Page 86 of Incubus
“Hahaha…”
Nathan had started to close his eyes but now they widened, knowing that sound, that particular laugh. Across the seats, Sasha looked frightened too, something that bothered Nathan so much more than his own fear.
“I’m sorry, Nathan,” Sasha whispered, blue eyes swimming with fear and regret, “I thought we had more time.”
But they didn't.
Nathan's time was up.
Chapter 33
Thedarklaughtercontinued,growing louder, raking Nathan’s ears as it bounced off the walls of the car that suddenly no longer existed. There were no walls. There was no car. Everything around Nathan was black and empty. Only Sasha was whole. Only Sasha was real and solid beside him. Only Sasha.
AndJim.
Nathan turned to look where the backseat had been at the form of his brother, the source of that horrible laugh, and saw Jim grinning cruelly in the darkness. That darkness seemed to emanate from him, to originate from some greater darkness inside of Jim. His eyes were dark and slit, his mouth open as he laughed again.
“Jim…”
“You know you can’t escape it, Nathan,” said a voice, close beside Nathan but not from Sasha and not from Jim. The voice was familiar, but Nathan didn't recognize it for what it was untilhe turned to look in front of him and met another pair of slit eyes.Greenslit eyes. And his own smirking face.
Nathan was standing suddenly in a large expanse of black, and with him was Sasha, Jim, and another version ofhim.
“Face it, Nathan,” said Nathan’s lips with Nathan’s voice, and those green slit eyes. “You don’t deserve this. You don’t deserve anything. Everything you are, everything you’ve ever wanted,everything, belongs to me now.”
"I don't understand."
The other Nathan took hold of Sasha, viciously strong, and started dragging him away into the darkness. Nathan tried to reach out and pull Sasha back, but Jim was there to take Sasha’s place, holding Nathan against an invisible surface and pinning him in place.
“It's too late, Nathan,” Jim said, slit blue eyes glittering and slightly larger body heavy against him. “This is what's going to happen. When you're taken by the dark fae, you'll be theirs forever. Like me. But don't you worry, I'll be there too. And Sasha. We'll always be together, I promise.”
“No, you’re not Jim,” Nathan snarled, hating those eyes as much as he had ever hated them in the face of dark fae. “You’re not even real. This is just a dream. I know it’s a dream.”
Jim’s mouth twisted further into a half-mad grin. “No, Nathan. This isn’t a dream. Deep down, I think you know that. You know…that this is the reality that waits for you. And you…” Jim’s body seemed to press into Nathan even more, forcing the air out of his lungs. “You’re going to lose everything.”
The constriction in Nathan's chest felt like being squeezed and pulled apart at the same time, with all of that surrounding darkness starting to fill him. Nathan recognized the feeling from so many times passing through the Veil. He was being pulled to the other side, and not through any doorway but through thevery wall of the Veil itself. The slit-eyed figure of Jim against him was laughing, holding him immobile andlaughing.
Nathan could see flashes of brilliant color and beautiful scenery that he had heard about of the more lush places in the Veil, but had never seen. There were flashes of the fae markets, all metal and exhaust. Caves tunneling to underground cities. Endless trees dividing light from darkness, leading deeper and deeper into the black. And, at the heart of it all, a tower, a castle, and a flash of slit eyes, only they weren't blue or green, they were red on black.
"Nathan!"
Thesteeringwheelwasin Nathan's hands. The black had vanished, that awful emptiness of the Veil pulling him in gone. Nathan was awake, back in the car and safe.
"Nathan?" Walter repeated anxiously.
Nathan turned his head just slightly to see Sasha asleep against the passenger side door. He couldn't remember how much of the dream had been real and what was just nightmare. He was pretty sure that most of the make-out session had been real, but he wasn't sure where reality stopped, and that made him shudder.
"I'm fine, Walter," Nathan said, looking up at the rearview mirror to see Walter in his usual place in the backseat. Nathan wasn't fine though, and the sight of Walter there instead ofJim, no Jim at all, had Nathan suddenly panicking.
He opened the door and climbed out of the car without saying another word to Walter. It was almost dawn and Jim had disappeared. Only when Nathan looked around, he saw to his great relief that Jim had not gone far. Nathan spotted Jim'sturned back a block in the direction away from the doorway at the top of an open walkway looking out onto the streets below.
By the time Nathan walked across the empty sidewalks to reach Jim, he had almost calmed himself enough to keep the tremble out of his voice.
"You know I'd never forgive you if you jumped," Nathan said, attempting to sound nonchalant, though he doubted he pulled it off well.
Jim didn't turn, not even when Nathan came up to lean against the railing beside him. They were facing the slowly rising sun, painting the sky in hues of pink.
"Jim?"
