Page 7 of Velka Manor

I scream my brother’s names, desperate for them to get me, for them to save me. My bedroom door is already open, and I race out, pounding on their door, but they don’t answer. The laughter of the demons carries into the hall, and I don’t wait. I run as fast as I can, my long silk nightgown billowing in the wind that suddenly appears.

I have no direction, no thought of a place to go. My only safe place in this castle is my brothers, and I can’t find them. The walls drip like everything else, making it hard to tell which way I’m going. My bare feet pad on the floor, the sound louder with each slap.

Blood flows down the hallways again, washing against my toes, making everything slippy. I’ve tumbled more times than I can count, the cackle of the demons always close behind. Shadows jump out, attacking as I go, whispers from the walls of the sinner who needs to be punished coming through. The castle doesn’t want me here. It thinks I should have stayed away, just like my father demanded, because I’m wrong.

Sick

Sick

Sick

The castle’s words get louder and louder, turning from a whisper into a thundering bellow. It tells me to leave, that I’m not wanted, but if I go, I know for sure that I will die.

“No,” I scream, skidding to a halt, raging against the damn talking castle. “I will not leave. I refuse to be taken away from them again. They are mine!” I stomp my foot, raking my hands through my hair, pulling it until it feels like my skin will tear off. “Mine. Mine. Mine.”

Everyone wants to take away what belongs to me. My father. The castle. The staff. The bloodline. Even my brothers. But no one can take them from me.Theycan’t even take themselves from me. I will kill them before I let that happen. If the only way for me to have them is in death, then I will slaughter us all.

Movement on the wall catches my eye. My father’s portrait hangs in the dripping black. He moves in it, his eyes wide with unbridled rage, staring at me the same way he did the night he took me.

“I will kill you. I will fucking kill you before you take me away again!”

I slam my entire body into the painting, trying to drag him out and bash his head into the stone, just like he did mine. I attack him in a blind fury, tearing his skin, ripping it to shreds until it sits in a pile of paper at my feet. My nails drag across the brick as the castle continues to taunt me. Black tar drips down my fingers, the castle bleeding as I try to kill it.

“There she is,” a haunting voice whispers in my ear. “There’s our dark angel.”

My feet lift from the ground, and the demons spin me around, pinning me between them. Their bodies are so tall, all I can see is them.

“Are you ready to embrace your sin, little angel?” Neon asks, tilting my chin. His tongue extends, and he drags it over my cheek, collecting tears that have fallen.

“Are you ready to become a demon in a castle of monsters? Are you brave enough to claim them?” Kiss-Me asks, wrapping his hand around my throat from behind. “Tell us, Octavia. Say it out loud, the thing you fear most.”

My breath stutters in my throat, my heart racing, about to fly out of my chest. I’ve never admitted it out loud, never dared to even whisper it in case prying ears were listening.

“Say it,” Neon barks, his void black eyes turning silver behind his stitching, the colours swirling together until only the grey remains.

“I want them,” I say, but it’s not enough for the demons.

“Come on, little angel. You can do better than that. Tell us who you want,” Kiss-Me whispers in my ear like a snake, trying to lure me in.

I shiver uncontrollably in their grasps, sweat dripping down my body, my nightgown sticking to my skin. I shouldn’t say it. Once it’s out, there’s no taking it back, but I’m so tired of denyingmyself, so fucking tired of screaming at the demons that they’re wrong.

They first appeared to me the day after my eighteenth birthday, similar to what happened tonight. They chased me through the castle, the world turning into something else, always catching me, always trying to demand the secret I hold tight inside, but I never gave it, and when I refused, they would turn wicked. I was terrified for my life until my brothers saved me, bringing me the demons’ heads, bathing me in their blood, telling me it was all going to be okay.

I always deny the demons, but I’m so tired of saying no, of rejecting what I want. I’m rotten on the inside, and maybe it’s time I stop pretending I’m not.

“I want my brothers. I want Dorian and Bastian living in my skin until all I can feel is them.”

My darkest secret comes tumbling from my lips, and I actually watch the words floating in the air as if by magic, showing the world my shame.

“Yes,” the demons hiss together, a drumming beat building. A sense of foreboding fills my veins as a change in the atmosphere thickens, and suddenly, I can’t breathe. I’m gasping for air, clutching my neck where they hold me, trying to swim up through the fog.

My nightdress rips from my body, pulled by shadows of smoke, leaving me naked and vulnerable to the demons in all my truth. Neon cups my pussy painfully while Kiss-Me grabs my breasts, pinching and rolling my nipples. There’s so much pain, but it’s laced with pleasure, pure, euphoric, depraved pleasure.

Neon doesn’t hesitate, his fingers forcing their way inside my pussy, growling deeply as I cry out. He pumps in and out, his thumb pressing a burning pressure on my clit that has my legs going weak.

“Such a sinful little slut for us,” Kiss-Me hisses, licking up my neck, scraping his fangs on my pulse point.

“What a deviant dark angel you turned out to be,” Neon says, black feathers falling around us. “Call out their names as I fuck your cunt. I want to hear you scream your big brothers’ names as you come.”

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