Страница 57 из 72
The noise grew less, and I squinted up at the door. Nikolaos floated just above the top step. Her hair crackled around her head, like spider silk. Her skin had shrunken against her bones, until she was skeletal. Her eyes glowed, pale blue fire. She started floating down the steps, hands outstretched.
I could see her veins like blue lights under her skin. I ran. Ran for the far wall, and the tu
The wind threw me against the wall, and I scrambled on hands and feet towards the tu
I screamed. The thing that was Nikolaos dragged me back. It slammed me against the wall and pi
The lips had receded, exposing the fangs and teeth. The skeletal head hissed, “You will learn obedience, to me!” It screamed in my face, and I screamed back. Wordlessly, an animal screaming in a trap.
My heart was thudding in my throat. I couldn't breathe. “Nooo!”
The thing shrieked, “Look at me!”
And I did. I fell into the blue fire that was her eyes. The fire burrowed into my brain, pain. Her thoughts cut me up like knives, slicing away parts of me. Her rage scalded and burned until I thought the skin was peeling away from my face. Claws scrapped the inside of my skull, grinding bone into dust.
When I could see again, I was huddled by the wall, and she was standing over me, not touching, not needing to. I was shaking, shaking so badly my teeth chattered. I was cold, so cold.
“Eventually, animator, you will call me master, and you will mean it.” She was suddenly kneeling over me. She pressed her slender body over mine, hands pi
The beautiful little girl leaned her face against my cheek and whispered, “I am going to sink fangs into your neck, and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”
Her delicate shell of an ear was brushing my lips. I sank teeth into it until I tasted blood. She shrieked and jerked away, blood ru
Bright razor claws tore through my brain. Her pain, her rage, turning my brain into silly putty. I think I was screaming again, but I couldn't hear it. After a while I couldn't hear anything. Darkness came. It swallowed up Nikolaos and left me alone, floating in the dark.