Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
“So you have heard of my kind. How very strange.”
“Not as strange as you might think,” I said through gritted teeth. I was still scared but I was beginning to get mad too. So all this time he had been feeding on me? Sucking up the negative emotions he caused by belittling me and putting me down? What an asshole!
I squeezed my hands into fists. I was beginning to feel some tingling in my fingers—probably because my hands were going numb from the tight zip-ties.
“Ah yes—anger too! It’s not as tasty as shame or pain or fear but it’s still quite delectable!” Mr. Price—if that was even his name—pursed his thin lips and began inhaling again—sucking up my negative emotions like they were a rare treat.
“Hey—stop that!” I struggled to get free, even though I knew it was useless. “Let me go and leave me alone, you freak!”
“Now that is not very nice language, is it?” Mr. Price frowned at me. “Also, I think I’m tired of anger—it’s too spicy for my palate. How about we try some more fear?”
As he spoke, something happened…he began to change. The business suit he was wearing began to stretch and lose the texture of fabric and the gray color of his jacket and pants spread to his face and hands.
At the same time, his narrow face started distorting itself. His nose became much sharper and longer and his narrow lips spread to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. His thinning hair disappeared altogether, absorbed into his scalp which was now gray as well. And his hands…his hands were now claws—each finger tipped in a razor-sharp point that looked capable of slicing my throat with no effort at all.
But it was his eyes that were the worst. The watery pale blue irises disappeared as a thick black film covered them. It covered the whites of his eyes too until they were nothing but two flat, black, obsidian voids staring at me.
Shark’s eyes, I thought, feeling sick. Predator’s eyes. There could be no reasoning with a monster that had eyes like that. Because Mr. Price—or whatever his real name was—had no pity in him. No remorse, no mercy or sympathy.
There was only hunger in that flat, black gaze and it was all centered on me.
“Yes…fear! How I love it!” The narrow lips parted again, revealing his jagged teeth and he inhaled deeply, sucking the nearly invisible vapor of terror from the center of my chest.
I was so scared I was afraid I might start crying and I knew if I broke down, I wasn’t going to be able to defend myself. But defend myself how? I was zip-tied to the chair and the ties were so tight my fingers were going numb. Or at least, they were tingling even more than they had been. In fact, the tingles had become almost painful.
I spared a moment from staring in terror at the monster my boss had become to glance down at my fingers. To my surprise, they were glowing.
What the Hell? I thought, looking at myself. What was going on with me?
I remembered that Tark had said I was glowing after I had passed out earlier. And how Madam Healer thought it had something to do with my magic. She had also said that I would find my magic when I needed it.
Well, I needed it now!
I twisted my wrists desperately, not caring that the plastic zip-ties were digging into my flesh. My fingers started tingling even more—in fact, it felt like they were getting hot. Experimentally, I twisted my right hand under and managed to get my fingertip to touch the thin cord of plastic binding my wrist to the chair’s arm.
I heard a thin sizzling sound and then the smell of burning plastic wafted up to my nose. What the Hell? Had my fingers gotten hot enough to melt plastic?
I didn’t have much time to marvel at my new magical skill—whatever it was—though. Because Mr. Price was coming towards me.
“Let’s see now, how about a little bite?” he asked, grinning at me to show those jagged teeth. “I like the taste of emotional pain but physical pain is extremely tasty too!”
He was getting closer and closer, shoving his face into mine. His breath smelled like death—I mean that. It smelled like something rotten and decayed and unspeakably foul. It made my stomach turn with revulsion.
“Disgust tastes nice too!” he snarled at me and then he was opening his mouth to take a bite of my shoulder.
As the points of his teeth grazed my arm, I yanked back and felt my right hand come free. Instinctively, I shoved it into his face to push him away. As I made contact with his gray skin, the dull golden-red glow that was emanating from my fingers abruptly brightened to a blinding radiance.