Haunted Nights ✅ Completed

Chapter Eleven: A Friend in High Places

**A/N: The following chapter contains mature sexual content. **

However, this is still the edited version of this particular chapter. If you would like to read Chapter 11: A Friend in High places as I originally wrote it (with more graphic language), please read The Desmond Files: Restricted Chapters book on my profile page. Thank you! =c] wendy**

A Friend in High Places (*Edited Version)

"Maya? Are you alright? Maya, please say something.” She’d stopped whimpering but now sat with her knees to her chest, rocking slightly not saying a word. Every time he moved to touch her she flinched as if struck.

“Isadora is evil. She can see inside your mind but not all of its real. She can manipulate your memories…make you feel like your mind isn’t you own.”

“Real,” she whispered. Her psyche was in shreds, her mind reeling from the brutal invasion and assault of Daniel’s lover. “It was all real.”

“No, Maya. Listen to me, Isadora is vile and manipulative. You saw what she wanted you to see.”

Maya shook her head, tears streaming down her face. “No. It was me. It was all me. I’m a freak. I ruin everything, everyone I touch. Even my aunt…sh-she died because of me.”

Daniel grabbed Maya and pulled her close, holding onto her trembling form while she cried as if her heart was breaking.

“No one believed me,” she whispered into his chest. “When I told them what happened, my parents locked me away. They thought I was as crazy as my aunt – that I’d had a psychotic break.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No…I know what I saw.”

Daniel nodded, “You saw the truth but they could never understand your gift.”

“Gift?” she asked horrified, pulling away to look up at him, “How can you say that?”

“How can I not? It is because of your gift you can see me. For the first time in two hundred years, someone like you can see me again.” He leaned down and kissed her gently on each cheek, “And I can see you.”

“No you don’t.”

"Chère, I see you better than anyone probably has in your life.”

“Stop it, you’re just saying things I want to her to make me feel better. You’re only using me to get out of here.”

Daniel was at a loss. Yes, he was using her to escape but she was also under his skin. He didn’t want her to leave because she hadn’t fulfilled her obligation to him but because was a breath of fresh air in his stale existence. Everything about her called to him, to all his senses. The beast inside his soul marveled at her, and even his shadows couldn’t help but follow her around. Even now they swirled and gathered, begging to be released so they could go to her. He let them go.

His shadows glided over her skin, sending a chill down her spine, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Maya watched them in silence, holding still as they moved around her before sweeping across her skin. If she were being honest with herself it felt kind of nice, like they were extensions of his hands caressing her skin.

She shivered a little.

“Do they bother you?” he asked quietly. She looked up into his black eyes and for the first time saw the vulnerability in them. Maybe it was the shared experience with Isadora, but she thought perhaps there might be more to Daniel than she was willing to admit – even to herself.