Page 13 of Claimed By Night

“Do you see Anona?” he whisper, which is kinda weird ‘cause he ain’t got a head or body soze it’s kinda like a ghost is talkin’ to me. If there be one thing I don’t like, it be ghosts. Soze I gets scared for a second ‘tils I remind myself it ain’t no ghost, but it’s really jist the Shadow Demon King.

I float over to the railin’ an’ look down at the same times I hear Anona’s raucous laughter that pinpoint her to the middle o’ the room. I floats back to Dragan an’ nod. “She downstairs.”

I don’t get no response, but I notice the doorknob start turnin’ all on its own which make me think ‘bout ghosts agin an’ my little wings start beatin’ faster. I watch the door push itself open alls the way an’ then I’m facin’ the inside o’ the room where the angel’s passed the fuck out on the bed an’ she’s totally nekked. Some asshole’s tryin’ to get his todger into her mouth an’ his white ass is facin’ us.

Dragan shuts the door behind us an’ suddenly pops back into sight whiles his wings shoot out his back an’ one of ‘em smacks me right in the goddamn face! I go flyin’ back like five feet an’check my nose ta make sure it ain’t broke. It ain’t, but it hurt like a bitch.

What a twat face.

I’m ‘bout ta get real angry-like when Dragan grip the guy whose white ass is still hangin’ out his pants. Dragan’s got a handful o’ the guy’s dirty gray hair an’ yanks him back so hard, the guy can’t even make a sound. Then, Dragan flip him ‘round an’ glare down at him.

The guy’s an elf—I can tell by his pointy ears.

The elf’s eyes be so wide, they mostly white, an’ I’m wonderin’ if he gonna shit hisself right there.

Dragan pull the guy closer ‘til it almost look like he gonna kiss him. Which I hope to hells he don’t, ‘cause I ain’t prepared to see none o’ that.

But Dragan don’t kiss him, an’ instead jist stares at him an’ the elf jist stares back. It’s kind o’ an awkward, weird moment soze I jist focus on rubbin’ my sore nose whiles I wonder what gonna happen next.

“You believe you got what you came here for,” Dragan say in a monotone, his eyes drillin’ into the elf’s. “You’ll dress in the hallway and, once the time you paid for is up, you’ll return to Anona and tell her it was the greatest experience you’ve ever had,” he continue, clearly usin’ his demon powers o’ suggestion.

The guy jist nod an’ once Dragan release him, he collect his things an’ make his way out the door. That be when Dragan’s attention turn to the nekked angel on the bed. To his credit, his eyes don’t leave her face. But when he look at her, his expression go right blank. It be like there be a mix o’ awe an’ wonderment, an’ he kind o’ look like he jist got struck by lightnin’ or some shit.

“Didn’t I tell you she was beautiful?” I ask, figurin’ his reaction’s the way every man must feel when they see her. Well, ‘cept for me.

“No, you didn’t,” he bark back an’ his bizarre expression drop clear off his face, replaced with his general grumpy look. He wrap the angel up in the bed linens an’ throw her, sack style, over his shoulder. Then, he an’ the girl go invisible due ta hisNancy Magican’ he start for the doorway.

The angel don’t make a sound.

***

DRAGAN

The girl is fucking beautiful.

I’ve long known that angels are the most stunning of creatures, but I find myself ill-prepared for the sight of her.

Her hair cascades around her in pure whiteness, the color mimicked in the tone of her skin. I’ve never seen another creature with hair this shade. It’s alluring—almost as alluring as her pink cheeks and the way her rosebud mouth purses into a near heart.

I steal a glance at her naked body: her breasts are heavy, her hips wide, and her legs long and slender. It’s the body of a woman built for a man, built for fucking. It’s perfection.

Immediately, the shadows within me urge me to take her, to slake myself within the folds of her feminine flesh. I close my eyes, forcing the dark urges back. My hands fist at my sides as my cock strains, eager to feel her wetness. I’m surprised by the power of my reaction to her. Granted, I haven’t had a woman in longer than I can remember, but this need is shocking, all the same.

It’s a struggle to keep my darkness confined. The shadows within me grow stronger and I worry that soon, they’ll completely overtake me, turning me into a creature as cold as the stone I can become. I’ve mastered the shadows thus far, forcing the power back, subverting it. But it rebels and now, as Ilook at this sleeping beauty, it’s all I can do to keep myself from thrusting repeatedly inside of her.

I can feel the shadow power within me accentuating the greed, the desire. It’s building, fueling my need with every second that lapses. I wonder if the day is fast approaching when the shadows will master me, when I become a mere fucking puppet to them.

I’ve noticed myself becoming victim more and more often to bouts of uncontrollable rage and as the faceless years have progressed. I’ve felt my goodness rescinding, my sense of compassion and gentleness the first to be stripped away. Now that coldness is the primary emotion I register within myself, I know that true evil isn’t far away.

I’m a taciturn shell of the man I once was, before I ever answered the call of the Midnight Queen to become one of her four protectors. Before Variant killed Baron and broke the Oath. Before life became the hell it now is.

Once I feel the sprite’s eyes on me, I’m able to shake off the hold the unconscious girl has on me. But before I’m willing to abscond with her, I must know the truth.

I narrow my eyes as I stare at her still form and immediately notice the black ink markings against her white skin. They appear as two swirls that take up half her back and mark the location where her wings should be.

Allowing my shadows to rise up within me, to fill me with their age-old magic and wisdom, I close my eyes and reach out with both hands until I’m touching the girl in the plane of shadow.

Reveal yourself,I order, compelling her to prove she is what the sprite believes she is.Show your wings.

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