Haunted Nights ✅ Completed

Chapter Fourteen: A Promise, An Insult, and a Challenge

A Promise, An Insult, and a Challenge

Maya searched the underground tunnels like a woman on a mission. Daniel was more than happy at her new found enthusiasm, but spending the day with her was becoming a lesson in self restraint. His lustful fantasies grew worse by the hour, some so wildly erotic and carnal she would have fled screaming if she could read his mind. Every time she bent over or crawled on her hands and knees he wanted to rip off her clothing and take her from behind. When she ran her hands across her jeans to scrape off dirt he wanted to take them and put them in places where Maya could work her special brand of magic - the kind of magic that drove him insane while his beast luxuriated in total contentment.    

He could barely wait till the sun set and he could indulge in the ones that were driving him half mad. Even his shadows were restless to touch her, moving around her like a dark orbit. She only laughed and shooed them away, telling Daniel to keep them under control.

Unfortunately for them Maya seemed to be in no hurry of stopping for the day.

“I think we’re really close. I can almost feel something behind this wall,” she said indicating a stone covered wall she’d unearthed that afternoon. It wasn’t easily noticeable, even Daniel hadn’t been sure anything was behind the earthen layer that covered it. But Maya was adamant there was something there and managed to find a crease in the dirt, which eventually revealed a stone wall.  

“Think so?” Daniel asked, his brows furrowing in doubt. “I still don’t think there’s anything behind the stone chère, just more dirt.”

“And you can’t get behind it? You know, with your little ghost power?”

Daniel raised one brow and gave her a wry look. “Ghost power?” she just shrugged. “No,” he answered, shaking his head. Only she would call what he could do his 'little ghost power.' 

“Does that mean anything?” Maya asked curiously. She was working her bottom lip as she pondered the situation and it wasn’t helping Daniel’s patience in the slightest.

"Usually if I can’t go somewhere on the property it’s because there’s nothing there. Contrary to what you may think, my powers do not include passing through multiple layers of earth.”

"Don't you find that odd?"

Now it was Daniel's turn to shrug, a habit he'd picked up from being around her over the last few days. "No. I can only assume it is part of my curse."

But Maya didn’t agree. She could feel something there – something that called to her so faintly but still unmistakably there. Something important. Plus Daniel had already mentioned being unable to find his own remains during his imprisonment, maybe he couldn’t feel what she felt.  

Neither one of them had mentioned Isadora since the previous night, but her memory was never too far from their minds – especially Maya’s. She didn’t know Des or how long his magic would work on such a creature. What if she'd already found a way back in? Really, Isadora could pop in at any unsuspecting moment. Just thinking about it filled Maya with a sense of urgency that bordered on obsession. She didn’t want Daniel to spend another second as Isadora’s prisoner – not if she hoped to save his soul from the fate so many others had suffered.

Des had told her not to mention Isadora’s second visit, but it was what Maya had sensed during that second visit which had disturbed her more than the actual attack. Isadora was using the souls of the cursed as a power source - a sick sort of fuel for her evil.  It was the foulest thing Maya had ever witnessed, a fate even worse than what Daniel lived under now.