Page 72 of Midnight Reign
“Can you control her?”
“In a word… no. But we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”
“Not unless we want to be eaten by that thing in about, oh, two minutes.”
“Two minutes? Fuck.”
I take a deep breath, steeling myself for what I’m about to do. “Crimson. Can you help?”
There’s a long pause, and for a moment, I think she’s going to ignore me.
Are you joking? That thing will eat our faces off.
“What? It doesn’t have a face, therefore no mouth. It won’t eat anything. Thought you were meant to be some badass, anyway.”
Rude. I am a badass.
“Then help us get out of here, or there is no ritual, and if I die, you probably do as well.” It’s a stretch, but it’s a working theory.
Are you ready for that, little bitch?
I look at the guys and then back to the monster lurking on the other side of the portal. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Wait!” Corvus says and spins me around to face him. “Do you know what I said to Crimson about Lucian?”
I raise an eyebrow. “That you will punish me if I drink from him again?”
“Not just him, any other vampire. That side of you belongs tome, Adelaide. Are we clear?”
“We’re clear.”
“Right,” he says, letting me go and stepping back. “Good.”
But I’m not done yet. “You have permission to spank me if I drink from another vampire.”
His blue eyes heat up to boiling point and his fangs drop as he moves in closer. “I will spank you so hard, my handprint will be a permanent mark on your arse, Little Dollie.”
Smiling slowly, I turn from him. “Crimson? You got this?”
Oh, I do, but do you?
“Just shut up and do it, but remember, you give me back control once we are free. If you don’t, you stay in my body, which I’ll go out on a limb and say is weaker than you’re used to. If you do, you get everything that you want. Okay?”
Deal. On three…
“Oh, I’ve been burned by that before,” I growl and brace myself for impact.
And fuck, did I need to brace.
The pressure in my head is excruciating as Crimson takes over. It feels like my skull is being split open from the inside. I scream, clapping my hands to my head as the pocket dimension shakes and implodes.
The guys scramble backwards as dark red energy crackles around me. I feel Crimson’s savage joy at being in control again, her eagerness for violence.
She raises my hands, and shadows pour from my palms, merging into a massive, writhing mass. It slams into the creature on the other side.
The two shadow entities clash in an epic battle of darkness versus… darkness. Crimson’s creation tears into the beast, ripping and shredding.
The beast fights back, lashing out with its evil, shadowy tendrils.
