On the Verge Read Online Free

was the scent of craving and dissolution, unrelentingly attractive because it was impossible to know it fully. She heard him exhale, felt his final reserves crumble. He didn’t say a word as she guided him to the back of the gallery where an exit led to a storage area and beyond that a stair to the roof.
    They had almost disappeared behind the door when an affable voice interrupted their surreptitious getaway.
    “Ah, there you are, Hartley.”
    It was the gallery director.
    “It’s time for you to give everyone a final toast, and remember to throw in something about how fast your work has been selling lately. We need to get a few more of these lovely ladies of yours out the door.”
    Tobias made no response. He stared fixedly at Ophidia’s gleaming teeth, her sharp jaw and black, almost pupil-less eyes.
    “Hartley, earth to Hartley, did you hear me?” the director asked.
    “Tobias and I will only be a few moments, I promise,” Ophidia simpered. “I’m trying to convince him to paint my portrait,” she added.
    “I’m sure you are,” the director said, “but Hartley has guests he needs to entertain and paintings he needs to sell, and anyway he doesn’t do portraiture.
    “Really? Are you sure? These women look so lifelike; it’s hard to imagine that he just dreamed them up. In fact, I feel like I recognize a few of them.”
    Ophidia let go of Tobias’s arm, but she could still sense the fervor that animated his body.
    “Honestly,” Ophidia continued, “I only want a bit of his time. I’m sure he must get this a lot, but I just love his work so much.”
    The director looked poised to interject further, but Tobias reached out a hand, dried paint under his fingernails, and started pulling Ophidia backwards toward the door. They slipped easily into the shadows beyond and the door closed before the bewildered director could utter a word in protest.
    They navigated the close confines of the storage room and then mounted the stairs, Tobias groping at Ophidia as they climbed, reaching around her taunt back to cup her firm breasts. By the time they burst out onto the roof, he’d already managed to unzip her dress so that it slipped down to her hips revealing a black lace bra and a hint of erect nipple.
    The rain poured from the sky, soaking them thoroughly in a matter of moments, but Tobias appeared oblivious, wrapped up as he was in Ophidia’s sensuality. He pressed himself against her, tore at her clothes until she was fully undressed, raindrops tracing a sinuous line down her body. He pressed his hardness into her and stroked hard, until she could feel he was ready for release.
    When the moment arrived she was more than prepared. Her already black eyes grew darker, her jaw elongated and her teeth multiplied and sharpened into tiny needles. A long forked tongue in livid red slipped out of her gaping maw and down the throat of Tobias Hartley, a look of terrified ecstasy on his face as the sweet stricture of her embrace tightened around his chest.
    Her tongue guided her viper-like mouth toward Tobias’s lips and she bit into him, a hundred sharp teeth digging into his handsome face, and then, breathing deeply, she inhaled his spirit, succumbing to her own debased climax as his delicious soul nourished her singular hunger.
    The light swiftly fled Tobias Hartley’s eyes and when Ophidia finally freed his face from her grip, he sank to the ground, an empty shell of dead flesh and brittle bone. Satisfied, she stepped over his body and quickly descended the stairs, rearranging her face and her clothes as she went. Passing through the storage room, she reentered the gallery space and made her way to the door, grabbing her coat and umbrella on the way out.

    When the police arrived later they would ask if anyone had noticed anything suspicious. No one would recall the beautiful woman that had captivated them, not even the gallery director whose dreams, when he lay shivering in his bed later that night, would turn to