Page 23 of To Crave Darkly
Fuck, I had to stop thinking.
“Such crassness from such beautiful lips. Could you be any more enticing?”
What do you want?I projected.
“You, Lori. You’re destined to be mine. Now stop panicking and open your eyes.”
Orion, what have you done?I couldn’t even hide the fear from my thoughts.
A soft chuckle filled my mind and I shivered in anticipation of his answer.
“Merely marked you as mine. I’ll be seeing you soon, my sweet.”His voice faded and I knew the moment he had gone. The cavern of my mind suddenly felt empty without his overbearing presence in it. As he disappeared, so did the pain. My hands were still pressed firmly against my eyes and Jasper’s hands were still clasped around my wrists. My eyes were throbbing and the pain in my chest simmered to a dull ache. I slowed my breathing and tried to calm the fuck down. I let Jasper pull my hands away and opened my eyes. Jasper’s face fell as he drank in the site of me. What the fuck had Orion done to me?
I leapt from the bed and ran to the mirror above the sink. My legs were unsteady beneath me and I clasped the edge of the basin to stop myself from collapsing in a heap.
Everything was normal apart from my eyes. They were no longer that non-descript brown. Nope. Staring back at me were black irises framed by fire.
“Motherfucker! The next time I see Orion, I am going to bitch slap him back to the heavens.”
“Lori, those eyes don’t belong in the heavens,” Jasper stated, terror and wonder etched into his voice.
“What?” I snapped as I turned to face him but something moving behind Jasper gave me pause. A figure emerged slowly with predatory grace and defined purpose and it was a few moments before he was completely out of the shadows. He looked mid-forties, classically handsome and his dark hair was peppered with grey. His angular face was stern and as he smirked at me, I saw an unmistakable hint of fang in his pearly whites. Great. Another vampire, and from the way Jasper seemed to be showing him deference, I guessed he was pretty high up in the vampire ranks.
“Those, Miss Monroe, are the eyes of a demon.”
Well, that’s a mind fuck. I returned my gaze back to the mirror and stared at those eerie black eyes in my reflection, all the while trying my best not to freak the fuck out. Which was kind of difficult when a demon was looking at you through your own fricking eyeballs. A weary sigh escaped my pursed lips. Why did this have to happen to me?
“It seems you have already met a high-class demon.” The guy in the sharp suit drawled behind me. I turned to face him, taking the time to really take in his features. He seemed familiar, but that was impossible. I’d never met this guy before, but there was something about him… I tried to recall where I’d seen him, but my mind elicited a dull throb which intensified the harder I tried to recall the memory. Perhaps something, or someone, was blocking the memory. I’d have to ask Jasper if that was possible, but then again, I don’t suppose he’d answer that fucking question either.
“What gave that away?” I feigned deliberation, my finger tapping my chin. “It was the eyes, wasn’t it?” My hands came to rest on my hips. I wasn’t going to be intimidated by this guy. Well, I was, but he didn’t have to know that.
“Miss Monroe, I am sorry you have had a somewhat tiring journey to get here. I can only apologise for the way you have been treated.”
My gaze flicked over to Jasper standing to attention in the corner of the room. His muscles were tense to the point that he looked incredibly uncomfortable. At the man’s words his jaw clenched, and I felt bad for him. I got the feeling that Jasper had been blamed for the disastrous state I arrived in.
“It’s not Jasper’s fault, I didn’t exactly make the journey easy on him either.” I swear I saw a slight lift in the corner of his mouth, but it was gone so fast that I doubted I’d seen anything at all.
“Nevertheless, despite Farrow’s ineptness, you have managed to get here in one piece. I will have someone else appointed to protect you whilst you are here. Now, while…”
“Now hold on a minute,” I interrupted, I wasn’t going to let him take Jasper away. The idea of not having him next to me sent a flood wave of panic through me. I didn’t have the time to analyse why that mattered right now but I sure as hell wasn’t about to be palmed off on someone else. “Granted, we may have had a few issues along the way, but I don’t want anybody else. Jasper managed to keep me safeandalive despite his ineptness.” I couldn’t resist throwing that in just to piss him off. I swear I heard Jasper’s teeth grind audibly at the jibe.
“Miss Monroe, you are clearly still recovering from the aftereffects of all that has happened, and I will attribute your lack of sense to this. I suggest you reconsider your decision and take my advice.”
“I don’t know who you think you are…”
“My name is Cesare de Santis and you are a guest in my home.” He prematurely cut off my little outburst with his smooth words and the look in his eyes made me feel like he was looking at shit on his shoe. I did not like this guy. At all. “By the way, which Demon was it? Only the most powerful Demons have eyes like that. He probably works directly for Lucifer. I am curious to know what he wants you for.”
“He wouldn’t tell me his name,” I told de Santis.
“I can’t say I’m surprised, to know a Demon’s name is to have a power over him,” he replied.
I frowned, that sounded alarmingly familiar. “That’s what he said. But only after I had given him a name of my own. Then something weird happened… Oh God…” My mind flashed back to the pain I felt whilst Orion marked my eyes. I pulled the gown to one side and stared at the skin above my left breast. “What the fuck is this?”
I stared at Jasper and de Santis. On my chest was a symbol. It looked like it had been burned into it, the skin was all puckered and black like charred flesh. It was a circle with two crescent moons inside, facing each other but one was bigger than the other. There were some stars dotted in random places and some weird symbols around the edge.
Jasper looked concerned. “I have never seen anything like this before.”
De Santis leaned towards me and looked at the mark. “Neither have I, but those symbols look Enochian to me.”
