The Nightmare King (The Kings Book 11)

by Heather Killough-Walden

  William said nothing. A stillness moved over him. His own green gaze began to glow.

  Arach’s grin was back. “And you won’t tell me. Even though you’ve basically been exiled by your compatriots, you steadfastly remain loyal.” He shook his head. “No bother. But you and I could do far better, old man.” He sat back in his chair again.

  Now it was William’s turn to lean forward. As he did, the rays of the sun caught his gaze, casting it into a whole new light to reveal the intricate, impossible clock-like workings within. “What makes you think I won’t do better?”

  And with that, he vanished. Leaving behind a quiet but disconcerted Traitor in a luxury car headed south. Thunder rolled overhead, and clouds at last covered the sun.

  *****

  Rodney pulled his phone from his pocket so fast, he almost pulled a muscle in his shoulder. “What have you got?” he asked impatiently.

  “There’s no way to breach the Nightmare Realm’s borders,” said the voice on the other end. “No one can do it. That’s the point, I think.”

  The man on the other end of the line was another mage, one in the coven that had formerly been led by the late and great Lalura Chantelle. Since her death, others had come forward and tried to fill her shoes, but of course that was impossible. Still, the mages – the wizards and witches and warlocks – who’d been under her tutelage were Rodney’s best shot at finding and getting to Adelaide.

  “Were you able to determine what the Nightmare King wants with her?”

  “That’s… what I was about to tell you,” said Joshua, the mage. “If the spell was done right, and we did it twice to make sure, then, well…” he laughed low and nervous. “You aren’t going to believe this, but –”

  “He wants her as his queen.” Rodney filled in. Adelaide wasn’t the only one with a bit of psychic ability.

  In his own coven, Rodney had once been apprenticed to a seer. He’d come from a broken home, but with them, he’d been happy. He’d felt as if he belonged. His coven was his family.

  But then the seer had turned on the coven, betraying them to a rogue group of warlocks living in Las Vegas who worked for an equally rogue group of vampires that apparently stretched across the globe. The betrayal hurt them all, but it had stung him the most.

  One day, he’d met up with her. He was a seer, after all. He’d known where she was going to be. When he’d questioned her about her betrayal, when he’d gotten her alone and asked her why she’d done it, she’d told him that day after day, week after week, all she saw was the evil of the world. See it enough, and it gets to you. And it got to her.

  She’d reminded him that every human had within them the means for both good and evil. She’d seen every human choose evil time and again. And she’d realized that it was natural. Kill or be killed. The laws of nature are brutal. It was why people had that evil in them to begin with.

  “All you need is a trigger,” she’d told him. “And boom.” That evil took over.

  After that… Rodney had shied away from his seer abilities. He was nervous. It might not have made much sense, but there it was.

  Until he met Adelaide. She was a seer, pure and true, the strongest he’d ever come across. She was stronger even than his former teacher had been. And she was a good soul. She not only saw hellish scenes and tried to prevent them from happening, she’d been through hell herself. And she had yet to betray or turn on anyone. Just the opposite. She only wanted to help the world even more.

  Rodney began to think maybe his gifts were not the damning talents he’d feared they were. Maybe his teacher had “gone bad” because she was bad. Maybe she’d given in to the evil or maybe she was selfish to begin with. He couldn’t know. He only knew what he saw in Adelaide – and felt in himself.

  He’d first come across Adelaide at a bookstore. He watched her have a vision. He recognized the sudden frozen form, the far off look. He’d seen it enough to know. A few minutes later, she ran out of the bookstore and flagged down a police officer in the parking lot. She warned him of something. Later, he would learn that the power had gone out in the street lights several blocks away. If the cops hadn’t arrived on the scene when they had, there would have been an accident. A bad one.

  Rodney kept an eye on her, from afar. He offered to work for her as soon as she won the lottery and he knew she would be looking for help. When she began confiding in him and they worked together to make positive changes, he’d once more felt like he’d found a place in the world where he belonged. He again had a family.

  And now some randy fuck had stolen that family away and taken it to a realm he couldn’t reach. And she was meant to be that bastard’s queen. Rodney’s gaze narrowed. In his vision, the man had been as beautiful as men come. Dark hair, cruel mouth, green eyes like emeralds.

  It was silent on the line, and Rodney realized Joshua had asked him something, and he hadn’t heard what. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “What did you say?”

  “I said, how did you know? Did you have a vision?” Joshua asked.

  Rodney nodded, though Joshua couldn’t see him. “Yeah. I did. And I promise you Josh, if that mother fucker doesn’t deserve her and treat her like the queen she is, I’m going to hang him with his own intestines.”

  He would, too. He may be a seer working for a person with a good soul. He may have started a new life going down a brighter path. But he was still human. And every human had within them the means for both good and evil. All he needed was a trigger.

  And boom.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Regardless of her psychic abilities and other aspects to her life that made this a little easier to swallow, being reminded that the man Adelaide was with was an incubus, and not only an incubus but a king, and not only that but she was the queen – well, it was a lot to take in. Still, she was getting there. She just had some questions.

  “How exactly, what I mean is,” she sighed and just blurted it out. “How am I supposed to become queen of the Nightmare Realm?”

  Nick glanced over at her. He was again seated on his monster, and she was sitting on hers, and they had both managed to comfortably recline as the Carousel coasted over the Nightmare Realm and its trillions of lights below. Music box chimes filled the air, along with the pixie dust magic that made the ride fly.

  “It’s complicated,” he told her. “The truth is, this is new to me too.”

  The Realm was vast, and that was an understatement. But it wasn’t enormous because it was filled with that many Nightmares. Instead, it had grown to its size to accommodate dreamers. This was where they came in their sleep, and built the realm with the materials of their imaginations.

  She’d asked him why it was called the Nightmare Realm rather than the Dream Realm. And he’d told her, “Because of us. We are the Nightmares, so named for what we can become, for the fact that we can steal someone’s soul, if for a short time… and for the hunting we do at night, when all of the ‘good people of the world’ are asleep.” He’d grinned, making light of it. But she’d sensed that was more there than he was telling her.

  “You mean the myths of incubi being demons who can steal souls are true?” she’d asked.

  “In a manner of speaking. In actuality, we were given the ability to help people. When a beautiful soul is in pain, we are able to take that soul out of their body for a short period of time, giving them the pleasure that comes with the cessation of pain. Some believe there is no greater such thing.”

  “And incubi are bringers of pleasure in the night.” She’d smiled as she’d said it, meaning it as a sort of tease. But in reality, what he’d said struck her as truly selfless – and wholly misunderstood. Such was myth and life and magic and reality.

  “So the Realm didn’t come with some kind of instruction manual?” she half-joked now, referring to his not knowing how to place a queen on the throne.

  “Well,” he laughed, “it did in a way. Andros and Minnaea know everything there is to know about it. It’s ironically c
ruel given that they don’t live in it most of the time.”

  Addie frowned. “That is cruel.”

  “The year after they first brought me here, they brought me back on my birthday and showed me the Crystal Carousel.” His voice softened, and his expression once more took on the look of the past.” I climbed aboard the Pegasus, and Andros and Minnaea sat down cross-legged on the mammoth. They smiled at each other, and the Carousel rose from the ground. I remember yipping like Peter Pan, captain of my own pixie-dust coated pirate ship.”

  Addie giggled. Actually giggled like a child. She couldn’t help it. The feeling was too good, the wind in her hair, the glitter dust in the air, the sound of Nick’s voice coaxing her soul. She felt so very, very alive.

  She turned in her seat, once more taking in the majesty of the glass creatures around her. Her mind flashed, a memory moved, and she realized – then and there and all at once – that she was looking upon the scene from her latest visions… the ones with…

  With molten eyes, swirling like lava, with blurred lights all around her, crystalline shapes in glass – animals, specifically. She remembered the feeling of someone touching her, her arms, her waist, and then her throat. Wrapping, squeezing, words promised in her ear.

  She closed her eyes as dizziness struck her. In that dizziness, she saw fangs, sharp and white. And then blood, deep and red. She felt a piercing pain at her wrist and gasped.

  “Adelaide.”

  She blinked, lifting her head and opening her eyes. Nicholas was watching her, his silver eyes shining.

  “I’m – I’m fine,” she lied. She was absolutely not fine. Because what she’d just realized was that this was the Carousel she’d glimpsed in her vision. And following the Carousel was the heat and the fangs and the blood. And then, worst of all, there was the fact that those things felt like a fire in her core, sending moisture flooding between her legs, and tightening her nipples to the point of pain.

  Holy shit, her mind panicked. She flushed head to toe, and thought furiously.

  She had to take control. Just talk about something non-sexual! “You know, that thick darkness in your castle was,” she swallowed hard. “It was really something. I kinda regret not seeing what was beyond it.” Yeah, there you go. That was nice and non-sexual.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll get you in there eventually.”

  Addie’s eyes widened. Oh my god! She’d totally failed! And then some!

  But she tried to down-play it, tried to be strong. Her chin lifted defiantly. “Excuse me?” she asked, gaze narrowing.

  “Oh, sorry. Was that out loud?” he asked under his breath, though his tone said he knew damn well he’d said it out loud. His smile said the same. And he just sat there, so relaxed, so smug, so in control. The opposite of what she was.

  “Of all the arrogant, self-centered… are all Nightmares as cocky as you?”

  Nicholas’s smile faded. He pinned her with a singular gun metal gaze. A wave of desire washed over Adelaide, and she hunched over the monster she was seated atop. She gripped her chest. Her heart was suddenly pounding, her head buzzing – her belly warming.

  “We’re sexual creatures, Adelaide,” he warned as his magic assaulted her. “It’s in our nature.” He paused, and there was enough of a hiccup in his control over her that she could look up. He was looking her up and down, but he turned away to run a hand through his hair. “Not that you’ll ever learn as much about any of the others,” he said as he swung his legs off the beast he’d been sitting on and landed easily on his booted feet.

  Addie’s eyes widened even further. “What?” she demanded. It helped to yell, helped to even out her rising blood pressure. She got off too, though not nearly as gracefully as he had. She stumbled a bit when her boots touched down, but she recovered quickly, indignant emotion fueling her balance.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she asked, coming around the massive glass figure. “Do… do you think no other Nightmare would have me? Is that it? Is that what you’re saying?” She was torn now, between the pounding, rising need he’d settled in her like a seed, and ancient, war-torn feelings of worthlessness. They were banging at her emotional doors, wanting to be let back in.

  Nicholas’s brow furrowed, for a single second making him appear confused – of all things. And then the corners of his mouth turned up, just a little, and he bared his teeth.

  He had fangs. Just like in her vision.

  Oh Christ.

  “I’m saying,” he said, stepping around his own crystal beast to close the gap between them, “that no Nightmare in my realm would dare try, Adelaide.” His tone had hardened, turning steely, even as his eyes became molten mercury. “Because they know if they did, I’d eat them for breakfast.”

  She stepped back, suddenly feeling he was way too close. But he followed her back, moving in like the predator he was until she was forced against the inner wall of the Carousel.

  “Why is that?” she asked, though she knew now – she knew – what the answer would be.

  “Because,” he told her, placing his hands firmly against the wall on either side of her. “You’re mine.”

  The scent of leather washed over her, of something like sandalwood or cologne. It was heady and mouth watering, and her neck was craned looking up. But Adelaide Lane was the most stubborn woman on the planet. Just ask her mother.

  “I’m yours?” she asked incredulously, if with a shaking voice. “You mean like unga unga, grab me by the hair, and drag me off caveman style?” She lifted her hands and placed them against his chest with the intent of shoving him away.

  But her strength was instantly sapped. She feared her knees would now give out. Around her, the colors turned, glass animals blurred, and she knew she was doomed.

  He remained towering over her, a veritable wall of impenetrability. But his eyes flashed, and his smile broadened, and all she could do was stare at his fangs. “Never give a Nightmare ideas, Adelaide. Especially when he can tell how much the idea turns you on.”

  A last-ditch effort of anger flooded Adelaide’s system, some proud part of her that bucked the arrogance of the man before her. “You’re absolutely unbelievable,” she whispered. It was all she could manage. Because though he was arrogant, it was deserved arrogance. When she said he was unbelievable, she meant it in every way.

  She somehow slammed forward, with indignant fury and on legs that had gone completely numb, and pushed violently past him. Maybe he’d let her do it, she couldn’t be sure. But it didn’t matter. She didn’t get far; he was moving, his hands on her arms, his body turning with hers, and suddenly she was on her back, hitting the one cushioned bench seat in the entire Carousel.

  Nicholas loomed over her, his strong arms once more caging her in. Addie’s body reacted at once, sabotaging her ire and betraying her outrage. A fire ignited in her core, its flames licking at her nerves and coiling between her legs. Her nipples hardened again, her lips parted, and everything came into sharp focus.

  “Tell me the truth, psychic,” Nick said through a slightly frightening grin as he leaned in and his words whispered across her lips. “You’ve seen the two of us, haven’t you?” He chuckled darkly as his eyes darted to her lips and his pupils dilated. “You – me – you’ve seen it happen. You know it’s going to.” He shook his head. “And you don’t know what to do about it, do you?”

  “Screw you,” Addie said breathlessly.

  Nicholas’s smile turned wicked, and his eyes flashed with uncoiled magic. His hand moved to her face, cupping her cheek, and the contact was too much for Addie. He was too strong, there was too much magic – too much… him. A moan of longing nearly escaped her lips, but she closed her mouth and swallowed the damned sound, cursing her body for backstabbing her the way it was.

  “Promises, promises,” he said, moving in until a mere heartbeat separated his lips from hers. “I take those very seriously.”

  It was his final warning – then his mouth claimed hers, and all thought, all visi
on, all sanity fled Adelaide’s overworked mind. She was overcome. There was no hesitation, no gentleness in his kiss. He parted her lips and took everything, swallowing her sounds, her breath, and the last of her resistance as his tongue found hers… and she felt his fangs against her lips.

  There was a dark music playing, something wicked, something a little mean, and Addie couldn’t tell if it was coming from the Carousel, from the cool shadows of Nicholas’s realm, or from her own pounding heart.

  His hand shoved through her hair, fisting at the back of her head to expose her throat.

  She gave a small cry, which he also swallowed with his bruising kiss. And then he broke off, and as she curled her fingers desperately into the lapels of his leather jacket, he seared her skin with a kiss at her chin and the space behind her ear before moving further down. His teeth nipped at her pulse. Flashes of images passed like a broken movie reel before her mind: Teeth piercing flesh, blood running, passion smoking, fingernails tearing skin, desperation, eyes squeezed shut, cries filling the night….

  With the swift fury of a man hell bent, Nicholas wrapped his arms around her, taking her by the waist, and lifted her. He turned in the Carousel, moving through it as if he were gliding, and dizziness and longing fought for control of Addie’s body.

  They came to a door, it opened, and they crossed a threshold to what lay beyond. Somewhere in the periphery of her mind, Addie knew this should have been the control room of the Carousel. Instead, it was something more. But she was already out of control, trapped in a dream that was instead controlling her. Much like the children in the Carnival of Night, she couldn’t focus on it, could not see it for what it was. She was all-consumed in the sweetest Nightmare that had ever ravaged her soul.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  It had come over him. The full force of his inner being was taking control, and the night was about to get scary. He could feel it snaking through his veins, coiling its wispy way out of him, insipid and horrifying, and this time there was no way to hold it at bay.