Chapter 11 Julien
Breathe in. Hold… breathe out. To silence my mind has never been such a torment, a relentless ache that gnaws at the edges of my immortal soul.
I cannot enter the dark, for I am powerless to resist its call. I cannot feed, for such sustenance is a luxury I do not deserve. But the calling, it is relentless.
Go to her. She belongs to us. She is ours.
It coils around me, seductive—unyielding. Occasionally, it teases me with her scent, re-conjuring forbidden fragments of her elixir. All of it drags me closer to the abyss I swore to resist. And my brethren remain oblivious to my struggles. Blind to the torment that festers within.
Breathe in. Hold… breathe out. Breathe in. Hold… breath ou—
There.
Something has happened.
Something has caused a rupture in the dark, a shift like the waves of night crawling back beneath the moon’s relentless pull.
I feel the shadows recoil—retract—rushing to its source—to him.
I immediately flit to the house, seeking out Ezekial and Sai who sit at the living room table.
“Something has happened,” I announce.
Sai frowns, his restless gaze switching between Ezekial and me. He tries to sense what we can, letting out a frustrated sigh when he can’t.
I try not to smile. Sai is the youngest member of our unit, the least experienced with the dark but, eventually, even he feels it.
And then it erupts, Kane erupts, into the room.
A storm of darkness unleashed, as though the night itself bends to his will.
The air thickens with power, shadows spill forth from him like a living tide, as if he is the dark moon—their one and only true master.
His darkness devours every flicker of light, leaving nothing but a cold void, so absolute it becomes its own entity.
This is his domain and he is magnificent.
I sweep my gaze over to Ezekial. “Something bad, it seems.”
Ezekial acknowledges me with a subtle nod. “This is… his control is...”
“You.” Kane’s voice cuts through the oppressive darkness. His hand rises, a single finger pointing directly at Sai.
In an instant, a spear of shadow materialises, hurtling towards Sai with deadly precision.
Rather than move, Sai lets out a low laugh, eyes alight with something far too close to excitement.
I flit in the way, and the spear collides with me, dissolving into my body with a hiss, the icy sting sharp.
Usually, I can endure the pain darkness inflicted, but not tonight—not in my current state, weakened and far from full strength. And not when its master’s fury is so all-consuming.
“Kane, my friend.” I try to keep my voice steady despite the lingering pain. “Whatever has happened, it can be resolved—”
“And you.” I barely dodge the shadow that lurches for me.
Kane does not acknowledge Ezekial, nor does he spare a glance in his direction. His gaze fixes solely upon Sai and me, an intense, furious focus.
“He knows,” I say to Sai, keeping my expression neutral.
“Oh, shit,” Sai laughs, either oblivious or just too entertained by Kane’s fury.
“Brother, what’s the meaning of—”
“They touched her.” Each word is spaced out, dropping into a deeper octave until Kane’s voice is fully entwined with the dark. “After we explicitly said we wouldn’t. After we voted, swore we’d wait until she knew about the bond. They touched her. Both of them.”
Kane seems to grow taller, shadows coiling around his towering frame like vengeful serpents before lashing out at Sai and me again. I sidestep as Sai lunges back.
“Mate, come on, you know those votes mean fuck all.” Sai grins, barely ducking another viper-like shadow. “Hey, I tried!”
“Tried? You tried.” Kane rarely ever raises his voice, but his tone is on the precipice of a yell. “This is why she felt so betrayed. Because of you two. You tried? You’re immortal beings, you have eternity, and you couldn’t wait?”
Another swathe of darkness swoops towards us, Sai’s coils erupt into flickers of iridescent blue at the sudden contact.
“You have—” Sai starts, then dodges another black spike, “—no idea—” An eruption of sparks blocks the next shadow. “—how hard it is when she’s just there. Feeling the way she does, looking the way she—”
“I have no idea?” The darkness recedes, dragging and collecting every shadow as it pulls back to the source. “I refused myself any part of her. I limited all contact. Then I slept in a bed with her against me.”
Rising and rising, the dark becomes an impenetrable wave around him.
“You can’t even imagine the things I had to picture. The foul memories I had to conjure to stop myself from touching her.” Kane’s voice deepens, echoing with something truly demonic as it fills every corner of the room, the shadows pulsing behind him in symbiosis.
And although this rage and wrath is aimed at me and my dearest friend, I am in awe of the spectacle that is Kane. I have never been more impressed.
“But you,” he spits. “Both of you, betrayed her.” The tremendous wave explodes.
I can no longer see as an endless abyss engulfs us, entangles us—begins to suffocate.
But the darkness and I are old allies. For a moment, it remains strong, but soon sinks into me, allowing me to see once more. I watch Sai from the corner of my eye; Kane’s shadows grip him mercilessly, tightening—constricting.
“Fucking... hell... mate,” he wheezes, but even strangled he grins, defiant. “If you’re... this... jealous now...” Blue flickers crawl up his throat, the light reflecting off his teeth. “…how are you gonna be… when we share—”
“You think I’ll ever allow you to look upon her again?” He steps towards us, and an earthquake begins. “That you won’t spend the rest of your existence in the Pit?” The universe shakes. “Awaiting her judgement, which I’ll ensure she never delivers.”
Sai’s grin drops, and I know I need to move to him, now. I watch as his markings darken, as sparks start spitting, his initial excitement shifting into something sharper. Something vicious and dark—
A shadow delves for my throat, latching in a painful noose. I groan as I grapple with it, its icy embrace piercing my skin like thorns, before I finally wrench free.
“Ezekial, step in,” I grit out, darkness biting deeper as I speak only to him. “They’re slipping.”
“If I step in, I’ll make this worse.” My gaze cuts to Ezekial beside his brother, watching Kane’s darkness tear at Sai. Sparks and shadow collide, and still he stands there, calm, waiting for the right second to move.
Yes, Kane is an unholy being, his power truly terrifying to all but us. But the two brothers together? That was another entity entirely.
I warily note the wisps of darkness emitting from Ezekial’s tense form, how his eyes hold the barest glimmer of light. And it is… concerning.
It seems we have truly unleashed the wrath of both brothers. Interesting.
“How could you both?” Ezekial’s beast begins to rumble, I hear the gruffness, the grit lacing his words as he glowers. “You’ve made everything so much worse.”
“Oh, fuck off!” Sai’s coils splinter through the shadows, finally escaping Kane’s hold. “Look, I know I should have waited. But I never forced her into anything.”
His arms are behind his head, trying to open his chest and catch his breath while his power creates a crackling shield around him.
Every time a sliver of darkness hits, a shower of sparks rains down.
Sai pants, scraping back his hair. “Look, I’ll show you—”
“Don’t you dare,” Ezekial growls, when he steps forwards, I flit closer to Sai. “The two of you have ruined the hope we had.”
“I disagree.” The brother’s bristle at my rebuke. “Look at what Kane has accomplished already. I understand your displeasure with our actions, even if Sai is more to blame than I—”
“You big, smarmy fucker, we’re meant to be in this together!” Sai snaps, and I grimace as his tendrils send a crackle through my shoulder. Then he smirks. “More to blame? At least I didn’t do anything where we could’ve been seen.”
“What?” Ezekial’s gaze cuts through the shadows, a beacon of painful light blinding us both.
“No, Sai.” I level him with a warning look, but his smirk only intensifies into a manic smile.
“In your office, Zeek.” Sai shrugs. “On your chair, while the two of you interrogated that kid.”
The blinding light lands directly on me and the intensity, that of a thousand suns, burns. It strips back all the darkness that protectively cloaked my form.
“My. Office.”
I stare into the darkness at Kane. “Ezekial is losing his ground—”
“I know.” My gaze sharpens at Kane’s blunt response.
“My friend,” I offer quietly to Ezekial, laying my palms open before me. “You know I—”
“My office. With that boy there?” He paces forwards, my skin aching from the burn of his light as another shudder rumbles the room. “You dared to touch her with another being present?”
“Bet you wished you’d fed now, big guy.”
I glower at Sai.
Yes, I am weakened. Starving. The brothers’ blows are landing harder than they ever had. The normal speed in which I move is hindered. But I did not expect Ezekial’s light to strip me quite so bare.
Meaning if either brother struck me now... I am uncertain of the outcome.
But one thing I did not expect, could never have predicted, was for a light, cheerful sound to interrupt this monumental moment.
Ezekial halts.
His blinding light dims into a soft glow around him as we all look to one another, searching for the source, everyone—
Except Kane.
It’s a jingle. The sound is a jingle. A jingle coming from Kane’s phone.
Instantly, we all return from the Dark Realm, and the jingle is cut short.
“Was that… a jingle?” Sai asks, frowning hard. But no one answers. “Since when do we have our phones off silent?”
No response.
Sai glances at all our faces, but Kane’s only focus, the only thing that has halted his wrath—his darkness, is the sender of the message he’s currently reading.
He’s typing, ignoring us all, seeming to forget that only seconds ago, he was a different being entirely.