Page 97 of Shadowface

More. I want more. That wasn’t nearly enough.

“Lincoln,” I gasp.

He pauses as he lifts his brows, the bottom of his glasses teasing my clit. His pupils are so dilated they nearly take over his eyes.

“Yes, Summer?”

Xander’s words slam into me as if they didn’t matter, and now they do.

I am still unaware of the man behind those glasses, or what Lincoln is capable of, but that was a surge of emotion deep within his soul. And I can’t reconcile the duplicity of my own thoughts. I’m torn between whether I actually want him, or if he has created this desire within me.

“Is what Xander said true? That you don’t feel anything?”

His eyes swirl into everlasting darkness, his face stone cold. “It’s true. I study feelings, emotions, and the actions of humans because of them. I understand them so intimately, but no, I don’t actually feel them.”

Humans. He says the word as if he’s not one of us.

I let out a deep breath as the music shifts to a soft cello. The soft melody takes over my entire mind before I snap myself back into focus.

“You made me do things to myself I never would have done on my own. I shoved that stick so far up myself that I bled out for an hour.”

His eyes flash—not in a psychotic way, but with pure satisfaction. “We own you, Summer. We’ve owned your mind and soul since you were young…since the first day we found out you existed.”

I snarl at him, “Where is he, then? If he’s so involved in all of this, why does Mikael hide so much?” I peer deep into his eyes. “Come out and play with me, Mikael. Because, apparently, Lincoln doesn’t have feelings.”

A flash of annoyance crosses Lincoln’s eyes, and he rises and strides over to his desk, leaving me cold.

“Be careful what you wish for, baby,” he says as he sits on his chair. “I can’t control Mikael. If he’s not here right now, it’s because he’s choosing not to be.”

I cross my arms and pull my legs, catching my breath as a fresh wave of the drugs hits me at the sudden change of tone in the room. I lay my head back on the bed. “You’re probably the most confusing person I’ve ever met.”

“That’s because I’m not really a person. Not in the sense you understand it.”

I lift my neck briefly. “What do you mean? What are you then, other than a robot?”

He pulls open his desk drawer and pulls out a bottle of pills and inspects them. “That is a very…colloquial way of describing me.” He shoves the drawer closed, stuffs the pills into his pocket, and pulls off his shirt.

I can’t take my eyes off him as he walks toward me. His muscled abs, the soft lines of his torso, his messy hair curling over his forehead. The perfection that is this man is otherworldly.

He’s a god. He’s a fucking god, that’s what he is.

He stops beside the bed, places the pills down, sits and takes off his pants and boxers. “Scientists would describe me as the gatekeeper of the system, the core, the caretaker. Some might even call me the demon. I’m a fragment; I’m all the fragments combined. I’m something scientists have never encountered, which is why Dr. Garcia took such an interest in me when I formed. I am everything that makes up this mind. I am ageless, timeless, and powerful. Mikael made me into the very image of what he fears the most.”

“Shadowface,” I whisper as I stare off at a strange shadow on the wall beside me. A cool draft hits my face and my heart rate spikes.

He killed that girl… I am in bed with a monster.

He then takes off his glasses and places them on the nightstand. “Yes, I suppose I am Shadowface in the most rudimentary sense, but Shadowface isn’t a person; he’s an entity. But I do lack one very important element. One important primal part of what it means to be human.”

“What is that?” I ask him.

He slides in beside me and helps me pull off my dress, and his body is like molten lava and I appreciate being next to him. “I lack real emotion.”

He unbuttons the clasp of my bra and helps me pull it off my shoulder as I rest my head down, enjoying the sound of his voice. His body wraps around me like a warm blanket.

My nipples harden as he reaches around and cups one. His body is so soft and secure. “I am everything Mikael isn’t, and everything he wasn’t able to be because of his trauma.”

“And what was his trauma, exactly?” I dare to ask him.