Dark Desire After Dark

2

She woke.

Her eyelids were too heavy to open, and she didn't know if she wanted to see anyway. A quick mental survey of her body revealed terrifying things.

She was lying on what felt like a stone slab, naked except for her jewelry, and with her long hair hanging down over the end, snagging on the rough edges. The stone seeped a deep chill into her body, so cold her teeth were chattering.

They'd taken her glasses from her face, ensuring that everything within ten feet would be a blur.

Deep-voiced chanting sounded all around her, in a bizarre language she'd never heard.

Holly finally cracked open her eyes. No man had ever seen her completely naked before. Now a dozen indistinct figures leered down at her.

One pinned her arms, another her legs. With a cry, she struggled against their grip. "Let me go!" This is a dream. A nightmare. "Release me! Oh, God, what are you doing?"

The meds were messing with her brain. Surely she was hallucinating.

When they didn't answer, only continued their chanting, she pleaded, "Don't do this," but she didn't know exactly what "this" could be.

Though no electric lights were on in this dank chamber, black candles sat all around and moonlight shone through a skylight of some kind. She squinted around her and could see that the men were wearing robes and…costume horns?

In their chanting, one word seemed to be repeated: Demonaeus. This must be some kind of sicko, demon-worshipping cult.

Yet they weren't wearing masks to conceal their identities. She was certain that meant one thing—they didn't plan to let her out of this place alive.

"My family will be looking for me," she lied. Her parents were dead. She had no siblings. "I'm not the one you want for this…this sacrifice." Tears pooled, then spilled down her temples. "I'm not special in any way."

A couple of them gave harsh laughs at that.

"This isn't happening," she whispered to herself, trying to stem her panic. "This isn't happening."

She gazed up at the glass dome above her. The moon had risen almost directly over an unusual etching in the center of the glass, depicting what looked like the face of a horned demon.

The shadow from the etching would slide directly over the altar, over her, when the moon hit it. It was a gnomon, a shadow maker, like that of a sundial.

The men seemed to await the shadow's advent, glancing up every so often. Await it for what?

As the moon continued to ascend, their chanting grew louder. She struggled harder, kicking her legs and thrashing her arms.

Lightning flashed across the sky. She vaguely noted that the more she strained to get free, the more frequently the bolts flickered overhead.

The largest of the men slid between her spread legs. When he removed his robe, comprehension hit her. She couldn't see below his waist but knew he was naked. "No, no, no…don't do this!"

The whites of his eyes were…flooded with black? He clamped her thighs, dragging her over rough stone to the edge of the altar.

She shrieked. All hell broke loose.

The men slapped their hands over their ears; the glass above them splintered into ominous forks through the etched demon's face—then the whole of it shattered, raining heavy shards all around the untouched altar.

A lightning bolt jagged down through the opening to spear her squarely in the chest, tossing the men away.

She screamed from the impact, arching with her fists clenched. The bolt was a physical force continuing on and on.

Unimaginable heat sizzled through her veins. Her two rings melted off her fingers, her earrings from her ears. Her necklace and watch were seared to liquid, dripping from her body.

She was unharmed—because her skin was somehow hotter than the boiling metal.

The pressing weight of the electricity filled her with power, with…comfort. When it ended, Holly was changed. She didn't feel alone in this place.

Punish them, a voice seemed to whisper in her mind. They dared to hurt you….

Her earlier terror was strangled by a fresh rage. Her fingers were suddenly tipped with razor-sharp claws. Her eyesight was keener than it had ever been even in the darkness. Fangs grew in her mouth.

Though she felt no ill effects from the lightning, the demons looked dazed, blinded. They were bleeding from the falling glass.

But they quickly regrouped. She rose, crouching on the altar, waiting as they stalked closer. One had a club—her eyes fixed on it.

A club. To beat her unconscious so they could continue their sick ritual.

Red covered her vision. When one lunged for her, she snatched him by the horns. They were…attached to his skull. Not a costume. Which meant real demons?

Which meant hallucination. This couldn't truly be happening. She laughed as she twisted the demon's head, assured this was some kind of nightmare.

And in her nightmare, the instinctive drive to kill with her new strength and fury overwhelmed her.

When the others attacked, Holly was unafraid.

She knew how to kill them as if she'd been hunting and slaughtering them for thousands of years. She knew to wrench their heads from their necks, to slash out with claws that would rend through skin and arteries as they would tissue paper.

Punish…

When the blood began to spray, lightning scored the sky above her as if in encouragement.

"I understand," she murmured as she aimed for one's jugular and severed it. "I see." Yes, their last sight on earth should be my laughing face.

"Easy, female," Cade soothed as he crept closer to where Holly huddled naked in a corner.

She was covered in blood. But had it come from her, or the twelve demons she'd apparently slain?

Her eyes were…silver, glowing in the shadows. Which meant Valkyrie. Somehow she was no longer a mere human.

A Valkyrie at Gibson Hall. Holly was indeed the Vessel.

She had her knees drawn up to her chest and was trying to cover her breasts while baring her little claws at him to ward him off. She was trembling with fear and shock, and tears coursed down her blood-splattered face.

It was killing him.

"Easy," he murmured. "I don't want to hurt you."

Her eyes darted from his horns to those on one of the heads lolling on the stone floor.

"Yeah, I'm a demon, too," he said. "But not at all like them. My name's Cadeon Woede."

How far had they gotten with her before she'd turned and attacked? Though the carnage looked to have been done some time ago, Holly still had gashes on her arm from the claws of one of these demons.

She might have been turned to a Valkyrie, but she hadn't yet been granted the accelerated healing and immortality of one. Which meant that she was still incredibly vulnerable to harm. Like a human.

Humans die so easily.

"Did they injure more than your arm?"

She finally shook her head.

"Hurt you anywhere? Do I need to get you to a hospital?" he asked, even as he knew that wouldn't work.

Other factions were searching for her. He would be surprised if they hadn't already scried the lightning he'd seen from a distance. Power still sizzled from her and throughout the chamber. New power was easily traceable.

She whispered, "They d-didn't hurt me."

"Good. I want to help you, Holly."

She frowned at his use of her name, studying his face.

"We've met before," Cade said, but she was in no way calmed—lightning continued to strike in constant streams. Lightning gave Valkyrie strength, but it also mirrored their emotions.

When he began unbuttoning his shirt to cover her, she gave a cry, and bloody claws swiped out at him. Then she stared in horror at her fingertips.

Just hours ago, she'd been living as a normal human—or near normal with some eccentricities. Now she had become something he never could have predicted. A Valkyrie. Or half one. He hadn't known she'd possessed this latent potential. The shock of the ritual must have triggered the transformation.

If not for this power, she would have been brutalized, her womb offered to the dark god this order of demons worshipped.

When he removed his shirt, she bared her small fangs and hissed, then looked aghast at her reaction.

"There, now, a good hiss never hurt anyone." He crouched beside her, fighting the urge to clasp her to his chest. "I'm going to put this on you. Easy…"

She gazed up at him with eyes wavering between silver and the intense violet he recognized. "Wh-what's happening to me?"

"You know all those creatures you thought were myths?" When she shakily nodded, he said, "Well, they're not. And you're changing from a human to an immortal."

Which meant it had become possible for Cade to claim her for his own.

And you've just become my target—the Vessel. The means to pay for a sword to kill our enemy.

She equaled the crown he'd worked for nine hundred years to reclaim—the unyielding pursuit that had given him a reason to go on living.

Never had it been so close….

All he had to do was use and betray the woman he'd waited just as long to possess.