Seduced by Darkness by Alex Lux Read Free Book Online Page A

again with a thump so hard the cliff shook. It was only a testament to my healing and new Nephilim body that I didn't die.
    "You fly or you fall," he said, grabbing me again.
    "How? You're not teaching me, you're torturing me. I don't have wings. I can't fly." Believe me, I'd tried.
    He threw me up again, to the same results. By this point I could detect a Drake-shaped outline in the rocks below as I fell once again.
    "Your wings are a part of you. I cannot tell you how to move them, just as I cannot tell you how to move your hand."
    I checked my back again, just to make sure the pain hadn't dulled my senses to the sprouting of never-before-had wings. But nope, still nothing.
    "They are hidden," Beleth said, as if everyone knew this. "But they are there." He grabbed my shoulders. "Again."
    I groaned. Tried to land on my feet this time. Failed. Fell on my face. Groaned again.
    If I'd known this would be my training, all day long, I would have stayed with Sam and Ana.
    At sunset, Beleth relented and stopped throwing me in the air. "We must eat."
    I was ready for a big bowl of pasta, but instead I got a blood pack.
    Sadly, it smelled so good it made me drool, but I held it out to him. "I can't." Never mind I'd taken Sam's blood. This couldn't become a thing.
    "It will give you strength and help you heal. Drink."
    "I understand, but I don't want to get addicted. I don't want to go through what I did before. It nearly killed me and ruined my life with Sam."
    Beleth drained his pouch of blood and tossed it aside. "You already are addicted. You have to learn to control it, and to do that, you must drink so that the bloodlust never takes over."
    Bloodlust. Great. I rip open the bag and drain it, reluctantly enjoying the coppery richness flowing down my throat.
    Beleth nodded in approval. "Now, I'll show you how to hunt, so you can get blood yourself whenever you need it."
    "No way. That's my line and I'm not crossing it. I refuse to kill unless I must."
    "Do you eat meat?" he asked.
    "I became a vegetarian after I lost my powers. My new abilities made eating meat… difficult."
    "You must learn to hunt, son. Even if you don't rely on it as your main source of blood, you have to know how to protect yourself and feed yourself or you will be at great risk."
    "I'm sorry, I can't."
    He sighed and stared at the night sky. "We will train again tomorrow."

    I woke to a strong wind. We were higher up on a rock formation than we'd been last night.
    Beleth held out a live rabbit, white with grey ears. "We're trying something new today."
    "I told you, I won't kill unless I have to."
    "Good," said Beleth. Then he dropped the rabbit over the cliff. "Let it fall, or catch it. It's up to you whether it lives or dies."
    "Shit." I didn't think, just jumped off the cliff, knowing Beleth wouldn't let me die.
    I fell fast, the wind cold against my skin, but the rabbit fell faster and I couldn't catch up. I needed my wings. Trying to push myself, I willed myself faster, harder, feeling the wind on my back, through my body, connecting with every part of myself.
    And then I felt it. Pain in my back, like my bones were growing and stabbing out from my skin. I pushed harder and my speed increased. More and more. Faster and faster. I could see the rabbit through misty white clouds. It was falling but I was now moving faster. I felt the wings moving through parts of my body I didn't have before, extensions of myself I didn't have time to look at but could feel moving out of me.
    The ground came for us, moving faster as I did.
    I gave one last push, grabbing the rabbit and curling my body around it just as I crashed into the earth and everything went black.

    When I woke, a new kind of pain greeted me. My back ached and shoulders burned. I looked around and saw Beleth playing with the rabbit.
    "You're the devil," I said, smiling—then wincing as I tried to sit up.
    Beleth grinned. "Your love of life is a weakness, but every weakness can be a strength. You