Page 22 of Dark Souls

“I’d love to hear all about that fictional story. I am sure it’s a riveting tale.” I perched against the desk, pulling out Ilaria’s contract from the back of my trousers and tossing it down on the surface. “But, unfortunately, time is of the essence. See, I was supposed to kill you before the auction even started, but I got a little distracted.”

He gulped, pressing his lips together as his mind frantically worked all angles on how he could get out of this alive. Rogues. They were scrappy. And they would never go down without a fight.

“Surely, with this being my first offence, a warning would suffice? No harm was done, man. And you’ve already stabbed me and broken my arm. I can walk right out of here and I’ll never show my face atThe Undergroundagain.”

I sighed, folding my arms over my chest and looking down at the floor. “I wish I could. The problem is, Iphysicallycan’t. You see, just like your life is in my hands. Mine is in my Master’s. And I am compelled to do his bidding. So, yeah. Fuck, sorry about that.” I allowed my true form to come to the surface, which sent the wolf into fight-or-flight mode.

With incredible strength, the man flipped the desk with one hand in an attempt to block my pathway as he sprinted for the door. But I’d already intercepted him before he even reached it. My fangs plunged into his neck, ripping open an artery as my extended claws tore a gash through his stomach, spilling intestines and gore onto the floor. His body slumped soon after. The red haze of violence dominated my vision, fuelling my bloodlust, which became my only thought. I sank to my knees, pulling his weight onto my lap and draining his body with every drop of blood before I feasted on his main organs for nutritional value. A balanced diet is very important in life.

By the time I’d finished, I felt stronger than I had in weeks and also insanely aroused because feeding and killing always triggered that effect. My mind drifted to Ilaria as I leaned back against the wall, letting the man’s body fall off my lap to the floor. I closed my eyes. The image of Snow from earlier appeared in my mind; body arched in pleasure, stained blood on her parted lips and her sweet pussy on full display. Was it totally inappropriate to indulge in self-pleasure?

Not really caring either way, my claw delved into my jeans and wrapped around my thick cock. My hips moved involuntarily, pumping into my fist as I groaned, thinking only of her. The feel of her petite body up against me earlier, the softness of her skin, imagining those juicy red lips wrapped around my cock. Her quickening pulse could not hide her excitement when I held that little dagger of hers to her own throat. She loved the darkness. Craved it. And soon, she’d be craving me. In seconds, ropes of cum painted my stomach, clashing with the moving black shadow vines that covered me from head to toe in my true form.

‘Is the wolf dealt with? It’s taken longer than expected,’Master’s voice echoed in my mind as I tried to regulate my breathing.Damn, could I get a second of privacy?I opened my eyes, remembering where I was and glancing to my side to see the mangled corpse next to me.

‘What do you fucking think? Have a complaint? File it with HR. Or do it your fucking self next time,’I snapped back.

’Watch your tone, Heathen. Remember what happened the last time you pissed me off?’

I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn’t see me. Yeah. It was hard to forget the pain of having your tongue cut out with a blunt knife and then the agony of having to grow it back. For now, I’d let the asshole bask in his false security of controlling me. But one day, he’d get a taste of his own medicine. And I couldn’t wait for the tables to be turned.

I peered around at all the blood and guts spewed all over the floor.‘The floor’s going to need a scrub.’

‘It always does.’

Sensing his influence over the sigil necklace as he rubbed the pendant that always hung around his neck and chanted the ancient summoning, I felt the resistant tug on my consciousness, commanding me back to the darkness. I ground my teeth as the infuriating sensation of domination swept over my body like a giant wave taking me under, losing grip on reality as the unrelenting tides of magic battered me. My eyes snapped open, fighting against its force, when I remembered Ilaria’s file that was currently scattered across the floor because of that wolf’s outburst. I scrambled forwards but it was too late. My limbs were already heavy and sluggish as my consciousness faded and gave way to the void.

Trouble

Appearinginmyroomat the palace, I dashed for the wardrobe and threw random clothes off hangers and into my holdall. As far as I was aware, this was the only place Heathen knew where to find me, which meant I couldn’t stay there if I was going to keep playing his twisted game of hide-and-seek. He wanted me to run from him? To make it damn near impossible to find me in exchange for more information about who the hell he was? No problem. Being able to transport to any place I had already visited gave me a pretty vast geographical area to work with. Racing around my room and bathroom, I grabbed my journal, make-up and a few toiletries before shoving them into the bag and placing my hands on my hips to take a breather.

Heathen. What a perfect name for a monster with no morals. But was that entirely true? He hadn’t killed me when he had the perfect opportunity. Which had me wondering… what was his end game here? After our exchange, it was obvious he felt as if he had some kind of absurd claim over me. He killed that human out of jealousy and possessiveness as if he had a right. It also explained why he went after Eddie Hughes. So, if I was clever, I could play this to my advantage. I was pretty confident he wasn’t planning on hurting me, or he would have done it already. Playing along to gain knowledge about who the hell he was, why he killed Sylvester Gaidern and whoever else he had—because, let’s face it, he was no angel—could give me the time I needed to figure this all out. Perhaps the people he had murdered weren’t so innocent after all. Rubbing my forehead, I scoffed at myself.

Don’t be a fool, Ilaria! As if I should give a single fuck about the motives of the psycho stalking me.

So what if he excited me and I found his darkness alluring? That was just the thrill of the hunt. It was in my nature to become excited by the adrenaline and raw savageness a true beast of the night could provoke. His dangerous aura was impossible to ignore. And I was under no illusion I was playing with red-hot fire. But I also, probably stupidly, believed as long as I could hold his attention and keep him obsessing over me, then he’d keep his word. That he wouldn’t harm anyone I cared about. Strangely, I knew the death of that human wouldn’t fall back on me. That he’d stick to his promise. Which was an alien concept to me but something in my gut told me to trust his words, because trust isn’t something that comes easily. Maybe it was because he could block me from reading his mind. It should make me trust him less, but it made me more reliant on his actions. He could have killed me, but he didn’t. He promised to destroy evidence of my contract and return the man’s body to his family. The fact he gave me his name. They were all actions that, if he followed through with them, would give me a little more confidence to keep playing along with his game, buying me time to interrogate and capture him. He was trying to earn my trust in the only way his fucked-up brain knew how.

I saw a flash of movement in my peripheral vision and I froze. My situational awareness was already on high alert, but as I turned to face the most hideous creature I had ever seen in my life, my shrill scream pierced the air as I leapt onto my bed. There weren’t many things I truly feared in this life; in fact, I’d take a psychotic serial killer as a stalker any day over this. In the corner of my room, the largest spider I had ever seen in my twenty-one years on Earth was attempting to uselessly climb the wall but failing from its sheer size and weight. It looked like a tarantula on steroids! The size of a small cat with thick coarse black hair covering its body and so large, you could see its eight eyes. I hate spiders with a passion, and this was something out of my worst nightmares. Another scream ripped from me when it scampered across the floor, moving with creepy agility and speed that sent me into a blind panic.

The door flung open and my dad, wearing only his gym shorts, dishevelled sandy hair and menacing aura of protectiveness, bolted through the door with his wolf at the surface, ready to attack. His gold eyes scanned the room, falling onto me as I huddled against the black velvet headboard, whimpering and pleading with him to kill it.

“What? Kill what?” he roared, storming inside the room but unable to see the danger I was in. When he made it round the other side of my bed and noticed the monstrosity, his feet stalled. “What in the Goddess’ name is that?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care! Just get it out of here! Please!” I screeched, making a break for it and using my vampire speed to zoom out onto the safety of the landing. I listened carefully with my heart in my throat to the bashing and crashing around my room as he tried to capture that thing. My mum stormed down the hall with concern ingrained into her perfect features.

“What’s going on?”

“There’s a spider in my—”

“You are kidding? Ilaria, when are you going to get over your irrational fear of creepy crawlies? You’re a vampire, for Goddess’ sake. Don’t you think you are the scarier species?”

“You can’t even compare me to that thing! It’s an abomination! I’m telling you, it’s not a normal spider. It’s from another planet or something—” I froze, my eyes widening and fury manifesting in my veins when I realised exactly how something that alien happened to find its way into my room. Through a magical portal from another realm. “I am going to kill him!”

“Who?” Mum questioned just as Dad appeared, looking a little out of breath and rosy-cheeked as he carried my cabin-sized suitcase in one hand. I could hear the eight-legged freak thrashing around inside, demanding to be set free, causing a full-body shiver to ripple down me from head to toe.

“She’s right. This is definitely not a spider from this realm. I’ve never seen anything like it. You can see its fangs and everything! This has Leif written all over it.”

Mum chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand. I know they say parents don’t have favourites but… Leif could do no wrong. He got away with everything in this family, which only encouraged him more. Atrocious parenting, if you ask me. When she saw my annoyance at my brother’s prank, she tried to hold back her laughter. Leif and I have always been the mischievous ones, but normally we work together to wind up other family members or our more serious triplet brother, Lorcan, and Leif knows there is one line he should never cross with me. And that is fucking spiders! Oh, payback will be a bitch, dear brother!

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