“Olivia,” he said. “My dear, sweet Olivia. I need yourfullattention. You can’t be running around half-cocked like a gun about to explode. I need you right here. And when I need something, I make it happen, just likethat.”
His finger snap echoed through the air like distant lightning.
“You remember me. It’s true; I did kill your mother. It was a moment of sweet justice.” He wiped his thumb across his lips in a slow, sensuous manner. Then, he took a step toward me.
I reeled backward, but my feet were still secured to the ground. What was he going to do? Kill me where I stood with no chance to defend myself?
Fat drops of perspiration rolled down my cheeks and neck, and my mouth was bone dry. My skin crawled like a million ants marching up and down my body steadily. This man, demon, whatever he was, scared me.
Still appearing as a human, he took another step in my direction.
I shuddered.
“Come now. Are you frightened? I’m not a scary man, see?” He stepped close to me and ran the back of his finger across my cheek. “I’ve waited a long time to see you again. I could have killed you when I murdered your mother. It would have been so easy.”
He wrapped his fingers around my neck and gently squeezed. Intense heat poured from his fingers.
The smell of burning flesh filled my nose, and wisps of smoke feathered across my cheeks.Oh, God, he’s burning me.My hands flew up to pry him from me, but it was like bending iron.
He kept on bearing down as if I hadn’t touched him.
Maybe I hadn’t. I was too freaked out to know anything at this moment. Panic obscured my ability to think things through in a calm manner. All my training seemed to have fled from my body. My heart clattered as if it might claw its way out of my throat. My skin seemed to blister and bubble. Soon, it might start melting to muscle, then to the bone, then to…
“I could kill you right now,” he said, using a soothing tone like the kind you might use to lull your kid to sleep.
“I thought you said you weren’t scary?” I said, trying hard not to hyperventilate. “Threatening to kill me isn’t what I’d call kind.”
He threw back his head and laughed, releasing me from his hold. His gums and tongue were the color of blood. “You’re fun, Olivia. I’ve missed so much enjoyment by not tracking you down sooner.”
I gingerly touched the place where his hand had gripped me. My skin stung and felt all weepy and raw. “Shit. What did you do to me, you bastard?”
“Oh, that,” he said, languidly stroking my blistered skin. “Here…”
He leaned forward and blew his hot breath on my neck.
Searing pain overwhelmed me. Without thinking, I hauled back my arm and slapped his face.
His head flew to the side. When he turned back toward me, I came face to face with the demon, staring at me with his red glowing eyes.
“You shouldn’t have done that, my beloved,” he said, in a tremulous, warbly voice, like something piped from the bottom of a swimming pool.
“You shouldn’t have breathed on me,” I spat back. I really wanted to move my legs, but they stayed put where they were.
“I was healing you,” he said, staring into me with those glittering eyes.
I reached up and touched my neck.Huh. It no longer feels burned.“Why on earth would you do that?”
“Because I’m not done with you.” A piece of his scorched skin fell away from his face, revealing muscle crawling with maggots and bone. He leered at me, looking more and more like a freak show skeletal monster.
He cocked his head from side to side, studying me. “Do you know who I am? Do you think you can slap me, toy with me? I am your biggest monster, Olivia. I am your downfall.”
“Who are you? What do you want from me?” I said with all the bravado I could muster.
“I am Balthazar,” he said, and his name reverberated in the air, coming at me from all directions. “Balthazar…”
His name shrieked through my head like a symphony of banshees. The sound was so awful I wondered if it would shatter my eardrums. I pressed my palms over my ears, gritted my teeth, and squeezed my eyes shut, warding off the horrible sound.
When the noise subsided, I opened my eyes, finding that ghastly leer of his inches from my face. “You’re Balthazar?”
