I don’t know if the ball of nerves in my stomach is from dread or excitement. At this point, I don’t even care.
Chapter 16
Karston
My heart can’t handle this. One moment, I’m making love to the woman of my dreams—the girl who stole my heart, my mind, my very fucking soul—and then the next, she’s gone. Did I imagine the whole damn thing?
My cock sure doesn’t think so. I can still smell her arousal, feel the stickiness of our cum between my legs. The sounds of her moans still reverberate in my ears, and the explosive feeling of her cunt squeezing my cock plays in my head.
No. I didn’t imagine it. Something is wrong.
Very wrong.
“Hadley!” I scream her name, cupping my hands over my mouth to enhance the sound. “Hadley, my sweet girl, where are you?”
I don’t wait for a response as I search for my clothes. I find them discarded and spread across the underground room. But I also find Hadley’s nightgown, confirming she was here with me.
Feeling frantic, I tug on my clothes and run up the stairs leading out of the secret room. I’ve only just found her; I can't lose her again.
The tunnels feel like they are closing in around me as I race through them, screaming for Hadley. The gray walls blur as I speed past. The only sounds are my pounding steps and harsh breathing.
“Karssstonnnn.” A singsong voice calls my name softly, and it echoes as if it had been yelled down a long tunnel. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
“Hadley?” I’m so confused. The voice sounds like her but not at the same time. The pitch—the cadence—is all wrong. It sounds haunted, absent of the happiness my girl usually has.
I scurry down a path on my right, ignoring the skittering spiders crawling on the walls. My breaths saw in and out, sweat coating my brow.
“Karssstonnnn. Do you want to play?”
My stomach drops. Even though the voice sounds like Hadley, I know deep down it’s something far more sinister. As I round a sharp corner, my fears are confirmed.
Standing in the corridor, blocking my path, is the Darkness itself in the shape of my sweet girl. Hadley is naked and grey, her hair flying wildly around her as if twisting in an imaginary breeze. But her eyes…they are pitch black, completely impassive, devoid of emotion.
She smiles wickedly, and I wonder how only moments ago we were lost together in the heat of passion. Even her smile has changed, gone from beauty and happiness to profound evil.
“Hello, Karston.” Her voice deepens like a man, the sound guttural and eerie. “Claire has had enough of your…influence. It’s time to say goodbye, just like I did so many centuries ago.”
“No!” I don’t even acknowledge that he’s called my girl by the wrong fucking name. I’m too mad, too angry. Chest heaving, I summon my daggers and twirl them around myself expertly, only to realize I will never hurt my girl. My heart freezes. How can I possibly fight an opponent I refuse to hurt?
The Darkness tilts Hadley’s head back and laughs, the sound causing goosebumps to rise on my arms. Its laugh is the sound nightmares are made of—the terrifying voice inside your mind that tells you that monsters are real.
And it’s here with me.
Hadley’s head lurches back into place, and she starts to prowl towards me. She moves like a creepy marionette, like someone has attached strings to her limbs. No, not she. It’s not my girl anymore.
Its head shakes back and forth, and I see a flash of bright blue eyes looking at me in confusion, but the Darkness pushes her back down, the blackness once again taking over.
“Claire is mine, Karston. She was destined for me. You do not deserve her.” It takes a step towards me, smoke billowing around Hadley’s naked form.
“She was never yours! Hadley was made for me and my brothers! She’s fated to be with us! You are nothing compared to her.” I inch closer, fury fueling me. “You don’t turn the ones you love into monsters. You don’t invade their bodies, forcing them to murder innocent people, living off them like a parasite. If you knew her, then you’d know she’d never want that. How could she possibly want to be with someone like you…”
Its head contorts unnaturally, and again I see a flash of blue eyes. The Darkness roars and charges at me. I discard my daggers just as my love crashes into me. I defend myself, blocking its blows with my arms and legs. But I’m not willing to hurt her, even with this dark fuck controlling her.
It's strong. I twist and spin out of the way as it punches and kicks at me. It spins backwards and throws an elbow up into my jaw, causing me to fly into the wall. My head slams into the hard brick, and I slump down to the ground.
“Get up!” it yells at me, spit flying from Hadley’s mouth. “Get up and fight like a man!”
“I won’t hurt her to get to you,” I seethe. “She deserves better than that. Better than you.”
“Then you will die again!”
The Darkness begins attacking me with the force of a thousand men. Fists crash into my jaw, pummel my stomach. I’m knocked around like a punching bag, with no help in sight. I throw my hands up defensively and curl into a ball as the assault continues.
Feet kick at my head, making my vision explode, pain pulsing through every inch of my body.
“Get up and fight, you coward!”
“Y-you are th-the coward,” I stutter out, spitting a pool of blood from my mouth. “You hi-hide be-hind a body that-that isn’t even yours.” I laugh, the sound filled with disdain and loathing. “And you call yourself a man!”
“I’ve had enough of thissss,” the Darkness growls, dark eyes shining with malice, teeth bared in the evilest of sneers. Its slender fingers wrap around my neck, and I’m heaved into the air effortlessly.
Its mouth gapes open unnaturally, like a snake who has unhinged its jaw. Blackness oozes from its maw and seeps inside me. The mist enters through my nose, choking me, and I open my mouth, gasping for breath. It takes the opportunity to release more dark smog, cackling malevolently as the darkness cascades down my throat like thick molasses, clogging my airway.
Then I feel something break inside of me. It starts around my heart, like an icy vise has clamped the muscle in unbreakable fingers, then it twists. I want to scream. I want to shout and call for my brothers. I want to tell Hadley how much I love her.
I begin gagging, tears falling from my eyes as the Darkness tries to wrench something from my chest and up my obstructed throat. I try with my eyes to get through to my girl. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, and right now, mine are opened wide.
Another streak of blue flashing across those black orbs has hope rising in my chest, even as the ball lodges higher in my throat. I know once it leaves me I’ll be gone forever, a remnant, cracked and broken and discarded.
With a growl, the Darkness drops me into a limp puddle on the ground. “Claire has suffered enough. Your death means nothing to me.” Then a cloud of smoke billows around me, and the next second, she’s gone.
I fade in and out of consciousness for the next few minutes or hours, I can’t be sure, as I try to recover from the battle. Slowly, the weight in my throat is falling back into place inside my chest, but I couldn’t feel more hollow. More empty.