EXCERPT:

Between Light and Dark

Axiom held 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 silver 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.

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 have ever 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 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 which 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  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 horror of the vision she’d experienced.

“They are the Umbrae. They are those who would wipe out the light and rule the Earth. I shared a re-visioning with you, a memory of mine.”

Laurell barely registered Axiom’s words. The screams of tormented souls still reverberated in her head. “I don’t want to see them again.”

“Hopefully, you will not have to.” Axiom sighed and lifted her chin, forcing her eyes to meet his. For the first time, she didn’t shrink back. She hadn’t the energy.

“Please know I regret having to show you in such a harsh manner. I did not know how else to make you believe me.”

Laurell shrugged out of his grip. She had to get control of herself. “Fine. I get it. I have to help you save the world. Somehow, you and I will make a baby who will rescue the planet.”

The words sounded hollow to her ears, but Laurell knew in her gut what she’d just experienced was real.