Page 2 of Temptation Unleashed

Daeanna.

The blackness suffocated the last of the red, leaving naught more than that single name to echo around him as the world of torment faded, leaving him in peace.

Scorching heat pulsed through his body, drawing him from the nothingness he’d fallen victim to. Ebb. Flow. Up. Down.

A dense haze surrounded his mind. A thick essence filled his lungs with each racking breath. His heart thundered against his skull, drowning his sense of hearing beneath a tumultuous sea of waves. His senses, muted at best, lent no aid to him in this strange, swaying state of limbo.

“You’ve awakened.”

Movement, even the slight tilt of a head that hebelievedwas attached to his shoulders, brought a grimace to a mouth he couldn’t quite feel. Pain radiated along his neck, or what he believed to be his neck. ’Twas hard to determine what part of his body hurt when everything hurt. When his mind remained in a haze.

Like a mortal weakling with no control over my own self.

“Thaddeus, can you hear me?”

He blinked—at least he thought he did. Alas, he saw naught beyond the depths from where he floated in blackness. He attempted to lick his lips, but not a drop of moisture could be felt. Goddess, he couldn’t tell what was on his own bloody body! When he tried to speak, to respond, naught escaped lips he could not feel. Still, the lulling swish of blood running through his veins continued, muffling the world around him.

“How is he?”

Miserable.A single, insufficient, word.

“I’m unable to assess him beyond sensing his fluctuating consciousness. He’s yet to respond to any inquiry I’ve made.”

“What of his wounds?”

“All have healed. The poison no longer taints his blood.” Somewhere in the watery world he lay, something or someone moved. The faintest essence of air brushing his skin.

The first real sensation that he could not mistake for part of this tormenting nightmare. “I suspect he’ll come around anytime now.”

Naturally, he attempted another response. His rousing mind started to stir with questions. Where was he? Who were these men who spoke? What had become of the battle?

What had become ofDaeanna?

“Should anything change in his condition, be sure to notify me immediately. Much needs to be discussed with him pertaining to this incident.”

Pressure intensified against his chest. A stifling weight he could not fend off.

A sudden explosion of pain ripped through him, sparing no limb its intense, burning agony. His soul howled.

“What have you learned?”

He cringed and grimaced inwardly, that pain slowly subsiding as darkness crept in around him.

“He frolics with mortals, one woman specifically. Hisbehavior hasn’t changed in decades, but he’s become more emboldened. Should we wish to succeed and hold true to Daeanna’s plan, he must be handled accordingly.”

“Aye.”

A new threat? Daeanna’s plan?

He fought against the encroaching darkness, for once not wanting it to embrace his battered mind. He needed to escape this…this languid sea of nothingness. He needed to figure out what had happened during the battle.

Move, Goddess dammit! You’re not a bloody mortal. You’re pureblooded Fae!

He tried to label each part of his body, tried to direct some command to move fingers he couldn’t find. Not in this black ocean. ’Twould be all he needed. Power. Magic. A way to break through these unseen bindings and free himself from murky waters.

The harder he fought for grounding, the deeper he sank into the blackness. A captive to the unknown following on the heels of that burst of pain. It siphoned all elements of power he hoped to use to reconnect his ethereal mind with a physical form.

Deeper, he fell.