Epilogue #2
“Let me see what you fear, Reba,” Shade growls, the nightmare diving down her throat to possess her.
Her eyes turn black, and her mouth parts to scream, but the poison releases, pushing its way into her system with every ragged, desperate breath she takes. Her shout gets caught, her eyes bulge out, and her face turns red. She stares at Shade in shock, and tears begin to drip down her face.
Fear.
And I don’t know how I’ve never noticed it before, but Shade tilts his head back, groaning as he drinks it in. I almost see it, an energy that hums around him, and if I’m not mistaken, he seems…bigger.
If that’s possible.
My throat becomes dry watching him, my heart racing with adrenaline while he absorbs all the fear he can.
Liquid heat pulsates between my legs, my clit throbbing from the unnerving sight. This. This is exactly what I wanted, what I needed, what I’ve craved my entire life.
I gasp when I feel the fear enter my body, and I have to grip the TV stand. My stomach warms, and a drowsy sensation causes me to feel like I’m floating, like I’ve had too much to drink.
Shade looks over at me, his gaze latched onto my stomach. It would make sense that our child would indulge in fear too. He is part nightmare after all.
“Take my hand.” Shade reaches for me, and I don’t think twice; I take it, allowing him to pull me under.
Reba’s eyes turn black, and I’m cast inside her mind. The suddenness of it reminds me of the fall of a rollercoaster from up high.
“Interesting,” Shade says, slowly spinning in a circle.
“Wow.” I don’t know how to explain where I am.
When I look up, something similiar to lightning veins and crackles.
“Neurons from the brain,” he explains. “We’re in the part of the mind where she holds everything she fears, but this, this is what she fears most.”
All that is around us is just a vast desert. Sand is beneath our feet. The sand seems endless.
“Being deserted?” I blurt, wondering how the hell this is her worst fear.
Don’t get me wrong, it wouldn’t be ideal to be lost in the middle of nowhere like this, but maybe there is more to it than that.
“No. It’s always so much more than the obvious answer.”
“Help me!” Reba calls out from somewhere. “Help! Someone!”
Her voice echoes across the never-ending pastures of sand.
I can’t tell where her cries for help are coming from.
Her voice surrounds me. Reba’s call for help should have me running to her.
That’s my job as a cop. I should protect and serve, but Reba has done very bad things, and I think she deserves worse than prison—or anything the justice system could give her.
“This way,” Shade directs, taking my hand so I don’t get lost.
What would happen if I did get lost? Would I be stuck here forever? Would I die with her?
“I feel him. Our child. He loves the taste of fear.”
“He could be a she.”
“Either way. It seems they won’t be human.”
“Being like me will only cause hardship for them,” he says, still following the shouts from Reba.
“I would rather them be like you. Absolutely fearless and bold.”
“That’s you.” He pulls me against him, lifting my chin so I look at him in the eyes. “You’re everything I’m not. I might feed from people’s fear, but you soothe mine.”
“You’re not afraid of anything.”
He doesn’t say anything. His eyes lose their intensity and become a bit sad.
“I am afraid of losing what I thought I’d never have.” His hand rests on my stomach.
“Help! Is anyone there? Please, I don’t have much time. Oh god,” she cries, her voice becoming louder the closer we get.
“She doesn’t taste nearly as good as you do.”
“Shadey, no one better.”
We stop at the edge of a hole. It reminds me of a grave for a coffin, dug perfectly to fit a coffin, but deeper. So. Much. Deeper.
There’s no way Reba Lynn can get out.
“Oh, thank goodness,” she laughs with a bit of hysteria. “I didn’t think anyone would hear me.”
“I heard you.” Shade kicks sand into the hole. “But I’m not here to save you.”
“What?” Reba and I say in shock at the same time.
Shade’s lip twitches and he turns to me. “Her worst fear is being buried alive.”
My lips form an ‘O’.
Of course we aren’t here, inside her mind, to save her. Cop habit, saving people.
“Please, don’t do this. Please, I won’t stalk or murder anymore. I couldn’t help it, but I’ll stop. I’ll never do it again.”
Shade takes a deep breath, inhaling the fear again, and I do the same, wondering if I’ll be able to feel it again.
I do.
My child loves it and wants more.
“Keep going. He likes it.” I rub my still flat stomach, wanting my unborn child to get all the nourishment he needs.
Shade’s face becomes something different. The light he has when he looks at me is gone. There’s no happy emotion except rage and terror.
I flinch when something tickles me on my cheek. I reach, confused, when I pull my hand away to see a snowflake.
It’s snowing.
In the middle of the desert.
“Memories,” Shade explains. “Sometimes you feel them, and others you won’t.
” He pushes another pile of sand inside the hole, another scream ripping free of Reba.
“So interesting what people are afraid of. Being buried alive is specific. I think people think of the worst thing that would never happen.”
“And now you exist.” I help by kicking in my own sand, wanting to contribute since this is a family matter now.
“Please, please, don’t do this. You aren’t like him! You’re a cop, right? You’ll help me. You have to help me.”
I peek my head over the hole, staring down at her pressed against the edge of one of the walls. “I’m off duty,” I pout, sticking my lip out. “Sorry.” I gasp, my hand flying to my throat when it holds the same eerie undertone as Shade.
“Mmm, my son wants to come play.” I’ve never heard Shade sound so happy before. “You are beautiful all the time, but pregnant? I’m going to fuck you into darkness when we are out of here, Little Dream.”
I’m surprised it doesn’t bother me to push sand in as Reba screams at the top of her lungs. Shade is faster, using his abilities and strength to gather more sand, pouring it into the hole.
Her cries for help soften, and when I leer over the edge, all that is left is her face peeking out from the sand. The sand around her eyes is wet from tears, but she is no longer fighting.
She knows her fate.
“I’ve nearly drained her of all the fear she can feel,” Shade explains, pouring in the last bit of sand.
The hole is covered. Reba is officially buried alive.
“Her heart is slowing.” Shade taps his ear, explaining he can hear her heartbeat.
When I blink, I’m pulled into reality again, standing by Shade, and staring at a very still, pale Reba. Her eyes are open. Pupils blown. And sand spills from her mouth.
Shade tackles me onto the bed, kissing my lips with hunger and desperation.
“I fucking love you,” he says between kisses, ripping my shirt over my head just as the alarm goes off on the nightstand, blaring one of my favorite reggaeton songs that has me grinding myself onto his very hard cock.
“I’m taking you inside every nightmare from now on.
” He sucks a nipple into his mouth, causing me to arch my back, then his fangs scratch over the sensitive edge of my collarbone.
“I need you,” he murmurs, the only warning I have before he bites me, dragging my blood down his throat.
I hold his head to my neck, my orgasm getting closer with every pull. “I love you too, Shadey. So much.”
He kisses my neck, whispering so low he probably can’t think I can hear him. “How do you know?”
“Mi alma lo dice,” I whisper, and those words have him bite me again, harder, deeper, growling, his teeth hurting to the point of pain.
He might be a nightmare, but he is my absolute dream.
My soul says so.
The end