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Chapter 12

Addie

Iwas submerged in darkness.

It wasn’t a normal darkness you would get stepping outside. Not the inky gray as stars peppered the sky and the moon hung suspended overhead. It wasn’t even the dark you get when you step inside a windowless room, turn off every light, and wait with bated breath.

I couldn’t put my finger on how it was different, only that it was.

This darkness felt as if I was trekking through feet of black tar. The blistering hot air made sweat drip down my neck and my hair cling to my scalp.

“Hello?” I whispered into the obscurity. “Is anyone there?”

Silence greeted me, as pronounced as the darkness itself. My stomach somersaulted as I took a tentative step forward. I strained my eyes, desperate to see anything other than the pitch black darkness.

“Anyone there?” I repeated, and my voice echoed back at me.

Anyone.

Anyone.

Goosebumps pebbled on my skin at the ominous sound reverberating through the darkness. I couldn’t even see my hands mere inches from my face.

Trudging through what felt like snow, I became distinctly aware of a voice calling my name.

A voice as familiar to me as my own.

“Calax,” I whispered, spinning rapidly.

The darkness receded as a single spotlight illuminated my tall, surly lover. The mere sight of him caused my heart to ricochet. My chest was as taut as a laundry string spanning between two buildings.

He looked exactly as I remembered him. His dark hair grazing his eyes, sculpted cheekbones and jawline, muscular body that rivaled all of my other lovers. His eyes, though, reflected a tenderness he only reserved for me. I melted under his stare.

“Callie,” I whispered hoarsely. Reverently.

I didn’t just love the large man. Iadoredhim. He was my first love, the first person who had looked past the superficial facade and to the broken soul underneath. He had held my heart with both hands, exhibiting a tenderness I never would’ve imagined from someone like him.

For so long, I’d hated him. But my hate was only a front for the true way I felt about him. He wasn’t safe or easy. He made mefeelwith an intensity that left me breathless. Fear, anguish, love. They all became woven together.

With him, I was alive.

And I loved him. I loved him so damn much it was almost a physical, excruciating pain to see him now. My heart catapulted out of my chest when he flashed me a blinding smile - the same smile that often remained hidden behind scowls and frowns.

“Baby.”

“I miss you. So fucking much.”

“Then come get me,” he countered. I froze in my pursuit to him, head tilting curiously to the side.

“Huh?”

“Think it through, Baby. Did you see a body?”

His words evoked memories from that horrible night. The Ragers converging on us. Calax’s pleading, anguished eyes meeting mine before he was completely devoured. The snap of my precarious sanity.

“I saw you die,” I whispered, emotion jamming my airway.

“But did you?” he asked mockingly. The same no-nonsense voice I had fallen in love with. He never allowed me to wallow in self-pity. He saw my bullshit and immediately called me out on it.