Darkness and Light by Beth Cam (best free e book reader TXT) 📖

her that for once in her life, fate had handed her a less harsh road, a road where she had come out victorious while others perished.
A rustle a few yards away, like the rustle of clothe against clothe nipped at her ears.
And just like that, the illusion shattered around her.

 

He had felt the human, but only when he rounded the corner and even then he wondered if it had been the magic that had alerted him to their presence or the sense of sight itself.
That figure, barely moving, barely breathing by the side of the pit his men had dug for the remains of the villagers.
He watched it, intently, angrily, unhappy that someone had managed to stay cloaked from his gift of sight, but mostly, he was curious as to how he had not sensed them earlier.
His eyes began to flash as tempests of frustration began to nip at him.
He would find out, than feed them to the dogs, though he doubted the body would suffice for even though the figure was well hidden under a thick cloak they seemed fragile, small, thin – very thin. Not surprising though as all food had been destroyed and the well had been filled in.
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other before channeling his gift of sight towards them, as he stood silently back, enveloped in the shadows of the night, observing. But he tensed when he realised the sound his cloak made, brushing against his pants when he'd moved had alerted them to his presence.
The figure perked up and raised their head slightly, but rather than rise to their feet, they merely froze, and remained still and stopped breathing, as if they wished to melt into the shadows around them and remain unseen. To late, he smirked as he silently slipped of one glove. He would fry them to death with one zap and they wouldn't even know what did it.
He frowned and paused though. What good would it do than? He may never understand how this human had hidden their presence so well. Yes. He'd need to keep the fire cackling inside him and begging to be let loose under wrap, until he'd gotten all the answers he wanted. Then, the fun would begin
Satisfied with his decision he made sure to cloak his presence this time so as not to alert the human as he slipped towards them and only than, when he stood directly above them did he open their ears to his presence.
The human jumped as they realised they were in danger but it was to late for them. He dropped to the ground and drove his knee into the small of their back, hard and firmly.

 

She gasped out in pain and horror as the feel of someone's knee grinding into the bottom of her back snapped at her, and her whole body went into panic over drive.
She was weak but the adrenaline coursing through her veins demanded she act and so she did... or tried. Her palm met with the remnant of a brick left from one of the destroyed homes — the nearest thing that would bring pain, and swung it back hoping to smash it into the face of her attacker, but a strong hand lashed out and tore it from her grasp before twisting her arm across her back into an arm lock.
She winced, and cried out, but only softly as the fear she had for the soldiers was much more than the fear she had for what she hoped was a lone predator.

He frowned when the sound of a female's soft cry touched his ears as he pushed their arm, the one that had held the piece of rock they'd hoped to hit him with down in an angle that he could very well snap it in.
She squirmed and moaned ever so softly as the pain he hoped she was feeling grounded her. If he'd used magic it would have been worse though. She was lucky.
For the time being. He's hold tightened.
"Move... And I'll break your arm right of your body." He hissed by her ear, as he arranged his bigger, longer body over her in a way she would never be able to break away from.
She sobbed allowed and buried her face in the arm he did not hold as she slackened under him.
"I'm going to turn you around now and if you move or squirm or try to claw me or even BREATHE, I'll tare both your arms off."
To prove just how serious he was he grabbed her other arm and pulled it behind her in a excruciatingly painful position.
She gave a muffled cry of pain at the sudden twist he'd made, but taking his threat seriously, she remained frozen. Good. Because it was no empty one. He'd done it before and he could most definitely do it again. It was messy and the screams would be annoying but then his threats were ones that often got those results.
He kept his one hand holding both hers as his other reached for her shoulder – when he finally found it under all that cloth – and a second later he had her, off her stomach and onto her back, in a position where he could finally assess just what he'd caught.
He froze.
She was a girl. Yes. That much had already been established when he'd had her, face down in the dirt, knee in her back, hands pinned down. But he hadn't expected the skinny little urchin to look the way she did.
And it wasn't that she was pretty, or that her eyes were beautiful and dark, her cheeks soft, her lips cracked but supple... It was that look. Not the look he'd seen many times on his victims, a look of pure terror and pain, (not to say that she didn't have it). It was a strange vacancy that he could only guess was from the life of someone who was broken. It was like gazing into a mirror.
Wait... He's eyes knit together into a deep frown as anger swarmed back in. As a child, he had been often warned off looking into the eyes of his victims and allowing the appearance there oft too hold him. For eyes were the window into the soul, and not their soul, but his. And he knew how dark it was.

She stared up at him, not daring to move, her eyes two ovals of panic as he stared down at her.
She hadn't expected to see what she was seeing but even so, fear was greater than however beautiful the man was.
From his breathtaking fiery intense blue eyes that sparkled like fire or electricity, to his strong angular jaw, his high cheekbones, his soft thin pink upper lip and fuller bottom one... Luxuriant midnight black hair...
The devil was beautiful the old ladies used to often say as they watched their grandchildren play together on the street.
And she was reminded... Painfully off that fact as he tore her from her flash of the past to the present by grabbing her hair in his hand and yanking it back to force her to look him directly in the eye, his inhumanly blue eyes.

 

She had winced when he'd grabbed her hair in his hand and pulled at it, forcing her to look back at his eyes as somewhere during that fleeting moment it had traveled down and had landed on his lips.
It was common for women to look at him like that but he needed her full attention to be on his eyes and not his mouth.
He could see tears gathering at the sides of her eyes caused by the pain he was causing but refused to let a pathetic human girl no more than a child make him stop.
Besides, the pain she was feeling now would be nothing compared to the pain she'd receive when he killed her once he found out how she'd survived for so long and gone under his detection.
"How long have you been in hiding?"
He could see her gulp as her throat lay open and tender before him what with her head up so high.
She didn't answer at first and he was glad for then he could show her just what happens when humans take their time around him.

He took both her hands in his and forced them a over her head, as he pressed his other hand, his thumb to her forehead.
She finally screamed, really screamed and tried to tare loose from his grasp asa burning devouring pain tore through her head. He almost smiled, for with the small dose of magic used, she had moved. 

The pain had just begun.
Without sparing a moment he caught her left wrist in one hand again, this time stretching it out to her left hand side while his other free hand swiped a knife from the inside of his boot. A second later he had it, frozen and just grazing the tender bit of underarm, at the point where that same left arm met her shoulder. 

She stopped. Horror edged on her face as she starred into his eyes like a rabbit in a trap.
"What had I said about moving?"
He asked applying just enough of an amount of pressure for her to panic when she began to feel her skin and flesh give way. Excruciating pain began to nip at her, growing, increasing in volume as the knife only continued sink in further.
Tears budded at her eyes and her bottom lip trembled.
"Please... Please don't. Please stop."
He did not. Not yet.
"You will answer me then the moment I ask you something. You will answer truthfully and if you move at all at any point, or try to escape, I will slice them bot off ... And your tongue for extra measure. Agree?"
She nodded, tears running down her temples.
He's grip on her hair tightened and the knife at her arm slunk in deeper so that it was now reaching an inch and a half in diameter.
"I didn't hear you!"
He hissed.
"Yes! Please..."
She whimpered, clamping her eyes shut in the vain hope of shutting out all pain as the knife sunk into her arm.
Before... Just as quick as it had appeared, It disappeared.
She swallowed and opened her eyes again to see his hard but beautiful face gazing back down at her. Those cruel yet captivating electrical eyes.
"Good."

He kept the shark glinting knife now stained with blood, her blood close to her throat, but loosened his hold on her as she found her tongue. Afraid he'd plunge it into her if she let another second slip by, she, in a line of stutters, answered.
"I've.. Been hi.. Hiding in the pit with.. The... The.. bodies."
She involuntary shivered when she saw him frown in response, his jaw, his finely strong and perfect jaw tense, the muscle by its side, growing.
"Since When?!!!"
He growled, pulling her hair and pushing her head back again roughly, but further back this time so that her chin was jutting out and the tender chords of her jugular were more visible and a lot more prone. 

She dared not swallow this growing lump in her throat but answered immediately.
"The day the village was attacked."
His sighed outwardly, heavily, his eyes turning a darker shade of blue, speaking of a foreboding storm.
She wished she could clamp her eyes together and never open them up again but she was too afraid. To scared that if she did she wouldnt see the blade coming for her throat or heart or whatever and thus be left feeling only the pain and shock. So she kept them open, and on everything but his eyes.

Anger and frustration and questions arose at the forefront of his mind, all fighting for dominance. Anger, angered that a small pathetic