I just lay there, staring into the abyss of his mouth, waiting for the moment when he would strike, but that moment never came.
Instead, he took a long, slow breath in, and I felt something inside of me tug upwards. Cilas was licking me clean, his tongue running all over my inner thighs, but he was still holding me in place, anchoring me to the floor, not that I had the energy to get up anyway.
The tugging continued, as if Cyn had reached out an invisible hand and was yanking on something deep inside me that I didn't realize was even there. I arched my back as he breathed in harder, his white eyes glowing brighter and brighter.
Then I saw it—a hazy white mist-like substance rising up from my body. It curled in the air, like steam or fog, and flowed right into Cyn's mouth. The more he took from me, the lighter I felt, as if a weight were physically lifting off of my body. My head was getting lighter and my vision was getting fuzzy, but the feeling was amazing and I craved more of it.
"Feed him, sad one," Cilas whispered between licks. His voice was melodic and seductive. "You have so much to give, don't you? All that hatred you've buried for so long, let us feast on it. We can take it all away…"
I blinked, shaking my head as I took in his words. They were meant to soothe me, to keep me complacent while Cyn sipped something vital from my body. He spoke of my grief and hatred almost like they were tangible things that pooled and festered inside of me, and they were hungry for it.
Putting two and two together, a panic welled up in my chest at the thought of them taking my pain. How could I possibly surrender it, when my pain had been the only thing grounding me to this earth for a decade? Pain, grief, and hatred were the only emotions I let myself feel these days, and without them, I was an empty shell.
I tried to wiggle free with my heart in my throat, kicking out my foot and slamming it into Cilas’ chest. Anticipating it, he caught me by the ankle and slammed my foot back on the floor, anchoring me in place.
"Don't fight it, Iris," he said, a clear warning in his deep voice. "You've already welcomed us in. It's too late to back out now."
"Don't take it," I said with ragged breaths, struggling against his hold. "Please…" I begged.
"And why shouldn't we?" He cocked his head to the side, pretending to consider.
"It's all I have left. You don't understand, I can't—"
"Oh, but you already are," he said, cutting me off. "The moment you walked into this house, you belonged to us. I've never tasted such exquisite misery." I arched my back higher as Cyn continued to suck that mist out of me. I was getting weaker by the second, my vision darkening until all I could see was a single water stain in the ceiling above me.
"Sleep, sad one," Cilas said softly. "We won't take it all tonight. I prefer to savor my meals. Sleep, you'll feel better in the light of day."
I could do nothing but obey. I didn't have any energy left in me to fight, so I didn’t. I stilled, letting my body fall slack, and Cilas crawled up and over me until I could peer directly into his eyes. The last thing I saw before succumbing was his wide mouth opening up, sharp teeth gleaming back at me.
* * *
That thing in the shadows
Even as she slept,I wanted to taste her—her soft, fragile flesh, the blood that still coated her inner thighs, and the liquid that had seeped from her cunt as she rode her pleasure to its peak.
The woman, Iris, was a broken thing of beauty. Her naked form was sprawled out before me, vulnerable and weak. All it would take was a single swipe of my claw across that swan-like neck, and her life would seep from her veins in seconds. I’d be there to lap it up greedily.
This house was a refuge, where my brother and I sought peace in the long nights, when monotony nearly had us at each other’s throats. It was a place of pain and terror, filled to the roof with remnants of tragedy and disgraceful acts of horror. In other words, it was perfect.
Cyn hovered over the woman, tracing his claws over her long silky hair. I could feel everything he did through the bond of our shadows, as if we were one soul divided into two bodies. My twin and I had never once been apart, and we preferred it that way. Through his senses, I could feel those moonlight strands on my own fingers and smell her nightmare filled dreams, in which she relived every horror she’d ever faced. Her body twitched in sleep, as if she were running or fighting for her life.
Perhaps that was exactly what Iris Cooper was doing in this place. What was she running from, and why? Or maybe she was running towards something—something she’d left behind, trapped inside these walls. Her pain felt familiar, I realized. I could taste it in the air around me, as if she’d left a signature behind long ago.
Cyn peered up at me, his white eyes bright with anticipation against the blackness of his shadowy skin. That was what they called the two of us, at least as far back as I could remember. Shadows. No more, no less. We were the things that stalked the corners of every room, the sounds in the attic while you slept. We were the scraping of talons on floorboards that crept down the halls at night.
I grinned back at my twin. He’d been able to feel her through me, revelling in the tightness of her slick cunt as she writhed on my cock when I fucked her in the mortal way. She was the first human woman I’d ever touched as a lover, and I didn’t regret a single second of it. There was a force that pulled me towards this mortal. It made me crave to be inside of her, not just in her mind, but under her flesh.
Cyn and I survived off of two things—blood and pain. Both would sate us equally, and it’d been a long while since we’d had a meal. She was ripe for the taking, her agony bleeding through her skin like acid. I couldn’t help but sample it for myself, slurping it up greedily until it filled me. In my mind’s eye, I could see snippets of her pain, flashes of faces, images, and moments in time, but they were all jumbled together and made no sense.
Not yet. Soon, I would know it all. I would figure out what made the sad one hurt so deeply. Soon, my twin and I would eat our fill of this woman. Soon, she would belong to us wholly and completely. Soon, Iris Cooper would finally know the true meaning of pain and terror.
Iris
Rain soaked me from head to toe as I ran. My bare feet squelched in the mud and moss, and my long night shirt was stuck to my skin.
I’d woken to a thunderstorm the likes of which I hadn’t seen since I was a little girl. It was still hot and muggy outside, but the skies had opened up, pouring everything it had on us. The thunder was what woke me, still sprawled out on the ground in front of the long dead fireplace.
Last night rushed back immediately, not in waves, but a tsunami. Every touch, lick, bite, scratch, and growl, I could feel, see, and hear it all, more clearly than any dream or nightmare I’d ever had. I shot up off the floor the second I woke up to find Kevin and Kyle sitting there, staring at me like they knew a secret but weren’t judging me for it, only curious.