Chapter 10 #2
Her blue eyes flared, sparking with terror. “Nyte!”
Fuck this.
For the first time in four hundred years, Nyte altered his form. His horns and wings vanished, the stars on his skin twinkled out, and his flesh lightened to a pale shade much closer to that of Ember’s. It was a shape in which he’d often walked long, long ago. A human shape.
Shadows enwrapped him briefly, forming clothing over his body.
These men deserved more than simply being run off. They deserved to know fear. Tenfold the fear they’d elicited in Ember.
Magic flowed from Nyte. Gloom gathered along the walls, floor, and ceiling, and the overhead lights flickered and buzzed.
The mortals glanced up, a couple with concerned expressions.
Shadows erupted from the floor, engulfing Nyte and dragging him down. They swept him to Ember, and he emerged from their embrace beside his witch. She gasped when he curled his arm around her waist and tugged her snuggly against him, her body tense until he rasped, “I have you.”
She looked at him, relief apparent in her eyes. “Nyte…”
He twisted, guiding her aside so he stood between Ember and her assailants.
The other human’s heads swiveled toward him. They all jerked back, shocked by his sudden presence. The first hints of doubt wafted off them. That was always how it began; a tiny taste of what was to come.
“What the fuck?” one of them demanded.
“Where’d this asshole come from?” asked the man with curly hair.
The man in the vest snickered. “Bulk deal at Goths-R-Us”
“You should’ve listened to her,” Nyte growled. “And you should not have touched her.”
“Fuck off, cocksucker!” Curly Hair lunged at Nyte, thrusting his arms as though to shove him.
A pulse of raw power burst from Nyte, knocking back all five of the men before any hands could make contact with him. The nearest male stumbled and fell on his ass, and three of his companions staggered into clothing racks and display tables, knocking things askew.
The gathering shadows surged inward, swallowing the shop in utter darkness.
The blond man fumbled in the dark for a handhold by which to regain his balance, eyes wide and unseeing. But there was nothing for him to touch. “The fuck is this?”
“It’s the same kind of gimmicky bullshit half the places in this town have,” the dark-haired man said.
But belying his words, the uncertainty he emitted crept toward panic. His arms were out, swinging through empty air as though seeking out the clothing rack he’d struck only a moment before.
Ember wrapped her arms around Nyte, clutching him, and he tightened his hold on her. He willed himself to be seen—in the perception of these humans, he was a figure of even deeper darkness than that which surrounded them, with a pair of cold, distant stars burning in place of his eyes.
“Real funny,” said the man with curly hair as he pushed himself up on fainty trembling arms. “Now turn the fucking lights back on.”
“There is no light here.” Nyte’s voice swirled through the dark like an angry wind, striking at the men from all angles. “Only nothingness. Only the void.”
The men jumped as they bumped into one another, grasping each other by arms and shirts.
“When we find you, asshole, we’re going to beat the shi—”
Screams cut off the blond man’s words as all five of them plummeted into the void, falling through that endless emptiness. Shadowy forms of inhuman, incomprehensible beasts rushed through the darkness, clawing at the men and snapping their gaping maws.
The men recoiled, contorting themselves and crashing into each other in their efforts to evade the creatures. They tumbled and spun, their cries rising and falling wildly, their panic only worsening their chaotic fall.
The terror radiating from the mortals was delirious, delicious, a feast like Nyte hadn’t had in more than four hundred years. And it wasn’t enough. After what they’d done to his Ember, it wasn’t nearly enough.
But…it had to be. Because they weren’t what was important.
In a flash, the darkness was gone, replaced by Ember’s shop. The five men hung suspended in the air for a fraction of a moment before falling three feet to the floor, landing in a heap amidst the overturned racks and bumped-aside tables, causing merchandise to tumble off.
Once their disorientation broke, they scrambled to their feet.
“I’m getting the fuck out of here!” Red Hoodie cried.
“Yeah, fuck this shit,” the one wearing the vest said, nearly tripping over his own feet as he rushed to the door.
All five men bolted from the store without looking back.
As soon as they were out of sight, Nyte turned his head to look at Ember. She was trembling against him. Cupping her cheek, he gently guided her face up toward his. He felt her tears against his skin right before he saw them in her eyes.
Something coiled around his heart and constricted, freezing everything inside him. Somehow, he forced words out of his mouth. “They’re gone now. You’re safe, my dear little witch.”
Ember abruptly looked down, withdrew from him, and wiped at her eyes, careful of the makeup around them. “I know. I… Thank you. God, I probably look like a mess. I’m sorry. I can usually handle situations with guys like them, but there were too many of them and I…”
Her lower lip trembled as more tears filled her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared before.”
He’d sensed that fear, had tasted it. It had been sour and had left him hollow. He disliked her fear as much as he disliked her sorrow and anguish. And it had come upon her during the day, while the sun was bright and high in the sky.
Again, he reached for her face, this time catching her chin to draw her attention back to him. “It’s all right. I wouldn’t have let them hurt you.”
Her eyes searched his. “But you won’t always be here to—” She gasped. “Nyte, you…you’re… Oh my God, Nyte, you’re human!”
He scoffed. “Of course I’m not human. I just appear human.”
With wide eyes, she pulled her face free, grasped his arms, and stepped back to look him over, shaking her head.
Then her hands were moving over him. She smoothed her palms over his shoulders and down his chest and abdomen, which he liked immensely, before taking one of his hands in hers.
She traced her finger along his to its tip.
“Your claws are gone.” She released his hand to wave above his head. “So are your horns.”
Then she moved around him. “Your tail too!”
Nyte couldn’t hold back a chuckle as he turned to face her. “None of it is gone. My form is simply…changed. I doubt the consequences of appearing before them in my true form would’ve been worth it. The last thing either of us wants is some would-be exorcist poking around your shop.”
“What did you do to them? Because it’s not like you’re scary looking in…this form, but they looked terrified while they were floating all over the place. If they were to call an exorcist, it would be for that.”
“I simply demonstrated what it would be like for them to fall through the endless void, detached from time and space, beset on all sides by nameless, faceless horrors.”
“Why didn’t I see any of it?”
He brushed a lingering teardrop from her cheek with his thumb. “Because I didn’t want you to.”
Ember smiled and pressed her cheek into his touch. “Thank you.”
Fuck.
That smile and the way she looked at him with those luminous blue eyes would be his undoing.
Withdrawing his hand, he gestured down at himself. “So, what do you think?”
He’d fashioned his clothing after the garments she’d held up against him the first time he’d come to the store. It had seemed right in the moment, and that sense hadn’t changed now.
She ran her gaze over him. A spark of heat chased away any lingering fear in her eyes. “I knew you’d look good dressed like that. And you are insanely hot in those clothes, but…”
He quirked a brow. “But?”
Meeting his eyes, she stepped closer and brushed her fingers across his brow, coaxing it to relax. “I love your true form more. I miss seeing your otherworldly eyes, your starlit skin, and your adorable wagging tail.”
“It does not wag!”
Ember laughed. “It does.”
He sighed, but his irritation proved both incredibly minor and immensely short lived. “I suppose if it is your preference…”
His magic rippled, returning him to his original form for her while keeping the clothes in place.
She gasped and quickly looked around the store, eyes halting on the entrance. “Can people still see you?”
Nyte’s tail swung forward, its tip brushing her calf. “They’ll see me, but they will perceive my human guise. You alone will see me as I am.”
Something softened in Ember’s gaze as she glanced down at his tail. “Really?”
“Really.”
She grinned. “This changes everything!”
His eyebrows dropped low. “How so?”
“You can allow yourself to be seen as human. Meaning, we can go out and do things together, and you don’t have to remain hidden while we’re here.”
Nyte frowned. “Mayhap I should reconsider this…”
“No way. No takebacks.”
Shaking his head, he chuckled. “Let’s close the shop and head back early, little witch.”
“And now I’ll have you to show off at my side.” Ember slipped her hand into his, clasping his fingers. “I’ll clean this up tomorrow. Let’s go home.”
As he closed his hand around hers, that word echoed in his mind.
Home.
He’d never wanted one as badly as he did right now.