Ever Dark

Chapter 15

MIA

I press my forehead to the shower wall and close my eyes as the hot water runs down my back. I’m unholy. Disgraced. Broken. Cum and poison drip down my legs, taking my pride with them. Right down the fucking drain.

My wrists are bruised, marked by Draven’s fingers. Red and swollen from his necktie. I wince as I lather shampoo into my scalp, sore from the grip he had on my hair. I shudder as I recall every second of it. My pussy is raw—aching.

I came so fucking hard.

What is wrong with me?

This is Nox’s fault. He made me like this. He turned me into this fiend. A monster like him. What other reason could possibly exist that would make me crave what Draven, Aries, and Bones did to me tonight?

And I do crave it.

Aries was right. I loved every second. And I hate them for it.

I finish rinsing the filth out of my hair and look down at my body. The bruises extend to my thighs and hips. More fingerprint-size marks. My nipples are still hard and swollen from the edging Bones gave me. I’m angry that he didn’t keep playing with them.

I need sleep and rest, but as soon as I close my eyes and drift off, I will wake again inside my nightmare prison. I wonder what normal people dream about. I envy them.

I don’t bother to put on pajamas but slip into my four-poster bed naked. The silk sheets caress me, soothing my tender flesh. I lie back against the feather pillows and stare at the chandelier that hangs above me. It’s vintage and decadent like this house. I’m pretty sure the beads are made of real diamonds instead of crystals, unlike the gaudier versions I’ve seen in thrift stores.

My eyelids are heavy. I fight to keep them open for as long as I can. Nox doesn’t always come for me. There have been stretches of time when he’s left me untouched. I don’t know why or where he goes. He never tells me. And in those bouts of sleep, I don’t dream of anything. It’s exhilarating yet empty. I find myself missing him. I’m as attached to him as he is to me, cursed to love and hate the only one who has never abandoned me…

A deep yawn consumes me. I let myself drift. Falling, tumbling into sleep’s abyss. Shadows envelop me. I’m transported, elevated, and thrown violently into my prison.

“Hello, dark one.” Nox lays next to me, caressing my collarbone with his claws.

I blink a few times to orient myself. This room is dimly lit from a light source I’ve never been able to pinpoint. When I was a kid, he’d always meet me in the tunnel. I don’t know if it’s even real or a figment of my imagination. A construct I created to put in place of real-world physics.

But as soon as I was old enough for him to touch me, I’d wake up here in this dark and damp room with no furniture except a bed.

“What is this place? ”

His eyes flicker with amusement. “This is your mind. I’ve told you many times.”

“But how?” There are so many unanswered questions.

He stretches out next to me, his feet dangling off the edge of the king-size bed. “How does anything exist? All that matters is that we do.”

I prop myself up on my side to look at him. He’s strange and beautiful, simple yet complex. I devour him with my eyes. His muscles are pronounced—chiseled and carved—like a god. Tonight, he has his black hair swept up between his horns in a topknot. It shows off his deep-set eyes and high cheekbones.

His lips are thick and soft like pillows. I shiver as the memory of them suctioning my clit pops into my head.

The corners of his mouth turn up into a smirk. “You enjoying the view, dark one?”

I nod and continue my ogling. These quiet moments are rare. “Did you exist before me?”

His tail coils around his naked thighs. “I have no memory of anything before you.”

The movement draws my gaze to his erection. For a long time, I thought every man had two cock heads. Imagine my shock and disappointment . “Would you look like this on the other side? If I brought you back with me?”

He wraps his tail around my waist and pulls me on top of him. “So many questions…”

My heart races as he skates his claws down my back. “And I’ll keep asking them until you give me some answers.”

His forked cock stirs between my legs, probing at my folds. “I can make myself look like anything. Like your human men. If you prefer.”

A ripple of shame grips me. Guilt and fucking shame. I find a spot on his chest to fixate on. “They keep coming after me. I let them touch me, but I hate it. ”

He tips my chin up. “No, you don’t. You can lie to them and to yourself when you’re in their world, but you cannot lie to me in here.”

I bite my lip. “I’m behaving like a greedy slut. It’s not right.”

He lifts my hips and sits me back down on one of his cockheads. I let out a gasp as he fills me so full the pressure builds in my belly. His other head probes at my anus. “Nox…” I whimper.

“No, my love. You are a beautiful dark angel. Embrace your desires. Claim them as I’ve claimed you.” He burrows in deeper, and I almost black out.

Fuck, it feels so fucking good.

I let out a deep shuddering breath. “You’re not angry?”

He thrusts hard. “I’m always angry.” Thrust. “I want to be with you always,” he growls.

Tingles rip through my core as he rubs his abdomen against my nub. I roll my hips in a circle and clench my pussy around his engorged shaft as I slide up and down it. “Mmm, fuck. I just might make that happen.”

I’m playing a dangerous game with the devil now.

His red eyes widen as he slithers his tail up my back and wraps it around my neck. “Don’t make promises you won’t keep.”

I jerk forward as a deep spasm shatters me. “I’m not. I just need more time.”

He jolts up and pulls my legs around his waist. He shoves his forked tongue into my mouth as he fucks me harder. With one cockhead buried deep inside my pussy, the other one still teases the tip of my anus while his tail tightens around my throat. Every inch of me is possessed, constricted, and consumed by him.

He tastes like smoke and honey. Like hell and heaven wrapped into one. I explore his hot mouth hungrily, desperate to swallow every ounce of his essence. No one tastes like Nox. No one feels like him. I am fragile, wrapped inside his massive frame. My delicious monster .

“Hold on, dark one. I’m going deeper.” He thrusts his second cockhead past the threshold of my anus, inching it farther in.

I gasp and grab onto his horns. “Oh, fuck… Nox. Fuck.”

“ Relax . Let me in.” He reaches around and spreads my ass cheeks open wide. He slides deeper in, filling me so full in both holes.

An explosion erupts in my core, blurring my vision. I buck and ride him harder, grinding my hips against his like a wild animal.

“That’s it. Cum hard for me. Drench me with every fucking drop.” He grunts as his cockheads swell and pulse against my folds.

Tears stream down my cheeks as all the blood rushes to my center. The tingles spread to every inch of me, shattering my sanity, destroying every ounce of my soul.

“Nox,” I cry out.

I feel his chest rumbling, vibrating against mine as he fills me with liquid. “You’re not a greedy slut, Mia. You’re the devil’s whore. My whore who makes me cum so fucking hard.”

His words push me over the edge again, and a second orgasm rips through me. “Fuck,” I scream. I’m drowning in his thick cream. It oozes from my ass and my pussy, dripping down my thighs and soaking the mattress.

I stay sitting on him, not wanting to separate our bodies. My pussy trembles. I take shallow breaths as I ride out each spasm. “But what if I’m their whore too?” I say on a breath.

His tail constricts around my throat. “I hate it, but I will never deny you your desires.”

I press my forehead to his, my hands still around his boned horns. “Then my sins will be the fucking death of me.”

His cocks pulse inside me. “There is no life without sin. No human is free from it. Those who claim to be the most pious are the biggest sinners of all. The most dangerous. Steer clear of the self-proclaimed saints, dark one. They cause nothing but destruction in the name of their gods. And they will be the death of everything. ”

Nox is a mystery, a paradox of ancient DNA, myth, and urban legend. When he’s not speaking in riddles, he makes more logical sense than any scholar I’ve ever read.

I kiss his cheek, relishing the way his soft skin feels against my lips. The ache in my chest is for him tonight. It overwhelms me. He’s the closest thing to love that I’ve ever had. And it scares the fuck out of me. “Be patient with me. I’m close.”

He brushes my hair back. “All I have is time and my love for you. Here or up there, it doesn’t matter. In every world and every lifetime, you are mine .”

I nod and lie down next to him. He pulls me to his chest and caresses my back until I fall asleep.

I slurp curry off my spoon while Lettie reads my grandmother’s letter from across the table. Maybe she can make more sense of it. I’m on edge, full of shame, and looking over my shoulder every five seconds. I haven’t slept in days, and the only thing that’s keeping me going is the hope that someone in this town can tell me who I really am.

She reads it a few times to herself, her lips moving as she skims the page.

Dearest Mia,

It pains me to write these words because if you are reading them, then I am gone from this world. I know you don’t remember me. You were just a baby when you went away.

You must have many questions. Questions I will no longer be able to answer. Especially not in this letter. For, I fear this may fall into the wrong hands. But what you seek is in this town. In Ever Graves. In these very walls of Harker Mansion.

Between the living and the dead, secrets abound. I pray you have your father’s cunning and your mother’s heart. I will leave you with this, my final gift to you:

Roses bring Thorns

Night is ever Black

When the shadow comes

The Crane will attack

Heads will roll

When the nightmare roams

Stick close to the well

Of broken Bones

Your ever-loving grandmother,

Emma Harker

Her fingers tremble as she sets the letter on the table. “You were born here… Fuck.”

I shrug. “Yeah, so? Weren’t you?”

“No, Mia. Pregnant women are sent away because of the curse. I was born in Raven’s Gate.” She pushes her pad Thai noodles around on her plate.

My pulse thrums. I’m pretty fucking sure I know exactly what she’s talking about. But I want to hear someone else say it out loud. I need to know I haven’t been hallucinating Nox my whole life.

“What curse, Lettie?”

She tucks a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. The overhead lamp shines on her diamond earring, sending a ray of sparkles around her head like a halo. “I didn’t believe it for a long time. It was just an old superstition that our families passed down to each generation. But it’s true.”

I swallow down the lump in my throat. “ What is the curse?” I plead again.

She rubs her fingers together, a nervous tick I never noticed before. “The devil came to Ever Graves and fell in love. When his love wasn’t requited, he put a curse on the whole town. Every girl born here would have a nightmare man attached to her soul. A depraved tormenter who would do everything in his power to seduce and manipulate.”

A gasp slips past my lips. “How do you know for sure?”

“Because my best friend is a child of one of these unions. Her grandmother sent her mother away before she was born. To Wickford Hollow. Maureen Blackwell is half-nightmare. The only one of her kind that we know of. She’s also Draven’s cousin. And she is romantically involved with my brother Felix. Penny Blackwell was convinced that her presence would summon the devil back….” Lettie arches an eyebrow at me. “Maybe she was right.”

Fuck.

It’s a lot more fucked up than I thought. “What do you mean by that?”

She places her hand on my grandmother’s letter. “ You were born here . And now you’re back. I’m guessing your nightmare man came with you.”

A flush of relief mixed with fear washes over me. I’m not crazy . I knock back my sake and pour another one without skipping a beat. “Yes,” I murmur.

We sit in silence and stare at our food for what feels like forever.

Lettie finally lets out a deep breath. “Emma must’ve thought she could spare you by sending you away. I can’t imagine why your mother didn’t leave before she had you. That’s what all the women of Ever Graves do.”

I shrug, more confused than ever. “All I know is that my mother spent some time in Absentia Asylum. Like me. I found some old invoices in the study. Maybe that’s why.”

She folds her hands in her lap to conceal her shakes. Panic disorder. I know the signs well. “What’s it like?” she asks.

I’ve wanted someone to talk to about Nox my whole life, but now, I don’t know how to explain him. “It’s like he’s a part of me but also his own separate being. He’s a monster, Lettie. And I have let him defile me since I was eighteen years old. The things I let him do… Anyway, it’s a dream world, but it’s as real and vivid as you and I sitting here in this restaurant. I don’t know why or how. It’s all I’ve ever known.”

Lettie white-knuckles the table, her eyes wide. “Fuck.”

I snicker. “No pun intended, right?”

She blushes. “I’m sorry. That’s none of my business. But it might be my brother’s if the rest of this letter means what I think it does.”

I shake my head. “No need to apologize. You’re the first person I’ve ever told who actually believes me. But… your brother? Please elaborate.”

She holds up the letter and reads a section aloud. “ Roses bring Thorns. Night is ever Black. When the shadow comes. The Crane will attack. Heads will roll. When the nightmare roams. Stick close to the well. Of broken Bones.”

“So, Emma Harker was a poet.” I furrow my brow at her. I still don’t get it.

She sighs and retrieves a pen from her purse. “May I?”

I nod, dumbfounded.

She circles six of the words. “Look, Mia. Thorns. Black. Crane. Well. Bones … It’s cryptology. Emma embedded a code in this letter. Aries Thorn. Draven Blackwell. Bones Crane.”

A wave of nausea hits me. “Fuck. It’s been staring me right in the face. It’s not even well hidden. I’m an idiot.”

She clasps my hand. “No, it’s out of context for you because you didn’t grow up here. It would be confusing for anyone who isn’t part of these fucked up founding families.”

A dark energy slides through my veins like black sludge. I shudder. “Draven hates me. Aries thinks I’m a toy to play with. And your brother jammed my truck’s gear shift the other night so they could lure me into the woods. And Emma wants me to trust them? What in the hell was my grandmother smoking?”

Lettie starts to take a sip of her sake but pauses mid-air. “Bones did what?” A few snickers come our way at the sound of her raised voice.

I motion for her to lower it. “It’s fine. They’ve made it their life’s mission to torment me.”

She slams her cup down and fishes for her phone, all while cursing in Spanish under her breath. “I’m sorry, Mia. I should’ve waited for you to drive out before I left. Bones asked me to invite you. He promised me that it was with good intentions. I feel like the idiot now.”

I stop her from dialing. “I’m a big girl, Lettie. And you aren’t responsible for Bones.”

She huffs. “Those boys and their stupid poison wars. I don’t want you to get caught in the middle.”

“I already am… The second I moved into Harker Mansion, I became a part of it. I just have to figure out what I want to do about it.” I sigh into my sake.

Lettie motions to the server for the check. “Well, your grandmother is trying to tell you something about them. Maybe there are more clues in your house. I can help you look if you want.”

I’d go through life without friends all over again if it meant it would lead me to this one. She’s worth the wait. “Thanks, hon. But can we just get really fucking drunk tonight? I need to take my mind off everything.”

She lights up. “Hell yeah, we can. Happy hour at Duff’s is just about to kick off.”

“Perfect.” I smile back. Hopefully, Draven, Aries, and Bones are brooding in a dark hole somewhere. Although, a tiny little depraved part of me is hoping I run into them.

Fuck. I’m such a glutton for punishment.

To my disappointment, my new stalkers are not at Duff’s when we arrive. They seem to be the only ones in the whole town who aren’t here. We grab a couple of shots of whiskey, wade through the crowd, and find an open spot to stand by the pool tables.

The spicy liquid burns on the first sip, but it sends a warm flush through my veins that I welcome and breathe into. “Fuck, I needed this tonight.”

Lettie surveys the crowd, her eyelids fluttering toward a group of pretty girls over by the bar. “Mmm, same.” She takes a slow sip of her drink.

“You know them?” She can’t take her eyes off the group.

She sucks in a deep breath. “I used to. I haven’t seen them in a long time. Ever since I moved away for school.”

“Do you wanna go say hi? I’ll hold our spot here.” There’s a storm brewing in her gaze.

She shakes her head. “No. Some things are better left alone. You know?”

Oh, yes, how I know that all too well. But I don’t have that luxury. My past is all around me. A history that I can’t escape no matter where I go. I leave Lettie to get us two more shots at the bar. I side-eye the girls she was staring at, curious as to what the history is there. They whisper and giggle when they catch me looking. I snicker. Catty bitches .

Fuck it. “Can I get four shots of your house bourbon?”

The big, bald man from behind the bar nods as he lines up the shot glasses and pours them all in a row without spilling a drop.

“Nice.”

He gives me a wink. “You want a tray to carry them?”

“That would be awesome. Thanks.” He must be the owner. He has that air about him.

“No problem. ”

As I walk back through the crowded bar with the wobbly tray of shots, I pray I don’t drop it on someone.

Halfway to our spot, an arm snakes around my waist. “Hey, darlin’. Come back over after you deliver those drinks. We want to order another round.”

I snort and look up to see a handsome blond man with a sloppy grin plastered on his face. “Um, yeah. So the bar’s over there, buddy. Go get them yourself.”

He bursts out laughing. “Oh, shit. You don’t work here. Sorry, beautiful. I’ll bring back another round for you too.”

I feel my cheeks flush. The whiskey is working. “Cool. Whatever.”

By the time I get back to Lettie, there are two more frat-looking guys on either side of her. “Wow, you guys don’t waste any time.”

She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Friends of yours?”

I laugh. “New friends, I guess.”

As we make introductions, the first guy I bumped into races back with a tray of his own. It’s filled to the edges with shots. “All right, ladies. What are your names, and what are we toasting to?”

I hold up one of my shots and raise it. “I’m Mia, and I’ll be drinking to welcome distractions.”

Lettie grabs one of my whiskey shots and wrinkles her brow at his tray. “I don’t drink tequila.”

“Well, we’ll get you something else. What’s your name, sweetheart?” he asks with that lazy grin still stuck on his face.

She crosses her arms over her chest. “Villette Crane.”

“Pretty,” one of the other ones says. I’ve already forgotten their names.

She leans over and whispers in my ear, “I’m not feeling them or this bar tonight.”

I nod. “We can leave. Wanna go somewhere else?”

There’s hesitation in her eyes as her gaze flits back to the group of girls by the bar. But I don’t know her well enough to read her. “I think I just want to go home, Mia. Sorry.”

My heart sinks. I’m not ready to go back to my big, old, empty mansion yet. But I don’t want to guilt her into staying if she’s uncomfortable.

I shake my head. “It’s okay. I understand. I think I might hang here for a bit longer though.”

She sighs. “I don’t want to leave you here by yourself.”

“Ladies, what are we whispering about?” the jock drawls.

I ignore him. “I’m a big girl, remember? I’ll be fine. I’ll just call a car service if I drink too much. You do have those in this town, right?”

She nods as she side-eyes the three dudes. “Are you sure? I can stick around for a little longer.”

I pull her into an embrace. “Don’t be silly. I’m having a good time, and you aren’t. Go home and get some rest. I’ll call you later.”

She hugs me back. “Please be careful and text me the second you get home.”

Her concern is new to me. It’s nice to have a friend who gives a shit about my wellbeing. “I’ll do one better. I’ll text you when I leave the bar and when I get home.”

She gives the guys a shaky wave before she stalks off. I watch her walk over to the bar, lean over it, and whisper something into the bald man’s ear. He nods and looks over in my direction.

I can’t help but smile. I assume she’s asked him to keep an eye on me. It’s sweet but not necessary. But it makes my heart melt all the same. Lettie is good people.

A hand slides across my lower back, his fingertips inch up underneath my shirt. “Her loss. More drinks for us now.”

I don’t like the feel of his skin against mine. He’s good-looking, charming, and exactly the type of guy I would take home from a bar in Raven’s Gate. So why am I annoyed by the gesture?

The three of them crowd in around me as my head starts to spin from the booze. “One more, and then I’m heading home as well, boys.”

“Come on. Don’t be like that. Stay and party with us,” jock number two pleads as he shoves one of his tequila shots toward me.

I down my last shot instead, wincing as the bourbon stings my throat. I’m not a big tequila fan either. “Thank you for the offer, but….”

My focus is pulled away when I spot him in my periphery. No, not just spot. When I feel his eyes on me. Fuck. My pulse ticks up, and my palms sweat under the dark and twisted heat of his gaze. Draven fucking Blackwell.

I’ll be fucking damned if I let him think he’s the reason I leave. He does not get to have that power over me. I can’t let him .

I flash the jocks a seductive grin. “Sure, why not? Let’s party.”