Page 30 of A Kiss From a Revenant
11
NORY
Fighting him is futile, but I still try.
Thrashing against his firm hold, I pound the hard muscles of his back until the sides of my hands ache. The rushing of the night wind covers my screams of discontent. Eryx moves quickly—something I was already well aware of, but to experience it firsthand is something else. In a matter of seconds, my cottage is no more than a speck of dust littering the horizon. The thicket of trees quickly consumes us until all traces of the Snowlands are blighted.
All of my belongings remain behind in the house. Every memory I have left behind in an instant. As the night swirls around us, my life flashes before my eyes—desperate as I am to uncover a happy memory, none surface.
There is only that house in which my mother toiled away at the workbench—permanently bent fingers and a hunched back. Withering away day by day until illness had taken her. The workload that had stolen her youth was thrust on my shoulders. My own life is a series of unfortunate events—playtime cut short as a small child so I could tendto my long list of chores. No time for teenage courting when the steady stream of customers never abated.
It was never a life—it was only suffering.
Still, it was all I had known my entire life. Working in hopes of gaining financial freedom and independence has always been a lofty goal. Even with the means I acquired from helping the women of this town, would I have ever left if Eryx hadn’t taken me? If my crimes had never been uncovered, would I still be in that cottage, toiling away until illness befell me just as it had my mother?
A gasp leaves me as I realize with a start that I haven’t been to her grave since the night I summoned Eryx. A place I haunted like a faithful phantom I had all but forgotten. That is how it has been since he came into my life. From the moment he touched me, I knew my days of solidarity were over. The fantasy of my future now included him—the two of us traveling together hand in hand. Finding solstice in each other’s touch every night, and seeing each new day as a gift we would spend together.
It was what my heart longed for—despite my protests and rejection of him, he had seen past it and taken me. Fear makes my emotions tangle in a dark web. Instead of examining them, I decide to continue my fight instead. He won’t let me go. He’s stolen my choice to flee just like I needed him to. If not forced to confront these feelings, I never would.
That doesn’t mean I won’t put up a fight even if I can’t win. I smack his back relentlessly. Bucking myself along his shoulder, I scream and try to wriggle off him.The Woodsare dark as we pass through them. Eryx guides us over thick roots and jagged boulders.
“Let me go!” I screech, trying to claw through his cloak.
I kick my legs and Eryx freezes. My breathing is ragged as I take in the deserted clearing. At our feet is a thick patch of darkgrass, outlined by pale stones and an assortment of low-hanging branches.
Hooking me under my hips, Eryx hefts me from his shoulders. I fight his grip and clatter to the soft ground. The moisture of the grass soaks through my cotton dress before I can jump up. With an exasperated sigh, I turn from him, determined to storm off even if I don’t have a clue in the world which way town is, and that it would be unwise to return.
My rational brain is not thinking as I stomp away, but Eryx is quick, snagging me around the arm and dragging me back.
He brackets me in his iron grip. His eyes are unreadable, the fire in them a dull orange.
“Let me go,” I repeat through clenched teeth. “You’ve kidnapped me, and I won’t stand for it.”
A wicked thrill shoots through me. It’s the same thrill I feel watching him kill those who deserve it. His show of force will always elicit pleasure from me, even when it shouldn’t be welcome. His apparent desperation is evident. All this time, he’s been patient with me—letting me set the pace between us. Now he’s snapped, and knowing I have the power to make this centuries-old being break is a heady thought.
Eryx bares his teeth in a grin.
“You won’t be standing for long.”
I gasp, pulling back against his hold even as wetness pools between my thighs.
“Unhand me, you—you monster!”
Eryx chuckles, bringing me flush against his body. The hard press of his cock against my stomach causes a moan to fall from my lips. His midnight scent wraps around me like a blanket. The rigid plates of his armor tease my nipples.
“I’ve been too soft with you,” he chides. “Been too wary that if you glimpsed the beast you’ve taken into your bed, you would run from me.”
My hands rest on his chest, frozen. I have the chance to push him off, but why am I not taking it?
“It seems I’m adept at catching you, my beautiful prey. Your words mean little when I can scent the delicious state of your pussy.”
Heat engulfs my cheeks as I rub my thighs together. His crude words inflame my lust even though my mind tells me not to give in and fight. How much of a fight can I really put up when in my heart I want him to capture me and never let me go?
Eryx’s fingers cup my chin and force my face up towards his.
“Entertain me, prey. Tell me you don’t want me.”
My heart pounds against my ribs, and I lick my lips.
