The Drazen World: Purgatory (Kindle Worlds Novella)

of the moment making me completely delirious. The anger and the fear pouring out of me like some kind of hot lava bursting from a century-old volcano.
My arms shot straight out on either sides of me, my head swung back and my mouth opened with a roar of resentment. Hunter's name thundered in the surrounding space, the force of my voice surprising even myself.
I hadn't even repeated myself when I felt his all-consuming presence in front of me, his hands on my face trying to calm me.
"Spunky. Hey! Calm down." The soothing voice spoke to me. Calmed my agony, my anger.
"He has to go back. Please," I begged, ready to throw myself at the feet of our Maker, do anything.
"Who, Spunky? Who has to go back?" Hunter looked around, confused.
"Jonathan. Jonathan Drazen. He has to go back to Monica. She'll never survive without him. Please, Hunter. Please....Don't let her suffer more than she already has." By this point, I was a sobbing mess of muscle with liquefied limbs that no longer held my weight.
But Hunter did. He wrapped his arms around my waist and gathered me up into his chest like a child.
"He has to go back, Hunter." I mumbled into this perfect man's neck, my tears drenching his skin, as he began walking us back in the direction of the suites.
"Shhh, baby. You're okay. I've got you." I heard him whisper, the pain real and evident.
"No, it's not okay. Monica won't survive." Before we got too far, I lifted my heavy head to look at Jonathan but he no longer stood where I had left him. He was gone. That little fact gave me hope.
At first, I was afraid he had been transferred elsewhere, but my heart beat an extra dance. My belly calmed and my brain stopped hurdling possible scenarios. Jonathan had gone back to her, I could feel it deep inside of me. I don't know why he’d come to me, but I knew without a doubt that it had been temporary.
Reverently, my body was lowered upon soft sheets, a pillow perfectly cradling my head. The smile that spread across my face felt like sunshine on a June morning before the City of Angels awakened.
Happiness. I felt it warming inside of me, swirling like a living, breathing thing. It started at the pit of my stomach and travelled outward until the very tips of my fingers and toes could feel the ethereal healing. I hadn't felt this level of joy since before my teens when my parents had taken us to the zoo where Willy the Orca was temporarily resettled.
Even though that happiness had only lived a mere second inside me, until I saw the desperation etched all over the poor animal in captivity, I had felt it. It had been real, I now knew, because I could again feel it.
I wanted to live in this feeling, bask in it and swim within its grasp. I wanted to inhale the summery feeling and never let it go.
"Baby? Are you okay?" Hunter's worried eyes searched my face, probably wondering if I was about to have a complete and total meltdown.
"Yes. Oh my God. I am....so fucking good, right now!" And I meant it.
"Spunky, you're going to get punished for that. You know that, right?" He chuckled when he saw my over the top eye-roll. He'd cursed many times before and he was still here, so I wasn't worried about the repercussions. But then taking the Lord's name in vain was probably frowned upon in these parts.
Sitting down on the plush bed right next to me, Hunter brought his index finger up to my temple and dragged it down my cheek, across my chin and down the slope of my throat. His Adam's Apple bobbing in a nervous attempt to keep cool.
"You saw Jonathan, then?" Hunter whispered, his eyes following the tender trail of his finger as it danced between the valley of my breasts. I wanted him to touch me, circle my aching nipples with his mouth, caress them with his tongue. I needed him to fill this emptiness inside me and make me feel the sun burning and scalding.
"Yes. He was here, I know he was." My voice was breathless, his movements creating a surge of something inexplicable inside me.
"He was. He died but he fought it. His doctors were able to bring him back. I'm guessing you're a little responsible for his will to live." Hunter stopped his journey and swung his eyes back up to me. "Is that what you wanted, too? To go back?"
I had asked myself that very question and the answer was as clear to me at that moment as it was then.
"No. Not without you." I whispered. It was true. I couldn't see myself living without this beautiful, attentive man.
"Hunter? Touch me. Please." I didn't know where the words came from but I meant those as well. I wanted a more intimate connection to him. To feel his body soothing my body. His mind fusing with my mind.
What I wasn't expecting was his reaction.
"I can't do that, Gabby." His words were like steel but his body was still orbiting toward mine. I sat up on the bed and stared in disbelief at the one man I believed would never reject me. Had I read it all wrong? Was the attraction, the connection I felt, only one-sided?
"What do you mean? You can't, or you don't want to?" Was I not enough for him? Did he find me lacking? Was I too skinny? Too drama-queenish? Was my baggage too heavy a burden for him to carry?
Deep down, I knew it wasn't the case. These negative, oppressing thoughts were part of the old Gabby, not this new, self-aware version of myself. Yet, the doubt was creeping back. While living in Los Angeles, I never really