Chasing Demons (Book 2) Rated R

Chapter 21

Christian's face is what I saw next.

He knelt down beside me--I hadn't even realized I was on the ground--and his Dannek blue eyes scanned my face.

He picked me up and brought me outside making his way several feet into the forest before setting me down again.

The ghosts wove in and out behind him. I swiped at the blood on my nose, the taste of it like metal in my mouth.

The blood kept coming and Christian's face and voice came to me from the other end of a long, black tunnel.

"Aimee, talk to me? Fight it."

Ally appeared in the forest, her feet hovering above the parched earth while the still-burning inferno of Masline apartments behind us cast her in an orange glow.

The wailing of a siren could be heard, several hundred feet down the mountain. They'd be too late to save both Masline Apartments and Rodrigo, I realized.

But I couldn't bring myself to care.

A deep, dark part of me enjoyed the idea of Rodrigo slowly burning to death, wailing in pain as the flesh melted from his bones.

"They're here," Ally said, and her lips curled into a smile. "Go kill them. Kill them all. Take their souls and give them to us."

Give them to us, give them to us, they chanted, their hissing voices drowning out all else.

I didn't know whose souls they asked for, All I need is that I needed to obey and that the more people I killed, the better.

I stood, somehow breaking free of Christian's strong grasp.

A part of me knew my feet were not carrying me out of my own free will, but the other part, the part that was thirsty for blood did not care.

My ghosts wanted blood and it was my job to satisfy their thirst.

I climbed down along the mountain, past dozens of trees, further into the heart of Reader Nation.

My bare feet sank into twigs and branches. I knew they were bleeding, but I could not feel them.

Christian appeared a few more times in front of me. His mouth moved quickly, his hands cupped my face, but I couldn't listen to him.

His lips formed my name.

Stop, he said.

I could see the shadow of Dannek Castle behind him now, outlined by the light of the moon.

It was alive with light and movement.

The headlights of cars piled on for miles, which stopped briefly at the circular driveway on the eastern end of Dannek castle to let their passengers out and would then progress back down the mountain.

On and on they went.

Kill them all, Ally instructed.

And the command was stronger than anything I'd ever felt before.

Christian stepped in front of me.

The white button-down he'd worn this morning was covered in black streaks--ash.

"Please, stop. Snap out of it, Aimee."

"Get out of my way," I said, but I hadn't meant to say it, especially not in that voice...a voice that sounded so hollow and dark and so unlike my own.

"No. I can't let you through, not in this state."

Kill him, Ally ordered.

With a flick of my wrist, a wave of power, laced with black smoke sent Christian flying into a tree.