“Take my hand,” he rasped, and I did without a second thought. Then his eyes faced mine, his almost green eyes stared at me so calmly, he sucked me in and I almost forgot about the chaos around me. Fuck he was a gorgeous man and I wished we met on different circumstances. “Be brave for me, Elena. You hear me?” He smiled warmly, his grip around me tightened in a gentle manner that kept me grounded, somehow. But the word brave did something to me, I could hear myself from last night, believing his words as he fucked me. Fuck, I promised myself not to go back there.
“Hey.” Damian brought me back. “Stay with me. No matter what happens.” If only he knew the things I wasn’t telling him. It was for the best, because I was certain no one would help a sick fucked up person like me once they found out the things I had done with a being I couldn’t even see, not even him.
“Okay,” I whispered, and he gave me one last smile, before he was gone again, swallowed by the chant, his voice changing languages, faster and sharper.
The temperature dropped, and my breath turned visible in front of me. I could feel him…it. It was here, it was midnight. And just as I thought it, I heard him; a whisper, so close Ithought it came from right behind my ear.
“Oh, my brave girl…” I froze. “You’ve brought a piece of me back,” it said, making my blood turn cold.
I turned my head slowly, every muscle in my neck trembling. “Damian, did you…did you hear that?”
He didn’t move, still, his hands were shaking violently now, his face had turned pale, sweat slicking down his temples, as the words from his mouth sounded like they weren’t his own anymore.
The voice came again, so soft, cold, and familiar in a way that made my heart lurch. “You found me, just as I knew you would?”
My eyes darted around the room, from the walls, to the corners, then the windows. There was nothing there, nothing except the echo of that voice, curling through the dark like smoke.
“Where are you?” I whispered, scanning the shadows. “Show yourself!”
“Careful what you ask for,” it purred.
The lights above us flickered, once, twice, before they died completely, leaving only the candles around us, trembling in their small defiance.
“Damian!” I called again, my voice breaking this time. “Please…” Yet he still didn’t answer.
The whisper turned into laughter, a low, broken, almost joyful sound.
“Look at me,” it said, but I didn’t listen. I kept my eyes shut, trying to focus on Damian’s voice. “Look at me!” he urged again, sounding angrier this time. “Look at me! You brought him here, now look at me!”
No! I wouldn’t! I knew bringing someone to get rid of him would make him angry, but I was choosing to trust Damian, so I held onto his voice, his chants, and I dared not look.
“You want answers? I will give them to you!” It was lying, Iwouldn’t fall for it. “Damian,” it called, then my eyes shot open, and Damian’s chants stopped. How did it…?
“LOOK. AT. ME!” And like I was being controlled, my head snapped toward it. The mirror across the room, the one hanging over Max’s dresser, shimmered like water. Then, I saw myself first, trembling, small, and pale in the glow of the candles. Then another shape formed behind my reflection.
A man. Tall, with broad shoulders, and eyes I knew. Eyes that belonged to someone who shouldn’t be here.
“No…” I breathed. “No, you can’t…”
Then a wicked grin spread across his face. “I see you!”
The scream tore out of me before I even knew I was making it. “DAM…!” I cried out, but before I could finish, Damian’s head snapped up, his eyes flying open and facing me. They weren’t his eyes anymore, they had gone pitch black, bottomless, like a black hole. I didn’t know if my flight or fight mode had fried in that moment, because as I looked at myself in the void in Damian’s eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to move. The air cracked, every candle flame stretched high, almost to the ceiling, before collapsing inward, then the circle shattered. The salt line broke like it had been kicked apart by an invisible force, then Damian’s body jerked once, twice, and when he spoke, his voice wasn’t his alone.
“Finally,” he said, so deep and wrong, echoing from his throat and something else beneath it. “You brought me home,” Damian said, or whatever was in him now. He turned his head slowly, that same smile spreading across his face. And I knew.
The ghost wasn’t haunting the house anymore, it was sitting right in front of me, in the man who was supposed to be my saving grace, my one way ticket out of this hell
What had I gotten myself into?I thought, and for a heartbeat, everything went still. There was no sound, no air, just me, the candles, and the thing wearing Damian’s face. The floorshuddered first, a deep groan like wood snapping under the weight of something huge and unseen, then the windows rattled in their frames, and the air turned thick and electric, like the sky before lightning.
My breath caught in my throat. “Damian?”
He tilted his head, not in the way he did earlier when he first came over, but in a way that felt so not-human. His black eyes flicked toward me, and the smallest smile curved his mouth.
“Oh, our little troublemaker,” the voice rasped, his voice layered with another beneath it, older, rougher. “The wicked things we’ll do to you tonight.”
“Dami…” I dared to whisper, my last thread of hope that maybe he would come back from this, but as the word stuck in my throat, my head snapped to the picture that fell from the wall. It was a picture of Max, his all-time favorite that he had duplicated, and now it was broken on the floor, the glass splitting in a perfect line in-between the frame. Then I turned to Damian, and he was still staring at me, like the simple act meant something more than a picture broken in half.
Then thunder roared out of nowhere, and I screamed. My hands flew to my ears as the noise hit, then the roaring of something inside the walls, a low howl that shook the floorboards beneath my knees. I turned, crawling, dragging myself across the rug until my fingers hit the cold tiles.
