Black as Midnight

by Mary Martel

  Fear slithered through me as I opened my eyes and took a look around. Immediately, I shut my eyes once again and prayed that when I opened them, I would be somewhere else. Anywhere other than here.

  I opened my eyes again and looked around, but unfortunately the scenery remained the same. There was a huge, gaping hole in the earth. Bugs, creepy crawly things that made me gag, were crawling out from it. Crawling out toward me.

  Quickly, so as not to let those things touch me, I scrambled to my feet and started scooting backward. From this new angle I was able to see farther down into the hole, which made me wish I had never actually stood up and would have chanced it with the creepy crawlies, because they were less of a threat to me.

  Her eyes were what I saw first. They glowed with an unnatural light and were fixated entirely on me. She growled like a wild animal as her broken fingernails clawed at the dirt as she dragged her way up the inside of the hole.

  My back connected with something solid, blocking me from moving back any farther as she made it to the top of the hole and her head popped up. It turned to the side at an unnatural angle.

  She opened her mouth and a mass of black spiders spewed out. They raced toward me as male shouts rang out through the room.

  Her dirty hand raised toward me, and her broken, bleeding finger pointed right at me.

  "No," I croaked out. "He said you wouldn't be here anymore. He told me so. You aren't really here. You can't be."

  She lowered her hand back down to the dirt floor and climbed her way entirely out of the hole. On her hands and knees, she started to crawl toward me with her mouth hanging open, spiders falling out along the way.

  "No," I screamed. "You're not real."

  I sat up straight on my loveseat and looked around in terrified confusion.

  In my dream there had been angry shouting and I didn't think it had actually been part of my dream, but something I had picked up going on around me in the real world.

  My head jerked around the room, looking for the dead, sightless bodies trying to climb out of the earth that I had been dreaming about, but I found nothing. I flopped back onto the pile of pillows I'd propped up behind me last night in a huff. It was only a dream. A horrible, hideous nightmare.

  I needed to take a shower because I could feel disgusting things crawling all over me, even though they hadn’t touched me once in my dream but, for whatever reason, their phantom touch had followed me back to reality. I knew scrubbing my body thoroughly until my skin was a freakishly pink color would be the only way to get rid of the feeling of those creepy crawlies.

  I refused to think about the woman I'd seen crawling out of that hole. She was long since dead and, according to Julian, entirely gone. The ghost of her would not haunt me for forever, or so I hoped.

  I looked over at my bed longingly. If I hadn't fallen asleep watching television on the couch last night, I would have slept in bed underneath my dreamcatcher and this garbage wouldn't be happening to me. That sucker wasn't only pretty to look at, but also never once had it let me down, and every single time I'd slept underneath it I never had a bad dream to speak of. Really, it was because of Tyson, who'd never let me down with that one, because he's the one who'd put the whole thing together and even used blood magic to make it safe for me to go to sleep in my bed at night.

  I groaned as I tossed the throw blanket that covered me to the side. It was a pretty shade of yellow and was incredibly soft and fuzzy. It had been a Christmas gift from Dash and I absolutely loved it. It was a really sweet gift and I dragged that thing everywhere with me. When we watched television downstairs in the living room it came with me. When I went to watch movies with Damien I brought it along. I fell asleep there once, and he'd carried me to the car and put me in my own bed, and he'd made sure to bring my fuzzy blanket back home with me because he knew how much I loved the thing.

  I stood up and moved to the dresser where I always charged my phone every night. I left my phone plugged in as I pulled up my texts. Quickly, I sent off a text to Julian.

  Ariel: I dreamed of dead things, namely people. Thanks. You're a dick.

  I frowned down at my phone after hitting send. That wasn't exactly fair of me to send him that, but I did blame him all the same. Which wasn't fair either, because I had agreed to go over there of my own free will and had even thought it was a good idea at the time. I’d thought I needed closure. Instead, I'd gotten nightmares. And I really had no one to blame outside of myself.

  Guilt ate at me but I refused to send another text, an apology one. Julian never got to see this side of me, maybe it was his turn, and Uncle Quinton deserved a much needed break for a while.

  Nah, maybe they both deserved it for whatever reason. Goodness knows I had enough attitude to throw around at more than just one of them for a while, Marcus hadn't been wrong on that front.

  I sat the phone back on the dresser and pulled open my top drawer. I dug around in my dresser until I found some clothes to put on after I got out of the shower.

  "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I heard Dash shout angrily from the hallway.

  I dropped my clothes to the floor and ran toward the door. Dash never raised his voice, ever, and something seriously had to be wrong in order to have him doing so now.

  "She's sleeping," I heard him snarl. "You're not going in there right now and waking her up. Go home and call her later like a normal fucking human being, and get your ass the fuck out of my house."

  Oh shit. This was so not good. There was only one person I could see Dash talking to like that and it was Rain.

  I whipped the door open and stumbled out into the hallway. What greeted me had my breath catching in my throat.

  Dash stood tall at the top of the stairs with his arms spread wide, stopping Rain from coming up all the way so he could get to my room.

  "Get out of my way, boy," Rain snarled in an ugly voice. "How dare you stand between me and my daughter. That's the stupidest thing you could ever do where I'm concerned and you damn well know it."

  Rain put his hands on Dash's shoulders and shoved. Dash stumbled back a step before righting himself and getting back in Rain's face.

  Shouting was coming from the bottom of the stairs, but I couldn't make out the words because the world had come to a screeching halt for me the moment Rain put his hands on Dash. Out of all my boys, Dash was the one I had the biggest connection with. He understood me on a different level than everyone else, because of the physical abuse we both suffered as children. We'd bonded over blood and scars, and to see anyone get physical with him with the intent to harm him threw me into a bit of a rage. It didn't matter to me that it was my father who'd touched him.

  I lifted my hand and poured my intent and will into my actions as I flicked my fingers in Rain's direction.

  His eyes rounded comically as he flew back, slamming into the wall. The shouting at the bottom of the stairs died off as Rain slid down the wall and crashed to the floor in a heap.

  Immediately, I felt contrite and wanted to apologize for my actions, but I knew for everyone else's sake that I couldn't tell Rain I was sorry. He was a damn bully and nobody was willing to stand up to him. It was up to me to put him in his place, otherwise he was going to continue to treat the people I cared about like garbage, and I couldn't stand to watch it anymore.

  Rain looked up at me with bright eyes that didn't shine with accusation like I'd expect, but with pride instead.

  "Don't touch Dash," I ordered in a hollow voice. "He's officially off limits to you and I don't ever want to see you put your hands on him again. I'm not joking, Rain. If you mess with Dash again, I can promise you that you'll live to regret it. Oh, and another thing, this is his house, when you're here you need to treat him with respect or don't come here at all."

  I looked at Dash to check on him and see if he was okay, but he wasn't standing where I'd last seen him. He was completely gone.

  "Dash," I called out, my voice threaded with fear. Where did he go? He was just
here two minutes ago.

  "He's in his room," Quinton said quietly from the stairs.

  I looked at him and reared back in shock at the look on his face. There was a naked vulnerability there that terrified me.

  "What?" I asked in a quiet voice. "What's wrong now?"

  "Be careful with him, Ariel," he cautioned me seriously.

  I frowned at hearing him use my first name. Something was seriously wrong here and it had nothing to do with Rain's volatile behavior.

  "Go," Quinton urged me gently, "but please, Ariel, please be careful with him. Remember everything that the women in his life have put him through because he needs you to be different than them."

  I started to shake uncontrollably as everything faded away except for the look on Quinton's face as his words and their meaning ran through my mind.

  Had I triggered some bad memory for Dash with my violent, rash behavior toward Rain? Tears pricked my eyes at the thought that it could have been my callous actions this time that caused him harm.

  I ran to Dash's room and slammed the door shut behind me.

  "Did you see her?" Rain asked in awe, the pride ringing clear in his voice. "She used her magic defensively like I've been trying to teach her. I never thought I'd see the day where she actually did it. She was so against harming others that she found even the thought of it repulsive. But she did it. Isn't she incredible?"

  "Shut up, Rain," Quinton grumbled, and for once we were on the same page with each other. "What are you even doing here and why in the hell do you have Dash's cat?"

  Oh shit. That damn cat! I'd forgotten about him and left him at the store with Rain. Poor little Binx was probably so mad at me right now for leaving him behind.

  "Did you know that Marcus joined the Council this morning?" Rain questioned in a haughty voice, which told me he knew Quinton had absolutely no clue about it, and Rain was just taunting him with his superior knowledge.

  Oh shit, shit, shit. Quinton was going to lose his damn mind.

  I placed both my palms against the door and whispered out a quick spell.

  "Keep out anything with

  malicious intent.

  Shield this room.

  Stand as guard.

  Keep him safe.

  So mote it be."

  If that didn't keep them out then there was nothing else I could do for it. The door hummed quietly and I knew it was working.

  I turned back to face the room and my breath caught in my throat, threatening to choke me as I took in Dash. He was curled up in a ball in the center of his bed, his eyes were staring vacantly up at the ceiling and he wasn't moving. He didn't even look like he was breathing.

  It scared the ever loving piss right out of me. This was Dash and he was one of the strongest people I knew, but he didn't look very strong right now. In fact, he looked a lot younger than he really was, like a little boy almost and that broke my heart.

  "Dash," I hesitantly said before approaching the bed. He didn't so much as twitch. I climbed into bed with him and pasted my body around his back. I wrapped my arms around him and held on for all I was worth.

  I could wait this out with him and be here for however long this took. I'd wait forever for Dash if I had to. He was worth everything to me.

  Chapter Six

  It felt like it took hours for him to move, and when he did, it was slow going. My body was stiff from unmoving for so long and my arms hurt from holding onto him so tightly.

  Eventually, his body relaxed and his breathing evened out. I still didn't relax behind him. I thought he'd fallen asleep when his hand moved. He placed it over mine and squeezed.

  "Ariel," he croaked out in a thick voice.

  I buried my face in his neck and prayed the tears that were stinging my eyes didn't spill out. I didn't want him to see how much his pain killed me.

  "I'm so sorry," I whispered hoarsely.

  Sorry for so many different things. Where to even start?

  Dash had grown up with the females in his life being incredibly violent toward him and doing horrible things to him. They'd treated him worse than garbage and he'd never done anything whatsoever to deserve the way he'd been treated outside of being born. The guys all told me that he'd had issues with women because of his past. That's mostly the reason why he had acted like a man-whore before I'd come into his life. He had issues, to be sure, just like all of them had issues, but I knew they revolved around women and violence. I knew better. I shouldn't have acted the way I did in front of him and done that to Rain.

  Violence was never the answer. I knew this, dammit. I really did, but I had stupidly acted out anyways and potentially hurt Dash as a result. I would never live this down.

  "You'll never know how sorry I am." My voice cracked. "I don't know what happened to me, but I guess seeing Rain shove you like that did something to me and I just snapped. I never, ever should have lashed out and used my magic like that. I never should have used my magic to hurt someone else, especially Rain. And certainly not in front of you."

  Dash squeezed my hand before letting go and rolling over to face me. I moved back, away from his neck, and braced for what was to come. He was going to tell me to get out of his bed and get out of his room. Maybe he'd even tell me to pack up my belongings and get out of his house. It would kill me, since this had become my home here with him and Binx. I'd never had a real home before, a place I'd felt safe in, until coming here to live with them. I’d had a home with Marcus but it hadn’t been a safe one because I’d shared it with Vivian. It would kill me to leave Dash and Binx, but I would respect his wishes and I would do whatever he wanted me to do.

  Dash put his hands up to my face. His thumbs ran over my cheeks, one trailing over my scar in a gentle caress.

  His eyes were dark storm clouds and I was caught in the middle of them, sucked in deep.

  "Dash," I croaked out. This rejection from him was likely going to be the hardest thing I'd ever gone through in my entire life.

  It was in that moment that I realized something important. Something life changing. Something I couldn't ever come back from.

  I loved Dash. Like, deep-seated, bottom of my soul, loved him.

  I was falling hard here with these people, they were carving their names onto my soul and there would be no scraping them off. Hell, I think part of me even loved Julian already. I was a goner for all of them and that was just that.

  "Don't you dare apologize to me," he whispered in a fierce voice that shocked me to my core. "You don't ever apologize for what you did this morning."

  My eyes rounded in shock as my body froze solid.

  If I hadn't done anything wrong, then why had he run away from me, run out of the hallway, and hidden himself in here curled up into a ball and shut down completely? If I didn't have anything to apologize for, if it hadn't been me who'd triggered him, then what the hell was the matter here? Quinton had seemed like this was important and I had to be careful with Dash.

  "I don't understand," I said hesitantly. "I assumed I had triggered something, some type of memory for you because of my violent behavior toward Rain. I never should have done that, it was rash, and I will work really hard to keep myself in check from now on. Not just when you're around either. I pr—"

  "Ariel," he murmured as he cupped my face and held on to me. "Stop talking and stop apologizing. You did nothing wrong here. Every single one of us wants to toss Rain into the wall on a daily basis, we just don't do it because we know there'd be horrible consequences if we did."

  I sucked in a deep breath. "Then what did I do wrong?" I asked in a quiet voice. I'd done something wrong, I just knew it.

  "You've done nothing wrong, sweet girl, I promise you," he gently assured me. "It's just that..." He swallowed painfully before continuing. "But you're right though, in a way. Your actions did trigger a memory for me, but what's more, it's what you did for me that no female in my life has ever done for me before. You stuck up for me, you defended me, and you struck out at someone else who
wasn't me. That's never happened before. Not ever. The only people who have ever stuck up for me are the members of our coven. And that's it. But you... what you did... I never expected..."

  God, Dash hurt my heart so bad, I felt like I was bleeding on the inside and it wasn't pretty. We'd both suffered, but I felt like Dash had gotten it worse than I had. Not that we were competing here or anything. It would be one of the most messed up competitions ever. Who had the most scars? Dash would win hands down. Most of mine were on the inside. Unless you counted my collarbone and my face, that is. The one on my face would usually mean I would win this game, but Dash's back put my face to shame every time. Which was all kinds of horrifying, considering how he'd come about it.

  "Thank you," he whispered hoarsely. "Thank you for standing up for me. You can't ever leave us, Ariel. You prove every single day that you belong here with us, that you're a perfect fit for our coven and it would kill me if you ever left. I need you here with me. And I know I'm not the only one who feels that way."

  I sighed in relief. This was familiar territory for me. Most of them had given into their fears at one time or another, and begged me not to leave them no matter what. I had made promises to stay with them and I meant it every time, even though it had scared the crap out of me most of time because it was a heavy thing for me to promise. Especially in the beginning. I was the only one who ever seemed hesitant with promises.

  "I'm not going anywhere," I assured Dash. "I'm staying right here with you until you get sick of me and kick me out."

  "Never going to happen," he said in a gruff voice. "You will always have a home here with me. Always. And it would be impossible for me to get sick of you when you're the most important person in my life and always will be."

  His words filled me with a sweet warmth and left me unable to respond. How did I tell him that he was the most important person in my life too, when it was a lie? He was the most important person in the world to me when it was just the two of us alone together. But the others mattered to me just as much and it changed when I was with someone else. That didn't mean I cared for Dash any less, though. It just meant I had a heart big enough for all of them to have a special piece of. I would worry about this if it hadn't been them who'd encouraged this type of relationship in the first place.