by J. N. Baker
Pitch Black
Until Dawn, Book 4
J.N. Baker
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by J.N. Baker
Cover Design by Covers by Combs
Edited by Tina Winograd and Shannon Page
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For all my teacher friends.
Thanks for supporting me and not judging me, despite all my naughty words and spicy scenes. So glad y’all still love my crazy ass, even after reading my books.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Coming Soon
Acknowledgments
About the Author
I was going to kill him. I was going to send his bloodsucking ass back to Hell where he belonged.
Electricity pulsed through my veins, searing my skin as it reached the surface. In one explosive blast, lightning burned through my palm, lighting up the snow-covered training grounds as it headed straight for Baldric. I had him this time—I was finally going to bring him down.
The bolt struck only air as Baldric flickered out of existence at the last possible second. In a blink, he reappeared beside me, sword drawn. I spun toward him, flinging my hand at his chest as I called on my new power once more. Before it could manifest, he grabbed my outstretched hand and forced it back on me, wrapping my own fingers around my throat. Dammit.
“Too slow,” he purred before releasing me.
“Bastard,” I grumbled, stepping back to put space between us.
Baldric pushed back his long raven hair, his tight black shirt clinging to his muscular frame along with the darkness. I hated that he was easy on the eyes. Fucking spawn of Satan. “You can call your power at will now,” he said. “You just need to move faster. Much faster. Your mind must be two steps ahead.”
“I would’ve had you if you couldn’t teleport.”
I winced as the third-degree burns on my hand healed over. I hadn’t found a way to use my new ability without frying my own flesh. But Baldric was right; I’d been able to use it whenever I wanted. And yet I still hadn’t managed to hit the bastard once. It pissed me off to no end.
“But I can and I will,” he responded. “Others will always use whatever skills they possess to defend themselves. There is no holding back in war. You need to be prepared for that. You must be ready to face any situation and come out victorious. We will try again tomorrow. You are tired.”
Baldric motioned me toward his enormous castle.
“I can keep going,” I forced myself to say to my body’s utter dismay.
“Tomorrow.” His voice held a finality to it. “You must rest now. We have been at this for hours already and I am hungry.”
Baldric had made good on his vow to teach me to use my new power—and his promise not to lay a hand on me. In fact, outside of any contact made during training, he’d yet to touch me at all in the three months I’d been his captive.
Despite the training, two meals a day, and the lavish room I’d been given, I knew that’s exactly what I was: a prisoner. I was here against my will. Hell, I was still kept locked in my room outside of training hours. The only benefit to being stuck here was Josh—not that we were given much time to be together. Like, none.
Baldric’s black eyes met mine, softening around the edges ever so slightly. “Would you like to…dine with me tonight?”
I felt my face harden in response, walls slamming back down around me at the question he’d asked nearly every night. My answer was always the same.
“I see,” he said before I could get the big fat no off my tongue. “I will have Lindsay bring your dinner to your chambers.”
With that, Baldric vanished into thin air—damn teleport. Or should I say “mimicker,” seeing as his God-given gift was mimicry. I would have thought making a deal with the Devil for a shiny new set of fangs and domination of the whole world, or what was left of it, would have lost him his copycat gift, but apparently not.
Almost immediately, Josh stood in Baldric’s place.
His ice-blue eyes locked onto mine, recognition flashing in them. He took hold of my forearm and escorted me into the castle, my skin burning deliciously under his grip. This was about the only contact we’d had the past few months. We’d hardly had a chance to talk since I’d been brought here. Since Josh regained his memory.
Knowing he knew who I was—knowing the intense pull we both felt for one another—and not being able to talk to him was a special kind of torture. Far worse than what I’d endured from that patchy-eyed little shit Roland. But we couldn’t risk it.
I was a prisoner here. There were eyes and ears on me constantly.
So, instead I had to settle for Josh dragging me around at Baldric’s command. My ever-dutiful guard.
After what had happened with Roland—may he suffer in eternal damnation—Baldric didn’t trust many people around me. Something about seeing me beaten, bloodied, chained, and nearly violated rubbed him the wrong way. Go figure.
Now, the only people I saw besides Baldric were Josh and Lindsay—one of which I was happier to see than the other.
As if sensing my thoughts, Josh’s fingers tightened on my arm, sending shockwaves of desire pulsing throughout my body.
We reached my bedroom chamber a lot faster than I would have liked. It meant our time together was already over. We should have walked slower. Josh swung open the heavy wooden door without touching it but his hold on my arm didn’t slacken. Instead, it slid lower until his fingers were intertwined with mine. A dangerous move, and yet I found I wanted more. Always more.
“I can’t keep doing this,” he whispered, his deep voice caressing my skin, sending shivers down my spine.
“I know,” I breathed, eyes glued to the room in front of me—my beautiful cell. “But what are we supposed to do?”
Josh knew as well as I did that I couldn’t leave. Baldric and I had a deal: he got to keep me, and my people were allowed to live in peace. I’d traded my life for theirs. If I left, Baldric would kill them all. Even knowing the plane was back, I couldn’t risk our people being able to withstand another attack. I’d made my shitty-ass bed and now I had to lie in it…forever. And forever was a long time. Even longer with Baldric.
But at least I had Josh. Though I didn’t want to think what Baldric would do if he caught Josh and me together.
At the sound of approaching footfalls, Josh took a step away from me, the distance between us like a dagger to the heart. Having him standing right beside me on a nightly basis and not being able to touch him was almost worse than thinking I’d lost him forev
er. Almost.
Lindsay glided toward us with a tray of food in her hands. Her eyes landed on Josh, sparkling with desire. I couldn’t blame her; he was a fine specimen of a man. Still, I felt my hackles rising. Mine.
“I’ll take it from here,” she told Josh. She didn’t know he’d regained his memory. No one could ever know. We couldn’t risk Baldric glamouring him all over again. I wasn’t sure I could survive him forgetting me a second time.
Josh nodded. “Don’t forget to lock the door.”
I watched as Josh retreated down the hallway, my whole body aching to follow. I forced my feet in the opposite direction, heading into my bedroom with Lindsay behind me.
My old high school friend closed the door and set the tray on the bedside table. It still baffled me that she was alive. I hadn’t seen the woman in nearly seven years and now we spent practically every waking moment together.
Cody had told me Lindsay was a shift, one his parents had apparently arranged for him to marry. But he’d alluded to her being dead…not the enemy, like she was. Though, she didn’t believe herself to be the enemy. That’s what my people and I were, apparently.
“I have your dinner,” she said before sitting on the side of my large bed. I half expected her to tuck her legs up under her like she used to when we’d had sleepovers in high school. She was losing a bit of her formality each day, which I was grateful for. Most of Baldric’s people I’d interacted with—which wasn’t many—learned quickly that I hated unnecessary formalities. All the “my lady” and bowing shit got old fast. I was no lady. Far from it. I was a cold-blooded killer. A monster. People would do right to realize that.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, looking over the grilled fish and bread. There were perks to living in a castle beside the ocean. For the longest time, I’d felt guilty for eating so well here, knowing my people were likely out there struggling to put food on the table. When I’d left, they’d been at risk of starving. With Baldric’s and my deal, hopefully they’d be able to hunt without fear for their lives now.
Plus, the plane had miraculously returned. Maybe it was stockpiled with food and people. A girl could dream.
“Why do you constantly turn him down?”
“Excuse me?” I asked, turning away from the hot meal.
“The king. Just have dinner with him,” she said, taking one of the two rolls and biting into it. There was always enough food for two, seeing as Lindsay usually ate with me. Likely in order to keep an eye on me—not that I could escape anyway. Well, I could, but I wouldn’t do that to my people. And I wasn’t sure I could get myself to leave Josh. In fact, I knew I couldn’t.
“Would it really kill you?” she asked around a mouthful of food.
“Possibly,” I shot back.
The shift rolled her eyes. “Have you ever thought that if you just had dinner with him that maybe he’d let you out of this room for more than a few hours? I know I’d much rather be out there than locked in here with you.”
“No one’s keeping you here,” I said, grabbing the other roll and taking a bite. I swallowed my moan. How did they keep them so damn fresh?
“You know the king has asked me to…keep you company.” Translation: Watch your every move.
“Look, I don’t need a babysitter—”
“Then stop acting like such an entitled brat,” she retorted. She’d made it clear how much she hated being seen as the villain. She felt like my people thought they were better than hers. Your people and your kind are so convinced that all of us must be brainwashed or possessed in order to be here, she’d told me. The majority of us actually chose to be here on our own.
Lindsay sighed, taking her plate of fish. “Look, just have dinner with him. I told you before, he’s really a good man. He just wants to spend time with you—build trust.”
“He’s keeping me prisoner and you want me to trust him?”
“If you don’t want to be treated like a prisoner, then don’t act like one,” she countered. “This is your home now, Zoe, whether you like it or not. You need to figure out how to make the most of it.” Lindsay rose from the bed, taking her plate and moving to one of the two fireplaces to eat alone.
I stared at the back of her head. Was it really that simple: spend a little time with that sick monster in exchange for being treated more like one of his people? Did I really want to be “one of his people”?
Hell no.
“How’s Cody?”
I nearly choked on my roll. Lindsay hadn’t asked me about Cody once since I’d arrived. I was starting to think she’d forgotten about him.
“What?”
“How’s he doing?” she asked again, her back still to me.
Are you serious? I wanted to ask. How the hell did she think he was doing?
“Um, I don’t really know, seeing as I’m no longer with him,” I told her, picking at the fish I no longer had much appetite for. “He wasn’t doing too well when I was taken. I mean, the world as we knew it ended, his parents and most of the people he cared about likely killed. He had to watch me murder one of the few friends he had left—one he may or may not have had a thing for—thanks to that fucker Roland poisoning me with Sythen blood.”
That one seemed to get her attention, wide eyes locking onto me from over her shoulder.
“And then when Josh died—when we thought he’d died—Cody completely fell apart,” I went on. “He was a goddamn wreck. It didn’t help to find out that Josh was alive and working for the—”
The word enemy died on my lips when I saw the daggers Lindsay was shooting me. She really hated when I referred to her people as the enemy. Even though they were.
“When we’d learned Josh had switched sides,” I amended. “Then your people killed his other friend, leaving him with only me. And then Baldric took even that away from him. So yeah, I don’t think he’s doing too good. He’s a broken man. Everything he’s ever cared about has been ripped away from him. I only hope Holly can keep him together…”
“Who the hell is Holly?”
Whoa. Talk about hackles rising. My eyebrows rose into my hairline as Lindsay’s irises momentarily flashed yellow. After over half a decade, all the while working for the enemy, did she really think she still had any sort of claim to Cody?
“She’s his…fuck buddy?” I said, not pulling any punches. “I’m not really sure, actually. I guess they’re friends with benefits, maybe more. I don’t really know; Cody is a bit of a man whore these days. He gets around. Hell, he even tried to make a move on me.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the memory. Or perhaps it was at the way Lindsay was seething across the room.
After a few deep breaths, Lindsay’s gaze returned to the raging fire in front of her. “I’m sure you think I’m crazy. I know he’s no longer mine. I gave up the right to call him that long ago when I rejected him. But you have to know, I really did love him once. From the moment we found out we were mates, our parents could hardly keep us apart. A mated pull between shifts—all supes really—is hard to resist. It’s why many of us mate and marry young. He was my whole world.”
“And yet you left him,” I tossed back at her.
“Yes, I did,” she said, sadness flooding her voice. “And it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But, sometimes, you have to do hard things to get what you want—to follow what you believe in.”
Maybe Lindsay was right. Sometimes you had to do the hard stuff to get the things you wanted.
Hard things…like play nice with Baldric to gain a little more freedom, and maybe some one-on-one time with Josh.
“Tell Baldric I’ll dine with him tomorrow.”
Neither Josh nor Lindsay came for me for training the next day. Not even Baldric. It was rare to have days where we didn’t train, but it did happen occasionally. Those days were honestly the worst. I’d much rather be out training with Baldric, trying to fry his ass, than be locked away in my giant prison all day long with nothing but books to keep me company. Not that books were in an
y way boring.
I was an avid reader back when there was still time to do so. But you could only read the same old-school romance novels so many times before they became predictable. After a while, even the Fabio-esque covers all started to look alike.
As I paced my room for the eight hundredth time, I stopped to look out the frosted window. The winter not-wonderland was illuminated by the many burning torches that surrounded it. It was amazing how massive Baldric’s kingdom was and how well-lit he kept it for being a creature of the darkness. The very creature that cast the endless night upon the Earth.
Much like William, Baldric had built his cliffside castle from ancient ruins. Lindsay told me there were only a few walls still standing when his people began construction. The whole thing was basically new, and yet it looked just as antiquated as the original stones. Even I had trouble distinguishing between the old and the new. The entire thing was truly a work of art. Not that I’d ever admit that to Baldric.
A soft knock came to the door and I knew it was Lindsay before she opened it. She was about the only person who bothered to knock. Plus, being a shift, she was about as stealthy as a human.
“The king has asked if you would like to clean up before dinner?” she announced upon entering.
“He’s giving me the choice?”
My once-friend narrowed her eyes at me, wrinkling her nose. “Yes, the choice is yours. If you’d like to continue smelling like a pig’s asshole after it’s rolled in the mud and died, then by all means, go as you are.”