Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) Straight, Nancy (book club reads .TXT) 📖

I staggered to Lauren’s van, staring at Rewsna, begging for her to hear the turmoil in my head. If she heard any of it, she didn’t let on.

Samael was somehow inside me. He was a part of me. I could feel his evil. He continued, “Tell me, Max, have you ever considered intercourse with a branding iron? It’s a little hard to tell the difference between screams of delight and pain, but bodies heal, right?” This image formed in my mind and the horror of what Samael could do to Lauren was unbearable.

I made an attempt to talk to Renswa, to make her hear what I heard. “Rewsna, can you hear me?” The four of us were in the van, but Rewsna seemed to have turned her receiver off. I couldn’t share outloud what was playing in my head.

Samael’s voice came booming through, “Renny can’t hear us. I may be weak, but I can keep her out of our head. What do you suppose the Council would do to you if they found out I was inside you? Do you think they’d let you breath another minute? No, my humble servant, they’d kill you to get to me. Your offer to me initially was an exciting alternative; having a young strong body is something I haven’t enjoyed in many years.”

“You’re a shifter, you can make any body you want, why me?”

“There is a difference between making an identity, and living in another person’s skin. You could equate it to wrapping yourself in a king sized blanket, trying to hold it together while keeping yourself from being exposed versus slipping into a wet suit. Your body fits me perfectly.”

The thought of being reduced to stretching cloth for a demon made me want to be physically ill. The van pulled up in front of Rewsna’s house and the two occupants got out. I looked at Peanut in the back seat. He wasn’t the slightest bit distracted by me, nor did he understand that this demon he had been so astute at guarding against was right here inside of me.

I was having trouble thinking steadily but answered him, “Samael, I didn’t know this was what you meant. I didn’t sign on for this.”

“You agreed to our terms, Max. In fact, you offered the terms. We really will get along well. You just need to open your mind a little to the possibilities.”

The remainder of the day and the following, every waking moment I heard disgusting thoughts nearly non-stop. I never relinquished control. I pretended to be asleep so I wouldn’t have to talk to Lauren, but I was petrified of what he might do to her when I wasn’t in control. When I came back to the house after repairing the fence, I was exhausted and weak. I heard what Seth said to Lauren, and I couldn’t even be angry about it. It’s not like it was a surprise.

Samael continued to stoke the fires, trying to get me angry with her. I couldn’t be. I knew I would pass out soon from exhaustion and couldn’t take the chance of him taking over my body. I had to make Lauren go, to hurt her feelings badly enough that she would never again want to be alone with me.

As I watched the dust from the gravel in the driveway, I knew I had hit the mark. I made my way back to the bed and passed out.

Chapter 31

I awoke the following morning, Saturday. The sunlight was seeping through my blinds, birds were chirping, and, as usual, my thoughts made their way to Lauren. In my morning grogginess, I forgot that I was sharing this body with the equivalent of a leech until his voice brought me back to my new reality. “I thought you would never get up! So, what are we going to do today? Fence repair isn’t top on my list. If I get a vote, how about we go see Lauren?”

“No!”

“Touchy, aren’t we? I just thought after your little tantrum yesterday we could pick up some flowers, go grovel a little, let her know that it was just the stress of being locked in a cage, blah blah blah, and now you know you can’t live without her, blah, blah, blah, then we screw her brains out. What do you say?”

I ignored him. I refused to talk to him, and it was hard to tune him out, but not impossible.

“Oh, pretend you don’t want to! You remember I get the added treat of seeing your dreams while you sleep. You really are obsessed, but I’m sure after you get laid and maybe try a few new moves, your subconscious might be tremendously more fun to interact with. I’d be more than happy to help you with your technique.”

My ignoring him did little to dissuade his constant bombardment of unwanted narratives and speculation of what he could do to Lauren.

I could almost hear him sigh, “Oh, all right, I get it, your precious Lauren is a lost cause. How about we find a way to get your mind off of her? It’ll do us both good. I can’t help myself you know, as obsessed as you are about her, I can’t help but fantasize right along with you. Maybe if I had some new material?”

I made breakfast, threw in a load of laundry, grabbed my ipod and got on the mower. A few hours of mowing lines in the lawn was bound to rearrange his priorities. I had mowed five acres, listened to I don’t know how many songs, and was putting the mower away. I was pleased with myself when I realized he hadn’t spoken to me in over an hour. I let my mind wander a little when his voice echoed loud, “I don’t care for manual labor; the monotony is for the uneducated. We should hire a gardener.”

I didn’t respond, not in thought or with words. I