The Darkness in You (The Darkness Series Book 2)

by Diane Ashley Nortje

  “Let’s just say, it was nothing sort of torture, a lot of blood and I’m sure a lot of broken bones.”

  “Not possible.” Bishop simply states and then turns to Weyland. “What’s your read on it?”

  “He is alive obviously and fine by what I can feel. But since Natalie left there’s been a hollow feeling inside of him.”

  “You can’t fucking break the bond. I told him that, so many fucking times.” Bishop growls.

  “He wanted to protect her, Bishop, and I’m sure he is still doing that now. But-.”

  “But fucking what, Weyland?” Bishop snaps out and I feel Tray shift closer to me. Clearly Bishop being angry is not a good idea.

  “It must fucking come to an end, that is why I came here, we need her prepared. We are going in to get him.”

  Bishop doesn’t answer and a door closing makes him look away from our group and towards the noise. I follow his gaze and it’s the same lady from before, carrying a small pile of clothes and a box.

  “About fucking time.” Bishop snaps at her. But she is clearly used to his outbursts as she simply raises her one brow at him and dumps the items in his lap and turns to leave.

  “Everyone, get out and leave me alone with Natalie.”

  “Um, I don’t think that’s such a good idea with you being so angry-.” I try to say to him but falls on deaf ears.

  “Now!” Bishop shouts, cutting me off and the room starts to clear. I watch as Weyland and my five start to get up from where they were sitting and I latch onto Trays arm, who stops and looks down at me.

  “You can’t leave me.” I plead with him.

  “He is. You are my little plaything for the next couple of hours, what shall we do?” Bishop asks me, while tapping his finger on his chin. “Hmm, let’s see shall we, I think I’m going to go with pain, a lot of fucking pain.”

  “Tray, no, you can’t leave.” I look up to Tray once more, pleading with him with my eyes not to leave me alone with him.

  “You will be fine, Natalie.” Tray says to me. “And stop scaring her, Bishop. You don’t have to be so fucked in the head all the time.”

  “Leave, puppy.” Bishops says to him, while his eyes slice towards the door.

  I watch as my only hope for a possible protector leaves my side and he leaves with the little hope I had in surviving this whole thing. I feel something soft hit my head and fall at my feet. When I start go to look at what it is, Bishop starts barking at me again.

  “Go get changed, our fun begins.” He says to me and stands to move over to the table and places the box on it. I really, really don’t want to know what’s in that box.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Is this going to hurt?” I ask Bishop, who has somewhat calmed down now, he is clearly excited to dish out some pain.

  The look he gives me should say it all, but we are dealing with magic, so we never know if he has any tricks up his sleeves when it comes to pain.

  “Don’t look at me like that, it is a valid question.” I grumble out to him.

  “I’m about to tattoo every kind of metal into your skin, I’d say it’s going to hurt like a mother fucker.”

  “At least you are honest about it.”

  “I never lied about the pain I was going to give you, now come sit here.” Bishop orders me and points to the small chair in between his legs, while letting out a stream of smoke from his mouth. I never thought I would find a man sexy while smoking, but he is. I watch as he brings his hand back to his mouth, the rose tattoo curled around his smoke as he breathes in another drag.

  I slowly make my way over to him and take a seat in the chair in front of him. We are close, closer than I have been to a man since Jacin. I can smell his cologne that he wears, feel the heat of his skin on mine. But I feel nothing. I notice his dark stormy eyes, always watching, always searching, but they don’t look at me with anything other than curiosity.

  “You have a girlfriend, Bishop?” I ask him, I don’t know why I’m curious about the woman that was sitting beside him earlier. He didn’t show any sort of affection to her. And I have no clue why I want to know.

  “Why? Are you interested in the position?” He teases me back and I want to pull my tongue at him. But I go against the childish response.

  “No, just curious.” I say to him instead.

  “I don’t date.” He simply states.

  “Typical man answer.” I grumble out.

  We sit in silence for a few more seconds as I watch him place the strange looking needle into the machine.

  “She is going to turn your life upside down.”

  “Who?”

  “Whoever the fates have planned for you.” I simply state. There is no way in hell that he will go through his entire life without one heart break along the way.

  “That I highly doubt. Now sit still.” Bishop says to me while switching on the machine and dips the machine into the small metallic liquid gloop in the small pot next to him.

  “You’ve done this before, right?” I ask him as he grips my arm to hold it into place.

  “You’ve seen Jacin’s body, haven’t you?”

  “About that, I didn’t know you were close with Jacin. They way Weyland describes things, it sounds like you aren’t meant to be friends.”

  “I watched him grow from a young boy, into the man he is today, and we want it that way. When people don’t know who are on your side, you see who your real enemies are.”

  “Oh, that’s sweet and I guess, clever.” I say back, but I’m not sure if sweet is the right word. How fucking old is he?

  “I’m fucking old and it ain’t fucking sweet. I watched him become the monster he needed to become to survive the hell he has been through. I’ve watched him do things that would give me nightmares and he does it with a smile on his face. He is what we need him to be, more than anyone else could have been. So, it ain’t fucking sweet, its fucking scary beyond measure, because I don’t scare easily. And that motherfucker can give me nightmares.”

  I’m stunned into silence for a moment. Bishops words running over in my brain and I finally understand why it’s impossible.

  “He wasn’t taken, was he?” I ask Bishop.

  “No, not possible. But that still doesn’t explain why he hasn’t returned, and he needs to return. His reign keeps shit in line. His absence will be noticed. If he hasn’t returned, it means he can’t, and that is not fucking good.” Bishop says to me, then turns in his chair once more. The sound of the machine starts to vibrate through the room. When he turns back, he has a sick smile on his face. He is going to enjoy every single minute of this.

  The sting on my arm runs through my body and stops my next question that was sitting at the tip of my tongue but instead I let out a startled shriek as the machine starts to run done my arm. It hurts like a bitch. It feels like the needle is piercing my entire arm, when yet it has barely moved. A few hours of this is going to be torture. Deadly fucking torture.

  ~ ~ ~

  I’m numb, the pain left me hours ago and I’m sitting in a state of shock. Pain induced shock. Bishop didn’t stop when I pleaded with him, he didn’t stop when I started crying. Now I’m just sitting here, I don’t feel the needle run down my arm anymore. The metal blends into my skin like it was its own, my blood spots my arm every so often, but Bishop just wipes it away and continues. I feel nothing. My body is numb. Where there should be pain in both my arms, they feel like jelly, but Bishop continues on, hours have passed, and his concentration doesn’t waver.

  I clear my throat and Bishop looks up to me. But not in a caring, do you need a break kind of way. It’s like stop fucking interrupting me kind of way. Cold hearted to his fucking core apparently.

  “So?” I say to Bishop, hopefully he will take the bait. He hasn’t said a word to me since he started and it’s not from the lack of me trying.

  “Just ask the fucking question already and let’s move on. I’m almost done here.”

  “If he is such a monster, why would you need
to save him?” The question rushes out of my mouth before I can even stop it.

  “He reigns, Natalie.” Bishop simply states.

  “Reigns what? I’m so confused, and you guys can’t just give me straight answers.”

  “He will tell you, or you will find out eventually anyways. But just know this, if he dies, which is highly unlikely, but if he does, hell will walk this world.”

  “Lovely.” I say to him sarcastically.

  A few minutes go by, my thoughts don’t stop. It’s one after the other, on a continuous loop because I never get the answers I need. My brain needs something to slow it down. To process something other than more confusion, more questions with never ending answers.

  “Ask, Natalie.” He grumbles out.

  “Ask what?”

  “That wasn’t your question, so fucking ask already.”

  “I told you, stay out of my head.” I say to Bishop, and I pause. “Okay, if he is such a monster, am I safe with him, is what I’m feeling right now real or some dream the potion I drank created?”

  “You are the other half of his soul. Yours divided and so did his, the minute you were born into this world. He heard your first breath and felt your first heartbeat.”

  “How do you know this?” I ask him. I’m shocked, I knew we were mates, but I never understood the meaning of it.

  Bishop doesn’t answer back and returns his focus to my arms. A few more minutes go by before it clicks to me.

  “Oh. My. God.” I shout out.

  Bishop doesn’t comment, he clearly has read my mind. He knows!

  “It happened to you, didn’t it!” I ask him.

  He just ignores me and continues on with his tattooing.

  “Okay, fine, that’s your business. But answer me this, why doesn’t everyone have mates?”

  “Not everyone has monsters living within them, its these monsters that have mates. We are the vessels which carry the monsters. But that doesn’t make the monsters mate any less our mate. You are one with what is inside you. You were given the monster for a reason.” Bishop explains. “Okay I’m done.”

  I watch as he places the machine down and my eyes travel to the back of my arms. The work is beautiful, there in my skin are two identical daggers. They run from my elbows to my wrists, with the silver metal ink shining in the light.

  “Wow.” I breathe out as I twist and turn my arms to take in the tattoo.

  “Come, let’s get you home, I’ll teach you how to use them.” Bishop says as I stand with him and takes my hand in his, and then we are gone.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Come play with me and may the best monster win.” - Jacin

  ~Jacin~

  I feel the stinging annoying as fuck pain running down my arms. It feels as if Bishop has gotten hold of me again. I must be finally going insane. I should welcome every insane thought. But I can’t. I let them take me. The prophecy said they wanted to overthrow me and were going to use Natalie to do it. I just skipped a few steps and here we are.

  They have found a way to cage me. How? It doesn’t matter, it won’t last, my magic already wearing away at the corners of the hold. It’s only a matter of time. But that is all irrelevant. These bunch of fuckers were ordered to take me, their deaths will be fun, but again irrelevant. I want who they call Master. I’m waiting for him.

  I will end him, then I can return Natalie to where she rightfully belongs, by my side. Then the beast can shut the fuck up. They come, daily. They inject me with the drugs which hold my beast at bay, his power is weakened, numbing us to our core, putting a restraint on him and then essentially me. But some think they can get close and I kill before they can take their next breath.

  I am sin.

  I am rage.

  I am death.

  With or without my beast.

  And each and every one of them is learning that the hard way.

  I hear voices coming from the other room, that always means it’s their playtime with me. I watch the door open and six men come in. More than yesterday’s group. What they fail to understand is that, every day, when more men come in here to play with me is that, I am sin, I am rage and I am death. They think they are coming in here to play with me, they are wrong. They come in here, so I can play with them. Fuckers.

  ~Natalie~

  “She has been banned from the underworld!” Weyland shouts at Bishop like he has the answer we so desperately need and just refuses to give it to us.

  “There is always ways in. But ways out, not so much.” Bishop replies to him and I just sit by and watch the argument develop between the two of them.

  Should I tell them I remember burying the Gem of Danté? I don’t think Weyland has even thought about that option yet. He has just focused on the problem at hand, being Jacin banned my soul from ever entering hell! How does he even have the power to do such a thing?

  “Guys?” I try break through the argument, but it falls on deaf ears as they continue to argue with one another.

  “Have you considered all other possible options, Weyland. I hold no power there, neither does Mason. I could always try Hades, but even then, it’s tricky.” Bishop says. They are both still ignoring me, typical.

  “This place was looted while I was there, trying to get a read on Jacin’s location. They came for clues on Natalie and took what little they could find. Including the gem!” Weyland barks off and my back stiffens when he mentions the gem.

  “The gem cannot simply be looted. If it was taken it would simply fucking return. Which means wherever it is, whoever it is with, it’s quite happy to be there. You know that fucking thing has a mind of its own.” Bishop replies and before I can answer Tray chimes in with his worth.

  “Then where is it, since you the reader, read it’s mind or some shit.” Tray says to Bishop and the argument heats up just a notch.

  “I’ll just read yours, puppy. I’m sure I’d find much more interesting things going on up there!” Bishop replies.

  “No one is reading, anyone.” Weyland tries to break them up. But they are now toe to toe and this isn’t going to end well.

  “Guys!” I say a bit louder, but they don’t hear me and my protests. They continue to fight amongst themselves and as my blood starts to boil they ignore me further.

  I might be small, but I’m a spark and I will ignite a fire if I need to. I climb up onto the couch we were all sitting around, I voice my damn opinion. I will be heard!

  “Hey! Fuckers!” I scream at them. My small frame still not getting much height on them, while standing on the sofa, but it’s something. My other four protectors look at me like I’ve lost my ever-loving mind, but I pay them no attention. It’s the three-bickering old housewives I’m after. “I might be small, and I might not have as much knowledge on this topic. But my fucking opinion will be heard! Do you guys fucking understand me? Or must I draw you a pretty picture?” I scream at them.

  I’ve stunned them into complete silence. Good. “Now that we have some sort of an understanding, I would like to know what gem we are talking about?”

  Tray clears his voice and answer me. “The Gem of Danté.”

  I nod my head, now we are getting somewhere. “The little black onyx looking stone that pulses?” I ask them sweetly.

  Now that got the rooms attention really quickly. Bishop eyes me suspiciously and Weyland and Tray look to one another as if I got another head growing out my neck.

  “That would be the one we are arguing about, yes.” Weyland answers me while I feel a probing into my head.

  “Back off, Bishop. You won’t get in there again!” I grind out to Bishop and give him my most deathly glare, which he only returns tenfold.

  I take a deep breath in. Fighting amongst each other is going to solve nothing. “I know where it is.” I say out to the room.

  “How?”

  “Where is it?”

  “Since when?”

  Questions fly out of the men’s mouths and I don’t bother to keep track.


  “Why didn’t you just say so in the first place?” Bus says to me and I turn to look at him.

  “I tried, but they wouldn’t listen to me.” I say back to him while gesturing to the three men still in shock from my admission.

  “So, where is it then?” Bishops hard voice cuts through the air.

  “I kind of buried it, somewhere. But I totally could find it. I think I remember where I put it.”

  “And tell me something, why do you have it?” Bishop continues to question me, as he stalks closer to me.

  “That I’m not certain of, considering my memories are still a bit fuzzy. But I want to say I was asked to retrieve it for someone, but clearly had other plans.”

  “Look, I don’t care about the why and how. Let’s just be happy it’s Natalie that has it.” Weyland says to our group, but I think it was more directed at Bishop in hopes he calms down a bit.

  “Ever the ray of fucking sunshine you are Weyland.” Bishop growls out. His phone ringing gives us a moments break.

  “I buried it in my parents back yard when I didn’t know what else to do with it.”

  “You buried a priceless gem that allows anyone into the underworld. In. Your. Backyard!” Bishop bellows at me, shit, I thought he was on the phone.

  “It was the safest option I had then obviously. The fog was there and the next day was a complete and utter mess. And when Jacin literally forced me to live with him. I kind of forgot about it!” I argue back, when I all but stomp my foot into the sofa I’m standing on.

  “Woman!” Bishop says to me while storming up to me. “She better not be like you!”

  I stare at him for a few moments before I click on to what he is saying. “Oh, Bishop. She is gonna fuck you up. That I’m almost sure of!” I say to him with a grin on my face.

  His hand snaps out and grabs mine and I feel as if my body is being pulled in every direction imaginable until I land back on my feet in my parents back yard, bent over, dry heaving the contents of my stomach.

  Dick move.