I stepped back as Barbie placed her box down beside mine, my gaze lingering on the curve of her ass as she bent over. I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not, but every move that girl made just screamed sex to me. I swear she could have been clipping her toenails and she still would have been able to make me hard.
“I want to show you something,” I said in a low voice as she straightened and turned back to me.
Her face was in shadow now and I liked the way the darkness kissed her golden skin.
“Okay,” she replied like she didn’t give a shit either way and I smiled menacingly as I turned and led her further into the darkness of the catacombs.
She didn’t voice any complaint, but I could feel the heat of her body almost touching mine as she moved closer to me. Didn’t she know that demons only thrived in the dark?
We continued along the short stone passage which housed the prayer chambers and came to a recess carved into the wall where the wax of old candles still clung to the brickwork and a hook held a set of heavy metal keys.
I picked up a flashlight which sat in the bottom of the recess and flicked it on, illuminating the wrought iron gate which blocked the way on.
“Legend has it, that before the catholics came and stole this land to bury their dead, the Kotari tribe used to use it as a burial ground too,” I said in a low voice as I stepped forward to unlock the gate and motioned for her to go ahead of me.
“The settlers did a lot of fucked up things like that when they came here,” she murmured, her chin held high as she fought the urge to be afraid of this place.
“They say that that’s why the ghosts down here are so restless. They’re caught in an eternal war for the place they were laid to rest in. This is holy ground and sacred land, but being both makes it its own special kind of hell. That’s why you can hear them wailing down here, begging for the torment to end.” As if on cue, the wind whisked through the passages, creating that soft, haunting whistle which plagued this place. During a storm it sounded like the catacombs were screaming sometimes, if the wind hit the caves at the far end of this labyrinth just right.
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Tatum said defiantly as I gave her a little nudge to make her turn into one of the burial chambers.
A large stone coffin sat in the centre of the space, the name Thomas Smith carved into the side of it. He’d died in Murkwell at the ripe old age of seventy two and had been the mayor back when there used to be a town here instead of a school.
“No? How about the devil then?”
She scoffed lightly just before I flicked the flashlight off and plunged us into darkness.
Tatum gasped and my heart leapt at the thrill of not being able to see her but I lunged forward, aiming for the spot where she’d been and finding her warm body just where I’d expected to.
I shoved her back against the coffin and her hands gripped my biceps as she cried out, the sound echoing beautifully in the caves surrounding us.
“So brave, Barbie,” I purred as I pinned her to the coffin with my hips and her grip on my arms tightened.
I kept one hand on her waist while the other still held the flashlight and her breath fluttered over my lips as she panted in fright. I could almost taste the sweetness of her mouth in the space dividing us and despite the fact that I couldn’t see a thing, I felt so aware of her body that I was sure I could lean in and find her lips without any effort at all if the notion took me.
“There are worse things than darkness,” she growled, her grip on my arms tightening so that her nails dug into my flesh.
“Not when it’s inside of you,” I purred.
“Do you get off on frightening people?” she demanded and I was guessing she could feel the swell of my dick driving against her, but the way she was parting her thighs made me wonder if she really minded that as much as she was trying to make out.
“I get off on testing people. On finding out what they’re made of and exactly what it takes to break them.”
“Some people will never break,” she growled.
“No,” I agreed, reaching up to brush my hand along her cheek and smiling to myself as I found it exactly where I’d expected. We might have been hiding in the dark, but my awareness of her was too sharp to allow for mistakes in that. “But everyone bends.” I pushed forward suddenly, forcing her back so that she fell onto the coffin, her back arched as she was forced to bend her spine and part her thighs further to allow for the movement.
“Saint!” she cried out and though it was a warning and not encouragement, I couldn’t help but enjoy the way my name sounded as it echoed off of the walls in the dark.
“There’s a way out down here, you know?” I said in a low voice. “Though there are so many tunnels and passages that it’s not easy to find it. But if you tried really hard, you’d come to a second gate. And beyond that, there’s a cave which opens up down by the lake.”
“Why are you telling me that?” she panted beneath me, her hands pressed to my shoulders like she was going to push me off but she hadn’t tried to yet.
“Because if you ever want to take your chance at running from us then I thought you’d like to know how… Of course, monsters hunt best in the dark, so if you do attempt it, you’d better be prepared for what happens when we catch you.”
Tatum sucked in a breath and I clicked the flashlight on again, stepping back as I looked down at her.
She shoved herself upright again, her cheeks flushed beneath the scattering of freckles which lined them and her blue eyes dropped to the thick line of my cock as it pressed against my sweatpants.
“Tempted?” I teased her and her gaze snapped straight back up to meet mine.
“Fuck you,” she growled.
“Not yet, Barbie. I want you begging for it before I hate fuck you and so far you’re only panting.”
“As if I’d want to get anywhere near your-”
“Stop fucking around down here,” I snapped. “We’ve got supplies to unload.”
I turned and headed away from her with the only source of light and she soon scrambled after me rather than be left down here in the dark.
I locked the gate again and hung the key back on the hook, but I pocketed the flashlight. If Barbie wanted to try running that way, she could do it in darkness. And I had to admit that I was kind of hoping she’d try it. Because I’d really liked the way her body had felt against mine while I couldn’t see a thing down there, and I wanted to hear a lot more of her screams echoing through those tunnels too.
I stood in the kitchenette, making all of them breakfast while Saint worked out, Kyan went for a run with Blake then all of them showered. I’d spent nearly an hour building a freaking throne out of the toilet paper in the centre of the church on Saint’s command. And though it admittedly looked pretty good thank you very much, it was also fucking ridiculous.
By the time the Night Keepers were dropping into seats on one side of the dining table in their uniforms, I already had their food plated up. Dad had taught me and Jessica to cook when we were younger. He always had to work long and peculiar hours so sharing mealtimes had been pretty rare. And apparently I’d bitched about more than one nanny’s cooking when I was a kid.
I wasn’t a snob or anything, I just knew how I liked my food. And I’d been more than happy to get in the kitchen and learn to make it for me and my sister. Apart from anything else, it was a survival skill too. In the wild, Saint Memphis and his pals would have lasted less than a week. I, on the other hand, would have thrived hunting out natural resources and living off of the land. That was true power when it came down to it. Something none of them could claim if they were ever thrown into the wilderness with nothing but their two hands to fend for themselves. I must remember to make that my next birthday wish.