Chasing Demons (Book 2) Rated R

Chapter 34

~Christian~

The magic was in control now.

It was the only thing I could think about as I watched a cloud of black, twisting smoke slink into her chest, making her back arch up off the floor.

Her body shook and thrashed violently as if she were warring with something, the thing trying to take root inside her. Instinctively, I knew there wasn't enough room in there for the both of them.

Aimee shook, spine bowing until I thought she might break. With a gasp, she fell back down and went unnaturally still.

My heart slammed against my ribs, fear coating my mouth with a bitter acid. I devoured the space between us in a few strides, dropping to my knees beside her.

Her face was pale, with tiny, spider-like fissures across her closed eyelids. Shadows rose from her body like plumes of smoke until they coalesced and formed the vague outline of a man who hovered beside her possessively.

As if she already belonged to him, an angel of death.

But she didn't belong to him.

She was mine.

"Get away from her," I growled.

I glanced around the room, frantic.

But how the fuck did I fight an enemy I couldn't touch?

As I brushed strands of hair from her face, I realized the flush I'd thought was due to the workout, was actually a fever.

How could I have missed this?

My shaking hand landed on her chest to feel for a breath. When I felt nothing, my heart slammed into the prison of my ribs.

The world narrowed to a pinpoint of light, completely black around the edges. And it tilted and spun and tilted and spun until I was so fucking dizzy, I could barely see.

My breathing was too fast--I had to get myself together--I was useless if I panicked.

But despite my best efforts, I was transported back to that night she died, to the black pit of despair from which there was no escape.

I could clearly see her lifeless body in my arms, her skin already going cold and stiff, the way it'd felt again the pads of my fingers.

The steady beat of her heart which I'd grown accustomed to now only a heavy lead weight within the tomb of her body.

She'd never smile at me again.

She'd never find her family.

She'd never have peace or the happiness she so desperately deserved.

The searing hot ache in my chest, the pain that hit me so hard like a tear through my soul the moment she died, it was all I could remember; a pain so horrible I was surprised I hadn't blacked out from it.

It was a pain I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, a feeling of falling down, down into a black cavern of nothingness.

The severance of the bond--it had been only out of sheer willpower and denial that I'd been able to carry her through these halls to Grandfather Nandru.

This couldn't be happening, not again.

No...no, no, no, no--

Just then, Aimee sucked in a harsh breath.

A breath I didn't know I'd been holding escaped with hers.

Breathing...she was breathing.

I slipped my hands under her shoulders and cradled her to my chest. Her hair stuck to my wet face. I ran the back of my hand across my eyes, fighting to gain some sort of composure.