Davis, Liz - Under His Spell (Siren Publishing Classic) (15 page)

“Let go of me.”

Inside she was scared shitless, but the last thing she wanted him to know was just how afraid she was. He would only use it to his advantage.

“Afraid I can’t. I’ve been waiting to get my hands on you for quite some time.”

Lynn’s eyes drifted down to the long scar which marred his pale throat. It was raised and bumpy, and as she stared at it she began to wonder how he’d gotten it.

“Why are you following me?”

“You don’t remember much from the night of that car crash back in Seattle, do you?”

He waited for her to say something, but when she didn’t answer, he continued.

“Don’t you remember? I’ve tasted you, and if memory serves me correct, you were quite delicious.”

A chill ran up her spine as she heard him say the words “taste” and “delicious.” Suddenly, she remembered that there
had
been someone. She’d always chalked it up to a hallucination from shock, but now she realized it had actually happened. She’d gone in and out or consciousness, but she did remember seeing someone step next to the window and lean into the car. She also remembered there had been a pair of hands upon her, followed by a sharp and piercing pain in her chest. She figured that whatever had stabbed her was being pulled out, because the next thing she knew, there was a flow of blood. She figured she must have blacked out soon after, because that was all she could remember, and by the time she regained consciousness, she was already in the hospital.

Her eyes looked up at him with recognition, horrified that this frightening creature had been a part of her past. Knowing he’d been there that night while she was unconscious caused her to feel terribly fearful.

“What did you do to me? Did you drink my blood?” Her voice filled with panic.

With a grin he replied, “It’s not the taste of blood I was after, but your fear. Nothing fuels me more than the sight of a beautiful woman cowering in fear. Take you, for example. You’re very afraid right now, aren’t you?”

Shaking her head she angrily replied, “No, I’m not.”

Pulling his lips into a mock pout, Dex leaned in closer to her, allowing only a hair’s width between the flesh of her cheeks and his cold lips.

“So I don’t scare you at all?”

Terrified by the darkness in his eyes, she averted them toward the front door. She desperately wished that she could escape him, but she knew if she tried to run that he would easily catch up to her.

Grabbing her by the chin, he said, “No point in trying to resist me. I’m already in there.”

Lynn did her best to shield her emotions from him, but he easily cut right through her resistance. She could actually feel her energy being siphoned right out of her.

“You feel things very powerfully, don’t you? I could really get addicted to that.” Trailing a finger against her throat, he let it come to a rest against the pulse in her neck.

Her pulse began to quicken. Dex offered a wicked smile, obviously pleased by her reaction.

As his thumb remained pressed upon the point, she noticed that her knees were feeling weak and that she was beginning to grow dizzy. There was also a strange heaviness inside of her body, as if she were made of lead.

“I wonder where that boyfriend of yours is. It’s strange he hasn’t show up yet, huh?” One of his eyebrows rose upward in a questioning manner.

“He’s on his way.”

“Is he?” Dex questioned her with a funny little smile, tilting his head as if he were studying something of great interest. “Well he’d better hurry, because I’m about to have his girlfriend for dinner.”

As Dex pressed his nose to her skin, she heard him deeply inhale, followed by a sound which expressed how delicious he thought her scent was.

Lynn flattened her back against the wall as his lips crept up her chin, gradually moving closer to her lips. It seemed as if he were some sort of reptile, because the feel of his skin was very dry and completely void of any warmth at all. “Cold” and “slithery” were the perfect words to describe him. Certain he was going to try and kiss her, she began to panic and drove her knee upward, aiming straight for the place where she knew it would hurt the most.

Always one step ahead of her, Dex caught hold of her leg and pulled her feet out from under her. Her body hit the floor with a thud, but the pain she felt didn’t deter her from making a mad scramble for the door. She’d barely moved a few inches away from him before he caught hold of her leg with his hands. Using her free leg to kick at him, she aimed it right for his midsection and nailed him right in the stomach.

“Oof!” he grunted, stumbling backward as the wind was knocked out of him.

Using those few short moments to her advantage, Lynn bolted for the door and quickly swung it open. She’d just made it across the threshold and ran out onto the porch when he caught hold of her. Wrapping his arm firmly around her waist, he threw her to the ground and straddled her, keeping her firmly pinned against the floor.

“You’re a quick little thing, aren’t you? Not quick enough, though.”

As she noticed he was holding a blade against her breasts, she began to squirm nervously beneath his grip.

“The chase has been fun, but I’m ready to taste you now.”

As his fangs popped out, Lynn became paralyzed with terror. As his breath hit her skin, she released a cry of fear and flinched in anticipation.

As a deep, rumbling growl fill the air around them, Lynn opened her eyes to see a large gray wolf standing at the edge of the porch. With yellow-gold eyes and a thick, lush coat, he was quite a majestic sight. Although it was the first time Lynn was seeing him in non-human form, she instantly knew it was Takoda.

Releasing a menacing snarl, the wolf crouched into position. His muscles were taut and he was ready to strike, with his muzzle quivering angrily as he bared his sharp teeth. The wolf’s yellow eyes narrowed angrily upon his adversary, and the expression within them was clearly murderous. With Dex’s attention upon the wolf, Lynn was able to scramble out from beneath him unnoticed. Once she’d freed herself from his presence, she ran back into the safety of the house.

“Well look what we have here, a knight in shining armor.” Dex’s lips curled back into a sneer.

Bracing his feet into a fighting position, he poised his weapon out in front of him. Not wasting another moment, the wolf charged. As the wolf ran toward him, Dex swiped toward him with his blade, but ended up missing by a hair’s inch.

In a single fluid moment, the wolf sank his razor-sharp teeth into Dex’s ankles, causing him to cry out in agony. Gritting his teeth in fury, Dex slashed through the air with his knife, hoping it would connect with the wolf. As the blade met with nothing but air, Dex became increasingly frustrated.

Furiously kicking backward with his foot, Dex landed a solid kick upon the wolf’s jaw. As the teeth in his flesh loosened, Dex quickly pulled his leg free and scrambled away from the wolf. Dex was just barely getting back onto his feet when he was attacked once again.

The wolf lunged forward, pinning Dex to the ground with the weight of his body. The knife Dex held fell to the ground and clattered out of his reach. Saliva dripped from the wolf’s muzzle, teeth snapping and gnashing as he went in for the kill. He aimed for Dex’s neck, but before he could sink his teeth in, Dex grabbed hold of the animal’s neck. Locking his fingers around the wolf’s neck, Dex sought to cut off its air supply with the strength of his hands.

Thrashing wildly, the gray wolf fought to release himself. The animal’s claws reached out, searching for something, anything, to remove the death grip from around his throat.

The wolf’s claws found Dex’s face, latching in as they ripped through his flesh. The man beneath him howled, jolted by searing pain. He released his grip from around the beast’s neck, jagged claw marks trailing from his eye down to his chin. Blood seeped from the wounds, marring his vision.

Dex’s fingers scrambled around on the floor, searching for the knife that had fallen. Finding it, he grasped it in his hands and stabbed downward, aiming for what he thought was the wolf’s back. Disadvantaged by his blindness, Dex’s aim was thrown off, and the blade sunk into the wolf’s shoulder instead. The blade went in deep, but the pain did nothing to lessen Takoda’s attack.

The wolf sunk his canines into Dex’s shoulder, withdrawing a scream of pain as they ripped through muscles and tendon. Giving a howl of agony, Dex knocked the wolf off of him. The animal’s body flew back from the blow, but it was only a momentary deterrence. Once Dex was back on his feet, he shifted into a fighting stance, willing the wolf to make the first move.

The claw marks on Dex’s face were seeping blood and some of it was in his eyes, nearly blinding him. The torn flesh in his shoulder burned fiercely, making it feel as if it were on fire. Dex uttered a growl of sheer frustration. He was fighting a losing battle, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to go on for very much longer, since the little strength he had left was steadily draining out of him.

Letting out a vicious growl, Takoda charged. Dex dodged out of the way to avoid being attacked again but ended up losing his balance and stumbled down the porch stairs. The wolf landed on top of him, and as his teeth connected with Dex’s neck, they pierced through the flesh like butter. Seeking to shield his jugular from the animal’s teeth, Dex fought wildly to release himself from the beast’s attack.

The wolf’s attack was relentless, and this made it difficult for Dex to free himself, but eventually he managed. A sudden flare of anger allowed him the strength to give a powerful push against the wolf’s chest, kicking him off, but Dex’s freedom didn’t last long. It seemed that only a fraction of a second had passed before the wolf was charging once again, releasing a violent snarl as he threw himself against Dex’s back.

Fighting uselessly against the wolf, Dex released a scream of pain as he felt a pair of razor-sharp teeth sink into the back of his neck. Reaching his arm out toward a large stone in the yard, Dex grasped it tightly in his palm. Swinging his arm backward, Dex slammed the rock against the beast’s head, causing the animal to dislodge his teeth from Dex’s neck.

Not wasting another moment, Dex followed it up with another blow, this time aiming for the wolf’s muzzle. As the hard object collided with the animal’s mouth, it released a sound of furious pain. Stunned by the blunt impact of the large rock, the wolf took a moment to regain its senses and Dex used this to his advantage. Pulling his legs out from beneath the wolf’s body, Dex’s eyes quickly scanned his surroundings, searching for anything which could be used as a weapon. Spotting a pair of gardening shears, Dex unsteadily scrambled towards them, desperate to grab hold of the weapon before the wolf could attack once again. As his hand closed around the handle of the shears, Dex turned onto his side and quickly swung then back, aiming for the wolf’s neck.

As they slashed through the air, the animal sprung out of harm’s way, baring its teeth as it crouched into an attack position and awaited Dex’s next move.

Hurriedly climbing onto his feet, Dex firmly held the shears in his hand, the metal of the blades glinting maliciously in the dim light of the early evening.

Baring its teeth threateningly at Dex, the wolf’s eyes were full of

the utmost malice.

Dex moved clumsily on his feet, limping with every step that he took. The meat of his ankle was slashed, and it caused a great deal of pain to remain on his feet, but he knew if he didn’t that the wolf would surely finish him off.

With his lips peeled back into a sneer, Dex coaxed the wolf forward, daring him to lunge toward the blades in his hand. Remaining in place, the wolf’s eyes flared with anger, carefully watching each step that Dex took. As the wolf’s adversary began to back away from him, the wolf stalked forward, matching each of Dex’s steps with one of his own.

And then suddenly the wolf was running toward Dex, quickly closing the space between them, and just before he reached his adversary, the wolf changed direction, springing out of the way as Dex swung the blades toward him.

Unfortunately, the wolf miscalculated his adversary’s force, and as the sharp blade sunk into the animal’s coat, it yelped in pain, retreating with a vicious snarl.

The blade in Dex’s hand was covered in blood, and as he retreated from the beast, his eyes flashed with rage.

A deep growl tore through the wolf’s throat, his ears flattening as he watched Dex back away away from him.

Dex was nearly a yard away when he maliciously sneered, “This isn’t over.”

Giving a nasty hiss of defeat, he retreated from the wolf and disappeared into the thick brush beyond the yard.

Resisting the urge to follow him, the wolf began to transform, shifting from creature back into the form of a human being.

Rushing up behind him, Lynn embraced him in a tight hug, laying her head against his shoulder as he took her hand in his. The feel of his heartbeat thumping against her skin was more than a welcome relief. She’d seen what a strong and vicious fighter he was, but she’d been terribly worried that one of the knife wounds he’d received would turn out to be fatal.

They held each other for a few minutes straight, just looking into each other’s eyes, and then they shared a deep, tender kiss. Once their lips parted, they both stood up and got onto their feet.