Page 40 of Haunted Nightmares
Iris moves toward me again but I don’t want her here anymore, don’t want her near me or my house, near the memory of my gentle breeze or anything else I deemmine.“Get out.”
She freezes, hand suspended in the air, her entire body perfectly still. Until it isn’t. Until it glitches in and out of reality for far longer than before.
“Get out,” I growl. “Go on, leave. Run quickly before I decide to open you up and find her soul. I’m sparing you now, five seconds before I change my mind.”
Iris waits almost in disbelief. “If I?—“
“I said get out!” Snapping my teeth I lunge at her before sending the rocking chair toward the front door and opening itwith my mind. “Now before I gully you to find my mate’s soul then mount you on the fence with the rest of them!”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers as she covers her bare chest with her arms. “Your loss, I’m just so sorry.”
“Go!” I throw my hands in her direction as I jump to my feet, shoving Iris out the door before I slam it closed and attempt to destroy my staircase, but I don’t get far.
The raven quickly comes to my aid, landing on my shoulder then begins quickly preening my hair, clicking and humming as a wave of sickening exhaustion washes over me. One that hits so fast and so hard I’m forced to support myself against the wall until I can no longer even do that.
So I slide down and close my eyes, bury my face in my hands as my entire body goes numb, and send up a tired and selfish plea that I don’t have to endure this much longer.
I can and I will for Zephyr but it is becoming more and more difficult to push through the madness and function, to survive being away from her each night that passes and the longer I fight in her name to honor her the way she deserves, the more I fear it is all for naught and a reunion will never happen.
There is not enough collective pity in the universe to allow for that to happen, and mercy isn’t a word in Xenith’s vocabulary.
Too bad for him, the only god I believe in isme.
11
The Ankle Bone’s Connected to the Clubfoot…
“Are we going to acknowledge the smell in this shithole or has it always wreaked of death?”
Dropping the troll on my dining room table with a thud, I glare over Declan’s shoulder at Archer. “I didn’t ask to have you share my blood in a manner that is still illegal, but if you’d rather wait outside for Armstrong to hunt you and your mate down in order to prosecute for thatandthe mysterious deaths surrounding your former band just to avoid the stench of rotting flesh, by all means.”
I motion behind me toward the front door but the twat lifts his hands in surrender. “Point taken.”
“It bloody well should be. Having your pompous ass attached at my hip for the foreseeable future isn’t exactly my idea of agood timebut here we are. At least your Sadie is smart enough not to complain.”
“Here,” the female says as she leans toward Archer, applying some sort of salve under his nose with a small smile. “Lorna gave this to me after I passed out. It’ll help with the smell.” Then Sadie smirks at her mate. “And hopefully keep you in check while we’re here.”
Not likely.
The former frontman has an uncalled for ego nearly the size of mine, and the filter between his brain and mouth is just as non-existent.
Declan says that’s why Archer gets on my nerves as much as he does, because the two of us are so similar and in a way, I’m sure he’s right. Considering he harbors a dash of my blood from when I converted his mother I suppose there’s more truth to that than I’d like to admit but regardless of whether or not I can argue what he could have inherited from my genetics, the male gets under my skin all the same.
He’s arrogant, blunt, abrasive at times. Archer has a penchant for the finer things in life without overindulging, and he’s good at nearly everything he tries to do. He’s also infamous amongst our kind, despises everything my father stood for, and he’s disgustingly mated to a female he tried to deny.
I can’t stand Archer because he essentiallyisme, and in a few short days it’s had my mind wandering to outlandish thoughts of what could have been if…
Shaking my head, I stop that line of thought before it gets started then drag my gaze away from thelovebirdssitting at my island.
“Where is your sister?” I ask my friend as I start repositioning the troll. “Wasn’t she supposed to be here a half hour ago?”
Declan nods as he wipes his hands on his shirt then checks his phone. “She was.”
“It isn’t like her to keep me waiting.”
“Lydia is picking up Orion and Aries. Apparently they want to see this.”
Wonderful.
