Dark Seduction by Shaun Jeffrey Read Free Book Online

swamp. His parents hovered over the surface, while he sank up to his knees. Something agitated the surface to his left and a chimerical bird took flight from the branches of a bizarre, twisted tree, the roots of which looked like distended fingers.
    The leaves of the tree burst into flames; then they flew away like moths that flew too close, their wings beating frantically in an attempt to put out the fire.
    His father opened his coat. “Beware the wolf in sheep's clothing.”
    Zen tried to back away, but his legs wouldn't move. He was sinking too fast. A creature was merged with his father's naked body. Canine teeth gnashed at the air, its feral eyes glowing like amber. Its paws protruded from his father's chest and thighs and its head broke through his ribs, the bones of which fused around its face like a macabre skeletal cage.
    Zen screamed. He didn't know whether the sound also vented in the corporeal world or not, but it seemed loud enough to conquer realms.
    His father dropped to the ground, and the animal legs propelled the creature towards Zen. The wolf face snarled and his father smiled, seemingly unaffected by the mud into which Zen sank.
    A pressure constricted his chest as he sank and he raised his head, hoping to stop himself from going under; and then the world went black.
    Zen woke gasping for air. A debilitating weight pressed against his waist and he looked up. For a moment, he thought he must still be dreaming, caught in an infinite nightmare loop.
    Jade crouched over him, knife in hand. Zen shuddered, and a sick feeling hunkered in his stomach.
    Next second, Jade stabbed the blade towards Zen’s face.

CHAPTER 9
     
    Zen brought his hands up and grabbed Jade's wrists. She gnashed and struggled like a rabid dog as he fought to restrain her, the blade of the knife inches from his eye.
    Jade grunted, using all her strength to drive the blade home. With only the whites of her eyes visible, she appeared haunting and unnatural and Zen wished he were still dreaming.
    “Die, you son-of-a-bitch,” she squealed, spit flying from her lips.
    Fear stabbed Zen with as much pain as the knife would if it found its target. It took all his strength to wrestle her. The tip of the blade inched closer to his eye. “What do you think you're doing?” he snarled.  He twisted aside and relaxed his hold, allowing the blade of the knife to spear the bed where his head had been.
    “ Bastard ,” Jade snarled, pulling the knife back out.
    With her centre of gravity altered, Zen seized the moment and rolled her off. She crashed into the back of the cab and he quickly jumped out of bed and onto the front seat. Behind him, Jade swore and he turned to see her looming towards him, still intent on stabbing him with the knife.
    Zen grabbed the handle and flung the door open, shivering as the cold wind embraced him. But he moved too slowly. Pain flared across his back like a white-hot star exploding as she sliced his skin and he sucked air through his teeth, back arched in agony.
    “You're crazy,” he shouted, jumping out of the lorry.
    “And you're dead,” Jade screamed, following him out.
    The moon glowed behind ominous clouds and Zen looked around for a means of escape. He briefly realised that both of them were still naked and his manhood shrivelled, partly due to the cold, and partly due to fear.
    The cold seemed to infiltrate his body more where the metal piercings entered his flesh, using them as conductors to chill him to the bone.
    Although it was dark, he spotted Jade's teeth glowing as she peeled her lips back, incisors like daggers. At any other time her naked body would have excited him, but now it looked obscene, her muscles bunched and taut as she advanced, grinning.
    Zen turned and fled. Sharp thorns on the road stabbed his feet, but he ignored the pain. He would rather suffer a little prick, than a big one from the knife.
    He could see a rock face in the distance, rising like a fortress wall. Trees to his left