Page 33 of Tethered to the World
While part of Annora was horrified at what she was doing, she felt no remorse. She refused to back down, refused to soften, not until she got what she wanted. Though her uncle’s blood might run through her veins, she felt none of the lust he did while inflicting pain on others.
Blood trickled from Ellora’s nose and mouth. When the fox glanced up, Annora saw blood and black tar streaming from her eyes. Annora crouched in front of her, unperturbed at the thought of the vixen dying. “Your body is slowly being consumed. If we don’t leave here soon, it will be too late. Give him up.”
Defiance shimmered in those black eyes for a few more seconds. She gritted her bloodstained teeth in one last attempt to resist, then gave up with a shriek, “I release him.”
Yet Annora made no move to touch her, a whisper in the back of her mind urging her to just leave the girl in the afterworld. She didn’t deserve compassion or forgiveness. A low chitter drew her attention to the ferret who pawed gently at her leg. “Edgar?”
Annora shook her head, the toxic need for vengeance slowly fading. She lifted Edgar and snuggled him to her chest, not surprised when he dove under her shirt to get away from what was out there.
She wondered if all the evil she saw in the afterworld was somehow influencing her.
But what finally shook her out of her apathy was that even knowing she was being influenced, she still wanted to kill Ellora. It was all she could do not to just leave her where she lay.
Ellora’s lungs were raspy as she slowly crawled toward her, her fingernails cracked and broken, her pale skin nearly covered with the tiny creatures.
If Annora didn’t move now, it would be too late.
Still she hesitated…then she imagined what would happen to Logan if the bitch died in his vicinity. She refused to put him at risk just because she felt the need for vengeance.
“Shit.” Annora grabbed the vixen’s wrist, and reluctantly drew them back into the real world.
Bright lights nearly blinded her as the afterworld dropped away. Her limbs felt heavy, the air thick and uncomfortable in her lungs. She shook off Ellora’s clinging grasp and saw that the stunning woman now looked like a strung-out drug addict. She’d lost a good twenty pounds, her skin tightly stretched over her bones. Her hair was limp and thin, her skin no longer pale but sallow.
When Annora glanced around the mall, she realized Logan and the others were on the opposite side of the escalators. She spotted Logan the same time he locked eyes on her.
Then he began running toward her.
“You should’ve killed me while you had the chance.” Ellora gave her a nasty smile. “You’re dead.”
Ellora thrust out her hand, fire erupting from her palm. Annora twisted quickly, protecting Edgar as a stream of fire hit her shoulder instead of her chest. Pain sizzled along her flesh, burrowing down to bone, and it took her a few seconds before she was able to shut off the flash of agony.
Annora glanced down at her shoulder to see her skin had blistered and peeled away, her flesh raw, like it had melted.
Then she looked up and smirked. “Aw, honey, do you really think a little bit of fire would get rid of me? Believe me, much worse has been tried and failed. Killing me won’t make me go away.”
Chapter Ten
Annora staggered to her feet just as Logan reached her. He grabbed her uninjured arm and pushed her gently behind him, as if to protect her from further harm. He snatched a button-down shirt from a nearby mannequin and threw it over her shoulders to hide her injury from prying eyes.
If a human saw it, someone would call the authorities.
The fabric was like sandpaper against her wound, the agony bordering on pleasure when adrenaline flooded her body, the release of endorphins making her feel alive.
It was fucked up the way her body had adjusted to the pain over the years.
It fed off the adrenaline, craved it like a drug, the pain twisting into pleasure when her brain scrambled the signals, a defense mechanism she’d developed while dealing with her uncle.
Annora resisted Logan’s grip when he tried to pull her away, and she peered out from behind him, allowing herself a vicious smile. “Remember your word. Logan is no longer yours. Ifanyonecomes after him, you know what will happen.”
Ellora blanched, the terror of being returned to the afterworld making her scramble backwards to get away from them. Then her groupies gathered around her like a shield, glaring daggers at them. Only when Annora was sure none of them would retaliate did she finally allowed Logan to pull her away.
“Shit, we have to get out of here before any of them work up the courage to come after us.” Logan dragged her through the crowd, elbowing people out of the way when they got too close to her.
She kept her head down, her plain, dark brown hair falling forward like a curtain to hide her face. The smell of charred flesh made her guts churn, and she forced herself to breathe through her mouth. While she could filter out and adapt to the pain, she could never train her stomach not to become violently ill by strong smells—charred flesh, the overwhelming ammonia in urine, fecal matter, singed hair…it was embarrassing what could set her off.
“Hold on, we’re almost there.” He ushered her down another flight of escalators, then out the side door. In under five minutes they were back in his car, speeding through traffic. He used the traffic lights more like suggestions and completely ignored them as he sped through one after another.
Then suddenly he veered off to the side road and slammed on the brakes.
