by K. A Knight
“What was this place?” I ask, when I hear Mishal approach me from behind.
“I don’t know, little one, it doesn’t make sense,” he growls.
I turn to see him, his eyes bright with him and Nyre mixing together, his mind riddled. “Tell me,” I order, stepping closer. “Tell me, Mishal!” I yell.
“I told you upstairs what I smelled. Well, I smell all types of creatures down here. It looks like humans were experimenting on them and some of our kind broke them free. From the wreckage at the front door, I’m guessing that is where they got in. I’m betting they freed the women and killed the rest for their crimes but, little one, this shouldn’t be possible.” He starts to pace again. “Nothing like this should exist under the council’s watch….. It’s not even possible that they didn’t see this. I did wonder who was bold enough to take us all those years ago, I figured it was a rogue faction. I didn’t even question what they were doing with my blood..none of that matters now though. They must have if they sent a fallen to clean up, unless it’s gone rogue, but a changeling and a fallen?” He shakes his head as I try to follow his logic.
“What’s the problem with that?” I almost yell, sick of being in the dark.
“Changelings were wiped out, little one. My brother’s line, they were all killed in a culling, years and years ago by the council. It sent him into a depression, and he withdrew from the world, unable to interfere or exact revenge, so for a changeling to be here, the council must not know, which means the fallen is working with the changeling.”
“Wait, if your brother withdrew, how is a changeling here now?”
“I don’t know, maybe he made another? Blessed a human with his blood or maybe the council didn’t get them all? Either way, the council wouldn’t let them live if they knew, they think they are too dangerous.”
“So…you think the council knew about this?” I inquire slowly.
He stops pacing and turns to me, his face stricken. “I think they knew. I think they ordered it. They had to. They wouldn’t let this slip past their noses otherwise, but why? Why are they experimenting, where do the humans come into this?” He looks at me and his eyes widen. “They are trying to draw them out,” he whispers.
“Huh?” I ask dumbly.
“Like you, little one, they are trying to draw out latent bloodlines!” He yanks on his hair. “Why?”
Blowing out a breath, I look around at the devastation surrounding us. “What do we do? Go for the council? Confront them?”
“No, no, I can’t. My brothers and I made a pact over a millennium ago. We constructed the council to run impartial, to protect our kind from threats. The only way they agreed was if we didn’t interfere. My oldest brother, a warlock, made a blood pact. It’s a binding spell that protects the council from us and makes us unable to step foot on their soil or interfere with their laws and leadership unless invited.”
He yells out, kicking a chair and it flies through the nearest wall.
“Mishal!” I scream. “Look at me, you are older and smarter. Tell me what the plan is! You think the council did this, you think they are hurting humans and supes? They won’t stop, you have to know that, they have gone too far if it’s true. We need to stop them.”
“Yes, yes, fuck, I bet it was them who dug me up!” he roars. “All this time I thought it was humans who had stumbled upon my resting spot, or even hunters or witches, but it must be them, they knew of my resting spot, they all did—” He sucks in a breath.
“What?” I ask, concerned.
“If they came for me, they will go after my brothers. They must think we are a threat to their plan and want to get rid of us. We have to get to them first if it’s not too late.”
“Okay, so we find your brothers and take down the council?” I surmise, trying to follow along.
“Break the blood pact first, and for that we are going to need all seven of us in the place we made it.”
I nod and he turns to look around us with a shake of his head. “Let’s get out of here, little one.”
He laces our hands together, and my eyes catch on my cell as we head past it, but I force myself to look forward, to look at Mishal. We head back upstairs and almost past the room I first woke up in, but I tug him to a stop, standing outside the door. He looks back at me, already knowing, but I say it out loud anyway.
“I need to make sure she isn’t there,” I croak, my voice catching.
“We will go together.” He brings my hand to his lips and kisses it before we both turn and face the room.
Blowing out a breath, I step inside the room where the worst thing that ever happened to me occurred. I don’t see anyone or any bodies aside from the guard’s corpse, but I have to be sure. I have this nagging sensation that won’t go away until I know she hasn’t been left here to rot. I pass the cells on the end, my hand still in Mishal’s, and I freeze in front of the mine. Her blood is still on the floor, dried and old. How long has it been since she died? Time moves differently down below in the isolated cell, so I really don’t have a clue.
“Little one, I’m sorry,” he whispers, seeing it all in my head again.
His arms come around me, holding me together with his strength when all I want to do is drop to my knees and sob. “That blood is over three months old, little one, she will have been buried by now,” he promises.
“Okay.” I nod, happy at least she hasn’t just been left here to rot. “Okay,” I say again, sucking in air, trying to capture any of her scent, but he’s right, it’s old and barely there.
“Let’s get out of here,” I mumble numbly, turning in his arms.
He keeps them wrapped around me as we leave, but once we are outside of the room my legs give way. Maybe it’s the shock or just utter grief, but I can’t walk. He picks me up easily, holding me to him tightly as he makes his way from this hellhole, until the clean air outside hits my face, waking me up a bit. I turn to look over his shoulder, watching the warehouse get smaller and smaller.
“I’m going to turn, babe. Nyre is going to torch this place,” Mishal informs me softly.
Somewhere in my head alarms go off. Him changing here is bad…right?
“It will be okay, it’s empty and it’s still night, so no one will see us, and I will fly straight away from here.”
I nod, burying my head in his warmth, stealing his strength for a moment.
“You can have it all,” he whispers, kissing my head until I finally sigh and drop from his arms, standing by his side as we face the warehouse.
I spot a raven on top of the structure, watching us, and I wave slightly. “Your brothers, how do we find them?”
“I know where they were last. I can also track them, it just might take some time,” he explains.
“Which god are we hunting first?” I force my head up. I can’t afford to be weak. We have things to do and people to save, and now is not the time for breaking.
“We will search for Ciar, he’s a nightwalker like you. The last time I saw him, he was up north, so we will start there.” Mishal kisses me again, “I can’t wait for you to meet my brothers, little one, they are going to love you.”
I hope so, I think.
“Time to go, little one.” I turn to him, rising on my tiptoes and kissing him hard. He returns it straight away, his arms surrounding me and pulling me into his heat.
“I love you,” I whisper against his lips.
“I love you too, little one,” he promises, before stepping back.
I watch as he changes to Nyre, who instantly tilts down so I can climb onto him. Then, we are shooting to the sky and circling the warehouse, before Nyre lets fire stream from his mouth, engulfing the warehouse in bright flames. The blaze reaches up into the sky, burning away the horrors and sins done there.
It’s time to hunt some gods with my mate at my side. What could go wrong?
Sitting bolt upright, my eyes fly open, adjusting to the utter darkness surrounding me. Reaching out to each side with my hands, I feel a
long the wood on either side of me, but pull my fingers back with a frown. Really, a coffin? How cliché. Rolling my eyes, I lie back, getting comfortable. I can feel the pressing weight of the earth around me, so they clearly buried me deep, wanting no one to ever find me. You sleep and feed on one little priest’s wife and you end up in a coffin. Really, she begged me to, so you can’t blame me for simply granting the woman’s wishes. If anything was going to get me killed or buried, I figured it would have been by the queens or the blood orgies I held. Ever since I left my brothers’ sides, I have carved a bloodlust filled path across the world, searching for something...something I can feel just out of reach every time. Maybe I’ve finally gone crazy, the years crushing my mind, because there can’t be anything out there for me...just endless years spent alone. Maybe I should go and find one of my brothers, not that they would want me to, but it has to be better than this debilitating loneliness. Either way, I need to get out of this coffin first.
Closing my eyes again, I reach out with my senses, looking for signs of life. Ignoring the bushes, trees, plants, and animals above ground that ping on my radar, I spread the net wider. There must be someone out there who can help me. I am not spending years down here in a coffin. It would serve me right, but I need to be above ground, I need to find whatever this...thing is that has been calling to me these past twenty years or so.
There!
On the edge of my net, I sense a pulse of something alive—something strong as well, really strong. Not human, that is for sure, but it doesn’t matter. Everyone can be bribed, even our kind. It has to be one of my brethren’s lines. If it was mine, I would sense it straight away, but I’m betting wolf. Those bastards breed like bunnies. Howling at the moon and fucking in fur, no thank you, I’ll take a suite with a bottle of their finest wine and a hot woman any day.
A sardonic smile curls my lips as I cast out my mind, reaching for the stranger, pushing past their natural mind defences until I sink inside, free to explore and play, even wipe them out if I wanted to.
Hello? I push the thought, whispering it softly through their mind so not to startle them. It wouldn’t do me any good if they tried to shut their mind to me and I had to force it open again, it makes people less compliant.
I sense the person’s panic and confusion as they whirl from side to side, thinking I’m speaking to them in person. I get a sense of long red hair…a woman. Interesting. Instantly, I turn on the charm, knowing she will be helpless to resist me, none ever can.
“I am afraid I’m not there in person, love, but I would very much like to be and that is where you come in. What will it take for you to come and dig me free? You can have anything—money, status, death. Take your pick, beautiful.”
I wait in the background of the woman’s thoughts, trying not to intrude as she thinks over my offer. She isn’t as shocked by my talking internally as someone should be, so I am guessing it has happened to her before…why does that thought annoy me? Maybe I’ve spent too long in isolation.
You’re a nightwalker? Her soft, silky voice floats into my head, wrapping me up in satin sheets and warm bodies. Fuck, even my cock goes rock-hard. Definitely too long in isolation if a mere thought from a woman can send me into such a fit.
Yes, love, how did you know?
I find myself curious, what is she? How could she sense what I am?
A woman has to have some surprises. I’ll set you free, but I do want something.
Anything, I promise, my voice husky, even in my head as my fangs drop with a throb, aching to me buried in this woman’s throat or thigh, I’m not picky. I bet she would taste delicious.
I need you to find someone for me and I want them alive.
She seems to be ignoring my charm altogether, causing a frown to curl at my lips, maybe I’m rusty or she is simply hiding her reaction to it? Find someone, a boyfriend, a husband, a mate? Perhaps, but I don’t ask, it shouldn’t matter to me. She is a means to an end, but a nightwalker always keeps his promises and oaths.
Of course, love. Here is how you can find me. Dig me up and I swear to you on the blood burning through me that I shall find this person for you. So, it is willed, so it will be, I finish, knowing the universe will take that oath seriously.
She sucks in a breath, recognizing that. I will be there tonight. If you try to kill me or go on a massacre, I will stake you back into the ground, she warns, her voice as threatening as a puppy.
Of course, love. I would bring someone for me to feed on though, since it has been… I would guess around two hundred years.
I pull from her head with a laugh, sitting back in my coffin and waiting for the mysterious woman to come and save me. If only my brothers could see me now, I would never live it down. Being rescued like some damsel in distress, some god I am.
So why does my heart beat faster, my cock beg for her, and my fangs crave? It is clear I want this woman just from her voice. Maybe I can have some fun with her while I find this person she hunts, satisfy my hunger between her legs and at her veins. It would be easy to seduce her and once I am done, I can move on and carry on searching.
Almost laughing with glee, I settle myself and wait.
She thinks she is a hunter, but the hunter just became the hunted, and I can almost taste my prey.
About the Author
K.A Knight is an indie author trying to get all of the stories and characters out of her head. She loves reading and devours every book she can get her hands on, she also has a worrying caffeine addiction.
She leads her double life in a sleepy English town, where she spends her days writing like a crazy person.
Read more at K.A Knight’s website or join her Facebook Reader Group.
Also By K.A Knight
THEIR CHAMPION SERIES
The Wasteland
The Summit
The Cities
The Forgotten
The Lost
DAWNBREAKER SERIES
Voyage to Ayama
Dreaming of Ayama
THE LOST COVEN SERIES
Aurora’s Coven
Aurora’s Betrayal
HER MONSTERS SERIES
Rage
Hate
THE FALLEN GODS SERIES
Pretty Painful
Pretty Bloody (Coming soon!)
Pretty Stormy (Coming soon!)
STANDALONES
Scarlett Limerence
Nadia’s Salvation
The Standby
Den of Vipers (Coming soon!)
CO-AUTHOR PROJECTS
Circus Save Me
Taming The Ringmaster
Dark Temptations Volume One (contains One Night Only and Circus Saves Christmas)
The Wild Interview
The Wild Tour
The Hero Complex
Shipwreck Souls
The Horror Emporium
Capturing Carmen
Stealing Shiloh
Harbouring Harlow (Coming soon!)