Bound by Blood

Chapter 9

"Ben?"

He stood without moving, staring at me with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. Then a weird shudder wracked his lanky frame, and he blinked like someone waking from a dream. His pupils contracted, and I realized that was why his eyes looked so dark. They had been completely dilated, leaving only the thinnest sliver of brown iris around the rim.

He took in his surroundings with growing confusion and fear. "Ari? What's going on? How did I get here?"

I shook my head. His wild eyes were locked on my own as though he might read the answer there.

"I was driving, thinking about you, and then I was...here." He blinked, his pupils blowing wide then snapping to pinpricks. His voice took on a dreamy quality. "That's right. I couldn't stay away." His eyes went to my hand where I held the door, a trail of markings just visible beyond the end of my sleeve.

He traced them with his gaze, up my arm and to my chest, as though he could see them clearly beneath my clothes. "I couldn't stay away," he said again. "From you."

He took a step towards me and I felt a thrill of alarm, but resisted the urge to back up. "Ben...I think you need to go," I said. "There's something wrong here, and—" My eyes flicked to the knife still held limply at his side. "You should go."

A pained look pinched his pale face. "You don't want me here?"

He moved towards me again and I quickly tried to shut the door, but he caught it in one hand and held it open.

His pupils slowly spread wide, like pools of spilled ink, until his eyes were completely black. "I can't leave, Ari," he said, voice going hoarse and low. "I need you. I want you." He reached for me and I retreated another pace.

"Ben, you don't—"

"Ari! Get away!" a voice snapped at my back. Soren stood on the stairs, looking past me and fixing Ben with a glare. "He's possessed."

Ben's eyes snapped from me to him, and he hissed, hunching in on himself like a threatened animal. He snarled and shoved past me with a force that sent me sprawling to the floor.

Soren leapt nimbly over the bannister as Ben charged up the stairs, landing with the grace of a cat on the floor below. Ben roared with startling ferocity and spun around to follow. Then his eyes fell on me, and his lips peeled back from his teeth in a rictus that froze my blood.

"You're mine," he growled, voice unnaturally low, and leapt. He landed over me, pinning me with one hand and raising the knife in his other. "All mine."

Then Soren was there, kicking Ben hard in the side and sending him tumbling off me. He hauled me to my feet and shoved me towards the door. "Get out of here!" Soren shouted. "I'll deal with him."

I grabbed at his sleeve. "Wait, don't hurt him," I said. "He's not—" But Ben had already regained his footing. He crouched in a bizarre pose, knees bent, one hand splayed on the floor while the other clutched the knife. His pale face was rigid, eyes wide and teeth bared. He looked utterly crazed.

"Go!" Soren yelled at me, rounding on Ben. I startled and turned to obey, and found myself face to face with Valerie Owens.

She was clad in a white ruffled nightdress, her long white hair in a loose braid, and her face etched with the same horrible, wild-eyed madness as Ben's.

"Mine," she hissed, reaching for me with white, claw-like hands. Retreating from her grasp, my back collided with Soren's.

"I thought I said—" He looked over his shoulder. "Oh, fuck."

Ben and Valerie circled like wolves, teeth bared. At least Valerie had no weapon. "Don't let them touch you," said Soren. "Here," he handed me a fire-poker, evidently taken from the collection by the disused hearth, "keep the old woman busy while I put down the other."