Chapter 329. Mindless Torture III

Chapter 329: 329. Mindless Torture III

Maisie

Half the roof was gone.

My breaths came in hard and fast, my chest heaving as a cloud of plaster and pulverized brick rained down on us. I twisted up off the floor, my hands trembling against the debris, but Soren’s arms caught me.

His lips were parted and he was staring at me with fascination. "Your eyes," he whispered.

My gaze fell on a jagged shard of window glass resting near my knee.

I stared at my reflection.

I reached for my face in wild panic, pulling my eyelids up and down, blinking hard.

They were glowing. Ruby red.

I wheezed a harsh breath and jerked my head up to the sky.

Dark clouds were gathered directly above the gaping hole in the building, swirling furiously like the eye of a tornado.

Ashbourne didn’t have tornados.

Thunder crackled within the vortex, but as I stared up into the unnatural wind, my blood ran cold.

It wasn’t thunder.

It was a jagged line. A rip in the sky with frayed edges, trying to expand. It looked like... I swallowed, fear wrapping around me like a vise.

It looked like the beginning of a rift.

It pulsed once and I felt it like a pull at the power that had been humming inside me. I flinched back when it crackled again, falling into Soren as it unleashed a lightning strike much too close to the rest of the undamaged roof.

That was the explosion that took out the roof, I realized, eyes widening. Then the thunder I’d heard while Soren moved inside me had also been that... thing. It had been very real.

But then, the hum of power drained out of me in seconds, and the dark clouds dispersed, too fast to track. And I might have thought I was hallucinating the entire thing and going half mad if Soren wasn’t staring at it, too.

In a blink of an eye, the sky was clear blue again, and the rip was gone, like it had never been there.

I stared at my hands in horror, shaking. My eyes caught on the glass again and I saw wide, fearful blue ones staring back at me.

What had I done?

Panic swelled in my chest and I began to hyperventilate. I had almost ripped open a portal? How?

If the thunder had been real, then...

I lurched for Soren, frightened as I recalled pulling something from him. His aura, I’d thought, it had made me stronger, but what if I’d been drawing on his life force instead?

"Are you okay? Do you feel okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" I rambled, my hands flying over his chest, clutching at his cheeks, tilting his head frantically to the left and right.

His hand circled my wrist. "Adams--"

I remembered what it had felt like when the rift pulled my own life force at the school. The cold. The fatigue. Tears brimmed in my eyes when I noticed his skin looked a shade too pale.

"C--cold? Are you tired? Do you feel weak? Sleepy? I knew we shouldn’t have done that. I knew it. Something is wrong with me, Soren. There’s something wrong with me, I don’t know how to stop it!"

"Adams, I’m fine--"

"Oh gods, I could’ve killed you!" I sobbed, not at all hearing his words as the worst of my nightmares clawed their way to the surface.

All I could see was empty, lifeless eyes and I gasped for air.

"I didn’t know. I was pulling it right out of you! We can’t do this anymore. We can’t. I’m going to hurt you, I’m a monster, I’m going to drain you dry and you won’t even notice until it’s too late and you’re dead--"

Soren’s large hands clamped over my jaw, framing my face and catching my tears. My next sob was cut off when he crushed me to him and slanted his mouth over mine.

It was sweet and tender, sending tingles down my spine and toes, and though it only lasted for a few seconds, it short-circuited my brain and drained the panic out of me.

Soren pulled back just a fraction, keeping his hands firmly on my cheeks, his nose brushing against mine.

"Breathe, Adams," he whispered softly, and I drew in his exhale, breathing in deeply with a shaky shudder.

His thumb swept away a tear under my eye. stray tear. "Listen to me," he said, his voice a steady, pleasant rumble. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You hear me? You are perfect. And what just happened... that was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my entire life."

I stared at him. "Amazing? Are you crazy?" I choked out, my voice cracking. "Why aren’t you frightened? I almost opened a rift! You could have died, Soren!"

A wicked smile touched the corners of his mouth. "Then it would have been a remarkably great way to go. Unforgettable, at the very least."

Only Soren would consider the thought of dying during sex funny.

"I’m serious!" I cried, a fresh wave of tears spilling down my cheeks. "Look at you! Your skin is pale!"

A rich sound of cultured laughter spilled from him, and his forehead dropped against mine. "Of course I look a little pale, Adams. You just fucked the hell out of me."

I wiped my nose with the back of my hand, glaring at him through blurry eyes as my cheeks heated.

Now that I thought about it... That hadn’t been bad at all.

That was a gross understatement.

"You’re sure you’re alright?" and I asked, hating how tiny my voice was.

"A hundred percent."

Not that he would tell me if he wasn’t.

But the feeling of unease settled in my gut. What had happened? Would I blow out a roof or open a rift every time I lost control during sex?

Did I have to refrain from sex or any related exciting activities until I could... maybe contain it? Perhaps it didn’t kill him because we weren’t fully bound? If it had been Quinlan with me today, would he have died? How could I have opened the rift if the ruby was all the way over at the castle?

What was happening to me?

Soren read the worry on my face and started to say something when his ears twitched, and his eyes darted to the door for a moment before returning to me with a small smile. "As much as I love seeing you this way, you’re going to have to get dressed, love. It wouldn’t bode well if I had to kill every man who laid eyes on your body."

The underlying threat sparked a new wave of heat in my blood, and the air kissed my nipples.

His nostrils flared as he caught a whiff of fresh arousal. Hunger darkened his eyes and I considered how long it’d take if I climbed--

No. No. No. Goddess, Maisie, do you never learn? Look what happened the last time you climbed the man!

Amusement teased Soren’s eyes. He knew exactly what I was thinking, and though it was clear from his heated gaze that we were nowhere done with this, he turned away, going for my discarded clothes.

He was still half-undressed himself, looking a little less princely as he hastily righted his pants, but his silk shirt hung tattered and open, his buttons ruined.

His exposed torso was covered in angry red scratch marks and bite marks I left all over his skin. He looked like he’d been ravaged by a wild animal.

I wasn’t any better. Every inch of me was covered in bruises. My neck stung and I knew if I looked in the mirror, I’d find that his fingers had left a collar of fingerprints on my neck.

That wasn’t to account for the stink of raw sex all over the place, thick enough to choke on. Or the damage we had wrecked upon the room.

Between the blown out windows, the broken table, the cracked walls and the roof, it was going to be out of commission for a long time. Already, I could hear the approaching footsteps and the wind carried the murmuring of a growing crowd outside.

I had just barely shimmied into my bra and sweater when the door slammed open.