Read Online Seduced by Power by Alex Lux - Free Book Online

flower in the sun, opening wide and digging into my soul until I couldn't stand straight. Crouched over, breath hard and shallow, I vomited out bile and soul-sucking sorrow and felt no better for it.
    His features softened, skin fading into a more human color. For a flicker of a moment, he almost looked like he could be handsome, but his ecstatic smile as he licked his lips with that horrid tongue sent those thoughts flying. "Yes, you be perfect."
    "No more feeding on me until my friends are safe. That's the deal." I wouldn't have the strength to rescue them if he kept that up.
    He seemed about to argue, but nodded instead, leading me down an alternate hallway parallel to the one with the dragon.
    I fought through tightened muscles to stand and follow, staying in the shadows and watching my back after each step to make sure no one was behind me. The walls made noises, groaning like old men, and seemed to watch me through their fissures and cracks. Goosebumps popped up on my arms and every scrape of Bankun's feet against the floor made me jump.
    We didn't run into any other demons, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Bankun led us into a much smaller cave and rubbed his hands on the stone wall until a secret door opened.
    His eyes gleamed bright as he gestured for me to follow him.
    Heart thumping so hard it was almost all I could hear, I slid through the dark crack in the stone before it slammed shut behind me, nearly taking my arm with it.
    We stood in pitch black, not a single light to cast shadow anywhere. I blinked and couldn't tell the difference between my eyes opened and closed. I swayed, dizzy from my inability to place myself in the context of anything around me.
    I feared speaking, but would have soon if he hadn't lit a torch and waved it in front of me. It should have shone bright in such a dark space, but this darkness was heavy, oppressive, and it pushed against the flames, consuming them just as Bankun had consumed my pain.
    My eyes adjusted to the little light we had, but I still had no sense of space. We were enclosed on all sides, in a small area, but that was all I could discern. I dared not move, even an inch, without Bankun's lead, though. I felt something evil in there with us.
    Bankun pointed to the floor in front of us. I saw only black.
    He lowered the torch to give me a better view, and I stepped back without thinking. A pool of black, tar-like liquid bubbled in the center of the cave. Smoke rose from it, though I could see no fire or cause for the smoke. It smelled like death. Like hopelessness and nightmares.
    "You jump in and find friends. Bring them back. I take them home. You feed me."
    Um. No. Not even a little. "Are you kidding me? I'll die if I do that, and then this is all really a moot point, isn't it?"
    I swallowed, my throat dry, and my stomach knotted up. My hands shook. When I imagined jumping in, panic swamped me. I would have run out of the cave screaming had there been a door.
    Even if I'd wanted to, I physically could not do it. Could. Not.
    Bankun's face scrunched up in anger. "This only way, stupid human. You jump and get friends, or you and them trapped here forever."
    He turned to go, and I grabbed on to him, shocking myself by voluntarily touching him. "You can't leave me here."
    "I be gone too long. They notice. You do what I say and come back. Then I help you. You not do it, you stay here."
    He tossed the torch to the ground and disappeared before I could say more.
    I picked it up before it lost all of its fire and waved it around looking for Bankun or the door, anything that would lead me somewhere other than that pit of nightmares.
    There was nothing. A round room with no doors, no windows, and no way out.
    "Bankun! You get your ass back here, dammit. I am not jumping in there. Bankun!" I screamed my throat raw, but no one came. My words echoed back to me, then died.
    I slumped to the floor, unsure of what to do. Blake had warned me about this place, but I hadn't listened.