Emrys has been quiet since we left to travel further North; he holds me tightly as if he’s already losing me and is not ready to let me go. I am not ready to let go, nor am I prepared for another feeling that is supposed to mimic my deep love for him. False feelings that I cannot deny, nor differentiate from the truth. I feel a knot forming in my stomach and resistance building inside me. I don’t want this. I don’t want to find this person. I don’t want to visit the city. I don’t want any of this. As we step out of the shadows, I desperately cling to Emrys.
His dark eyes lock onto mine as our lips meet. His hands immediately explore my body while mine do the same to him. He cups my ass and presses me against the rough wall of the small, shadowy alley. His shadows wrap around my breasts, gently squeezing them. Another tendril slithers down my stomach to my core, making me softly moan. Heat builds between my legs, and I press my thighs together.
“Emrys,” I breathe, “I love you. I will always only truly love you. You, I chose of my own free will. My soul chooses you,and I will always choose you. Please, remember that, whatever happens, it’s you I want and love.”
“I know,Lucem Mei, I know,” he sighs. “The thought of losing you—I’ve never felt so vulnerable in my life. I bring every creature to their knees at mere sight, but it is you who makesmefall on my knees. You hold my heart, Harlot, in its entirety. I love you, and I’ll make you choose me if I have to. I cannot and will not be without you. I refuse to spend another second not having you in my life. You’re mine, only mine.”
With those last words, his face heats with lust, and he pulls down my top, exposing my pale, full breasts. His shadows immediately start deliciously pinching my perked nipples and softly knead my chest.
“Your blood tastes even better when you’re wet for me,” he says with a raspy voice before he sinks his fangs into my skin. I whine with pleasure.
One of his shadows continues to put pressure on my clit, while another enters me through my clothes, expanding inside me, filling me up. I start to mewl as it slides in and out of me, a sensation I did not experience before. Emrys builds up the pressure with his shadow, making it larger, stretching me, then starts to thrust faster and harder while he laps at my nipples and bites me. I’m so slick with arousal; his shadows slide in and out easily.
I explode from the stimulation his shadows give me while he feeds on me. I cry out his name loudly as he encourages me to ride out the waves.
“That’s it, take those shadows like my good little tempest,” he growls. “Fuck, I can’t wait to use them next time I have you in my bed. I’m going to drive you insane, fill all your needy holes; you hear me, my love.”
“Yes, yes, I want you and your shadows. I want all of you,” I breathe.
I writhe against them as I reach for his cock, but he swats my hand away, telling me this is about me.
“Give me your blood. Please, Emrys,” I beg.
I suck on his wrist after he makes a small cut, offering it to me. Even though I am human, I crave to taste his essence.
Nothing can ever compare to him, I decide. In such a short time, he became more than just my beloved; he became my existence, the oxygen I needed to expand my lungs. After I have recovered from the intensity of my orgasm, he laces his fingers into mine, and together, we step out of the comforting caress of the shadows into the bustling city that is called Verdant Fields.
The city does not compare to Valorya. Where Valorya’s citizens act like nobles, the citizens here are merchants. The streets are filled with dirt, and the lingering stench of old blood, sweat, and piss makes me want to hurl. Puddles of mud form between mismatched stones that serve as makeshift streets. I hear cries and wailing coming from establishments and corners. Fear instills inside me as I watch a merchant pass us, holding a chain connected to a metal collar that is around a beaten and bloodied human. The man is naked, and his collar is chained to the one behind him, also a naked human; they walk meekly behind their captor in a row of nine. He pulls on the chain, urging them to walk faster. Another individual who walks behind the string of people whips them for no reason, the tip of the whip slashing away pieces of flesh on their backs. It’s a sickening, wet, squelching sound as it impacts the skin, followed by thecrack. A piercing shriek fills my ears, and I shiver as I watch them pass by. The merchant makes eye contact with me; first, he smiles, realizing I’m a human, then his smile falters as I hear a low growl emanating from Emrys next to me. The sound is barely there, but it is enough for the man to urge his convoy to up their pace.
Please don’t fear these low-life creatures, my darling. I can smell it on you, and I don’t like it. None of them will ever be able to lay a finger on you with me around. I will tear them to pieces if they even try to. I’m not the good guy, remember?
I smile at my man, my monster, the one I will follow into the darkness, to Hell if I must.
I know you’ll keep me safe. It’s just… seeing this. Do you still believe in humanity? Those were humans herding other humans like cattle, humiliating them, and hurting them for the sake of doing so.
He pulls me closer, his arm around me protectively, and brushes the loose strands of hair from my face.
“There’s no humanity left, darling; it was gone the moment the darkness clouded the world around us. What you witness here is survival in its rawest form. Some rise above their boundaries and become the necessary evil themselves. Others simply succumb to that darkness. I told you; this city is foul.”
Emrys holds me tightly as we walk the streets, snarling at every creature that even dares to look at me. My dread slowly becomes ire as I witness more. I see women and children being prostituted on the streets and savagely being taken advantage of. A child is brutally raped on the street by three men, while no one bats an eye. Some even stop in their tracks and watch; others go as far as pulling out their dicks and starting to masturbate. A vampire begins feeding off the child as he’s brutalized. Emrys urges me to keep walking, telling me there is no saving people here, not even children. Trapped humans are butchered on the street, and their body parts are sold. Cage fights with tortured beasts such as werewolves and shifters against buffed-up humans with weapons. Bets are placed, and the crowd, comprising vampires, witches, and humans, howls in excitement. Horrific events seem to occur at every corner here.
I am unsure how I feel about all of this. Humans mistreat each other, yet they also freely walk around amid the night creatures, unlike in Valorya, where no human, apart from a few, has any free will. The majority of them suffer from glazed eyes, yet here, I see clear eyes and people walking around with purpose—even if that purpose is serving their own kind as dinners to those who devour us. It’s unlike any town I have seen before, just as Emrys told me. Humans can have freedom here, in a depraved way, and at the steepest price.
We see the man with his convoy again; this time, he’s being halted, and as he receives some coins, he releases one of the young men, unlocking his collar. The vampire who made the purchase does not hesitate for a moment as he sets his fangs into the man. The man's eyes become as large as saucers as the excruciating pain of the bite registers in his brain. His howling only excites the vampire as he bites the man over and over, all over his body. Then, the vampire bends and tears off the man's penis and balls with his sharp teeth, the blood spurting from the gaping wound. In mere seconds, the man collapses from the pain, unconscious, onto the hard stone floor. The vampire laughs, lifts his foot, and steps onto the head of the man, crushing his skull as if he were stepping on a spider. The brains and blood are smeared all over the street. Satisfied, he turns around and walks our way; the merchant continues his walk through the streets, the remainder of the humans following him obediently. I stare at it all with my mouth agape.
As the vampire passes us, he lifts his nose in the air, sniffs, and slowly turns his head toward us.
“A… witch, no… a human and an…Umbra,” he says with an accent I can’t place.
He bows deeply to Emrys, a sign of respect, who gives him a curt nod. His blood-red eyes land back on me, and he knits his brows as if he is trying to decipher me.
“Don’tlook at her like that,” Emrys snarls at him.
The deathly warning in his tone is evident. The vampire darts his eyes from me to Emrys, unsure.
“My sincere apologies, Umbra. I did not mean to be ill-mannered. Your… companion is… different, and it caught my interest, that is all. I mean no disrespect nor harm.”
He raises his hands in defense as Emrys eyes him up and down. Without another word, he turns on his heel and walks off, unwilling to challenge a being such as Emrys.
