Blind Love( Completed, Kings Series, Book 4)

Exorcism

"What's going on, Samuel!" I shouted. I wasn't even aware I had clutched his shirt in a deathly grip.

"Ssh." He had stopped growling. His silence made it worse. Was he giving up? Was he cowering against an undefeatable force? What were we up against? This was one of those times in which my blindness came as a double curse. What I couldn't see, my imagination filled in the spots.

"Don't ssh me, is it the dust monster?"

"What? Are you high Di?" He managed to free my hold over him and took a few steps away from me. Though my heart was erratic, and everything in me screamed not to let him go, my pride took over. I was a capable, strong woman. Right? I repeated that several times in my head. It didn't sink, but I pretended it did.

"Are you a child to believe in dust monsters?" His words cut through my fear. Was there humor in his voice? Of course, there was. I definitely heard his snort, the one he didn't bother hiding from me. He was having fun at my expense.

Out of all the times, he could get on my nerves, he'd chosen this very moment. This moment which held me paralyzed in terror.

I decided to ignore it. "What do you see Samuel?" Contrary to my expectations, the eerie night was not shattered by his full rich voice. Damn. "Sam?" I screamed. What if he disappeared, too? What if I was left alone in here facing a creature I couldn't see.

"Relax! Nothing. I see nothing. Though, I felt for a second that we weren't alone. But not anymore. Okay, since you don't want to come to my mansion, would you care to tell me where you wanna go?"

I didn't know. "I'll stay at a hotel."

"Alone?" The anger in his voice crashed over me. "At a night when Alessandro was taken? And on duty, when he was protecting you?"

"I'm sure I'll be fine. He was not there to protect me, thank you very much. He was there to do your dirty work." Did he think I didn't know? His obsession for my blood? I tried to pace like an angry animal to put some weight to my words. I instructed myself: Take a huge stride forward, make sure you put your foot down with a heavy thud, and then turn around and do it again. How hard could it be? But the moment I took a step, I found myself flying in the air.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?" Samuel cursed.

Shit! Who had put that stone in front of me? Was it the dust monster?

No matter, I had not fallen on my face like I should have. I would have preferred it. The embarrassment would be there. But, I would live. No, instead, Samuel had caught me in his arms, and my flaking arms had latched onto his hard muscles, my nose desperately buried in his shirt as if he was my oxygen tank in deep water. I started inhaling deeply. Oh, I couldn't have enough of it. This was addictive. I wanted to make a perfume of his scent.

"What are you doing, sniffing me like that?" he snapped.

I didn't know. It was all the dust monster's fault. He had confused me, taken me out of my comfort zone. Something had happened to my brain cells. Perhaps I had swallowed too much dust when my mouth was agape. Or too many evil particles had forced their way deep into my nostrils and I had not managed to sneeze them off. Now I was sick. That explained it.

"I'm not." Denial was my strategy. Could he prove otherwise, could he say with hundred percent conviction that what he'd heard so loudly was the sound of my inhaling and not a raccoon sniffing for food? Or, could he be sure of the fact that I was sniffing him and not trying to draw oxygen into my lungs? After all, I had had a fright. And he had placed his chest in the path of my oxygen.

"You're not what?" Samuel was confused.

Had he even forgotten the question? "I'm not sniffing you."

"Whatever!" He sighed. It was a loud exasperated sigh.

Victory. I had just scored it. It sounded good to my ears, making me forget that I was still in the middle of nowhere running away from the dust monster.

"Alessandro must be back at your mansion. Would you please tell him to bring back my cane?" I wanted to go back to making my point. The point being he was nothing but a selfish bloodthirsty bastard, sending his vampires to protect his assets, and not me. And, now one of them had stolen from me, with or without Samuel's consent, I didn't care. I had grievances. I was not afraid to voice them. Alessandro was a thief vampire. Who knew vampires snooped to simple crimes? It surely was a taint on their reputation as vicious, lethal night creatures killing humans, creating havoc and chaos in the world. Dracula would turn around in his grave. "Dracula would be ashamed." I couldn't help but point that out.

"Who?" Impatience was thin in his voice.

"Dracula. Your great-great grandfather. Your maker." Did he think just because I was a human being, I didn't know much about them? Granted, it had been hard for me to believe vampires were real. But, now I knew, I was not afraid to let him know that I had listened to lots of vampire audiobooks. There was something to be said about pop culture.

"I have no freaking idea what you're saying! I know none named Dracula. And he's not my maker."

"Oh?" I said, sniffing and realizing I was still glued to his body, inhaling him like a maniac. Unless I pulled away, there was no way denial would save my ass the second time. Gathering all my wits, I focused on the exhalation of all dust particles from my body, I meditated on cleansing myself. I imagined the white clean light around me as in meditation. Bleached myself to perfect whiteness. Great. I'd done it. I felt cleansed. One, two, three...I pushed him. I really did. At least, I thought I did. But, it seemed my arms had a will of their own.

"Stop tickling and sniffing me, Di. I've had enough of this," Samuel said.

Tickling him? Absolutely not. I was pushing him. Right? Apparently not! Still, I could live with the allegation of tickling. But, definitely not sniffing. Nope, I would deny it. Denial was now an overused strategy, but I could think of nothing else.

"Nonsense," I said. There I'd denied it. Again.

The cleansing hadn't worked. I needed to find a priest for an exorcism ritual. I could see how that would go. Father, I need your help. Would you please exorcise the dust in my body?

Sure child. I now cleanse you with this holy water.

Wow, my imagination was doing wonders. I really felt the sprinkling of water all over me. It was cold. It was wet. It was working.

The monster will leave your body never to return again.

"Diana!" The dust monster was protesting to the ritual. He didn't want to leave. He was angry.

"Diana!" the warning came again.

I knew that voice. "Samuel?" I croaked.

"We need to go."

And, then I realized it was raining, the sky was shedding large fat tears. No wonder I was getting wet.

He unclasped my hands around his shoulders and picked me up.

"I'm done waiting for you. We are going back to the mansion!" 

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Alena