"What’s happening?" My voice trembles, fear slicing through my anger. My throat tightens, each swallow an effort as if I'm trying to force down the thick dread that has filled the apartment.
It’s as though the very essence of my haven has been polluted, contaminated by a presence that is inverse to the warmth and security I associate with Shadow. His darkness is cold, yes, but it’s a familiar cold.
Shadow turns toward my bed, his misty eyes now wide, genuine fear emanating from his entire being. "Evie, get behind me."
But it's too late. From the pulsating darkness beneath my bed, where the gateway between worlds is, something horrifying begins to emerge.
A primal terror grips my heart with icy fingers and squeezes.
The shadows contort, and from them, an array of monstrous forms spill forth into my room.
Ensnared by the Guard
Their monstrous heads are first to breach the veil of darkness from under my bed. Large and imposing, not quite wolf, not quite lion, but something terrifyingly unique. Elongated muzzles are adorned with strange, alien metals that glint ominously in the dim light. Set in faces that are both regal and grotesque are eyes of a fiery hue that no earthly creature could possess.
Their manes, if they can be called that, bristle with a strange energy, each strand seeming to float and move with a life of its own. A mottled array of colored fur absorbs all light, glimmering with a dark iridescence that is not of this world.
Their presence sucks the air from the room. I gasp for breath as ice cubes fill up my stomach.
Every twitch, every step is fluid, united. Even their eye movements are a coordinated dance, taking in the surroundings with mass efficiency. They are a collective, moving as one, an orchestrated symphony of nightmares.
There are so many of them. I wonder how all six can fit into my small room, even pressed shoulder to shoulder. They defy physics and their presence feels perverse to my human senses. Before my heart and brain can kickstart into working order, all twelve eyes snap to Shadow.
They move toward him, their forms shifting, dark tendrils reaching out.
"You’ve broken the blood covenants." One head speaks half the sentence while another picks up the second half without missing a beat. They both speak separately but as one. "You’ve escaped the pit of oblivion before serving your due time of punishment. You have endangered the entire realm by returning here." The six each speak the words in different turns.
The Guard. This is the Guard that has been hunting Shadow, and now we are surrounded.
In a heartbeat, the world is erased, leaving only Shadow in its wake. The cops, the men waiting outside, none of it matters now. Only Shadow matters.
My entire being trembles with raw fear at the possibility of losing him, of Shadow being dragged back into the Pit of Oblivion, or worse.
I'd never see him again. Never feel his touch or hear his voice. The fear inside me swells to a deafening crescendo, threatening to consume everything that I am.
"You have no idea what you are doing," Shadow snarls. His smoke and tendrils flare and swell around him in a protective display, but there's desperation in his movements. He’s outnumbered, and we both know it. "Youare the ones who have failed to guard the gate.Youhave failed the Nexus. I am the only one who can protect her."
My gut clenches at the mention ofher.
"The Nexus is none of your concern." Three of them complete the sentence in turn. They close their circle around us tighter.
"Shadow!" I cry out, lurching forward to protect him.
"Stay back, Evie," he barks, even as one of his shadow tentacles forces me behind him.
My front door crashes open. It’s Toothpick and one of his guys who’s been hanging on my street the last several days. The activity in my apartment must have drawn their attention.
As the goon trains his gun on the commotion, the whites of his eyes nearly swallow the irises. His jaw flaps in wordless terror.
Toothpick backs up a step before rooting to the spot, his face also flexing with disbelief.
Bright shots pierce the darkness with hot barks of the goon’s gun.
Shadow engulfs me, rolling us to the side and out of the line of fire.
I peek over his shoulder to see the Guard doesn’t even flinch. The monsters leap in a tidal wave of muscle and force. When they hit him, he disappears from view and I only hear the too-familiar sound of tearing muscle and wet gurgling.
"Jesus Christ." Toothpick still stands in horror at the threshold of my apartment. His wide eyes jerk to meet mine before he turns around and tears off like a fire has been lit under his ass.
