Page 134 of Dark Souls

After enduring over a century alone with no communication with my better half, Luka, it’s been a pretty lonely reality. Yes, we may share a body, but we don’t share a mind. Not anymore. When I am present, he is blocked. And vice versa. I know he’s lost himself. He’s been through more than me. Suffered more than I have. In a way, he has always protected me. He is so fucking strong. Stronger than anyone I know because he took every beating, every torture, every brutality to save us. To keep us alive. I was who they wanted. Not him.

Before all this happened, before our family was hunted like animals and our father and brother murdered mercilessly before our eyes, he was a good kid. He loved his family. Treated people with respect. His outlook on the world was one of wonder and optimism. He believed that one day the world would change. He trusted that by showing them we were different, we would be accepted for who we really were. I remained unconvinced. Being a true demon from the ancient bloodline, I struggled to empathise with his emotions and thoughts. When we killed to feed, he’d feel guilt, whereas I’d feel satisfied. He had a consciousness that I lacked. But we were the same, living life the best way we could under the heavy axe that was always hanging over our head because society deemed our species as monstrous. Why? Because I needed to eat organs to survive? I had no choice. Yet witches, wolves, vampires chose the evil they put out in the world. They didn’t need to kill to survive. They wanted to. Yet, I was the monster?

And then he met Belladonna Bitchface. And we were under her bewitching spell. Literally. She seduced us into believing she cared for us. That she loved us. She wasn’t our soulmate, but I didn’t mind having a little fun with the witch. But Luka fell harder for her shit. She was the first person he became close to who wasn’t family, and he was completely blind to her evil agenda. We both were.

When she betrayed us, it changed him. He lost all hope and faith he had in the world. And every sadistic torture they put him through just broke him that bit more. In trying to save me, he lost himself. And it’s been so fucking long since I’ve felt him, spoken to him, shared experiences with him because of that goddamn sigil, that I fear I no longer knew him at all. Or who he’s become. Had he given up and accepted our doomed fate?

But there’s always light in the darkness. Our angel. I knew Ilaria was different the second I met her. Not only because I fell in love with her the moment I heard her voice, the moment I looked into those eyes, but because I knew in my gut she belonged to us. I didn’t know she was our soulmate, but I knew she was the one we’d been waiting for all these years. And now I know Luka has accepted her as ours, wants her just as much as I do. It’s given me the confirmation I needed to know he’s still in there somewhere. He was still fighting.

I didn’t dare open my mouth to speak because a part of me feared what her answer would be. Honestly, my patience and self-control were as fragile as a spider’s web, and I wasn’t sure I could take it if she still hadn’t figured out we were the same person. There was no holding myself back from doing what I’d wanted to do the moment I laid eyes on my Snow Angel, and knowing Luka already has made me jealous beyond comparison. She’s mine too. If she didn’t know the truth by now, she soon would.

She whipped the mask off her head and then yanked off the black wig. I let out a deep grunt at how gorgeous she was. I hated that I went days, sometimes weeks, without seeing her. In her vampire form, her red eyes, like burning coals under the starlight, threatened to incinerate me with their intense heat. She smiled a little as she reached up and pulled my balaclava off my head. I wasn’t in my true form but had taken the identity of Harry Gould. I’d grown rather attached to my preppy human disguise.

“Let me see you,” she commanded. I’d give her anything she wanted. I transformed right before her eyes, my skin rippling like a snake shedding its scales as my body expanded, growing in size and muscle, and my black vines protruded on the surface. The black t-shirt Luka had been wearing tore to shreds, falling like confetti to the floor. My horns curled out from the top of my head and I rolled my shoulders as my wings spread behind my back.

Her lips parted with arousal as hunger swirled in her eyes. Just seeing how much she wanted me in my true form called to my predatory nature.

“I should have known. I should have listened to the pull that always drew me to you instead of questioning it. Tell me I’m right.” She placed her hand on my chest and leaned into me. I groaned at her soft touch, weaving my talons into her hair and tugging gently so her face tilted up to mine.

“You have to say it, Snow,” I growled, fighting to control myself so I wouldn’t claim her before getting confirmation.

Her eyes glistened as her little tongue darted between those tempting lips and her nerves increased. “Luka is a Demonski Upir. And I think you are his demon side. Which would make you… my soulmate, too.”

Fucking yessssssssss!She knew. She’d finally figured it out. I had to fight the urge to throw my hands in the air and do a little jig on the spot; I was so elated. But no matter how happy it made me, the predator I was at my core demanded I celebrate differently.

I inhaled deeply, the smell of damp earth rising to meet me, and closed my eyes, my head thrown back against the sky as I felt her desperate fingernails scrape against my chest.

“Tell me it’s true, Heath. Tell me I’m not going crazy.”

I peered down at her, allowing the most devilish, wicked smile to curve my lips. Her heart beat out of sync as she held my gaze. As much as I wanted to confirm it verbally, I couldn’t. The fucking chokehold the sigil had on me would not allow me to voice what I now knew.

“You are not crazy. Do you remember what I said to you when I last saw you, Snow?” I husked, leaning closer to her face and causing her breathing to hitch and her eyes to widen.

“You said you’d be taking what’s yours. And no one can stop you,” she whispered, her voice full of sultry need as her tits brushed against my chest in her black top with every rise and fall of her erratic breathing. She knew I was about to make every one of her dark fantasies come true.

I pursed my lips with amusement as another cry of agony rippled through the air from the maze behind me and made her heart race faster. This was my event. The one I always planned and looked forward to. As sadistic as it was to make members pay to kill each other, I saw it as a twisted way to rid the world of a few more sick fucks and give them a taste of the medicine I’d received all my life.

Narrowing my eyes at my dark angel, I watched as the excitement and adrenaline took over. I always knew she had a dark side. A side that she suppressed because the world told her she shouldn’t be who she really was. It was about time that side of her came out to play.

Using my gift of sexual manipulation, I ran my phantom touch all over her body and she gasped loudly as she stared up at me. A lust-filled haze cast over her eyes, and it made me want to devour her until there was nothing left. The primal need to possess her, to claim her as mine, swelled within me. I took a step back, my nostrils flaring as they filled with the scent of her sweetness, and she frowned at the sudden distance in confusion.

“You know who I am. You know what I am… And now, you know you are mine,” I spoke slowly, every word with an edge of warning. I knew I would rather cut my heart out with a blunt knife than ever hurt her, but I still wanted to ravage her completely. Tear her little body in half with pleasure and pain. Make her need me so damn much that she couldn’t ever imagine living without me. Absorb her into my bloodstream and own her entirely. I was still a demon. And I wanted her soul.

A look of understanding flashed over her features as she realised I was the predator in this scenario. And she was my prey. She took a single step back, her heart pounding violently in her chest but her arousal only heightened at the danger and pleasure I was offering.

“Heathen–” she breathed. It came out as a moan. I slammed my eyes closed and inhaled a sharp breath as she froze.

“Run, Angel.”

When she didn’t move, I opened my onyx eyes, staring into her soul with a terrifying thirst. Her lips parted. Her pupils dilated.

“I’m about to lose control, Snow. So fucking run.” The icy calmness in my tone was warning enough, but once the words registered, she barrelled past me at the speed of light into the maze.

I rolled my shoulders and beat my wings once. Twice. As I counted to five, just like she’d taught me, a twisted, mischievous smile transformed my face. But this time, I wasn’t counting to maintain control. I was counting down to the moment I’d lose it, and I’d finally make her mine.

I raced through the heated gasps of breath I left behind as I used my full speed to disappear around the first bend of twisted spiked hedges and high stone walls. The brambles reached out as if they were alive, attempting to trap me in their thorny embrace. They caught my shoulder and arm, tearing my shirt, but I broke free, refusing to let the pain from the cuts slow me down. My heart thumped violently, but not from the effort of trying to get the best head start I could, but from the intoxicating excitement Heathen’s words provoked in me. Yes, I could use my transportation ability to remove myself from the deadly game I’d just thrown myself into, but I wasn’t a quitter and if I was being one hundred percent honest with myself, I wanted this. The maze. The fight. The chase. The threat and promise of Heathen as a reward. I wanted it all so badly.

Damn.He’d only gone and unlocked another kink for me. Being a powerful predator myself, I’ve never felt the fear that being chased could instil. I’ve never run from a fight or from an opponent before because I’m a competitive and cocky bitch that loves to win. But with Heathen… it’s different. He was the only one that could truly dominate me. He could terrify me in the most delicious way and, I had to admit, running from him, knowing exactly what he had in mind if he caught me, was a thrill like no other; a dangerous blend of primal fear and all-consuming desire.

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