Page 79 of Nightshades

“It’s okay. You’ll be fine. We’re mated now. You’re made for me. Your body will give me exactly what I need.” I move, thrusting in and out, the warmth of her blood thawing the cold within.

A tear drips down her cheek. She’s frozen, unable to move, yet underneath all that fear is the lust.

“You feel so good.” I continue to thrust, using her head in the way I need so she can fit me.

The squelching sounds become too much. The way her blood coats me like silk, I can’t take much more.

“You’re being a very good girl, Little Dream. Now, drink every drop of me so I don’t go to waste.”

She whines in response.

My pace quickens, my hips flex harder, her tongue drags across my piercings. She finds a way to flick the tip of her tongue over the crown when I pull back, and that’s all it takes for me to explode.

“Lula!” I roar so loud, the dreamscape vibrates to the point it begins to shatter like glass.

I paint her throat, giving her so much, it begins to drip out of the back of her head.

“Mmm, you’re a filthy cock sucker, aren’t you? You love what I do to you.” I smash my mouth against hers, gatheringmy come from her tongue so I know what I taste like marinated in her spit.

The dreamscape finally shatters, darkness crumbles around us…

And I wake up with Lula in my arms,more come pumped into her womb, stretching her stomach. The hole in the back of her head is healed, making me smirk.

At the reminder of what she has seen, the broken, vulnerable side of me, I pull her close, her back against my front, and I kiss the graceful curve of her shoulder.

“Forever, My Little Dream. Mi alma lo dice, Lula.”

My soul says so.

“Refill?”

I look up from my case files, studying who I think the next victim will be. Her name is Christina, and she has been found innocent of embezzlement charges in the past, but she is currently being investigated for the same crime, and I don’t think she’s innocent.

“Detective?”

I blink away my thoughts, rubbing my exhausted eyes that I can’t seem to keep open. I ache everywhere. My head hurts, my body, my legs, and especially between my legs. The pain is the only reminder that what I experienced was real.

It had to be right? No one just wakes up like they have been broken into pieces and put back together without a little pain.

Maybe it was a dream. When I try to remember, the details are a little fuzzy. I can’t remember everything, truly; it’s as ifit were a dream. Shade trapped me against the wall, my body paralyzed and unmoving, yet I could feelcertainthings he did to me. Like anything that brought me pleasure, I could feel.

And then, I think reality meshes with the dream I had. I saw Shade’s worst memories, the moments that give him nightmares, and it made me understand him a little more.

The way I acted, the way I didn’t care about how he is killing people, made me realize I would do anything for him. Even if it means committing crimes myself.

“Lula?” Demi sits down across from me, placing the fresh pot of coffee on the table. “Are you okay? You seem very distracted, a bit pale, and exhausted. I’ve never seen you like this before.”

I blink away my thoughts again, getting lost in the confusion of what has happened to me.

“I’m fine. Tired. Working overtime to catch this person who is killing all these people.” I don’t even feel guilty knowing that I know the person—monster—behind these crimes. Granted, the taxidermist wasn’t a bad person, from what I know so far, just someone who was in the way.

If I ever see Shade again, I’ll ask him.

I take a sip of my third cup of coffee, which is doing nothing for me. All I want to do is crawl back into bed, hopefully, with Shade wrapping his massive body around mine. I go back to reading the case files of Greta, wondering if she was the very first victim.

According to her coroner’s report, there were no bones left at the scene.

So what did Shade do with them?