Loving a Stranger_A Kindred Tales Novel by Evangeline Anderson

Author:Evangeline Anderson [Anderson, Evangeline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evangeline Anderson Books
Published: 2018-05-18T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“Nallah, sweetheart, do you remember how I told you that I feel like a completely different person since I, uh, woke up from the coma?” Harryx asked.

“Yes, oh my husband.” Nallah gave him a cautious look from the corner of her eye. Harryx had been quiet all day, almost subdued ever since the abrupt end to their love-making the night before.

Nallah thought it was probably her fault—she had spoiled the beautiful mood her husband had set and she kept waiting for him to turn angry and cold with her again. So far he hadn’t but she couldn’t help thinking that it could happen at any time.

“Well…” He cleared his throat and looked down at his hands, clasped loosely together. They were sitting in the living area and the silence in the room was almost deafening after the latest vid had ended.

After going to the fair the day before, today they had stayed quietly at home. Harryx had asked her if there was anywhere she wanted to go that morning but Nallah hadn’t felt like going out. The upcoming Ritual of Procreation was heavy on her mind and she couldn’t help thinking how awful it was going to be when Harryx placed her on all fours on the padded altar and forced himself inside her as he had for the past three years.

“Well,” Harryx said again and seemed uncertain how to continue. He sighed and ran a hand through his dark blond hair. “What if I told you I was a different person?”

Nallah frowned at him. “But…how can you be a different person, my husband? I don’t understand.”

“What if I told you I wasn’t really your husband?” Harryx looked at her intently, his eyes going from pale blue to midnight black. “What if I told you I’m just…just borrowing his body for a while?”

Nallah’s breath caught in her throat and dread filled her like icy water.

“You…you mean like a Hallorook?” she asked, barely able to squeeze the words out of a throat tight with fear.

“A Hallorook?” Harryx—or was it Harryx?—frowned.

“An evil spirit that takes over a person’s body.” Nallah forced the words out, her skin prickling all over with goosebumps. But her husband didn’t seem to notice.

“Evil? No.” He frowned. “But a spirit in someone else’s body, well…”

“Don’t!” Nallah jumped off the couch. Normally she would fear to act so abruptly with her easily-angered husband but now an older fear, a deeper dread had taken over.

The story of the Hallorook was a legend she had read once in a book of old tales as a child and it had given her nightmares so severe she woke up screaming for months. Her older brother, Chanx, had found out it frightened her and had spent years tormenting her, pretending he wasn’t her brother at all but only the shell of her brother, inhabited by the Hallorook.

Nallah could still see him, creeping after her in the darkness, could still hear that weird, creepy voice he spoke in when he cornered her in a

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