Page 62 of Collar Me Crazy
"We have to." Sonya climbed into her car, feeling their bond strengthen with proximity and shared purpose. "Because the alternative is unthinkable."
As they raced back toward Hollow Oak, toward their community and their destiny, Sonya allowed herself a moment of hope. Ryker had chosen love over fear, connection over isolation. The bond between them pulsed with renewed strength, damaged but determined.
They weren't too late. Not yet.
But the real test would come when they reached town and discovered what the Void had already taken while they were apart.
And whether their love was strong enough to reclaim it.
36
SONYA
The first thing Sonya noticed as they crested the hill overlooking Hollow Oak was the silence. No church bells calling people to Thanksgiving service, no children's laughter from the square, no warm glow of magical lights welcoming the holiday morning.
Instead, the town lay shrouded in unnatural darkness despite the sunrise, shadows pooling in every corner like spilled ink.
"We're too late," Ryker said from his truck's radio, their vehicles traveling in convoy down the mountain road.
"No." Sonya pressed harder on the accelerator, their partially repaired bond vibrating with urgency. "We're exactly when we need to be."
But as they reached the outskirts of town, the true scope of the disaster became clear. Massive tears in reality zigzagged across the landscape, each one bleeding shadow creatures into their world. The protective wards that had guarded Hollow Oak for generations lay in ruins, their carved stones cracked and lifeless.
"The Veil isn't just damaged," Sonya breathed into her radio. "It's shredded."
Through the largest tear, positioned directly over the town square, something vast and hungry pressed against the barriers between worlds. Not fully manifesting yet, but close enough that its presence warped reality around it. Buildings twisted at impossible angles, gravity flowing in wrong directions, time itself stuttering like a broken clock.
"Where is everyone?" Ryker's voice carried static from magical interference.
Sonya extended her seer abilities, searching for the familiar signatures of their friends and community. What she found made her blood run cold.
"They're trapped," she said. "All of them, caught in some kind of stasis field near the square. The Void has them, but it's not feeding yet."
"Why not?"
"Because it's waiting for us." She pulled into the town limits, noting how her car's engine began to stutter in the chaotic magical field. "It wants the eighth bond, Ryker. Completed or corrupted, it doesn't care which."
They abandoned their vehicles at the edge of the business district, the magical interference too intense for electronics to function. Shadow creatures moved through the streets like black smoke, but they didn't attack—they herded, driving Sonya and Ryker deeper into town toward whatever trap the Void had prepared.
"This feels wrong," Ryker said, his hand finding hers as they walked. "Too easy."
"Because it is easy. We're walking exactly where it wants us to go." Sonya squeezed his fingers, drawing strength from their reconnection. "But we don't have a choice. The others are counting on us."
The town square opened before them like a scene from a nightmare. The seven mated couples stood frozen in a perfectcircle, their bodies locked in place by threads of shadow that pulsed with malevolent energy. Their eyes were open, aware, filled with terror as they watched the massive tear above them continue to widen.
And through that tear, the Void's true form was beginning to manifest.
Not a creature, but an absence given shape. A hungry nothing that devoured light, sound, hope itself. Where it touched reality, things simply ceased to exist, leaving wounds in the fabric of existence that bled darkness into their world.
"The seer arrives," a voice said from everywhere and nowhere, carrying the weight of eons. "And brings her mate to witness the end of all things."
"Let them go," Sonya called toward the manifestation. "Your fight is with us, not them."
"My fight is with existence itself. They are merely the first course." The Void's attention turned toward her like a searchlight, and she felt her mind invaded by alien hunger. "But you, little seer, you shall serve a different purpose."
Shadow tendrils erupted from the ground around them, moving faster than thought. Ryker shifted instantly, his massive wolf form batting away the attacks with supernatural speed, but there were too many. For every tendril he destroyed, three more took its place.
"Sonya, run!" he snarled, positioning himself between her and the advancing shadows.
