Hell's Rayne (Book 1)

Chapter 6

“Well well, Dahlia. Changed your mind then? Couldn't bring yourself to stay away from me?”

 Shane stared at me, his blue eyes insipidly pale in the yellow glow of light and stretched wide showing far too much red-veined white around the iris. He looked crazed, naked and glimmering with post-coital – or post kill – sweat. He stared me down; hands at his hips in a proud and arrogant stance, still making no move to cover his nakedness. On the contrary, his confident pose seemed intended to display himself to me, revealing himself in all of his naked 'glory'; and his words supported that theory.

 I mentally kicked myself for my choice of phrase upon entering the room. I'd wanted to go for intimidating and confident, but I should have known that a man like Shane would so easily misconstrue my words. Admittedly, my spying on his sexual antics didn't really speak in my favour either, but my eyes travelled to Evie's corpse still sprawled on the bed. That had to be my trump card.

 “Well...” I found I had to clear my throat before I could continue with my words, when did I suddenly get nervous in this situation? “There is certainly nothing wrong with your ego, Shane. But that is not even close to the reason why I'm here.”

 “Really,” he said in a flat tone, far from convinced by my response.

 He took a couple of steps toward me and, even though the bed still stood between us, I had to force myself not to back away like every instinct in my body was telling me to. I may have been on the verge of completing my contract, but Shane was a killer, a threat and bigger than me. Even with the few mild enhancements my demon blood added to my physical strength and speed I was still very much the prey in the scenario. I didn't necessarily need to overpower him to transport him to Hell, thankfully – flesh to flesh contact would cash in my bounty and allow me to summon the portal that would take us there – unfortunately I needed to be touching him long enough for the power to rise and the 'Void' , as it was called, to open. Thinking on it, succumbing to Shane's advances would probably have been the most simple way to do this, but the idea made my flesh crawl.

 “Y'know, you could have fooled me love. Why else would you be lurking outside the door? Come to see what you're missing out on? I promise you, the live action is much better than the preview.”

 My eyes were, yet again, drawn to the dead body spread out on the bed.

 “Oh really?” I retorted, “something tells me she might beg to differ!” I jabbed a finger in Evie's direction. “Hardly the most romantic of times to make a proposition Shane, with a corpse still littering your bed.”

 “Right, I see, you're squeamish,” Shane responded simply, as if that were such a simple and reasonable explanation for my reluctance. “Because that's not a problem. I can move her out the way, make room for you.” He arched one eyebrow at me and trailed a hand, suggestively, down his stomach towards his genitals.

 My insides twisted into a knot and I swallowed back a burning wave of nausea. I shook my head, “ugh, please. Don't make me sick, there is no way I am getting into bed with you.”

 Shane dragged in an exaggerated sigh. He padded towards me, coming around to the same side of the bed, and I couldn't stop myself from taking that step backwards again. I felt behind me and touched the wall with my fingertips; bad move, last place I wanted to be was backed up against a wall.

 “Then you leave me with a problem Dahlia. Because there is no way I am letting you leave this room, not after what you saw. Now we could have some fun, work something out; that would be the 'easy way' as you put it. I'm not as against that idea as you might think.”