Body Tox (The Bodies duet #1)

Chapter 17

T he trail that was left of sweet little blood drops was so damn unfair. I knew this was a trap, yet I happily raced to my slaughter. It was getting ‘dark.’ In Alaska, that meant it got loud with animals, people disappeared, the cold became a problem, and the hazy dusk tone filled the skies.

That was okay. I enjoyed the darkness that Alaskan beauty offered. I’d lived my whole life in the shadows, bouncing from one corner to the next. At night, you could hide in the light that exposed you.

“Oh, my Little Wraith.” I sang, squinting to see her trail of broken sticks and beads of blood in the dusk moonlight.

I was at a cathedral now. The huge ass holy fuck land swallowed most of the landscape.

There was no way she’d go traipsing buck naked in a church, right?

I rubbed the stubble on my face and realized…yes, she fucking would. Sighing, I turned toward the church, abandoning the trail that led deep into the woods, likely a goose chase that would lead me right back to these doors.

It was shut tight for the night, but I knew a closed door wouldn’t stop a vengeful spirit like my Little Wraith.

I inspected the cool metal door, wondering what angle she would pull to get through.

The obvious choice was finding a basement to this glass prison for the faithful, which meant she would do the opposite.

I groaned, looking at the massive walls and wondering how the fuck to climb this shit.

“You couldn’t have found a nice, non-spider monkey pyromaniac to chase, Asher?” I asked myself, grunting and trying to get my footing on the castle like the brick of the building.

This was easier for someone who weighed a hundred pounds. Not so much for my six-foot-five-inch ass.

It was hard enough to keep my footing on the uneven brick, much less grab the window’s shutters, trying not to sacrifice myself to the disapproving god.

“Smite me bitch.” I grunted, nearing the first section of stable roofing.

I could have sworn I heard giggling brought to me by the wind. It was cold as balls up here, and unless she stole some clothes from some poor sap, I wondered how the fuck she hadn’t frozen to death.

Part polar bear and part feral fucking moose?

I stepped onto the roof, saying a few Hail Marys that I was finally done with the scaling.

“Hardee har, Little Wraith. I’m not that old . What next?”

Her laughter echoed in my ears, giving me an odd sensation of a haunted house. After all, she looked like a creepy, sexy doll at times—a gothic goddess of porcelain with straight, long, icy white hair.

“So close, Pretty Boy.” She laughed somewhere in the distance, her words an eerie echo I was unable to pinpoint.

I had to walk slowly. There was stained glass under my feet, and I was pretty sure breaking holy glass would create longer bad luck than a mirror.

“Come out, come out wherever you are. Your little games are for younger, more limber people, babe.”

Her musical giggle was addictive.

It made my constant wavering on the unsteady surface almost worth it.

“You got this, Pretty Boy. Just a few more steps.”

The sky was darker now, the full Alaskan version of night bringing along the stars in the sky. The moon was the only light I had to navigate the damn maze of the dark glass. The arches and valleys of the other roof structure shrouded certain steps in darkness, but it sounded like her voice came from the darkest section.

Taking a deep breath, I growled at the naughty tease.

“You know, the longer you take me on these little goose chases, the longer I am going to fucking punish you.”

Her voice was silent. At first, I thought it was from my words. Maybe she hadn’t heard me. I walked forward, ready to threaten her further, when an awful cracking sound shot into my ears.

The feeling of when I fell through the ice one winter flipped through my mind like negatives from a roll of film on an old camera.

The flash, crackling, and falling were all too familiar. I screamed, my fear of that night surfacing up like a bad dream. The darkness of this fucking hole swallowed me.

I didn’t fall into lethal waters this time. I smashed like an anvil onto something hard. I tried to center myself, my head blazing with a fire, the throb making my heartbeat the only sound besides the buzzing in my ears.

I coughed from the dust. A big ass slab of stone was inches away from me. The light of the night shined directly onto its rough edges. I tried to move, my back feeling the brunt of the fall.

Out of the shadows, the beautiful vengeful spirit appeared, frowning down at me as I blinked. Her hair reflected the moonlight. She was wearing some ugly ass robe that absolutely dwarfed her.

“Didn’t quite stick the landing, did ya?” she teased, her giggle echoing around the dark room. She was standing over me, her hand not quite in focus.

She bent down, and I felt a sharp pain in my forearm. My head was fuzzy, and her image was blinking in and out now. She was fading and blurring together like a cheesy camera filter sliding over her beauty.

“Nevertheless, you made it,” she continued.

Her image was going completely black. The last thing I heard before fading into the shadowy haze was her laughter—the warped song of vengeance.

“Ready for your prize, Pretty Boy?”