I reel in the inner demon that begs to lay waste to the city surrounding me. I know if I do not stop myself now, I’ll drain so many bodies it would be impossible to hide our presence.
We may be out in the world, but we don’t ever advertise our location.
“Gregory!” I bellow out to the house. “Bring me a body! Now!”
“Yes, my liege.” Gregory moves silently to my side, his arm wrapping around my waist. “Let’s get you to the study.”
“She’s alive, Gregory. She’s finally been born,” I whisper.
“Praise be to our Blood Fathers,” he says reverently, sitting me gently down on a thickly padded chair.
“Please be quick,” I growl. “I do not know how long I can contain this.”
Three
Chloe
Present
New Elysium
Soft lips press against my neck, lingering over my pulse. Placing a kiss that’s both sweet and somehow deeply disturbing at the same time.
“Chloe,” a seductive voice whispers into my ear, tugging me slowly into consciousness. “Wake up, beautiful. Wake up and see me.”
The nightmare always begins the same.
And yet it always catches me by surprise. As if somehow, someway, I’ve forgotten about the other terrible dreams.
One second I’m encased in darkness. At rest. At true peace. Sleeping in the warm comfort of my bed. Blissfully free of the perils that haunt my every waking moment.
And the next…
He’s above me.
The shadow that has been stalking me since I’ve taken my first breath.
That’s all he is at first—a dark, blurry shadow above me with the form and shape of a man.
But even here, in this strange dream space, I know he’s not a man.
No, he’s something more. Something that feels too big and too deep for my fuzzy thoughts to comprehend.
The weight of him... Not just of his body—but of his will, his desire, his hunger—is a palpable thing.
I can feel it pressing down on me and wrapping around me like tendrils.
Sucking me into his madness.
A madness that revolves completely around me.
It doesn’t alarm or frighten me at first.
Not like it should.
No, I find it comforting.
After all…
“It’s only a dream,” his enchanting voice reminds me before he places another lingering kiss against my neck.
Here, where only the two of us seem to exist, there is no worry about the purity of my soul. No worry of burning in eternal damnation.
It’s a relief as he presses me down into a soft mattress.
As if I’ve been holding my breath and waiting for this moment. All my life I’ve been holding my breath and waiting for this. For him.
He is completion.
My body loosens and my limbs spread open as if commanded. His shadowy form settles between my legs, and I can feel the solidness of his shape as he presses against my thighs.
I can feel the warmth of something hard as he pushes his hips against my hips.
“Yes, that’s it, angel. Open for me. Accept me.”
Yet another kiss is pressed against my neck.
But this time there’s the tiniest pinch of pain, as if I was nipped.
An electric tingle zips down my spine, and I instinctually gasp and arch up. Clutching at him.
He groans a deep, throaty sound of pleasure as my nails sink into his dark, shadowy skin, and kisses the same spot on my neck. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for this? How long I’ve ached for you?”
I don’t know what it is about the spot, but as soon as I feel another pinprick of pain my entire body lights up with crackling sensation. My very blood somehow becoming electrified with pulsing energy.
A pulsing energy that seems to pool and gather force between my thighs. Filling me with a sudden, intense need of… something.
Something I don’t quite understand.
Before my fuzzy, muddled thoughts can work it out, he’s kissing me again and again.
Nipping and sucking at my neck.
His mouth pulling at me with a strange, unexpected urgency that doesn’t make any sense.
We have so much time…
We have an eternity.
What’s the rush?
My skin vibrates as he suddenly growls, and the sounds slipping out of him become gruff and animalistic.
“Chloe, stop resisting me,” he demands.
His body rocks into mine, and the energy inside me moves with him like waves rolling through an ocean. Lessening as his hips pull away, but so strong when he pushes back against me, I’m sinking into a mindless oblivion.
Just as I’m being completely swallowed up by the darkness, the pain in my neck increases tenfold.
Pleasure crashes into me, overwhelmingly strong, and I can barely breathe from the intensity of it.
All I can do is try to survive it.
In the back of my head, I know something about this isn’t right. Something about this isn’t natural.
But the moment I part my lips to protest, he steals my breath again.
A warm, velvety hardness slides inside me, spreading me open. Filling me where I’ve always been empty. Using my own slippery wetness as guidance.