Chapter Seventeen
“Damn you, Joran.”
Nicole had never been so furious in her life. Not only had Joran stopped her from getting down to help, but he’d taken her gun as well.
Shaking from both exhaustion and anger, she moved over to the loft ledge. She managed to hold her gasp in at the sight of Erebus and Joran squaring off together.
The monster didn’t even look like something she could easily wrap her mind around. A flowing and shifting gargantuan shadow roughly in the shape of a man towered over the already large Joran, two blue eyes peering out from the rough area of its head.
She couldn’t get over how huge the monster was. She’d seen it in her dream and again in the blue dome, but here, something seemed off, different, like he’d chosen a particular form.
As if he knew she was watching, Erebus turned to look at her. “My wife.”
Nicole’s heart pounded all the way to her throat. She recognized the words, but it wasn’t like she’d heard them with her ears. It was like they were coming from inside her.
“Over my dead body,” Joran growled. His eyes glowed bright blue.
The dark form shifted into a more clearly defined shadow man, and Erebus smiled. “As you wish.”
The monster moved first, but Joran met him in the middle. The pair moved so quickly Nicole’s eyes had trouble tracking them and trying to made her sick to her stomach. The hybrid was throwing punches and narrowly dodging sickening dark claws. Blow after blow landed, but Erebus didn’t flinch.
Her gun, which had been tucked into Joran’s pants, flew out after the monster punched Joran into a wall. From her vantage point, she couldn’t see where the weapon landed.
Nicole pulled away from the edge and swallowed hard. She needed to get down there to help. If she could get her gun, she might be able to do something. Joran had already proven Erebus could be hurt by a gun earlier, and all of the hybrid’s muscles and speed didn’t seem to be helping him win.
Deep down, Nicole doubted she’d even be able to hit Erebus without possibly hitting Joran, but doing something was better than sitting in the loft like a child. She was a grown-ass woman with skills that she could surely use if given the chance. The shadow monster and possible god was a little outside her experience range, but that didn’t matter.
Nicole crawled back over to the edge and stared down at the ground below, somehow it seemed even further away than it did before. She swallowed hard.
“All I need to do is lower myself down and get as close to the ground as I can.”
Her words sounded hollow, but she just hoped she could convince herself all would be well.
Not giving herself a chance to back out, Nicole slid her legs over the edge. They dangled there for a moment before she felt comfortable enough to lower herself farther.
When she was hanging just by her hands, she glanced down to the floor. It still seemed so far away, but there wasn’t much choice at that point.
Nicole let go and landed hard on the floor. Her hip throbbed with pain, and she was certain there would be a nasty bruise, but nothing seemed to be broken.
She moaned a little as she turned to her side, just in time to see Erebus slash viciously at Joran and narrowly miss his thigh. Nicole swallowed the bile that rose in her throat.
Her gun. That’s what she needed to find.
After pulling her pained body up slightly, Nicole crawled across the floor, trying not to draw much attention to herself.
There, nearly five feet from the door, she spotted the dark edge of her gun’s grip.
Joran and Erebus flew through the air, both growling. The impact from their bodies hitting was so loud it almost sounded like claps of thunder. If she were going to make her move, she needed to do it quickly.
The two opponents dashed to the middle of the room again, and Nicole took her chance. She sprinted like she’d never done before and dove for the gun. As her fingers grabbed hold of the piece, she heard a loud crash behind her.
Joran struggled to stand from the other side of the room. Blood dribbled down his brow and from a large gash across his stomach.
“Come with me,” came a voice, but not Joran’s.
Nicole turned and found Erebus standing in front of her, the shadow man looming over her. She struggled to move but found herself frozen. Not from fear but something else. As if she didn’t control her own body.
“N-n-n-n-o,” Nicole said. Her teeth chattered as she struggled to respond. Just as it had that night several days before, her breath billowed out around her.
“Hey,” Joran shouted. “We have some unfinished business, you son of a bitch.”
Nicole wanted to cry out but found herself still locked in place as Erebus turned to look at Joran.
“When I kill you, the girl is mine. You cannot win against me.”
As soon as Erebus stepped away, Nicole fell to the floor, her body once again hers.
Joran’s stomach burned as he met Erebus in the center of the room. If it weren’t for Nicole, he might have given in. It was clear the monster had the upper hand in his own world. He was too strong and too fast. It didn’t seem like a single one of Joran’s blows had done much to even slow Erebus down.
The hybrid ducked as the beast barreled toward him again. This time Joran threw all his force into a punch into the monster’s thigh. The impact sent a tremor through Joran’s body, but his reward was a loud crunch underneath his fist.
Erebus screamed. The sound made Joran’s ears ache, and he knew the unearthly sound was meant to cause pain. It was all the monster knew how to do.
Joran moved back from the strange creature and stared hard at him, his jaw tight. Was Erebus really a god? He sure as hell hoped not. If had been hard for many of the hybrids to even think they might be a form of the Atlantean gods but to think they were related to something like this made his stomach churn.
“I will make her my wife.” Erebus grunted at him.
Joran could see that his blow had done more damage than it previously looked like, and he wondered just how powerful the creature actually was, or maybe trying to mess with people somewhere other than dreams was too much, too soon. It could have taken too much power to manifest in a more physical form, even if he’d not made it to the true real world.
“I don’t think she’s into freaky godlike monsters,” Joran growled.
Erebus stopped moving. A loud, ear splitting laugh echoed around Joran.
“I will consume her light and join your world as I am meant to.”
Joran swallowed the bile that rose in his throat.
“Then I will rule over you all,” Erebus continued, “and there will be nothing to be done.”
Pure burning rage pumped through Joran’s veins. No way in fuck was he letting that happen. Nicole was his. She wasn’t a light to be consumed for some moldy old chaos god. She was to be cherished. And that’s exactly what he intended to do, but first he needed to kill a god.
Joran launched himself at Erebus, taking him by surprise as the two tumbled to the floor. The monster’s claws raked down the sides of the hybrid’s arms, but Joran ignored the pain and pushed further.
“I’m never going to let that happen,” the hybrid roared.
Erebus grinned at him. His claws slammed deep into Joran’s thigh. “And what does a puny boy like you plan to do? You’re nothing before me, even in this partial form.”
“I’m going to rip your head clean off!” Joran roared loudly. He used the pain and anger he’d been holding onto to help him reach out and grab Erebus by the head. He twisted, and a loud crunch followed.
The black mass beneath him fizzled away, swirling in the air around him as it pulled quickly out the door.
Joran stared out at the blackness as it retreated. He’d won and defeated the monster, but he was under no delusion he’d killed Erebus. This wasn’t over. It was likely far from over, but walking away from the current battle was all he could hope for at the moment.
His gaze shifted across the room. He half expected to find Nicole there by the door waiting for him. Instead he found nothing.
“Nicole?” he called out to her. Nothing. “Nicole!” His voice now rattled the window panes.
Still no reply.
Nicole was gone.