Between Light and Dark Read Online Free PDF Page B

her as though she weighed nothing. His jaw
clenched, and a pulse beat erratically at his throat. Anger
seeped from his skin until the air grew pungent with it.
Laurell tensed and forced herself not to flinch under the
harshness of his piercing eyes.
    "Stop it," he muttered.
    "Stop what?"
    "Fearing me."
    Laurell frowned. "In case you haven't noticed, you're sort
of scary," she retorted.
    "Were you afraid when I kissed you last night? Or when
you were grinding yourself against me?"
    Heat flooded Laurell's cheeks, and she pushed at his unyielding chest. "Put me down. Now."
    Axiom's eyes narrowed, and he looked for a moment as
though he would refuse, but he released her. Once she stood
on her own, Laurell backed away from him. She took a seat
in one of the chairs before the fireplace and pressed her
hands between her knees to hide their trembling. The drug
finally must have worn off. She was afraid.
    Axiom sat across from her, and though she stared at the
fireplace, she could sense his steady gaze.
    "I understand your fear. I know this situation is nothing
you could ever have imagined or prepared yourself for."
Genuine concern tinged Axiom's words and made Laurell lift her head. What did he know? An insane man who insisted he was a god and went around kidnapping women,
promising them babies and making them sex crazed couldn't
possibly understand her heart.

    "You don't know squat," she finally said.
    "I know you better than you think," Axiom told her.
    "What is that supposed to mean?" Laurell spat out. Who
did he think he was anyway? I am a god made flesh. His
words from the evening before flooded back to Laurell,
sending a shiver through her limbs.
    Axiom sighed. "Laurell, this resistance is accomplishing
nothing. We waste valuable time. I must be able to trust
that you will not attempt to flee every time I turn my back.
You need to understand the seriousness of your actions."
    Before she could respond, Axiom stood and crossed the
distance between them. He knelt in front of her chair and
yanked her hands from between her knees, clasping them
between his.
    "I am sorry for this."
    "For what?"
    A moment later, she knew exactly what. The room went
black. A wave of energy hit her. It was nothing like the pleasure of the yearning. It held a desperate, dark note. Grief and
hopelessness enveloped her.
    She saw creatures, ugly and twisted, their blackened, scaly
bodies bloated and vile. She smelled sulfur, thick and putrid,
and it filled her nostrils and twisted through her lungs. One
of the creatures reached out thin, withered fingers toward
Laurell, beckoning her. Its other hand burrowed into the
tangled mass of bodies that lay next to it. As it did so, heads
lifted, and those poor souls tangled in the mass cried out.
    She sensed the fear and despair of millions of souls,
trapped in the Dark, kept forever from reaching their rightful home in the Light.

    Their screams pierced Laurell's eardrums, plunged into
her own soul, and filled her with terror.
    She shrieked, and their cries mingled with her own. She
could no longer tell where their pain ended and hers began.
    The vision ended just as abruptly as it had begun. Laurell
blinked, realizing she was back in the safe house.
    Her breath was labored, shallow. Axiom hovered over
her, granite eyes fixed intently on her face. Her heart fell
back into her chest. She jerked away from him and scrambled backward until her spine hit a chair. How had she
ended up on the floor?
    Shivering, she wrapped her arms around her legs and
rocked herself. Her eyes stayed open wide. If she closed
them again, would she see those creatures? She shuddered
at the thought.
    Axiom rose and returned to her side moments later with
a glass of water. He forced it into her hands. Minutes passed
while she sipped the water and regained her composure.
    "Explain what just happened. What were those things
and how the hell did you do that?" Laurell's voice came out
edged with the