Page 6 of Drag You Down
I tighten my hold on my bags and shake my head. “No. That doesn’t make sense. The man was still alive when I arrived, and those wounds are too fresh. The killer wouldn’t have been able to get far.”
“You were here before I was,” he remarks. “Should I be worried about you being the murderer?”
I bristle, but I’m suddenly aware of how isolated I am here, in a dark courtyard with the light of the setting sun getting dimmer and dimmer.
Soon, there will be nothing to stop the shadows from wrapping around my ankles.
He really is the Devil, to mock me, to terrify me.
“I’m leaving,” I say, straightening my back. “The Devil holds no power over me.”
Before I can turn, he yanks me hard, pulling me flush against his front as his hand goes to the small of my back. His lips find mine, tasting me, tasting the blood, and his tongue slides over the seam of my mouth.
I gasp, and he uses that slight parting of lips to worm his tongue inside.
I shudder and try to break the kiss, but his hold on me is firm, and all I can do is take it.
All Iwantto do is take it.
No, that’s not true. I want to do more than simply take it. I want to give in to it, too, to properly taste another man’s lips for the first time.
My cock throbs traitorously.
Why not now? I’ve already done this much.
What’s one more sin?
What’s one kiss?
I surrender to the Devil, even as I loathe myself for doing it.
By the time he lets go of me, I’m breathing hard, and my cock is tenting my pants. I don’t dare look down to see if he’s having a similar reaction. I don’t want to know. It’s enough to know my own sin is suffusing me, affecting me, tainting me.
“You should get home before dark, little lamb,” he murmurs. “But don’t worry. I’ll find you again.”
“You won’t,” I say, but I don’t believe it.
I turn away from him, rushing back out to the main street. The traffic commotion is long gone, and foot traffic has returned to normal. I see a few police officers directing people, and I consider telling them about what I saw.
They won’t believe me if I tell them the Devil killed a man.
They’d assume I’d done it. They’d drag me back to their police station and question me.
It’s getting dark, anyway, and I can’t handle the idea of being trapped where the light can’t reach me.
I hurry back home instead.
I’ll be in enough trouble for being late and ruining dinner.
As I enter the apartment complex, I run my tongue over my lips again, tasting both the Devil and the dead man’s blood.
This truly is the taste of sin.
CHAPTER 2
GABRIEL
My little lamb — Levi — is so disoriented that he doesn’t notice me following him. It’s for the best. He isn’t prey, to be frightened and tormented. He’s something more than that, but he’s as inextricably tied to me as my quarry usually is. Now that I’ve decided I’m interested, that he’smine, there’s no escaping me.
