Page 270 of Evil Hearts

SATIATING SHADOWS

Lucid Quill

1

Tap. Tap. Tap.

I barely refrain from grinning as Ismael taps a long claw on my nightstand. I’ve stayed up later than usual because I’m determined to finish this book before bed. And maybe also because I’ve grown too impatient to carry on this one sided game.

I’ve waited far too long for this. It took months to convince myself this was real. That what I was seeing, feeling, wanting…was real.

Ebon came first.

He poured through my window like star lined fog. An oil slick glitter I almost missed. The longer I stared, the more he took shape. Wisps of dark and wings of mist swirled around him like rippling water. Where there should have been fear, he soothed me.

I’d lain catatonic for hours, and he just stared back. Moving closer slowly, as if gauging my reaction. Although I couldn’t get my body to respond, my mind went wild with the possibilities of what he could be. He was deafening hesitation and crushing hope all at once.

Then came Ismael.

I heard him first, lazily treading up my dark hallway, nearing my open doorway in the cover of night. Odd thing, placing my bed to face straight toward the pitch black. Most would findit unsettling. Most would shake and squirm as they heard a creature creeping towards them unseen but perfectly heard.

But when he slunk into view and shifted before my eyes from a wolf to a near man, I quaked with nothing but anticipation. He was shadows head to toe, like his brother, but where Ebon had the pattern of stars, Ismael was smoke. White limbs and a body of slate, he looked almost human until you noticed his still wolfish head...and tail. He was wild ambition and brutal dominance.

And finally, after too much time, there was Gnocchi.

I don’t know his real name. I’ve never heard them say it, never heard him speak. I never needed to. I could see his words all over him, in his lithe and mesmerizing actions. Four glorious arms and shadows that covered him in streaks of green and cream. He reminded me of my favorite dish. Pesto gnocchi.

I’d seen him from the corner of my eye, slowly seeping from a dark corner on my ceiling. His slow to fast crawl reminded me of the watermelon beetles I would find on my warmed porch in the summer. He always watched me so studiously, he got the closest first. He touched me first, it took everything in me not to react. He was dreamy curiosity and meticulous vigilance.

Together, they were everything I ever wanted.

Fear, comfort, dread and elation.

And tonight I intend to make them mine.

“Why isn’t she sleeping?” Ismael grumbles. “She’s never up this late.”

“The better question is how we’re here when she’sawake?” Ebon drawls and I fake a yawn to stifle my surprise at hearing them speak so much at once. And maybe to cover up a giggle at how excited I am.

It’s true that to their knowledge I’ve only ever been asleep in their presence.

It’s nearly impossible not to look right at them and squeal about how much I adore them already. It’s only ever been a few words here and there, and they almost never speak to each other, but I just know they’re each a lost part of my very soul. I don’t need drawn out years of getting to know them, give me the ‘Walking On Sunshine’ montage and endless happily ever afters already!

“I could knock her out.” Ismael steps closer and rolls up an imaginary sleeve on his furred arm. I rub sleep from my eye to cover a flinch.

I may not know much about them but I do know that their original intentions here were nefarious. Each of them had come here to bestow harsh nightmares and terrors upon me. Fears, anxieties, and unease.

Not all guardians of the night are there to wish us well.

I suppose I should shiver with something other than anticipation everytime they creep into my room but I don’t. Call me sick, color me twisted. I don’t care. Throw me in the same cell as them when I go and I will go gladly.

I’d follow them into every abyss and ether with giddy blindness.

“Resheph.” My ears perk up as Gnocchi steps forward at Ebon’s firm tone. “Perhaps a headache to settle her in for the night?”

What a dirty hand to play. I snap my book shut and sigh. They clearly know that I tend to take my sleeping pills when a headache kicks in because it’s the only thing that will put me to sleep at that point, other than an orgasm, but they couldn’t possibly know that.

Gnocchi,Resheph, has a malicious ability to force illness upon unsuspecting victims and then feed on their unease. I’ve only experienced it once before and it was enough for me to buy a lifetime supply of EmergenC the next day and always have freshfruits and greens to boost my immune system. Will it help in the long run? Doubtful.

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