The Nightmare (The Mist Book 2)

My right hand clutched the burning and throbbing mark branded on my chest. The other latched on to Thomson as he herded me back inside while multiplying the apologies. I couldn’t focus on his words. My head spun, and my body tingled with a foreign energy that pulsated outward from my brand. My chest felt so constricted that I couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen in my lungs.

He didn’t hurt me. He didn’t hurt me…

I had to keep repeating those words to myself or else I would lose it. Another wave of panic almost overwhelmed me as we navigated around the broken glass of the holding cell before exiting that room.

Images of the reinforced glass wall shattering then his shadow tentacles grabbing me started replaying in a loop in my head. In that instant, I’d believed my final hour had come. Seconds from my body slamming against his, I’d expected Zain to drain me with the same voracity he had siphoned Jared and that Cthulhu Beast.