced over my lips. The vicious gravel tone of his voice still echoed in my ears. He’d threatened to hunt me down, threatened to make me scream. Yet I knew if he caught me—whenhe caught me—it wouldn’t be to hurt me.
