Revealing the Monster by Amelia Hutchins
Chapter Seven
Once upon a time, I knew better than to walk into the shadows and play with darkness. Now, I am the darkness. ~Lena
The three of us appeared in a dark alleyway bathed in pulsing shadows and what seemed to be some kind of portal. My eyes slid over the wafting darkness that beckoned us forward seductively. Tiny rainbow prisms covered the ground in front of the swirling, wispy tendrils of dark shadows, while the sound of a beating drum came from the gloomy portal, deeper inside the alley. Or, at least, I assumed it was a drum. Zahruk toed the crystals before kneeling and using his fingers to grab a shard of one of the larger pieces. Then, bringing it to his nose, he jerked it back away from his face, tossing it down as he rose to his impressive height.
“What the fuck is happening here?” Zahruk’s voice held worry deep within his sultry timbre. “It feels wrong, even to me.”
“Good question, but no one seems to know the answer, and whatever it is, it’s spreading into our world.” Alden crossed his arms over his chest, his bushy brow raised as he glared at the shadows. “I sent enforcers into that shit, and two came out… changed, for lack of a better word. One became insane, and the other had brand-like markings all over him. Not like yours or Ryder’s, though. These markings have altered his genetic make-up. His ears are now pointed, and when he’s angry, his eyes turn entirely black, swallowing the sclera and iris. He hungers, and no matter how much we feed him, he is never satisfied.”
“They didn’t come out the same?” I asked, watching Alden’s head shake.
“When did this anomaly show up?” Zahruk asked, narrowing his gaze on the pulsing, thrumming shadows that continually sang an eerie song, sending a shiver rushing up my spine.
“It was here when we exited the shelter; after all that shit went down in Faery. We came out here because I got reports of people going missing around this area. I figured it was an otherworldly creature feeding on humans. I never expected to find something like this,” Alden grumbled, shaking his head. “There are other areas all over town where the same thing has appeared. Some are silent, and others sound the same as this one, like a war drum is beating from within the darkness.”
Zahruk stepped closer to the shadows, holding his hand out to touch one. It grabbed onto his wrist, jerking his body forward as he hissed through clenched teeth. One minute he’d been yanked forward, and the next, he slammed against my body, sending us both crashing to the ground in a pile of limbs.
“Fucking hell,” Zahruk ground out, his hand lifting with the shadow still attached to him. I groaned, not moving from beneath him as I peered around.
“Where is Alden?” I asked in a panic.
“Over here,” Alden grunted, forcing us both to turn to where he’d placed distance between him and the creepy shadows. “Next time, warn me before you decide to get frisky with the spooky dark magic.”
Zahruk grumbled, shaking his hand to dispel the wispy tendrils that clung to him. Sitting up, I spread my legs to drop his ass to the ground between them, both of us still observing the shit he’d shaken off as it crawled back to join the larger shadows.
“It’s alive,” Zahruk announced.
“Very much so,” I snorted, which drew his gaze to my bare thigh, cradling his body.
“Your bite isn’t so bad, witch.”
“That’s just to ensnare you and make you lower your guard. Haven’t you heard? Witches are wanton things that feed off of unknowing men. Witches do everything better, and that witchy magic, it’s lethal when it bites,” I purred huskily, watching his shoulders shake in amusement. “Are you laughing at me?” I demanded, offended that Zahruk wasn’t the least bit worried about my bite.
“Save it for your boyfriend, Lena. I don’t play well with other men’s women. I enjoy the challenge of claiming them, and you’re not fucking claimable. You’ve got two of the biggest, baddest mother fuckers on this planet trying to play in your backyard. I don’t want the type of fruit you’ve got down there in your lady garden. That shit’s forbidden. You make Eve, and her apple, look weak and lacking.”
“I don’t know about fruit, but it’s a man-eater,” I laughed, hearing Alden’s strangled groan. “Get up so that I can move.”
The moment Zahruk stood, reaching down, he yanked me up with him. His hand was ice cold, causing a yelp to leave my lips as if Jack Frost had bitten me. Standing the rest of the way, I stared down at my hand, noting the shadows wafting up from it.
“What the hell is this shit?” Zahruk asked, looking at his hand with the same shit sticking to it. We both turned, eyeing the slithering shadows that still made a drumming sound. “Do you hear that?” He tipped his head to the side, and his eyes glowed sapphire and indigo as he ignited his power.
The sound changed, coming out like a siren’s song that drifted over the water to lure fishermen and sailors to their doom. Zahruk stepped closer, but I grabbed hold and pulled him back. He turned, staring at me without his glamour, showing me a pretty, lethal package.
“Holy shit,” I whispered breathlessly, shuddering at the beauty of his image.
I shook at the intensity of his features, with a jawline that was sharp like glass. His ears were slightly pointed, and his eyes slanted with the inhuman glow of the fae. He looked like death personified, bathed in lust and darkness that promised untold desire. His golden skin turned translucent, with pulsing markings beneath it. His brands were gold, shifting with a powerful hum that caused my hand to move, touching his warm flesh.
“Furies aren’t immune to the fae, it seems.” He chuckled wickedly, watching my reaction to him.
“Get the fuck away from the creepy shit. You’re acting like one of those characters in the movies that go into the dark house, asking themselves, ‘what could possibly go wrong?’ plot twist; everything goes wrong. There, I saved you the curiosity of getting closer. Why aren’t these shadow tendrils going back to the host?” I asked, holding up my fingers where he’d touched me.
“Because it likes us,” he snorted, peering at the creepy substance. “And that’s a fucking problem. Where are the other areas like this one?” Zahruk looked pointedly at Alden.
“One is a block over. We should walk, though. I have a feeling that I am susceptible to whatever that shit is. So if you don’t mind, I’d rather not touch you. Either of you,” Alden grunted while eyeing us like we had the plague or something worse.
It took us moments to reach the next area, which had violet flowers growing around the shadows. The portal wasn’t moving like the other, but it seemed to spread further into our world than the previous one. I picked up a rock, tossing it into the darkness, and it spat it back out. It was no longer a tiny pebble. It came back out as a dark boulder that hummed and turned translucent while we studied it.
Narrowing my gaze, I frowned, noting the bolder had been transformed into clear quartz, with thousands of rainbows reflecting from the streetlamp. It blinked in and out, humming with the power grid that was fucked. We’d managed to gain enough electricity back that Spokane had a sliver of light. Without removing the demons, though, it was hopeless to get it back to the people here.
“Maybe not throw shit into the unknown vortex? Remember the plot twist? It goes bad.” Zahruk snorted, eyeing the huge crystal. “You said these areas showed up after we returned to tell you that Faery had been saved?”
“Around that time, yeah,” Alden confirmed. “We waited about seventy-two hours before leaving the safety of the shelter. At first, the areas were small and barely noticeable. That was when the people were starting to report that others had gone missing. The larger they got, the more civilians vanished.”
“They’re not disappearing,” I pointed out. “But they’re not coming back the same. Alden, you said one returned to you insane, and the other is changing, right? What if these shadows are altering them into something else? Maybe they touched it and had whatever the hell is climbing up Zahruk’s arm, on them too.” I pointed at his arm, where inky black shit was slithering up it now. Above the shadow was a thin layer of rainbow prisms that had been all over the ground at the first location we’d visited.
Zahruk held his hand up, wiggling his fingers before dropping it to stare at the rock. His brands pulsed, pushing the dark wisps back down to his fingertips. The moment it vanished, he held out his hand for mine. Placing my fingers against his palm, I gasped, yanking away from his grip as if he’d burned me.
“You’re ice cold, Zahruk,” I muttered, peering down at where we touched, seeing that ice had formed over the surface of my palm. “That is a trip.” Wiggling my fingers, I watched the ice shatter from the movement. Narrowing my eyes on Zahruk, I swallowed down the unease rushing through me.
“I need to get to a healer,” he grumbled irritably, tightening his hand into a fist at his side. “Alden, I’d give your enforcers a warning to steer clear of this shit for now. I’ll get some of the Elite Guard over here to examine it closer and take samples back to Faery to determine what we’re dealing with. It damn near looks like the shit that was all over on the walls of the Seelie Prison, and if that is what it is, Spokane is in more trouble than we assumed. It might be connected to whoever has Kahleena. The Unseelie that were locked in the prison escaped near the same time the Seelie did, freed by Synthia during her escape with Malachi. Asher might be able to tell us more, too. He’s around here somewhere, causing hell, I’m sure. We’re still missing a few Seelie princes, and they’re not friendly, from what Asher says. He’s also mentioned that the Unseelie that survived may have slithered out of that side of the prison as well. It’s a mess, and we’re scrambling to figure out what is going on and what sort of monsters fled that black hole.”
“So it’s not related to Lucifer unleashing Hell literally into this world?” I confirmed, watching as both men turned to look at me. “Hey, a lot is happening, and a few months ago, I was just a girl who hadn’t even had an orgasm. Now, I’m a freaking fury. I am so in over my head on what the fuck’s that I don’t even know how many I’m up to today.” I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest, glaring at both men.
“Never had an orgasm? No wonder Lucian got you so damn easy,” Zahruk chuckled, smirking as I frowned, my forehead wrinkling at the way he made it sound.
“You should go back to being the broody guy who looks like he wants to murder everything around him. I think I liked you better like that.”
“I liked you better, bleeding out,” he stated with a sinister laugh, shrugging his broad shoulders.
“Children,” Alden chuckled, running his hand over his mouth to stifle the silent laughter that shook his body. “Play nice. I’ll send out word to the enforcers and hunters in the area and make it known at the guild that these areas are unstable. Lena, I’ll pull those items we discussed, and you can drop by once you’ve found what you’re looking for at Nightshade and have addressed your problem.”
“What problem is that?” Zahruk asked, his eyes narrowing on me.
“It’s personal,” I returned, watching his head nod.
“They normally are, Lena. Empty that baggage, though, like Alden suggested, because if you collect enough of it, it will weigh you down until you’re drowning. Pretty things should never suffer when it’s so easy to fix the issues plaguing them.” Zahruk vanished before I could say anything, forcing a strangled groan from my throat. He’d heard everything, and I wasn’t sure he’d keep it to himself.
“Is he trustworthy?” I asked, feeling something icy near me.
“I’ll keep your secrets, little fury,” Zahruk whispered, brushing his lips against my ear. “Be more careful what you whisper in the future. Lucifer is listening for you in the wind. Vlad is aware you’re on your way. The club is moving now, fueled by magic from Faery. Two blocks east, catch it before it moves again. Your guy is inside, hiding from you.”
I shivered, turning to look at where he should have been, but only a hint of dark sexual energy remained in his place. Zahruk was trouble for every woman with working sexual organs. Since Ryder had crowned him King of the Horde, he’d evolved into a carnal being that leaked pheromones on unsuspecting women. Mainly me.
“I’ll escort you to the door of the club, but I need to get back to the guild,” Alden announced.
“Your offer is sweet, but I should be the one walking you to the guild to be certain you get there safely.”
He snorted, shaking his head. “Kid, I’ve been running these streets since I could walk. Also, I’m not suicidal enough to leave you alone with Lucian around. He’d have my spine ripped out through my mouth if he knew you were out here by yourself.”
“Fine, let’s go. I don’t want to spend all night chasing down a magical vampire club that is sporadically relocating to stay hidden from us. Not to mention, I wouldn’t be surprised if Spyder hasn’t already figured out I’m hunting him and has gone to ground.”
“I doubt he’s hiding that hard, Kid. Spyder is a man, and you’re a woman. He wants what you got,” he chuckled.
“Alden, really?” I gasped in mocked horror.
“I may be old enough to be your father, Lena, but I’m all man. I have working eyes, and all my parts still function perfectly.”
“I’m going to need you to stop now, considering you were with my mother.” He smirked, but there was sadness in his gaze. He shoved his hands into his pockets as we began making our way toward Nightshade.
“Your mother was quite the woman. She’d be proud of you if she were here. She was concerned about how you would adjust to what you had become. She may have worried about it, but she loved you more than she feared you.”
