A cacophony of shrieks erupted. Dark energy came at him like an agitating cloud, crashing into him, their screams reverberating through his skull. He tripped and fell.
The insidious snarls inside him grew, and then he knew. The malevolent souls of the foulest demons found in the deepest part of Hell had violated him, entered him. He retched, but nothing came out as he dry-heaved.
Breathing hard, Nik tightened his mind shields. Theós, he didn’t want these things inside him. Then the battering started as they tried to escape. He clenched his teeth in agony, ignoring the pull on his psyche to move, wishing for death.
A snarl erupted. Nik’s gore-sealed eyelids snapped open. Glowing red orbs floated toward him, then the hazy shape of a huge, hellish beast took form. It stalked closer.
Weakened from starvation, Nik knew he couldn’t fight the damn thing, but anger erupted. He shot to his feet as the hellbeast leaped through the heavy dank air, colliding with him and taking him down to the jagged ground. Nik rammed a fist into its snout. It growled, reared back. Fangs, the size of his forearms, sank into his thigh, and the beast loped off, dragging Nik over the jagged terrain, tearing the flesh off his back as they moved. His skull cracked against a rocky outcrop, knocking him out…
Nik shuddered awake again, to a foul, misty mouth on his, drawing out the souls.
Teeth gritted, he fought off the ghouls, but his fist just went through air.
“You fight thisss!” A hiss of fury.
Icy, foggy talons plunged into his chest, ripping his sternum apart, dragging out the screeching souls. Blood poured, pooling around him. A massive maw opened in the agitating mist, widening into a carnivorous hole, shoveling the souls into its gorge.
“More, wantsss more…” A furious bellow.
But death claimed him. Finally…
His eyes snapped opened. Nik took in the dark, cold wastelands. No—!
Invisible hands picked him up and flung him through the air. Nik landed hard, crashing on the horrifically icy ground amidst mutilated bodies.He shoved to his feet, evading the dark energy darting about as blood-curdling screams rented the air.
Souls blasted into him in a hail of arrows. Then the internal battering started. Teeth clenched, he fought the tug back to his sadistic jailors and grabbed onto a rocky outcrop.
A low growl. Deadly fangs clamped into his belly and ripped the flesh off. Blood gushed. The hellhound refastened its mammoth maw on his thigh, dragging him back to his soul-eating keepers.
Emaciated hands shoved into his chest, tearing through flesh and bone. The ghouls fed. Then merciful darkness and death…
He awakened again and hunted for them, returning to the same fate. Over and over. No food. Just sulfuric water.
Months. Years. Centuries passed.
Time, endless time.
He moved like the dead. No feeling, no emotions, with only thoughts of getting those souls…
And millennia later, he still suffered the same fucking fate at every blood moon.
Jaw tight, Nik scrubbed his face and paced, waiting for the inevitable.
* * *
Shadow sighed and braced her forearms on the granite balustrade. Neither the cool night’s breeze nor her earlier shower calmed the restlessness within. How could it, when Nik’s words still reverberated in her head hours later?
While you contemplate short-term, I don’t.
He hadn’t come back to the monastery. She had no idea if he’d gone off on patrol or… God, she pressed a palm to her cramping tummy. Was avoiding her?
Still, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that something wasn’t right…that he needed her. But she’d made that mistake back in the castle.
When it came to Nik, her emotions went haywire.
She scrubbed her face and tracked back to the wooden chair where she’d left her washed underwear to dry, picked it up, and pulled it on. With no clothes here, she had to make do and recycle what she wore. As she smoothed the large sweater over her short plaid skirt, a faint masculine scent drifted to her. Unable to stop herself, she pressed the soft knit to her nose, inhaling deeply.
Ugh, this wasn’t helping. She flopped down on the chair, propped her feet on the old wooden table, and wrapped her arms around her waist, her restless mind slipping to Joyce, hoping the woman had taken her advice and had gone to The Shelter.
