Tempting Darkness [17+] ✔

Chapter 12

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Chapter 12

Avidus

       I watched the Immortal with narrowed eyes. Annoyance rippling through me. Not only was he failing at his task, he was becoming so lazy that he couldn't even sense my presence. This would not do. Too long had I been waiting for this. For her. I would not let his idleness ruin it.

       Yet I sat in the pathetic excuse of an office chair quietly, watching him fold laundry, and waited. I kept track of how long it took for him to notice. Every minute would be a year he suffered in the cells beneath Accalia—the Cathedral at the center of town.

       The last few days had put me in foul mood. I could feel her pain as if it were claws ripping through my chest. Could see the nightmares she suffered deep within my own mind. Every night. Every fucking night I was pulling her from demons and fire and blood. It was the nights I couldn't get into her mind fast enough that bothered me. The nightmares I couldn't quite save her from. It had to end. They had to end.

       "My Lord!" The Immortal's sharp intake as he turned to put away his clothes pulled me from my thoughts. The fear slithering into his eyes appeased my mood slightly. "How long have you been there?"

       "A while."

       He gulped and the sound was palpable throughout the apartment's bedroom. I smiled. "You seem awfully... fearful today." I mused gently as my shadowed fingers brushed along the armrest of the office chair. Good. I wanted him afraid. He was failing in his tasks and my little human was suffering because of it.

       "You look rather formidable today." He countered, though the usual casual banter I allowed between us was not there.

       "Hm." I stood slowly on shadowed feet. It was not a form I enjoyed being in for long. It made me too detached from the world, from reality. The shadows sang to me, encouraged me to forget, to let go, to sleep. I was done sleeping. I was done waiting. Larkin was within my grasp for the first time in seven centuries. I would not let her be stolen again.

       "Her nightmares are getting worse. They are getting real. I had to kill a daemon in them the other day, in a peaceful dream that I had given her. I worry they will send more."

       "You were aware then? Of the sleepwalking?"

       I paused, the darkness of my fingertips leaving shadowed mist on the glass frame dusting his desk. "I was not aware of the extent."

       "Avidus—"

       "You are failing at your job, half-breed." The Immortal bristled at the word, at the reminder that no matter how beautiful or dangerous his kind were, they were no match for mine.

       "I'm trying. Larkin is hardheaded and she knows there is something... off about me. However," He added quickly at the sideways look I gave him, "I did save her the other day. She might like me more now."

       "I saved her." I felt an anger rise within me that I had to shove down. He wasn't there, in her dream. He didn't burn the creature to ash that threatened to steal her from me. I did.

       "Yes, my lord." He added quickly, as if he too could feel the caged fury within my chest. "But I did take her home. Perhaps now it will be easier."