Ethan's fingers left her swollen, throbbing pink nipple, but the intense, liquid heat he had systematically built up within her lower abdomen did not recede. Maeve sat panting, her head thrown back, her firm breasts glistening with a fine sheen of sweat.
"Now," said Ethan, his voice dropping into a deep, commanding register. "Hold your breath."
Before she could even process the order, Ethan's hand blurred. He drew a long, gleaming golden acupuncture needle from his sleeve and drove it deep into the base of her spine with a sudden, ruthless thrust.
Thud.
"Ahaaah!" Maeve screamed, her body violently arching into a rigid bow.
A horrific, foul-smelling black smoke instantly began to hiss and bubble out of the puncture wound in her back, carrying the stagnant, rotten residue of four years of compressed spiritual failure. But as the dark corruption left her body, the remaining emerald herbal essence Ethan had rubbed into her skin violently reacted with her awakened meridian lines.
