He cursed her all the way from her house to the edge of a nearby wood. The shadows recoiled from his wrath. Inside the cover of the trees, he roared his fury into the deep.
A melodic tone of smells teased his senses. Even from this distance, he could detect her unique scent. The bouquet of flavors was laced with fear, anguish, sorrow, and mental strife.Foolish mortal!She would not be suffering these plights if she hadn't sent him away.
Her ignorance mixed with his ire. Soon he found himself traipsing back to civilization, his limbs moving of their own accord. He fed on unsuspecting sleepers and channeled his indignation into his craft, reaping and sewing nightmares with flourishing intensity.
The nightmares fueled him but did nothing to ease the ache inside his empty soul. Worry for the woman who’d cast him away threatened his control and forced him to continue through the night, swallowing tasteless dreams whole. What he must do would take a great deal of power, and there was a chance it would be morning before he acquired enough to enact his plan.
Many torturous hours later, with her repellent charm at its thinnest in her deep sleep, he sidled up to the window. A tendril of his power seeped through the crack. He bid the shadows to rise from under her bed and settle upon her chest.
Just enough to ease her anguish. Nothing more.
Foolish dreamer.
She knew not what she’d done. She may have forced him away for the night, but at the first light of morning, he would be pulled just as roughly into her chambers to collect the debt.
He knew exactly what he would demand.
Chapter 9
Addison
Unabated attacks of horror-filled dreams tormented Addison all night. Scenes from her past mixed with nail-biting anxieties, creating dramatized memories that twisted into untold evil. Her family was murdered, only to be reborn determined to seek vengeance upon her. Abusers resurfaced wearing new faces like that of her greasy boss. The relentless onslaught had her waking in sweats, thrashing about like a fish out of water, only to be thrown upon the gutting table.
After what felt like ages, Addison’s lucid mind picked up on an incoming respite. A dark hallway with no light, but also no haunting ghosts from her past. A torch leaned in its sconce. She retrieved it cautiously and held it in front of her to guide the way.
In the corner of her vision, a wavering figure caught the light. The handsome elf flickered like an ethereal mirage before disappearing altogether.
The simple dream eased her into wakefulness. It was still dark outside the window, but she decided not to risk going back to sleep. She’d be happy never returning to that hellscape ever again.
To her utter exasperation, she found her panties slick, albeit nothing like they’d been in nights prior. With a quick peek around the room, she shed the soft black fabric and dropped them in the washer.
She searched her dresser for a fresh pair of underwear and realized she’d been filling the washer without actually running any loads. After sniff-checking and discarding her worn sweatpants, she’d barely pulled on a pair of black leggings when dark shadows poured in through the cracks of her window and materialized into an adumbrated body. The tips of two horns swirled upward but dissolved into flickering shadows before reaching their points. The silhouette looked fuzzy for all it was a collection of billowing haze. His torso was lean and cut but looked more smooth than the rest of him. Her eyes trailed lower to where hismale bitswere, and she felt a pang of gratitude and disappointment when she saw the contour merely gave way to penumbra.
Even with the deep glower etched in the writhing pall that made up his face, the sight of him made her inner walls clench with excitement.
As though he sensed her lust, his cheek rose in a wolfish grin. His narrowed gaze flicked down to her thighs, a black tongue flicking out to graze the lip above a sharp tooth.
“What are you?” She commended herself for standing her ground, though her voice shook with the strain of confrontation.
His salacious grin soured back into a sneer as he bared his teeth at her. Two sharp canines hung over his bottom lip as he growled, the sound deep and rumbling and reminiscent of a wild bear.
“You don’t know what magic you dabble in, human.”
The intensity of his gaze sharpened. Addy leaned back on the desk and pressed her thighs together under his vigorous scrutiny, trying and failing to keep her mind on the task at hand. She was supposed to be interrogating him, not wondering what his fangs would feel like scraping up her inner thigh, or whether his shadows would have enough mass to hold her immobile against the bed while he ravaged her.
At least the dirty thoughts made it easier not to be afraid of the conversation at hand. Instead of worrying over the confrontation, her body pulsed with a growing sense of emptiness, as though she suddenly direly needed to be filled.
His nostrils flared again and she realized it was not a coincidence. She had no doubt he could smell the struggle she was losing with her body.Oh well. It doesn’t change what I have to do.
“Are you the reason I’ve been having night terrors again? Waking up unable to move?” She admired herself for keeping a steady voice despite her distracting desire.
Shadows swelled around him. Her comment had bristled him for some reason. She braced against the desk and prepared for retaliation, but his rippling edges smoothed and he began to pace. His vague silhouette surged with nebulous mist throughout his limbs, never fully forming but always moving. He stalked to her bed and stared down at the unmade sheets, his claw-tipped hands clasped behind his back.
“You do realize I decide what you lend me.”
She hadn’t realized that, but it didn’t change anything. What could he possibly want from her? “Answer my questions first.”
He stilled. His chin tilted in her direction as another wave of bristling darkness crossed over his boundless form.
