Dark Nine [18+]

Chapter Forty-Three

Diana's POV

I can't process anything because between the mind numbing fucking and soul obliterating kisses, 18 Kors latched onto me and gave me their venom.

It was a rush of pure intent to mark ownership. Not to feed. Which made me think... I was becoming mated... to literally all of them. Which means Mars lied to me. And the Estori lied too.

Why?

To scare me.

To be Kor dicks to their Empress.

Figures. I should have known they'd play on my emotions.

But anger?

I couldn't get angry at being lied to about being killed later – which was ridiculous in itself to be angry about that, but I was really angry about the lying part.

However, too soon, it started to get real fuzzy after that.

After all the venom surged through me, my mind wasn't pulled down into the void, it was spinning away into another dimension.

For a moment, in a total loss of self-control – I felt their heat all around me, I felt the pleasure fading to power and then dissipating to nothing.

And I wondered.

Was I crazy, was I dreaming, or was I dead?

Because all the heat stopped.

And I was cool.

Untouched.

My mind warms back up as I become conscious after blacking out – and everything I see is blurry.

At least I'm still alive.

I had been placed back into the flora, I watch from a distance as I see the act happen like a dance.

Something that should be disturbing – is worse than that, much worse...

The Kors are standing around as Arcturus steps up to Orlai on the rock, Alpha Centauri at her back.

They're dancing with her.

I don't know how else to explain it. Swaying her between them – maybe because she's given into the loving.

But the dance spins, and I see venom dripping down her skin. Because she had been bitten all over.

She wasn't a Moon.

She couldn't handle that much liquid elixir running through her purely human system.

Arcturus kisses Orlai like it's the kiss of death, as he leans down to her neck as Alpha Centauri takes the other side of her pulse.

They don't give venom this time.

The only reason I'd know is the metallic liquid rivers now flowing down her skin from the wounds.

They were melting her soul and drinking her into them. They were taking her to their hell – a hell she didn't deserve for running away to become a mother!!!

I hear whispers.

I hear and see the strangest sounds... and... then? A wobble. A break. The wind, knocked out of me.

And after that?

Nothing.

****

Orlai's POV

"Are you okay?"

I shouldn't be. And I wasn't. I was in shock.