Page 172 of Eternal Ruin
Samson turned to her with the fire poker. And finally, she understood what he had been doing all this time. The tip of the iron glowed a bright and frightening orange. “I can help you be free of him.”
Kidan’s stomach convulsed in on itself. “No, I don’t need any help.”
Samson cocked his head, lip curling back as he trailed a line down her body. She shivered from head to toe.
“Your shoulder and thighs. Where else did he touch you?”
Her stomach plummeted as she gathered his meaning.
“Nowhere else. But even those were nothing.” Panic had set in now, and she looked toward the stairs.
God, she hoped Yos was awake. Would he hear her if she called for him?
“If his bites and touches were nothing”—Samson’s voice dipped to the earth’s crust—“you wouldn’t still be searching for him. Hoping he’ll rescue you. He won’t come.”
The way he said those last words with satisfied cruelty made her knees waver. Samson shot forward and grabbed her arm. Her ears and cheek caught fire as the poker pressed into the skin.
Her scream rattled her house. The smell of something burning, nauseating and close.
She was pinned to the couch by the fire poker melting against her shoulder.
Spittle flew out of Samson’s mouth as she writhed in agony. “I need to cleanse you of him. Is this not what you did to your poor mother? Cleansed her of her sins with cigars?”
Kidan’s flesh peeled under the searing blade as it reached her bone. When her eyes rolled to the back of her head, he removed the fire poker. She could only mumble, beg.
“Please… stop.Please.”
From her tilted vision, her gaze darted to the garden door. Her addled mind must be seeking relief because she saw the garden light flicker on, and her sister’sdelicate face struck with horror. Kidan reached out to her, but the lamp flickered again and June’s ghost disappeared.
Tears leaked from Kidan’s eyes.
“You need this,” Samson shouted, truly monstrous. “We both need to be free of him.”
He brought the poker again, this time between her legs, to her thigh where she’d told him Yos bit her.
She slammed her knees shut. “No!”
Fading in and out, Kidan asked the house for strength, like she once had when June appeared on the porch. A hum built beneath the floorboards, mighty and shaking. She channeled any trace of her mother’s lingering power, begged her for protection.
Then Kidan grabbed the poker with her other hand and wrenched it from him with violent force. His pupils expanded. Kidan kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying into the fireplace.
Rage boiled in her blood as she stalked toward him.
“I should have buried that bullet in your chest that day,” she spat, and crushed his throat with an iron grip, shoving his head into the fire without a second thought.
Samson screamed.
Kidan’s shield was weakening, and she was sweating but nothing like him. His skin sizzled and burned, and soon his entire body would catch fire.
For all he did to GK, to Yos, for what he was about to do to me, I’m going to annihilate him.
Kidan ignored his screams and held him in the fire, gritting her teeth with all the strength of the house. But there was too much pain climbing along her veins, weakening her.
No, not yet.
Samson delivered a blow to her chest, knocking the wind out of her.
She fell to her knees.
