Toxic Part One (Celestra Series Book 7) Read Free Page B

needed.”
    “You’re letting me go?” I hang onto the one thread of mercy I can find in his words.
    “Yes, but there are spiritual strings attached—a spiritual leash if you will—or noose.” His eyes widen with malevolence. “I’ve no intention to cause emotional stress to the mother you speak so glib of.” He gives a long blink. “Ordinarily, I would have you reside here. People disappear from the planet every day, Skyla. You would be missed, but you would most certainly be mine. These four walls would be your new home.” His fingers strum through the air trying to entice me to the mythical surroundings. “In your case, you wouldn’t be alone. You would have the companionship of the one you love by your side. So many here in the tower are isolated—dare I say all .” He points to the wall just past the bed and it becomes transparent. A window bleeds into the next room, then the next, and the next until the rectangles compact in on themselves. Each room houses but one person, and each one looks bored to tears, grievously alone—one at the desk, another on the bed, a third flat on the floor in utter despair. Their pale, gaunt faces are lost in a hollow gaze. They have been stolen by the Counts in every capacity, baptized with cruelty in both body and soul. 
    Demetri snaps his finger and the wall restores itself like switching off a remote. “We house the children with their mothers.” He nods as though it were perfectly sane. “And, of course, the final destination—the Tenebrous Woods—that, my friends, is—how would you say it? Where the action takes place.” He gives a curt nod and the wall ignites into a big screen again. An overwhelming darkness appears, then a sea of tree limbs form before our eyes, gnarled and twisted. The hint of a dark navy sky glimmers between the branches. Squared-off units—cages, emerge with a sickly glow and in each one are people pinned to the walls, held hostage within these cells, strapped with their arms spread wide, their legs secured in a harness. It looks satanic, something just this side of sexual, illegal and corrupt on every level. In another cell, people are roaming about then pause to look up at us. They move their arms toward us and in true 3-D fashion they extend into the room.
    I touch my fingers to one, and a jolt of fear so viral lurches through me, it sends me deeper into Logan’s arms. I reach out and touch another.
    Help , he cries. Kill us. The only way out is death. I pull my hand back like snatching it out of a fire.
    “Logan.” I bury my head in his chest.
    “Yes, it can be quite disturbing.” Demetri straightens as if my fright invigorates him.  “The Countenance view the treatment chambers as nothing more than a factory with unruly employees. But how those Celestra souls cry out for people—how they hunger for the touch of another. It’s the constant ignorant thread of hope that gives them something to look forward to all those long dreaded weeks while replenishing their vital fluids. Of course, they don’t last long.” He shakes his head in mock pity.
    Dear God. I let out a breath in lieu of words. He’s got this entire dungeon filled with Celestra blood dispensers. That’s so sick.
    I wouldn’t go off just yet. Maybe wait until he’s out of the room, Logan gives a slight squeeze as he says it.
    As if.
    “They’re not as interested in companionship as you think,” I say. “You know what they want more than an ice cream social?” I bark into Demetri’s crooked nose. “To get the hell out .”
    Logan steps in front of me and clears his throat. “So, I’ll be Skyla’s Elysian?”
    I can tell he’s trying to defuse Demetri’s temper, but in doing so, he’s riled up mine. I’m not so hot on discussing spiritual leashes either.
    “You will—should you choose to accept the offer.” His dark eyes bear into Logan with the challenge. “You must do all that is asked. You, yourself, will be the purveyor of her torment.