Bad Influence (Seven Deadly Sins #2) ✅ Completed

Chapter Eighteen: Lust Takes on Wrath

*A/N: The music selection on this chapter is Hollywood Undead's "Dead Bite.” I highly recommend (if you can) to listen to the song as you read this chapter! It's as if someone made this song just for it (or maybe it was more like I made the chapter around the song, whichever!). ;c) thanks much! wendy

 

Lust Takes on Wrath

Move!

Lust yelled inside my mind, her voice resonating so deeply I shut my eyes and I fell to my knees from the impact. It was like a thousand pound church bell going off inside my head, jarring everything inside me loose but working to free me from my terrified inertia. I felt the first stirrings of my skin hardening from the Medusa’s gaze, managing to escape full stone transformation by a hair - a super fine one at that. It was like a medium grade sun burn, stretching and pulling at my skin so it felt two sizes too small. I hoped the effect was temporary.    

I felt Lust push her way inside my brain and wrench control from me. It was like being shoved out of a driver’s seat of a moving vehicle by someone much larger and a heck of a lot stronger. My brain seized for a moment and Lust wasted absolutely no time in taking full advantage of the situation, sliding into place and taking over.

Relax, sweetie. I got this. You’re going to get us killed.

As if watching everything play out from the passenger seat of my mind, I watched Lust tuck my body and dive roll away from the approaching gorgon. Using the shield, she lifted it up to track the Medusa’s position before springing to her feet. She took a few steps to the side, expertly swinging in the sword in my right hand as she loosened up for a fight.

Being watchful of the debris in our little clearing, she never took her eyes off the Medusa in the reflection of the shield. From where I sat, as a spectator in my own body, I could see snakes of varying size writhing from the top of the gorgon’s head. They were the same grayish color of as the snakes from the statuette, but there was no doubt they were real now. A long, knotted mass of dozens of snakes hissed and flicked their tongues out, as if someone just stepped on the whole lot of them. It was like that scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones fell into the pit of vipers, only worse because these were on top of a moving monster. A monster that looked particularly peeved to have something taken from it.

Something about seeing such an abomination sent my survival instincts into high gear. Lust moved my body expertly, keeping enough distance between us to move freely while not showing any signs of retreating. I got the sense she wasn’t frightened at all. She was totally battle ready. Whatever Lust was, at least she knew what she was doing.

Thank God one of us did.

The Medusa opened its mouth again, but this time it didn’t screech. Instead, a deep male voice rumbled out, addressing my driver directly.  

“You should not have interfered, whore.” Wrath took two steps closer, attempting to close the distance between us. "That soul was mine!"

I took a few steps forward, my back still to the monster. Lust threw my head back and laughed at the insult. My voice contained the sultry, sexy tones of the sin inside me. How she managed to laugh when all I wanted to do was crawl under a table and hide was beyond me. Again, I got the sense she wasn’t afraid but excited to be facing off with the sin inside the gorgon.

Maybe this was personal for her? 

I watched as she used my shield to stare down Wrath. “You never said 'no backsies,' Ugly Betty," she teased. "Don't tell me you're afraid this whore’s going to kick your ugly teeth in?”