Haunted Nights ✅ Completed

Prologue: The Last Kiss

Daniel faced his attacker. His eyes held nothing but unadulterated hatred for the thing in front of him. Even bound and beaten, he refused to give it the satisfaction of hearing him beg.  His brow was covered in blood and sweat, his body broken and damaged from the brutality he'd endured over a seemingly endless expanse of time. Days, weeks, it was no matter; time was irrelevant now. The only thing he hadn't lost count of was his broken bones – four fingers on each hand, three ribs, both ankles and wrists, and his left leg had all crumbled under a monster's studious ministrations.  

"All you need do is cede, Daniel. Then I shall make all your pain disappear." The whisper was so soft, nothing but a gentle caress against his brutalized body. For a miraculous instant his pain was gone. His body was whole and strong again. Daniel took a deep breath and no longer felt the crushing ache in his chest. As he savored the sensation of filling his lungs with air, the pain of every injury he'd suffered slammed into him at once.

His tormentor laughed.

She was a true master of torture. Pain and suffering were an art form to Isadora.

As she leaned over him, her long beautiful hair tickled the side of his face. The color and texture had always reminded him of rich chocolate. It glinted and shone with its own light even within his dank piece of hell.

The dark corrosiveness of his tomb should have diminished Isadora's beauty, or at least corrupted it enough to reveal the vileness beneath her glorious façade, but it had not. She was an ethereal goddess, a living angel possessing his only means of mortal salvation. Unfortunately, the cost of his freedom was nothing less than his eternal slavery. Turning his head from even her lightest touch, Daniel growled. The sound was savage, raw, holding no hint of the man he'd once been.  

Isadora smiled down at her lover.

Her musical voice filled his head, "Amor, it is only a simple thing I ask. Beg forgiveness for your sins and I shall set you free." She ran one smooth nail down the side of his face. Her touch revolted him and the knowledge of that made her want to break more of his fragile bones.

Humans were so breakable. 

Daniel turned to face her once again, his black eyes flashing their anger and defiance. "I'd rather rot in this stone hell for the rest of my life, you demon." His voice was hoarse, ragged from fighting to contain his screams; still Isadora flinched as if he'd struck her. There was still so much fight still left in him. Truly Daniel LaRoche was a man she hated to see wasted.

Isadora smiled lovingly down at him as she broke another rib along with his collarbone.

Daniel thrashed against his bonds, the cords in his neck protruding from the pain – his silent and rebellious pain. Isadora sighed. It truly was a pity. She could have loved this one longer. She ran her eyes over his taut body. Even broken it still attracted her – the lean muscles rippling across his tawny skin inviting a lover's touch, broad chest lightly dusted with fine hair, thighs so powerful he reminded her of some great beast. She could heal him, make him strong again, but not before she broke him. Not before he begged forgiveness at her feet, humbling himself before her as he wept for his insolence.

When Daniel spoke again the sound was torn and ragged, yet still held the tones of a command. Even in the face of death the man refused to bow down.

"Kill me already," he demanded.   

She gave him an indulgent smile. Daniel knew her face was surely as beautiful as any of the Lord's angels, but there was no love there. No mercy. She was nothing more than a well of darkness, a sensual promise of more pain than any human rightly deserved.     

Her eyes, the color of warm honey, regarded him with nothing that was holy. "No. Your punishment will be neither merciful nor quick. Your story will be legend -- a warning to all men who dare cross me. I shall make your name feared above all others."

In Isadora's eyes Daniel saw the truth of her words. Her face was that of a nightmare, of every horror known and unknown to man.

Her voice resonated around him, filling the chamber with its absolute horror. "One last kiss to remember, one last kiss to forget, and in this life your soul, is mine to curse and rent." She leaned over his body once more and delivered her final punishment:

One last kiss for all time.

Like the sweetest music, Daniel's screams finally echoed throughout the stone prison for all to hear.