CHAPTER 29
Endless darkness stretched around him and he drowned in it, let it roll over him and pull him apart as it put him together, embraced him and smothered him. Black needs shot through him, and he revelled in them and the pleasure that blazed at just the thought of indulging them.
The coppery sweet taste of blood on his tongue was thick, swirled in his senses and made his gut clench with a need for more. Delicious. Intoxicating. It was everything he needed, all that he desired. It filled him up, but left him empty at the same time, craving more. Eternally.
He drifted in the black abyss, that craving creating a driving urge for blood, transforming him into a slave for it. An addict. He clung to that need as fiercely as the part of him that lingered and refused to die, a part that didn’t want to give in to his hunger for blood, clung to something else.
Something he couldn’t see or describe, a feeling that beat within him that made no sense, because he was part of the darkness now.
Why would he ever want to step into the light?
But that dreadful light beckoned him, tried to pierce the veil of night with each fresh wave of blood on his tongue, slowly cracking a hole in the void around him to allow pale gold to filter in and blind him.
A sound rolled through the black.
A growl.
Followed by a whispered word.
A word that held such emotion, such force, that it shook him to his soul.
Fuery.
It echoed in his mind in the voice of an angel, and the light grew stronger, flickering brighter in the darkness. He snarled and pushed back against it, afraid the vile light would steal the darkness away. The darkness was his home, his lover, his sanctuary.
His everything.
He sank back into it and the light faded.
Fuery.
The voice came again in a blinding flash of lightning that revealed nightmarish creatures formed of stilted black ribbons of smoke. They skittered into the shadows, chittering at each other, the sound combining into a rolling boom of thunder in his ears before dropping to silence as the light faded again. He felt the creatures roam closer, edging nearer to him. Sensed their intent.
Growled as a need to fight them arrowed through him.
The sweet taste of blood on his tongue grew stronger still, and he moaned as he drank it down, savoured it and let the warmth of it flow through him to chase the cold away again.
Fuery.
The lightning struck again and the inky creatures bared sharp fangs, their talons poised to seize his ankles and wrists as the blinding white illuminated them. Red eyes flashed as they hunkered down on all fours, their pointed ears flaring back against the jagged sides of their heads. One hissed at the light, and the others joined it.
Fire began to burn in his blood.
Heat that gave way to wretched icy cold as the light flickered and faded once more.
Red eyes moved in the darkness, blazing like fire, and he growled as a pair appeared above him. Cold hands pressed down on his shoulders, talons digging into his flesh, but no cry left his lips as the pain burned through him, stealing away the last of the warmth.
The creature snarled and pushed him downwards, and the ground beneath him became thick black liquid that seeped over his ankles and hands, and sucked him down, pulling him deeper into it.
“Fuery!”
Her sweet voice struck like lightning once more, revealing the creature perched on his chest.
He stared into its crimson eyes and saw a shadow of himself in them, in its twisted form that began to distort to take on his appearance. The black beast bared pointed teeth at him, wide lips peeling back off them, stretching almost to the lobes of its ears, and weight pressed down on him, cracking his ribs, compressing his lungs. Pushing him deeper into the darkness trying to swallow him.
“Drink, my love.”
The taste of blood on his tongue grew thicker, stronger still, and it swept through him like a blazing trail of wildfire, of light so pure it stung his eyes and he couldn’t contain it. The creature growled as its skin began to fracture, and the light shone through, chasing back the darkness.
He looked down at his own body as he struggled to pull his limbs free of the black tar. That same light poured from him, glowed from the cracks between each tiny scale of his armour.
The darkness around him began to shift as the creature balanced on his chest scrambled off him and tried to flee into the shadows. The light grew brighter still, and he squinted against it, trying to see the darkness that was his home.
No. It wasn’t his home.
His home was this light that bathed him in warmth, in love he could feel all the way to his bones, and called him back to it with every sweet drop of her blood.
The creature let out a pained screech as that thought struck him and lit up the land, and green rolled outwards from beneath him, a thousand blooms springing to life from the long grass, and blue devoured the black above him.
With one last hiss in his direction, the black wraith disappeared into the shadows.
Gone for now.
But not forever.
He could feel it inside him, writhing and furious, battering the cage the light created and desperate to escape it, to drive that light back out of him.
“Fuery?” A soft hand stroked his cheek, smearing wetness across it.
Gods, he wanted to consume the owner of that voice, wanted to devour all of her and take her into him so she would never leave him again.
The taste of her blood on his tongue was Heaven.
Like dew and lavender.
“Come back to me.”
He obeyed that command, opening his eyes and looking up at the female who leaned over him, upside down in his vision. Her violet eyes were bright with unshed tears, filled with love that stole his breath and made him feel unworthy of her, but blessed at the same time.
Her smile wobbled on worry-reddened lips as she lowered her head and he closed his eyes as she pressed a kiss to his brow and he felt her relief go through his blood.
Together with her fear.
“You scared me,” she whispered, her lips brushing his skin, and there were a thousand things that he wanted to tell her, some about where he had been that he knew would scare her, and some about the way he felt about her, but he couldn’t find his voice as she pulled her wrist away from his lips and wrapped her arms around him.
Home.
This was home.
Light rushed through him as he opened himself to her, and the darkness writhed harder, desperate to escape its touch.
He relaxed into her embrace, not fighting the light this time, letting it flow into him from her, savouring it as sweetly as he had savoured the blood she had given him.
He raised his hands above him and wrapped his arms around her as best he could, holding her to him. Gods, it felt good to hold her, to feel her in his arms and know she was safe.
He frowned as he focused on her.
Cold chased the warmth away.
She was weak.
The cold became numbing ice as he gripped her shoulders and eased her back, and saw how pale she was. He shifted onto his knees and frowned at the angry red marks on her exposed midriff and legs that had joined her own injuries, and growled at the way the long gash across her chest wept crimson.
She had harmed herself by taking on some of his injuries, and while he was thankful she had because it had helped him come back from the darkness, he couldn’t stop the anger from boiling through his veins.
“I will get her blood.” Hartt disappeared before Fuery could even look at him, leaving him alone with Shaia.
She shook beneath his hands.
“You… I… gods… Shaia. You shouldn’t have.” He looked her over, cataloguing every injury that had been his, and thankful that she had left the deepest of his injuries alone for him to bear.
He cursed himself.
His mate had hurt herself for his sake and had then endangered herself further by giving him blood to help him heal his other injuries.
Sweet fucking gods, he didn’t deserve her.
“You are my mate, Fuery… I would take on ten times as many injuries and give you ten times as much blood if it meant saving you.” She tried to smile, but her lips barely twitched and her eyes gained a dull edge that terrified him. “I just need to rest.”
No, what she needed was blood.
Hartt had gone for some, but he couldn’t wait. He feared he would lose her if he did.
He stared into her eyes, another fear taking hold of him as she shook in his arms.
What if he tainted her with his blood?
He shook that fear away, refusing to allow it to sink its claws into him and stop him. His blood didn’t contain the darkness that still infested him. That was held in his soul, his to bear. Giving her blood wouldn’t harm her.
But it would help her.
He wouldn’t let any of his fears hold him back anymore.
Because he knew in his black soul, in his dark heart, that he would never hurt Shaia.
Even in the grip of the darkness, lost in the black abyss, he hadn’t hurt her. He had bitten her, had wanted to devour her, but his love for her and his instincts as her mate had held him back and stopped him from harming her.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” he whispered and cupped her cheeks, making her look at him as fear began to get the better of him again—fear of losing her. “I would never have hurt you. I lost control because—”
“You are my ki’aro,” she murmured and smiled softly as her eyes held his, all of her love shining in them, “and other males threatened me.”
He nodded. “I wanted your blood… and that was all I wanted from you. I was never going to hurt you.”
She gave a subtle dip of her chin. “I know… I know, Fuery. You needed blood, my blood… that of your mate. It was wrong of me to fear you, even for a second. I am sorry… I should have trusted you.”
Fuery shook his head and let her see in his eyes and feel through their bond that her words had touched him, had reached the deepest part of him, and soothed the side that was still afraid of hurting her.
She raised a trembling hand and brushed her thumb across his lip, her gaze distant as she stared at his mouth.
Her irises brightened.
He felt the need go through her, hunger that echoed in his own body in response.
“I need your blood now,” she whispered throatily. “Will you give it to me?”