Nocturne 026 - Valorian Chronicles 02 - VIVI ANNA – Dark Lies (10-2007) by Silhouette Nocturne

Author:Silhouette Nocturne [Nocturne, Silhouette]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-01-16T18:14:44+00:00

18

B lood. The smell of it nearly made Tala gag. It was everywhere. All around her. Splashed on every inch of her naked flesh. She lifted her crimson-stained hands up to her face and started to lick them clean.

Tala bolted up from her sleep. Panic suffocated her and she clawed at her mattress. Her bedsheets were tangled around her arms and legs and she felt smothered. Ripping the cotton away from her body, she finally collapsed back on the bed naked and sweating. She glanced around her room, confused and disoriented. How did she get home? Hadn’t she been at a crime scene?

Then it came crashing down on her like a two-ton weight. The vacant lot. The teenagers. And the blood.

“Oh, God,” she wailed. Her stomach roiled in utter revulsion. Groping her way to the side of the bed, she scrambled off and rushed into her bathroom. She grabbed the bottle of mouthwash on the counter and poured some in her mouth. After swishing, she spat it into the sink. Slamming open the medicine cabinet, she rooted around for her drops. They weren’t there.

Panic surged over her and she dropped to the floor and scoured the drawers and cupboard under the sink. Still nothing. Where did she last put them?

“Looking for this?”

Swirling around, Tala saw Jace standing in the doorway, her plastic bottle of eye drops captured between his fingers.

She reached for him. “Give it to me.”

He danced out of her way. “How long have you been using this?”

Unconcerned that she was still naked, she stood and rushed him, trying to pry the bottle from his fingers. He was too strong, and she was much too weak. Dejected, Tala pushed away and rushed into her living room. Maybe she had drops in her purse.

“How long, Tala?”

She ignored him as she searched for her purse. She found it underneath her coffee table. Unzipping it, she dumped the contents onto the table and searched through it.

“I took the one from there, too.”

Closing her eyes and clamping down on her urge to scream, Tala sank back into the fluffy pillows of her sofa. She let her purse fall from her lap. “You have no right.”

Shivering, she finally realized that she was naked. She wrapped her arms around her chest, suddenly very aware that she was exposed and Jace had seen her.

Jace came around the sofa, handed her a robe and sat on the edge of her coffee table near her. “It’s silver nitrate, isn’t it?”

She glared at him, but took the offered robe and wrapped it around her body. “You have no idea what I have suffered.”

She saw the twitch at his jaw and thought he would protest, but he remained quiet and watchful, allowing her to make her case. She didn’t like the way he looked at her, his eyes full of disappointment and scorn. That was exactly the same look her mother had given her the day Tala discovered her…condition. Mutation, her mother had called it.

“You look at me like we’re the same.

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