Page 49 of Illusory

His sharp, chiseled features and fluid movements were almost elegant, and something told me he was the one in charge here. Not just because he was the only one that had actually spoken, but something about his unhurried demeanor and cool confidence separated him from the others.

My gaze fixed on the strange neck tattoo spidering out from under his fitted black shirt. It looked familiar, like some kind of emblem or family crest I’d seen somewhere before. Before I could place it, the familiar sting of something cutting through my skin jolted me out of my thoughts. No. Notsomething.

Fangs.

I sucked in a breath and then whipped my head around, gasping at the sight of the Linebacker’s mouth pressed against my upper arm—the one still pinned down by my side—feeding on me.

A scream that could wake the dead tore through my lungs as I maniacally tried to jerk my arm free from his hold, but it was futile. Panic and fear coalesced into raw terror as he bit down harder, his nails digging into my flesh as he held my arm like a manacle. I knew that at any second, his venom would be overtaking me, subduing me into a pliant, defenseless corpse if I didn’t find a way to stop him.

I had to do something.

I had to…fight.

To somehow just…keep…fighting…

His poisonous kiss of death filled my veins, lessening my scrimmage to free my arm as Neck Tattoo Guy bit down into my other arm, slicing through my skin as easy as cutting through warm butter. Whatever little remained of my will to fight had left me completely then like a weightless feather caught in a windstorm.

It was over. It had probably been over the second I stepped foot into Nikki’s house. Their coordinated attack had been too fast, their venom too much to stave off.

A fuzzy feeling filled my insides and then skewed my vision as my head swayed from one side to the other, looking helplessly around the room as each Revenant gorged on my blood like it was the sacred route to eternal life.

My lids grew weighty and heavy all at once, the darkness creeping in faster than I could fight it off.This couldn’t be it, I thought. But I knew that it was over. I knew they weren’t going to stop until they had lapped up every last drop of my blood, and I knew that this time, there was no one here to stop them.

Because no one even knew where the hell I was. And even if they did, it was still daylight out.

I’d really gone and fucked it up this time, and worse, I couldn’t even be bothered to be sad, too placated by theRevenants bite to even cry about it.

The black tunnel thickened, crowding out my vision as my breathing grew labored and shallow. I couldn’t remember ever feeling this way before with Dominic. So far away from myself. So empty. So very weak so quickly. I really didn’t like it. Not that it mattered. Judging by the long pause between my lagging heartbeats and the way they were double tagging me, I wouldn’t be feeling this way for long anyway.

Soon, I would be fully drained of my blood, and breath, and life.

A sob locked in my throat as I thought of Trace and Dominic finding me like this. Splayed out. Ruined. Finished. What would they think? Would they hate me for being so reckless with my life? Would they find a way to blame themselves for this? God, I never even got a chance to make things right with them. To tell them how much I loved them with the whole of my heart. To say goodbye to them.

My lids slammed shut as a small, shallow breath sputtered from my lungs as the cavernous darkness rose up to greet me.I’m so close now. I could feel it; feel myself drifting dangerously close to the end, to the edge of nothing and nowhere, though oddly enough, I didn’t feel afraid. Maybe it was because I wasn’t hurting anymore. Because I knew I’d never hurt again. Not them, or myself, or anyone else. It was almost nice to not feel anything at all.

Well, nothing except that tiny little prickle of heat at my back.

How strange…

It would have been a mere fleeting thought, except the prickle of heat grew stronger and hotter until it was almost unbearable before finally exploding into an inferno blazing against my back, searing me as though my skin was being flayed open, breaking me as though my bones were beingcracked and ripped apart.

If this was what dying felt like, I had to say, it really sucked the big one.

Suffocating silence befell the room, making me question whether I was even still alive and breathing anymore. The quiet seemed to go on forever before everything around me detonated into undiscernible chaos.

Unable to tear my eyes open, it took me a few seconds to make sense of the noise. The growling and snarling, the screaming and pleading for mercy, the sound of clothes and flesh and muscle ripping. Bone crunching. Bodies crashing. Blood spraying and gurgling. It sounded like carnage at every turn, yet somehow, none of it mine.

I realized then that the two Revenants and their pet hellhounds were no longer pinning me down, draining me, and instead seemed to be fighting for their own lives. But against who? Who had stepped in to save my life? Nobody that cared about me even knew I was here.

If only I could lift my head and look. Unfortunately, the faint flicker of my waning pulse made the feat impossible. Maybe if I just rest for a small second…

A nudge against the bottom of my shoe stirred my consciousness back to life. I wasn’t sure how much time had gone by before the commotion of crashing bodies and pained whimpers finally tapered off, but I knew I wasn’t alone. Someone was still here with me—the someone that had saved me.

I needed to know who had done this.

I needed to thank them for saving my life.

Muscling up every morsel of strength I could muster, I rolled my head to the side and forced my eyes open. My vision blurred at the edges, making me squint and blink until the room finally came into focus.

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