Page 57 of Enchanting Her Monsters
CALDER
I’m unsure what I expect to find here. The memories of that witch flood my mind. How she tortured me. What she did.
While she demanded secrets about my pack and the supes I work with as she carved into my chest with a knife. She slowly pinned my wings. She sawed them off. Finally, she hacked off my malehood, letting me bleed to death.
It’s no surprise I couldn’t get it up for sex after I was reborn.
During the regeneration, my body was made whole again, but parts of my soul were missing. I lost my desire for friendship and love. I lost my phoenix form. At least my wings had returned.
I no longer had sexual desires. At least not until Jade showed up. She has stirred my needs both physically and emotionally.
I stare at the bed and chains, and I can almost feel the iron burning into my flesh. They were enough to keep my nakedbody in agonizing pain during my time here. Preventing me from healing properly. The witch thought she had exhausted my magic enough for me to never to be reborn again.
Luckily or unluckily, depending on how one looks at it, when I died, I exploded. I scattered into an ash so small and fine. The witch didn’t see my remains as she escaped.
She left, thinking her job was done. But slowly over the course of a day, my ashes pulled back together, and I burst forth from a fire of rebirth.
I don’t know how long I’ve been standing here staring at the evidence of my vicious torture, but Jade sidles up cautiously beside me.
Her gorgeous green eyes glow with magic. She isn’t even looking at me, but staring up at nothing, like she’s watching butterflies flutter in the air.
What does she see I cannot?
Finally, her gaze falls on to me. “Can you feel what’s here?” she asks in a quiet voice.
“What?” I ask in a hoarse whisper, even if I don’t mean to.
“I believe… its soul fragments.” She waits for my response, but I’m so stunned, I can’t react. “They feel like you.”
I turn back to search the air above us but see nothing.
Jade holds out her arms, palms up, as if calling someone into an embrace.
She closes her eyes, and I feel that same odd tugging sensation she did when she climaxed the other day. Except it’s not as strong.
After a few moments, she gasps and jerks backward.
Out of instinct, I catch her before she goes down to the floor and pull her to my chest.
Jade opens her eyes, which are now glowing like a freaking spotlight.
She rises to her toes and parts her mouth. Her hands grip my shoulders and guide me down to her lips.
I kiss her, but it’s nothing like I expect. Instead of her tongue snaking inside my mouth, it’s energy. Or maybe it’s magic.
No… it’sme.
My soul fragments fall into me. They ping and bounce into my body like a pinball machine.
I grab at Jade, then some part of me fears I might hurt her, so I push away, falling to the dirty floor and onto my back. My body spasms, and I erupt in flames.
Jade gasps, scrambling toward me on her hands and knees.
Arran snatches her up in his strong arms and carries her several yards away.
My eyes lock with hers, filled with fear.
My entire being feels like it’s being ripped apart and jammed back together. It hurts worse than anything I’ve felt before—even in my last death. It feels like my last death on replay and amplified.
