18. Darkness Claiming
~ YILAN ~
Melek turned to look at me, his gaze skeptical, which broke my heart.
“I’m telling you the truth,” I insisted. “I’ve never seen that before. That isn’t what we do.”
We both turned back to look. I couldn’t hear anything in the silence except my heartbeat that pulsed in my ears.
Melek was casting angry looks around the room, his free hand twitching as if for a weapon, but of course we’d been very careful not to leave anything in the room that he could use.
Letting go of his hand, I unbuckled the weapon belt at my waist, and slipped out the two daggers, passing one to him, and we both started turning a slow circle, keeping our backs to each other, trying to identify what was moving in this room.
“When did you see it yesterday?” I breathed.
“When I woke up. Something moved—the shadow. But then there was nothing.”
I swallowed hard, mentally flipping through every lesson on the dark arts and those who held its power—another Shade? But no, a Shade was visible, just sickeningly hard to watch. And my instincts hadn’t prickled this time. Whatever this was, it—
“Yilan… Yilan, take my hand.”
Melek had stopped circling and backed up to find me, reaching, grasping .
I slid my hand into his gladly, but my adrenaline spiked. “What is it—”
I looked up to find his expression fierce.
Following his gaze to the window, I froze at the sight of a stunning man crouched in the deep sill, poised like a cat, his head tilted coyly, chin low and eyes fixed on me, his lips pulled up into a chilling smile on one side.
“Not you,” he purred quietly, eyes locked on me. “You’re mine.”
Adrenaline rocked through me as I sucked in. “Who are y—?”
The man’s gaze cut to Melek and his eyes narrowed. “Green-eyed fuck,” he muttered.
Melek suddenly bellowed in pain and snapped at the waist, tearing his hand from mine as he clawed at his chest in a way that was sickeningly reminiscent of Gault and that spear. I whirled, expecting to see a soldier behind us… but there was nothing.
I grabbed for Melek’s shoulder, hunched and low because he’d bent almost in half. “Melek! What’s happening?”
“I… don’t… know,” he snarled through his teeth. “But… he’s…” He grunted and dropped to one knee, both arms clasped tightly to his chest. “He’s fucking… Fallen!”
I was confused—had the man fallen out of the window?
But then Melek staggered to his feet, clearly still in pain, but one of his arms shot out to pull me to his side, and he snarled towards that now-empty window.
“Not your choice… to make… you fucker.”
There was a strange clap in the air and Melek’s face twisted in pain. He writhed, but pulled me tighter against him, shaking his head and roaring at that thing.
The darkness that had flickered in the corner pulled in around us, even from the moonlit windows.
“What—” I couldn’t finish the question, because my lungs froze.
Melek was already holding me to his side, but when my chest stopped, he growled and yanked me in front of him, wrapping his arms around me and writhing, as if something attacked him, trying to reach me.
“No… fucking no.”
The bond shrieked, then my chest screamed in pain—as if talons dragged along the cord that bound us together, fraying it and—
I convulsed, and Melek roared. “Yilan! ”
He curled around me as we were thrown off our feet. Melek took the impact on his shoulder and rolled, still snarling defiance and hoarsely calling my name as we came up hard against the wall. He grunted, but held me even tighter, tucking my head into his chest and snarling at the dark.
And then I was gasping, clinging, scrabbling because that dark pulling was back, the one that had come for us the first time we mated—a spiraling, rushing power that stretched my ribs and threatened to suffocate me.
My body twitched and flailed, out of control. Melek’s arms around me felt like red-hot bars, searing my skin and I instinctively tried to pry his hands from me. But he wouldn’t release me—snarling and growling, both of us writhing.
“Mine,” he growled, tucking me tighter against him, burying his face in my neck from behind and curling me into the hollow of his body. “ I said no! She is mine!”
The darkness sucked closer and between the pain and tightness in my chest, I couldn’t breathe again.
There was a terrible tugging in my skin, as if clawed hands attempted to pull me from his grip.
Melek must have felt it too, because even though I could still feel the pain rocking through him, his grip on me never wavered, and when we coiled together like fighting snakes, his hoarse bellows screamed defiance.
Last time this happened he told me that Lucifer himself didn’t want us together. I’d been baffled, but lost sight of that puzzle in the greater conflicts of everything that had happened since.
But now, body screaming in pain and lack of air, it hit me what Melek had meant when he named the man in the window Fallen.
Fallen angel.
Lucifer?
Holy sh—
With a snarl of my own, I turned in Melek’s grip and threw my arms around his neck. “No… No!” seethed through gritted teeth. No!
Melek still growled, still twitched, continued to spit denials at this oppressive shadow. But something happened when I joined him—the bond hummed and swelled, the light from within expanding—and suddenly I could breathe again.
“What is it? What’s happening?” I gasped, holding even tighter to him, but still fighting against this force that sought to tear me out of his arms .
“Just… resist,” he growled. “Don’t give in. Resist.”
And so, we resisted together. Both of us holding each other tightly, our bodies pummeled and torn, clawed and sickened.
But as Melek forced me to the ground, to all fours, and put himself over me, his hands gripping mine, his body flinching and jerking, as he bellowed into the dark, and I shook my head and held him… slowly the sensation eased.
The invisible claws plucked out of my skin one by one, tearing as they dragged away like a cat pulled off of me.
The rush in the air and screaming in the bond, my pulse thrumming, it all stole my senses. But I felt Melek’s jaw move as if he spoke, felt the air of his breath flutter in my hair. And then… finally… the sensation faded like steam in the air. There one moment, gone the next.
We were left panting, Melek curled over me, holding me, covering me.
I could breathe again, thank God. My body shook like a leaf.
I blinked and breathed, looking frantically for that flickering shadow… but it was gone.
The room was a normal, midnight dark and still. The moonlight bright in the windows.
Melek groaned and staggered to his feet, still keeping one hand on me as he stood, turning slowly, braced for another fight.
But there was nothing.
I remembered the pain he’d felt and gasped. “Melek, are you—” I whirled to grab his hand that was pressed to his chest, pulling it away and tearing his shirt open, terrified I’d find blood, a desperate wound. But there was nothing but his skin and those scars.
Melek shook his head without stopping his scan of the room, and took my hand, squeezing it.
“I’m fine,” he rumbled. “I’m fine. It was… it was all just… an attempt to tear us apart.”
I stared up at him until he finally sighed and rolled his shoulders, wincing as if something hurt—and then I remembered we’d fallen. But he shrugged it off and finally looked down to meet my eyes.
“Melek… what the hell was that?”
“One of the Fallen. Lucifer, I believe,” he said darkly, his eyes cutting back to the room before returning to me.
“But… why?” I spluttered.
“I don’t know. None of the Fallen have ever revealed themselves to me before. But it’s clear he didn’t want me coming back to you,” he said quietly.
I went still, staring up at him. “You’re serious? Why?”
“How the fuck would I know?” he snapped, but he was still gripping me, pulling me against him.
My nerves spiked at the anger in his tone.
Then he took a deep breath and tore his eyes from the room again, to stare down at me. “Why do shadows gather around you, Yilan?”
I frowned. “They don’t!”
One of his brows arched to argue with me, but I shook my head.
“I have never had anything to do with the darkness, or shades, or the Fallen—nothing, Melek.”
“Well, clearly, they want something to do with you… oh shit.” He cursed and whipped around to face that window again, his arms back, keeping me behind him.
I thought the Fallen was back and startled, grabbing for Melek. “What? What do you—?”
“He claimed you,” Melek breathed, creeping forward, pulling me with him, until he could look out the window, then shook his head and turned, his eyes wide as he stared down at me.
“No,” I insisted. “Melek, I am telling the truth! I’ve never sought or served darkness—”
“That’s not what I meant,” he rumbled, staring down at me like he wasn’t sure whether to be angry. “He claimed you.”
“That’s not his choice!”
“Fucking right it’s not, but… I think… God, Yilan, our Nephilim customs, our ways…
they come from the Fallen. Our claiming, our traditions, the Fallen began them all.
No Nephilim can deny a Fallen if he claims a woman.
So, the higher a Neph stands, the fewer males can challenge for his female.
You saw—only Gault could challenge me for you once I made the claim.
The others would have had to fight me to the death to take you.
It’s so that’s there’s never question who sired a child.
But this… If Lucifer is claiming you, that means he wants to breed you. ”
My blood ran cold.