Chapter 26 Cade
CADE
I’m falling.
Another dream? It must be.
I’m alone and it’s quiet.
So quiet that my heartbeat fills my ears, pounding against my head.
I lay there surrounded by a void and it’s consuming me, eating everything that I am.
I slowly sink down, the surface below no longer supporting my weight.
Panic rises in my chest as I try to shift, attempting to grasp for something—anything.
My body slowly sinks into the unstable ground, like quicksand.
I reach out into the void in vain.
I feel my body submerged into a thick weight, pressing into me, pulling me under.
The sensation reaches my face, pulling my head down despite my desperate protest.
Suddenly a light appears, far above me, and it rushes down, fast as a bullet, into my chest.
The pressure fades, and I slowly rise.
Not flying—just floating. Like something is holding me, guiding me up. The light pulls from my chest and hangs in the air, pulsing like a heartbeat that’s not my own.
Relief washes over me as I feel it. That warmth, that calm…
My little ghost.
“Where am I?” my voice echoes dully.
The void doesn’t answer. Just the sound of my own breath, too loud in my ears. I try to trace my last memory—but my mind is blank.
The light bursts—spilling into a shifting smoke, soft and glowing. The smoke reaches out—caressing my skin.
I feel you. How the fuck can I feel you?
I reach out, clutching at the smoke, but it slips through my fingers like it’s teasing me.
A hum stirs under the surface of my skin and the smoke curls around my arms, across my chest. My skin prickles at the sensation, like electricity radiating through my body.
I shiver involuntarily at the feeling.
I look down at the glow clinging to me—iridescent, fading, and unreal…
You’re beautiful.
The smoke curls around my body and seeps into my skin slowly and I see…
I see my house, I see Calli… She looks scared as she paces Jack’s office, her hands in her hair.
Why is she scared? How am I seeing this?
I turn my head to see Jack typing away at his computer, fingers flying over the keys… But in my peripheral vision, I see something else… I narrow my eyes, trying to focus. A massive black figure in the corner is looming behind Calli, surrounded by smoke.
What the fuck is that—
The vision rips away as suddenly as it came and I’m swallowed by darkness again—the smoke bleeding out of my skin.
“Was that real?” I ask, my voice echoing once again.
No response.
“Speak to me!” I plead. “Please… What is going on…?”
The glow pulses then flares—searing white-hot behind my eyes. Then it’s gone. I feel myself slam back into my body.
My head is spinning as the memories rush back to me, flooding my mind.
I was taken… By Benjamin…
That vision… I saw Calli and Jack—but I saw something else. Something was with her.
My eyes drag open in a slow, uneven blink. I try to move but find myself bound to a chair, duct tape over my mouth.
The room is dark—lit only by a dim lamp in the corner. Brick walls, no windows. The air is stale, metallic, smelling of blood and mildew—most likely a basement.
The door cracks and light creeps in, the heavy hinges groaning as it creaks open all the way. The silhouette of a man steps into the room.
“You’re finally awake,” a familiar voice says cheerfully.
My brow furrows as his features sharpen. He reaches out and rips the duct tape from my mouth.
“I thought you wanted help,” I spit out, face stinging as I glare up at Benjamin.
The blow to my jaw is immediate—sharp and ringing. My head whips sideways, vision spotting as the room spins.
“This is you helping me. As I said—you are my leverage. Now keep your fucking mouth shut if you want to live long enough to make it through this,” he snarls, all false cheer gone from his voice and face.
I don’t respond. Clearly, he has his own agenda—otherwise, he wouldn’t have given me the information he has.
“So, I’m just supposed to trust you?” I say, ignoring his warning—blood spilling from my mouth.
“Something like that.”
Another hit. The chair topples and my skull cracks against the floor, my shoulder taking the brunt, bone grinding against concrete. Pain bursts hot down my spine. He bends down on one knee and speaks to me softly.
“This is necessary, sadly. Boss’s orders. She wants me to rough you up a bit—but I imagine you can take it.” He smiles at me like we’re buddies. “You see, she needs information that you have. And I need to know you aren’t going to talk.”
I choke out a laugh. “F… fuck you.” It barely comes out as words—mostly just air and blood. I taste copper as my head rings.
“Perfect.” He claps me on the shoulder and I groan. “Let’s hope you can keep that attitude.”
He lifts the chair, sitting me back up. I watch as he pulls out a pair of brass knuckles. My thoughts lag. My body is slow to respond to the ringing pain. I feel like I’m underwater—maybe I’m already dying.
“You need to be ready—this is nothing compared to what she has planned.” He says it like he’s doing me a favor, but then he swings again, brass knuckles connecting with my temple. The world doesn’t spin. It just… cuts out completely.
I’m falling again, but it’s not cold this time. It’s warm. Soft. Like sinking into silk and static—like my body no longer matters.
I’m in my bed. I think?
Moonlight spills through the curtains, but it feels too bright, too quiet. Like everything has been muffled.
My skin twitches, anticipating another blow. But it’s warm. Gentle. No, not pain.
There’s heat on me—wet and slow. Lips wrapping around my cock. A breath shudders from me.
My brain can’t catch up. It’s too much, too sudden.
Hands roam my stomach. I flinch under their touch—my nerves raw, confused, like it shouldn’t feel this good.
But it does.
Fuck, it does.
I move before I can think, flipping, pressing their body beneath mine on instinct.
How can I feel you…
It’s not you, not really. Just a dream, one I will take advantage of.
My hand finds your back, firm between your shoulder blades as I pin you down—gently at first, then harder. Like I’ll lose this if I’m not careful. Like I know it’s slipping.
I slide in deep.
I can’t see you… But I don’t need to. The sensation of you alone is enough to break me.
My cock throbs with each slow thrust—heat gripping me tight, the slick pressure unreal, like velvet strangling me. Too good to be real. Too good to stop.
You’re fucking made for me. That thought cuts through the haze—feeling obsessive and wrong.
Fuck. Yes. Just like that.
My breath catches as the pressure builds, nerves buzzing under my skin like live wires.
I stay there, cock twitching, before I draw back just enough to feel every ounce of pressure dragging along my length.
Then I drive forward again, slow and forceful, a groan ripping from my throat. Pain hums somewhere in the background—distant, a bad signal that I attempt to ignore.
“Fuck,” I growl, my voice cracking.
I come hard—grinding in deep, clinging to the feeling like it’ll anchor me. When I finally still, I’m shaking, then exhale hard as I collapse. My hand drifts over skin. Searching. My fingers gently brush along a shoulder, moving up the neck and to the jaw.
“You’re so soft…” I whisper, my voice raw.
I pretend, just for a second, that this is real. That I could actually have this with you.
I feel myself falling back into consciousness, the pull slowly dragging me from you again.
No.
I don’t want to go back. I fight against the pull—desperate to stay buried in the lie that feels better than the truth.
“Please… just a little longer.”
But it’s gone. The warmth. The stillness. The dream.
My chest aches, my limbs cold. I blink, and I’m back in the dark—alone.
No. Not alone…
A faded glow hovers in front of me. I squint—uncertain if I’m awake or still trapped in some fever dream.
“Are you really here?” My voice is a rasping, raw thing in the quiet.
I feel like I’m unraveling.
The smoke shifts closer, slow and deliberate. A hand forms, misty, barely there, and rests on my arm. Coming from it I feel a strange mix of confusion… and concern.
“It’s okay,” I sigh, wanting to comfort you instinctively. “I promise.”
My head spins, the edges of the room blurring as disorientation digs its claws into me.
A gentle caress traces my skin, brings my awareness back slightly.
“I had a dream about you…” I whisper hoarsely, the words dragged out with a dry, humorless chuckle.
Pressure again, soft and grounding.
My face stiffens as the haze lifts just enough for the pain to return. My shoulder throbs as I adjust, my jaw clenching against it.
“Why do you stay…? I don’t deserve your comfort.” My words are as bitter as I feel.
Warmth settles around my shoulders—a phantom embrace. Goose bumps ripple across my skin and I flinch. It hurts… but the pain dulls, like you’re trying to soothe it away.
Frustration tightens in my chest and my words are rough with it.
“You’ve seen what I’ve done, little ghost. Yet you stay.”
I search the air for judgment, for disgust, for something that reflects the monster I know I am.
But I find none. Only empathy.
“Why don’t you care!” I shout into the silence, my voice echoing around the empty room. “You know what I am. Why do you still make me feel…” My voice cracks and I lower my head, filled with shame.
“Loved.”
I don’t trust this. I don’t trust anything. Fuck… but I want to.
The pressure deepens. Not possessive. Not demanding. Just… here.
I scoff, the sound breathy, bitter, defeated. “You haven’t left.”
You’ve seen the worst of me. And still, you stay. Somewhere along the way, you became the only thing holding me together in this.
“And… I—I need you…” I ramble weakly.
The truth of it sinks deep in my chest. I was raised for a mission. Shaped for a purpose. I never let myself want more—never believed I deserved it.
But now, despite everything… I feel it.
Hope.
And it’s because of you.
Pain pulses through my temple and I grit my teeth, forcing my head up.
How long have I been here?
I try to take in the room again, scan for details—anything useful—but my vision tilts, everything swimming.
My eyes flutter, heavy, and just as I’m about to let them fall closed, the door in front of me bursts open.
Two men enter. Benjamin and another, and behind them, a woman dressed in an all-white suit. Her hair is pulled back in a neat bun, and she looks polished in the dirty room. She steps ahead of the men and looks me up and down with a straight face.
“Rosa White, I presume,” I say, my voice coming out broken and deep.
She spits in my face. Calm. Unbothered. Then lifts the hem of her skirt, slow and methodical, revealing the holstered gun strapped to her thigh.
“You do not get to speak. Monsters do not get words, they get cages.” Her voice is steady and poised as she paces around my chair. “You took my husband from me. My baby girl. You left me nothing but purpose. You. Do. Not. Speak to me.”
She stops in front of me before pulling the gun free and placing the barrel under my jaw, then she lowers her lips to my ear and whispers, “You are going to suffer for what you have done, Cade Halloway.” Pressing her gun harder into my jaw, she snarls, “And you are going to tell me where my sacrifice is.”
I force my head up to try to meet her gaze, but my tired eyes struggle to stay open, to focus on her.
“Looks like Ben has done his job well—too well.” She stands and turns to the men, anger in every line of her body.
“I need him alert enough to talk,” she says accusingly, hands on her hips.
“It’ll wear off just in time. He’ll be sharp enough for what you need,” Benjamin says with assurance, casually leaning against the far wall.
With a single, deliberate nod she pivots on her heel but pauses just before reaching the door.
“We will start tomorrow. Tonight, you will stay with him, Ben.”
She turns, her gaze pinned on me.
“You’ve done well to bring me a gift,” she says to Benjamin, her voice smooth. “But one act of obedience doesn’t earn trust. Not with me.”
Leaning in, she pats Benjamin’s cheek, as if mocking him, treating him like a good pet.
“Come now, Frank.” She flicks her fingers in a lazy wave and the other man hastens to her side. The two disappear through the door. It shuts with a hollow thud, leaving Benjamin and me in ringing silence.
“I’m not going to babysit you—so don’t do anything stupid.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I say dryly, coughing, blood on my lips.
“You joke, but I mean it. I need you alive, asshole. This will only work if you do exactly as I say,” he says seriously, hands shoved in his pockets.
“Please enlighten me on your plan to keep that bitch from killing me.” My head rolls to the side, aching, my eyes heavy.
“It’s all about timing. I need her to trust that I am on her side.
I’ll fill you in on the details when it’s necessary,” he says over his shoulder, tone bored as he exits the room, not giving me the chance to ask anything further.
The door clicks shut and I’m alone again—with only the ghost that refuses to leave me.
I don’t trust him and Rosa is unstable—that makes her impulsive, dangerous. The odds of me surviving this are not high and I could accept that if I knew Calli would be safe.
After everything I’ve done… Rosa has every reason to want me dead.
I made myself into a monster so I could end the Covenant, so Calli could be safe, only to end up in the hands of the very people I swore I’d destroy… I failed her when we were kids. I will not fail her now.
I will do what no one else is willing to do. What our parents failed to do.
Let them take my body. Let them tear out what’s left of me. If she survives—if she escapes them—then I’ll die knowing I finally did one thing right.
I am a monster, but I’m the monster they made.
And I will make them fucking choke on me.