Shadows Darker than the Night

Chapter 1

ELENA

She could hear the children screaming. Long, horrifying screams that dragged on until their small voices cracked. Elena lay on her makeshift bed of a moth-eaten comforter, and shivered. It was not the screaming that disturbed her; it was the frigid cold of the cellar. She'd heard screaming, inflicted screaming often enough in the past five years that it didn't unnerve her in the slightest.

Harsh, cracked screams failed to get a rise out of her. It was just rather annoying, when one was trying to get a wink of sleep before dawn. Elena sighed woefully. She considered talking to Andras about keeping his minions in check. Four-o'clock in the morning was an unacceptable time for torture.

Elena struggled to wrap the comforter around her too-skinny, yet muscly, arms, and rolled over and closed her eyes. She was still shaking. Andras hadn't fed her in a week, she was sure of it. Five days, seven days, how long was a week? She couldn't remember. She knew roughly how long a month was, though, only because of the bleeding. She was so starved it felt as though her stomach was caving in on itself, devouring her own insides.

She half-heartedly watched a rat scurry around the cellar, finding little crumbs of food to snack on. Even the rats were better fed than her.

She stared blankly at the ceiling, and then narrowed her eyes at the ugly stone view. How did he expect her to perform when he left her to rot in this dungeon? Elena scowled and rose from the frozen dirt floor, struggling to keep her balance. Her callused, numb toes couldn't feel the ground beneath them. Wrapping the blanket around her thin frame, she walked to the ugly cellar door.

"Andras!" Elena screamed, in a voice so hoarse she was quite certain that he'd never hear her. When was the last time she'd spoke? Elena coughed, air forcing its way up past her dry throat. As she continued her coughing fit, she hoped morbidly that he'd at least hear her now. When it ceased, she walked to the door and banged as hard as she could on the wooden door, bloodying her already scabbed knuckles. The dirty blanket fell to her ankles.

"Andras! You lazy bastard, get down here! You forgot to feed the pig!" Elena shrieked, making a joke at her own expense.

Elena's anger often amused Andras and persuaded him to pay her a visit. She quieted for a moment and listened, holding her ragged breath. Nothing. She screamed again with fury, and then stopped. No need to lose her temper. It wouldn't help anything; only rob her of precious energy.

Sighing with defeat, Elena returned to her threadbare comforter and hugged her knees to her chest, licking the blood off her knuckles. Forget Andras' orders. She didn't care about what he wanted; she would kill him, as soon as she could get herself out of this mess. She damned her father, for being a trusting fool, she damned herself, for being a weak fourteen-year-old girl five years ago, and she damned Andras, for enslaving her. Could you damn a demon? She could sure as Hell try. She would make Andras wish he'd never dragged his demonic ass out of perdition when the Darkness came.

The Darkness. Her earliest memories of it consisted of prophets running wildly through the stone-cobbled streets, whispers exchanged between her father and his brother, her mother and her friends. When it neared Patria, her home, the people were thrown into panic. Rich merchants fled north to Aphrodisia, while poor villagers such as Elena's family braced themselves for the coming storm. Even the royal family went into hiding. It only delayed their demise, however.

The door creaked open, interrupting Elena's reminiscence. "Darling," Andras smiled his stupidly white smile. "You called?"

She spat in his face. "Elena," she snarled. "Don't call me pet names, for I am not your pet."

"Oh, but then what are you?" he jeered at her, white teeth flashing, handsome face smirking. The human vessel Andras had chosen was distractingly elegant and good-looking; Elena assumed he had been a courtier before Andras inhabited him like a parasite.

She snarled, "Did your pet carve the heart out of that ridiculous man yesterday morning? Did she feel the life drain out of his worthless body?" She'd hated that groveling man. Always begging Andras for more tasks, kissing his ass. Apparently he'd managed to annoy Andras as well, so when he'd offered Elena a chance to kill him, she'd jumped at the opportunity. It was about time someone had put him down.

Andras raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow questioningly. The guards had thrown Elena in the cellar before she'd had a chance to show Andras her prize.

She grabbed the burlap sack she'd stuffed in the farthest corner of the cellar to avoid the stench, and dug her hand in. Holding up the bloody heart, she beamed proudly.

"Ah," Andras mused. Elena cleared her throat expectantly. He'd promised her a new hunting knife for this job. She'd done expert work; the heart itself was not damaged at all. Save for the fact that it was outside its owner's body.

"I asked for the liver," Andras said with disappointment. "Not the heart."

Dropping the heart with a thud on the ground, she gaped. She remembered what it was that Andras had asked for; she was certain he had said heart. Then she flew at him, infuriated. "Bullshit!" she roared, as the two demons that had accompanied him down to her cellar seized her biceps and held her back. "You nasty brute, we made a bargain-"

More for show than because he was truly enraged, Andras flickered in between his true form threateningly. Elena stared down his red eyes, leathery skin covered in pustules, rows upon rows of tapered canines, despite her heart pounding deceivingly inside my chest.

"I can hear it, Elena," he hissed, and his form switching mesmerized her eyes. "Your blood, thumping through your veins." He opened his fanged mouth, hovering it over her neck. Then he drew back, transforming again into his vessel. "I have a job for you tomorrow, sweetheart. So what is it that you want?" He spat on the ground beside her.

Too tired and hungry to engage in another argument with Andras, Elena sighed. "Get one of your monsters to deliver me some food. I cannot kill for you without any strength. Even the human children will best me."

"Your wish is my command," Andras sneered, turning to go.

Tucking her matted brown hair behind her ear, Elena raised her voice as her captor began to trudge up the narrow stairs. "And doesn't your favourite assassin deserve better living conditions than this?"

Andras barked a short laugh, never turning around to acknowledge her query.

"Filthy swine," Elena muttered to the rat.