Page 83 of Bitten By Bloodmoon
“Leave, tell everyone to leave.”
“You’re going to leave me unprotected for months while you slowly come back to life? I don’t think so, nightfall.”
“Nightfall?”
“Yes, you are the Nightfall lord—it's a title that suits you more than you know. You're not the darkness itself, not the void you believe you are. You're the moment just before it—when the last light clings to the edge of the world. You're the in-between, where shadows stretch but stars begin to stir. You're not despair. You're the promise that even in the fading light… there is still hope.”
Silence.
“Let me in. I promise I can handle it, and if I can’t, I’ll push myself out. Let me help you. It could be the reason we’re connected—to help each other.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“And I want to help ease your pain, so let me.”
I prod against his mind, gently, but he’s still doing everything he can to block me out. I look at Riven, giving him a nod, hoping he understands what I’m asking him to do, because if I say it out loud, Nyx will hear and be prepared for what I’m about to do.
With a flick of his wrist, more magic pours out of Riven so fast that I know it will shock the hell out of Nyx. With Riven providing a distraction, I use all my mental resources to counter Nyx’s shield, blocking me out. I push so hard that my teeth feel like they’re on the verge of breaking from the strain, and my entire body breaks out in sweat.
I push until I feel a gentle break of glass shattering in his mind. I walk right through the shards, even as they’re jabbing into me, and I push inside until I finally feel his pain.
And there is nothing that could have prepared me for it.
Chapter 22
Nyx
The whip strikes my back, and searing pain jolts through my body like a lightning bolt. A scream tears at my throat, threatening to escape, but I clench my jaw tight—refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing my cry. Still, with the next strike, a sound escapes—the smallest of squeaks. Then another. And another, until the dam breaks and I’m screaming so loudly that it rattles the walls. It echoes off the walls until everyone can hear. That makes it worse. Now everyone can hear what he did. Everyone knows he broke me. And this is only the beginning. He’s only warming up.
“I’m here, you don’t have to face this alone,”a soft voice whispers through the air, but I must have imagined it. I’m all alone. There is no one to face this torture with.
Chains get slapped around my wrists and ankles, like I’m capable of doing any damage in my current state. My back is torn to shreds. All my bones are broken. But it’s not enough for him.
I’m yanked by the chains attached to my wrists and ankles. I stumble, falling, and I don’t bother to get up as I’m dragged by my wrists. There is no point in fighting anymore. My fate is inevitable.
“You’re not alone.”
I shake off the words. I’m hallucinating now. But with that shake comes a new torture scene.
A lifeless girl lies on the cool ground in front of me. Her features are vague, but I know exactly who she’s supposed to represent. The next, she’s shifted form. Person after person flashes in my mind, ending in the last one—Rowena.
Killer, killer, killer…
Innocent victims, lost to my bloodlust. To my rage. To the vampire killer inside me that I can’t control.
“You’re not a killer. You’re a protector. You’re nightfall—the one that ushers in the darkness and makes it safe to go out into the dark.”
I don’t know where the words are coming from, but she’s wrong. So damn wrong.
The harsh memories of my past start twirling together like a tornado spinning and spinning and spinning. I can’t stay focused on any one memory.
Bring back the physical pain, I beg. It’s so much easier to block the painful memories when the physical pain is rotting my body. But the pain seems to be diminishing. Leaking out of my body like sweat through my pores.
My breathing becomes slower. My heart beats again, pumping the blood through my body that was stagnant before. I brace myself for the pain as my blood flows through my veins against the wretched spell, pumping poison. But it doesn’t come.
The room stills.
Silence engulfs me.
