Page 38 of Where the Dark Knelt (Worshipped by Darkness #1)

She was slowly succumbing to my influence.

The fight with those guys today… that had been purely accidental, though if it hadn’t been for me…

Hell knows what they would’ve done to her.

They were unpredictable animals, and the things they said they’d do…

I just lost it. If she hadn’t screamed, I’m not sure I would have stopped.

But now, I needed to tighten my hold over her. Bring her fully under my influence. I hoped another dream tonight would push her deeper into my control. But this time… I decided to approach her fantasies from a different angle.

She used to date a girl. Perhaps I’d chosen the wrong strategy in seducing her dreams before – always appearing as an attractive man, masculine, dominant.

But maybe… just maybe… an attractive girl would slip past her defenses easier.

That’s what I planned tonight. Especially after the market, she needed calming down, gentleness, a dream that soothed her fear into desire.

I slipped into her pre-existing dream, blending seamlessly with her subconscious, and luck was on my side.

Music thundered through the room, bass vibrating the very walls.

It was some crowded teenage house party, warm lights spinning across ceilings, shadows shifting everywhere.

My Eveline stood near a punch bowl, drinking lazily while talking to some guy and laughing.

It was obvious from a glance that he was gay, his gaze flicked past her to other men with hungry confidence. Perfect. Less interference.

I chose my appearance carefully: a tall blonde, slightly taller than Eveline herself, with long, straight platinum hair and voluptuous breasts barely contained by a pink dress with a scandalously deep neckline.

Her previous girlfriend had been muscular with cropped hair; this time, I didn’t want to remind her of the past. I wanted to build a new present.

A new image. One that would draw her in fully.

She had erotic dreams about blonde men before, but it wasn’t enough to make her surrender completely to me. That stubborn resistance annoyed me to no end.

I growled softly to myself, ignoring the way my own body pulsed with anticipation.

Grabbing two crystal flutes of pink sparkling wine, I weaved through the drunken teenagers toward her.

The guy next to her spotted me instantly.

I let a playful smile bloom across my borrowed lips, put my hand gently on his back, and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

“Hi, Hayley!” he grinned, kissing me back lightly.

I leaned in to whisper against his ear, my voice sultry and sweet. “I need to talk to my girl for a minute.”

He nodded with immediate understanding, slapping my shoulder playfully before melting into the crowd on the dance floor, lost in the thrum of bodies and lights.

I turned to Eveline, watching her lips part in slight confusion as she looked up at me.

Everything about this dream felt hazy and sweet, the warm lighting, the flickering candles scattered among the party lights, the heavy scent of rose perfume and fruit punch in the air.

It looked like some teenage movie party, all idealised glamour, but I had never seen this house before in her dreams. Perhaps it was a fictional memory, built from fragments of old desires and forgotten parties she’d once wished to attend.

Either way, tonight… she would remember me.

“Well, hello, pretty girl.” I purred, taking her delicate hand and pressing a kiss against her knuckles before pulling her flush into my arms. Without hesitation, I began to sway with her to the music, feeling her warmth meld into me.

“This is for you,” I added, holding out the glittering cocktail glass with a teasing smile.

She took it without question, leaving her half-finished punch abandoned on the table behind her. The way her eyes gleamed with curiosity, innocence, and that underlying yearning made something inside me tighten with primal satisfaction.

“How are you feeling tonight?” I asked, voice sweet yet laced with possessive desire.

“Great, don’t you see, pretty girl!” She giggled and swayed her hips left and right, her dress shimmering under the coloured lights as she sipped the cocktail I had given her.

“Oh, is that for me? Thank you!” I teased, clinking my glass gently against hers as her cheeks flushed pink. The alcohol hit her quickly, I could see it in the haziness of her gaze and the way her movements softened.

Perfect.

I leaned in closer, my lips brushing the sensitive skin of her neck, tasting the salt of her sweat mixed with the perfume of her dreams. My tongue elongated and split, forked and adorned with small silver piercings that tickled her heated flesh as I licked slowly up to her ear.

She moaned, her body shivering under my touch. “Damn… what are you doing…” she breathed out shakily.

“Pleasing my future wife,” I whispered into her ear, biting down softly on her earlobe. Her squeal of delight sent a pulse of dark satisfaction through my entire being.

“Wife? Ha! You’re… cocky…” she slurred out, half-amused, half-aroused.

“I’m always like this,” I smirked, pulling her into a deep kiss before she could respond.

Her lips parted instinctively, and I slipped my tongue past them, the split tips teasing her own tongue, dancing with her until she moaned helplessly into my mouth.

She melted against me, her entire body softening as if surrendering completely to my will.

“I want… to…” she whispered breathlessly, her words barely forming as she grabbed my hand and pulled me with her, stumbling down a darkening corridor away from the pounding music and the swaying crowd.

But suddenly, everything shifted.

The corridor seemed to shrink, darkness curling in from all sides, swallowing the lights, the music, the drunken voices and laughter. Silence pressed down on us, oppressive and heavy.

I felt it instantly – a change in the dream’s fabric. Someone was interfering.

“Damn it, what the fuck!” Eveline screamed beside me, clutching my arm with terrified strength. She spun around, her eyes wide and suddenly filled with horror. “You… Des… what…?” Her voice cracked with confusion as she let go of my hand, stumbling backwards as though I’d burned her.

She trembled, looking at me with dawning terror and fractured realisation.

“Hey, hey, what are you doing? What is it?” I called out, reaching for her hand, but she slipped from my grip and ran down the darkened hallway, her silhouette quickly swallowed by the shifting shadows.

I shifted back into my female form, hoping to calm her, but it didn’t work this time. What the fuck… who could control dreams better than me?

I felt a coil of fear tighten in my chest. This wasn’t natural. Another demon… another entity was feeding off her tonight. A snarl rippled through me. She’s mine.

I growled, clawing at the darkness, trying to break through its oppressive layers, but nothing yielded to me. Panicked and furious, I chased after Eveline while she remained within my blurred field of vision, calling out her name with my feminine voice of Hayley.

She turned at the sound, eyes wide with terror and recognition, then rushed towards me, grabbing my hand with desperation and pulling me along.

The hallway morphed around us, walls dissolving into a dark forest. The stale air of the house was replaced by cool, damp earth, pine, and decaying leaves.

From somewhere nearby, the soft, desperate squeaks of kittens echoed in the darkness.

“They need help… there are… kittens… they…” Her voice shook with horror at what her mind was imagining.

Ahead of us stood a massive tree, but the layers of reality were twisted.

We stood on a forest canopy, as if the roof of the dream itself, while high above us, only half the tree’s height away, sat a precarious nest filled with tiny squealing kittens.

They clambered over each other on thin branches, some already dangling dangerously, claws barely holding on.

Eveline didn’t hesitate. She ran forward, pulling me with her, reaching out desperately for the kittens. I held her hand to steady her as she leaned out over the impossible abyss, trying to scoop them to safety.

But the moment her fingers brushed against the smallest one, it lost its grip.

“No!” she screamed.

The branch snapped, the nest tilted, and in an instant everything fell apart.

We plunged downward, five meters or more, along with the fragile nest and tiny bodies.

The world rushed past us, branches tearing at my arms as we fell.

We hit the ground hard, the pain slicing through bone and flesh.

I groaned, my vision flickering in black and red pulses.

Around us, the kittens lay strewn on the ground, their bodies twisted, mewls growing weaker with each passing breath.

The darkness pressed in closer, and Eveline’s sobs filled the air.

She clutched one limp kitten to her chest, rocking back and forth, tears streaming down her cheeks in silent agony.

I tried to reach for her, to speak, to tell her it wasn’t real. But my throat felt locked, frozen in place, as if an iron hand had closed around it. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. My power had been stripped away.

Nightmare demon. Rage pulsed through my immobilised form. That son of a bitch.

Then I saw him.

He crept out from the shadows between the trees, his form flickering like smoke.

A vague silhouette of a man in a black suit, but the edges of his limbs billowed like dark mist, swirling in and out of reality.

His body never fully solidified, shifting and blurring as if he couldn’t decide what shape to take.

Weak. The thought sliced through my fear, but my muscles still refused to move. Around me, the dream blurred and flickered with each of his steps.