Page 35 of Dark Desire (Dark Souls Spin-off Short Story)

Chapter Sixteen

I woke to the sun high in the sky, streaming through my still-broken window.

I smiled, yawning and stretching the delicious, aching muscles that could only come from copious amounts of exertion.

Yes, I’d spent the entire night and most of the morning fucking a demon.

A DEMON. My stomach erupted in flutters and I rolled my face into the pillow, giggling like a lunatic.

My soulmate was a vampire-demon hybrid! Halle-fucking-lujah.

For the first time in my life, I felt like I was finally winning, even though this life might not last much longer.

That harsh thought sobered me from my glee.

How dare I be fucking happy, huh? I lifted my face and brushed aside my tangled, matted curls from the pillow and looked at the empty side of the bed next to me, hoping to see black feathered wings, spiralling horns, and that ribbed cock.

I frowned. Spinning around, taking the sheet with me to block the chilly breeze, I froze when I saw him.

Sitting in the leather armchair, completely naked in all his glory but with an unhappy, pained expression on his gorgeous face, was my soulmate. The other one. My red-haired, green-eyed Viking with brooding intensity.

We stared at each other as if it was the first time we were truly seeing one another.

My gaze travelled over his incredible naked body.

The sunlight glistened off his tanned skin, highlighting every sculpted muscle but also casting a spotlight on all his scars and burns.

Just like his demon side, he was so beautiful.

Unfairly gorgeous. But the pain in his eyes carried countless unspoken words.

For the first time, knowing only a glimpse of who he was and what he’d been through, I realised I was looking into the eyes of a broken man.

And every molecule of me wanted to find a way to piece him back together.

I just wasn’t sure where to even start, or if I even could.

I wanted to run into his arms and hold him.

Kiss every scar and burn until they no longer carry pain.

But I knew it wouldn’t be that simple. Ambroz was…

different. He’d suffered, yes. But he was driven by primal needs and possessiveness. Zoran was more guarded and closed off.

I swallowed, lifting my knees to my chest under the sheet and wrapping my arms around them. I whispered, “Hey.”

He didn’t respond. Just continued to stare with those green eyes that seemed to swallow me whole.

I licked my lips as I frantically tried to come up with my next line.

There was so much to say, so many misunderstandings to clear up, and so much to explain.

I opened my mouth and then closed it again before squeezing my eyes shut and rubbing my forehead in frustration.

His intensity drained all the air from the room and made it so goddamn hard to think straight.

He suddenly stood up, making me raise my head in surprise.

He held my gaze, jaw tightening, before reaching for the dagger I hadn’t noticed on the table beside him.

I gulped, lowering my eyes to it and then back up to his unreadable face.

Did he still intend to kill me? He stormed towards me, and I flinched back, causing him to halt by the side of my bed.

Anguish creased the lines on his face, and his nostrils flared as he stared into my eyes.

Then, he did something I wasn’t expecting at all.

Reaching forward, he grabbed my hand and slammed the dagger into it before dropping to his knees. My eyes widened when he yanked my hand forward and pressed the point of the dagger to his throat.

“What are you doing?” I yelled, trying to tug it away, but his grip tightened, forcing the tip into his flesh as blood started to pool around it. “Zoran!”

“Do it. I don’t deserve to live. Slit my throat. I’ll shift into Ambroz, and you can finish me for good.”

“What? No! What is wrong with you?” I shouted, fighting with all my might to pull my hand away, but he was so fucking strong. The blade sliced against his throat in our struggle and as more blood started trickling down his throat, panic set in. “Zoran! Stop this! I don’t want to kill you!”

His other hand snapped up and wrapped around my throat almost tenderly and he pulled me towards him. I stopped fighting at the look in his eyes. They stormed with so much chaos, so much sorrow and hurt. I found tears springing to my eyes.

“Please,” he begged softly, his voice sounding so broken that it fractured something deep in my chest. “I can’t live with myself for what I’ve done to you. What I’ve put you through this past week. The only thing I can give you is your life back. Be free of me.”

I slipped off the bed onto the floor with him, kneeling in front of him as I grabbed the back of his head with my free hand and pulled it down until his forehead was resting against mine.

“I don’t want to be free of you, Zoran. Hurting you will only hurt me.

Punishing you will only punish me. Don’t you understand?

If you don’t want to hurt me anymore, let go of the knife and talk to me. ”

He closed his eyes, rolling his head against mine as his face scrunched up with anger and suffering.

“Nothing I say will ever excuse what I’ve done to you.

I tried to ruin your life. I taunted you.

Scared you. Hurt you. Degraded you. Humiliated you.

I tried to fucking kill you, Darcelle. Multiple times.

I was so fucking lost in my rage, in my revenge, that I didn’t see the truth. I didn’t fucking ask for it.”

“Yeah.” I smiled a little, my fingers tightening in the back of his hair.

“That all fucking sucked, I’m not going to lie.

But I don’t blame you for it. You thought I was one of those twisted witches who tried to burn you alive.

You thought I cursed you and left you to suffer in a trapped form for centuries.

” I brushed my hand down the side of his face, forcing it back from mine until he opened his eyes.

“You thought I didn’t want to be your soulmate. I forgive you, Zoran.”

He shook his head as a single tear escaped one eye and fell to the floor. I pressed my lips into a thin smile, trying to hold my shit together.

“Don’t forgive me. I’m evil. I’m a villain in your story.”

“Well, I do forgive you, so tough shit,” I argued with just as much anger in my tone to match his.

His grip on the dagger loosened and I pulled it away from his throat.

“Because yes, you did those things, but let’s not forget that you also protected me.

You saved me from that seeker. You fought that demon.

And even though you had the chance many times, you didn’t kill me.

You couldn’t do it even when you thought I was some heartless, psycho bitch.

That proves to me that you’re not evil at all.

” I cupped his face with my hands as I stared into his pained eyes.

“You aren’t the villain in my story, Zoran. Far from it.”

He let go of the dagger completely and wrapped his arms around my back, crushing me to his chest so hard that I almost couldn’t breathe.

I threw the dagger across the room and buried my face into his shoulder as I hugged him back.

Just the sheer size of him, the strength he exuded and the deliciousness of his manly scent made me feel so safe and protected in his arms. Yes, he’d been an ass.

But I just wanted to start afresh. Who knew how long I had with him, and I wanted to make every second count.

“I’m so fucking sorry,” he grumbled into my hair, squeezing me tighter. “I will spend every day for the rest of my life making it up to you.”

I closed my eyes. “You don’t have that long, I’m afraid.”

He tensed. Releasing me from his embrace, he pulled back to stare at my face with concerned confusion. “What do you mean? I thought…you said you wanted me as your–”

Realising where he was going with this, I grabbed his huge biceps as I quickly reassured him, “I do! I do want you as my soulmate. It’s not that.

It’s…” I glanced down. Oh. We were both still naked.

And the sight of…that was rather distracting.

And I was extremely sore, so we really needed to remove temptation.

“I think we should put some clothes on before we have this conversation.”

He swallowed, his eyebrows furrowing, but nodded anyway and helped me stand.

I walked over to my wardrobe and grabbed some comfy sweats while he tugged on his jeans.

He remained shirtless, and honestly, I was grateful.

He was too damn hot to cover up completely.

When we were both more decent, I climbed onto my bed, sitting cross-legged as he stood uncomfortably in my room.

“We both have a lot of questions. So come here. Let’s get to know each other.

” I patted the bed when he still didn’t move, and his eyes narrowed before he turned and zoomed out of my room and down the stairs with his vampire speed.

The front door banged against the wall as he flung it open. What the actual fuck?

Before I had time to react, he was back. I blinked with surprise to see him holding a bunch of hand-picked wildflowers from the forest. He stepped up to the bed.

“Zoran Ambroz Nezera,” he said, his deep voice sounding as smooth as whiskey. A slow, beaming smile spread across my face when he held the flowers out to me. Oh. My. Goodness. So. Freaking. Cute.

“Darcelle Knightsbridge,” I replied, taking them from him and inhaling. “But I was born as Darcelle Raine.”

He lifted his chin a little with a small smile. “I’ve waited nearly five centuries to meet you, Darcelle Raine.”

My mouth dropped open. “Five centur— Wait! That’s how old you are?”

He nodded and sat on my bed in front of me, placing his enormous hand on my thigh. “Fucking hell! Talk about an age gap! I’m only thirty-six!”