Mask of Poison (Fall of Under Book 1) by Kathryn Kingsley (great novels to read txt) 📕

meant it so gosh-darn literally!” He laughed and squeezed her against him. She didn’t know how it was possible, but she somehow went more rigid than before. “Wait.” He paused. “Are you afraid of me?”

“Y—yes.”

“But…why?” He sounded so disappointed. “I haven’t hurt you.”

“But you could.”

“So could everyone here! Lyon could rip you to shreds just as easily as I could. But you seem to like him.” He sighed. “Everybody likes him…”

“He seems a bit more—” She stopped. Don’t insult him.

“More what?”

She shook her head.

He chuckled and leaned his head closer to hers. She wasn’t a short person, but she just cleared his shoulder. “Come on, what were you going to saaaaay?”

“He seems a bit more…um…sane.”

He laughed. “Very true! Very true. That’s fair. So, my little dove. I have so many questions. So many things to ask you.”

“Like…like what?”

“About them, for starters!” Suddenly, he wheeled her around. She gasped as she found herself with her back to his chest. His arm was wrapped around her waist, and it might as well have been steel rebar. He still held her wrist tightly in his hand, leaving her unable to even try to push him away. “Since it’s clear these guys came with you. Fred’s my friend. He’s over there. He doesn’t talk much. But he’s a good guy. I’d ask him if I could, buuuuut I don’t think he has a tongue. Or a jaw. Or a brain. Hard to talk if you don’t have a brain. Unless you’re the scarecrow.” He cackled and then sang, “If I only had a brain.”

Nope. She definitely couldn’t reason with him.

She stomped on his foot as hard as she could.

“Ow! Hey!” He snarled. He let go of her arm only to snap his hand around her throat, yanking her head back against his shoulder. “Play nice. I’m not doing anything to you. And I could. And I’m so hungry. So, please, please don’t tempt me.”

Live for every second. “Sorry.”

“No, no. I get it. I’m a very scary monster, and you’re very scared of the very scary monster. And, oh, your heart is pounding. It’s racing underneath my fingers. It’s so tempting. So wonderfully tempting. Can you feel it? Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump. Well…can you?”

“Y—yes.”

Porcelain touched her cheek as he leaned in closer. His voice was quieter when he spoke. “Calm down, little dove. I’m not going to hurt you. I just have questions. So many questions…”

“What happens after I answer your questions?”

“Then I might eat your liver.”

Ember screamed and struggled, trying her best to get him away from her. She clawed at him, kicked at him, did everything she could. But he only laughed as he wheeled her around again and pushed her into a nearby wall, her back to the brick surface. He pinned her there with one arm across her shoulders. He was little more than skin and bones, and she couldn’t gain any ground on him.

“Did I say something wrong?” He nuzzled his masked face into her throat.

She froze. What was he doing? “Let me go, please…” She shoved on his chest, but it didn’t do anything. Well, anything except confirm her suspicion that entire chunks of him were missing. She pushed a bit of his bandages inside of a wound. She grimaced and pulled her hand away.

“No, little dove. I don’t think I’ll let you go just yet.” He glanced down at the blooming stain on his collarbone where she had touched him. “Ow. Ow-ow-ow. That stings. Do you mind pulling that cloth back out?”

“What?”

“What?” He chuckled. “Sorry. That’s too much fun. Do you mind pulling the bandage back out of the wound? It really burns.”

Stunned, she didn’t know what else to do. She carefully plucked the cotton strip out of the gaping hole he had in his chest.

“Phew. Thanks.” He paused.

She stared.

Nothing happened for a long beat.

When he spoke again, she jumped in surprise. “Okay! Where were we? Oh, yes. Questions.”

“Who are you?” He was so close to her, his thin frame pressed against hers. She could feel the bones of his hips digging into her abdomen. He was taller than she was, something she hadn’t noticed until he straightened up. And he was still slouching.

Why was he so close to her?

“No, I’m the one who is supposed to ask you questions.” He tapped a finger on the end of her nose. “And you know my name already. Silly.”

She flinched at his touch. “What do you…what do you want to know?”

“Did you have these shambling, flesh-eating corpses on your world? On Gioll?”

“Yes.”

“Oh—fascinating.” Keeping his arm across her collarbones to pin her to the wall, he used his other hand to idly toy with a strand of her hair, twisting it around his bony and bloody fingers. “Who commanded them?”

“N—no one. The Dread God who made them, maybe…but they didn’t stand still like that.”

“Dread God, eh? Sounds like our new Ancient came with you and our new goopy friends.” He snickered. “Interesting! So, they were just running loose, eating everything they wanted? No rhyme or reason?”

She nodded weakly. Her heart was, in fact, pounding in her ears. Every moment that passed she expected to be her last.

“I guess that’s effective. Hm. I like having an army, though. It’s a great deal of fun. Tell me something, little dove. This one’s a bit of a stretch, but hey. Doesn’t hurt to ask.” He paused, and when he spoke again, the manic quality to his words had been replaced with anger. “Do you know why the fuck it brought me back to life?”

She didn’t know how it was possible to go any more tense than she already was, but she managed. “No, I—I’m sorry.”

With a long, drawn-out sigh, he leaned his head against the wall next to hers. “Damn. I really hoped you’d know. I’m being followed around by a bunch of zombies, and I’d really like to know why.”

He shifted his arm from across her collarbones to drape his hand over her throat, fingers to one side and thumb to the other over her pulse.