Page 182 of Evil Hearts

Chapter Four

Runethok

D arkness was easier. It was where I belonged, and from it, I could hunt, take, and taste.

The blinding light of morning was cut abruptly from the room as I cloaked the space in an impenetrable layer of shadow. Willing the blinds closed while Akirako fiddled with that damned electronic device, and sealing the apartment against visitors had been a simple thing, not like changing her memories.

Akirako still fought against the haze I smoothed over her mind, her curiosity chipping away at the barrier like age against the paint. The walls were crumbling, and the truth would all too soon come spilling out from behind the block. It was better this way.

At least, that’s what I told myself.

“Is something there?! Fuck off?!”

My little scientist swung wildly in the blackness, trying to land sloppy blows on the perceived threat. Sightless in the dark, she stumbled against her coffee table as she tried to navigate to her kitchen.

I had to hand it to her. Although Akirako knew the layout of her apartment quite well, the oppressive black I sent through the space was not like night. There was no faint moonlight or the blinking of glowing electric numbers scattered throughout her home to guide her.

There was only black—endless and mine.

I could feel her hands swatting through the shadows as I watched her panic in the dark. If only she knew that she’d seen me nearly every day in her apartment and beyond. Peering into shadows, venturing into dark alleyways and corners, I’d seen her, been with her in all of them.

Baltzeheir spoke in my mind as I watched. “Get on with it, Rune. Get her here, or I’ll do it myself.”

Shunting him out and locking the door of my mind behind him, I returned my focus to Akirako.

I could see the red thrumming of her heartbeat as her mortal body pumped blood quickly through her veins. Fear suffused the area around her as panic gripped her, and she backed into her kitchen counter, too close to her block of knives for my liking.

Pushing them down the counter just in time to avoid her searching hands, I solidified my corporeal form, still black as my darkness and blending in.

“You could hurt yourself with those.”

She screamed, throwing punches at the air in front of her and missing me by a mile. As Akirako scrambled in the dark for another tool to use as a weapon, I probed for the barrier in her memories. Finding a loose section near my appearance in the subway, I knocked off a single slice, allowing her to remember the brief glimpse of me before I spoke next.

“What the—Ugh!”

Akira fell to her knees, the memory hitting her with a mental pain that was unavoidable. I could see the vision I released, and she blinked through tears as she remembered my black claws appearing around the first man who’d grabbed her.

Seeking a bit to counteract the shock of that vision, I pulled her memory of the other night forward—the sleep-heavy darkness she’d experienced with me and the way my claws and shadows had found her body underneath her sheets.

A delicious moan cut through the black as the sensations bloomed through Akira once more.

There you are, sweet flower.

The memory was potent even to me, and I was flaring to life in a way only one of my companions could elicit. I wanted that again, wanted more, wanted all of her—my new mate .

I stalked closer, sneaking behind her on the floor and fisting her hair in my semi-solid grip. Sinking to my knees at her back, I felt all of her through the shadowed air and reached for more with my other hand. I found the pooling wetness between her legs, tasting and smelling through the darkness that clung to her skin.

“Do you want answers, flower?” I sliced a claw through the flimsy fabric of her underwear. “Do you want more ?”

Her breaths shuddered, Akirako’s fear and arousal choking the air with their intoxicating perfume.

“Y-Yes.”

The whisper barely broke through to make a sound. Forcing myself to retreat from her, I moved my grip to each of her shoulders, readying us for the jump.

“We cannot come back here. This life is done.”

As I spoke, the air tinged with warning, but I knew all too well that this was happening, whether she agreed or not. It had to. She already knew too much about us—the monsters that lurked in the dark who could not be brought to light.

She raised her head, looking out into the darkness even as she was unable to see. “I want to know.”

I spirited across the city to my home, the home of us all who’d been content enough to watch her—until now.

As we landed within the dank underground chambers of my home, a relic at the edge of the city from an era long gone and much missed, the shadows followed us. They cloaked the space, giving Akirako no vision of where she stood.

I could sense the others lingering on the upper floors, giving me this chance to get Akirako more complacent. What’s more, at the edge of my shadows, I sensed the torches that flickered to life in the long hall in which we stood. They could do nothing against my darkness, but if I let it fall, Akirako would be able to see somewhat.

“How—Where did you take me?! What’s going on?!”

The fear coating her words had amplified, and this new threat dulled our connection, but I still felt a craving buried within her. It was delirium, decadent, and delectable. I wanted inside her flesh, feasting on her blood and arousal.

But first, I wanted her to see. I wanted her to understand what was coming for her and how inescapable it was.

“I will drop the shadow, but do not bother screaming unless you seek to entice me with your delicious terror. After all, no one will come for you here.”

Akirako stilled, facing where my voice had come from. I saw her in the dark, eyes wide with fists clenched, a warring mixture of panic and fury. I imagined her squirming beneath me, fighting until her body relinquished itself to the exquisite torture I had planned for her.

“D-Drop it then.” Her voice was low, hardly above a whisper. “Show me who you are.”

I slithered through the shadows to pull my corporeal form up against her body from behind. Akirako gasped, trembling as I pressed my length against the sensuous curves of her ass. She sucked in a breath, a hand going to her forehead.

“I-I know you. You…” She shook her head. “You were in the subway.”

Her voice was a shaky rasp as her pulse hammered, the flaring bright red of her veins sparking in my unique eyes.

“I was.”

Stroking a claw down the side of her next, I inhaled deeply. Her perfume of lust and dread intoxicated me like the foulest of demonic drugs, none of which I needed or could truly compare.

Gripping her fists tighter, Aki swallowed hard. “Show yourself.”

She shivered against me, but her voice remained steady. There was no proper way to prepare her for what she would see, and simply letting it happen seemed the greater mercy at this moment. Not that I would be a fair judge of what was merciful.

I lowered my mouth to her ear. “Scream if you must, flower. But know that I possess many ways to silence you, some more pleasant than others.”

Pulling the shadows back into my body, I slowly brightened the room as more of the flickering torches shed their dying light. I stepped back from Akirako as inch after inch was illuminated, giving her the space to take in my form as she turned around.

Shadow slid across the floor like smoke, and her eyes tracked it as it suffused into my feet, then my legs, and then my torso and arms. She tracked them all the way up my body until they filled in the features of my face, my ghastly appearance wholly revealed.

I watched as Akirako’s eyes went wide, subtle tears brimming at the edges. Her mouth fell open, and she stumbled back as she struggled to form coherent words.

“Holy… fuck.”