Chapter 7
He was warm. Warm and…comfortable.
Cullen rolled onto his stomach with a soft moan, rubbing his face on the pillow. The pillow that smelled so familiarly sweet. He pressed his nose into it, gasping softly as he inhaled, and someone chuckled softly from across the room.
He turned his face again, blinking his eyes open slowly. Black sheets. Silk. The faint smell of smoke and the crackle of fire–
He jolted upright with a gasp of horror, memories assaulting him as he took in the dark room he was in.
A fire roared in a large grate across the room, the red and yellow flames nestled in a massive black stone fireplace.
They flickered light across the dim room, casting wicked looking shadows that moved like strange waves across the floor and the furniture…
And across the man sitting in a red lounge chair just a few yards away, his head propped on his fist while he watched Cullen with a smug smile.
An immeasurable amount of time passed while they stared at each other.
Cullen’s heart was loud and fast in his ears, the sound drowning out the crackling of the fire.
And his body was trembling so badly he worried he would tumble right out of this giant bed with the billowy black curtains if he moved so much as an inch.
Leviathan only watched him with a calm smile, his legs crossed casually at the ankle as if he hadn’t kidnapped him.
As if he hadn’t attacked his friends and his family.
As if he wasn’t an ancient demon known for mass murder and manipulation, brutal acts for no reason other than that he was bored.
And fucking cannibalism as well. As if he wasn’t planning on doing unspeakable things to the man in his bed.
It took Cullen ages to find his voice. It was weak when it finally came. “Where am I?”
“Home.” Leviathan murmured, remaining unmoving.
This crazy son of a bitch. “Don’t dance around the answer. Where are we? This place is…”
“Think of it as a space between worlds.” He responded quietly. “Not quite Hell, not quite the human realm. Just…here. Home.”
His throat began to swell with tears. He drew in a slow breath before speaking. “Please let me go, Leviathan.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, pet.”
“Stop calling me that!” He cried, whipping the heavy blanket off and springing to his feet. The floor was hot against his skin, as if the fire’s warmth had seeped into it. “I want to go home!”
Leviathan stood in a shockingly smooth move and Cullen flinched, stumbling back a step on instinct.
He moved towards him and Cullen backed up even more, jumping when his ass slammed into the bedside table he hadn’t noticed before.
Leviathan stopped just in front of him. Cullen stared at his throat, breathing shakily, his heart racing even faster when he realized how very much taller Leviathan was than him. How had he never noticed that before?
His hand came up, his fingers brushing against his cheek, and Cullen flinched again, his trembling growing worse.
“You are home.” He whispered, sounding a bit breathless. “You are with me.”
The tears came too hard and too quickly for him to try to stop them; he squeezed his eyes closed and they slipped down his cheeks.
“No…No, I don’t belong here…”
“You do, Cull.” His lips brushed his temple. “I have you–”
Cullen lurched back with a scream of rage and slammed his fist into his jaw.
Leviathan’s head shot to the side and he stumbled backwards, though he looked more stunned than hurt.
The expression he turned back to Cullen would have sent him spiraling in terror–if rage hadn’t ripped through him so ferociously that he could feel it under his skin like a living entity.
A darkness that took control of him and had him springing at Leviathan with sharp claws–claws–and razor-edged fangs.
He swiped at his face, leaving deep cuts, and his teeth snapped inches from his throat–and then Leviathan had his wrists in a painfully tight grip, his face inches from Cullen’s and blazing with rage.
“Do you have any idea what I would do to someone–anyone–else who pulled what you just did?” His voice was deathly quiet, dripping with rage.
“What?” He spat, getting even closer to him as more tears ran down his face. “You gonna fucking kill me?! Do it! I don’t want to live here! With you! I don’t want to be a fucking monster! Just put me out of my misery!”
Leviathan’s hands trembled on his wrists as if he wanted to do just that, squeezing even tighter before he let go of him and stepped back with a harsh exhale.
“Time.” He breathed, almost to himself. “You just need time.”
“I don’t–”
“I will give it to you.” He whispered, ignoring Cullen’s outburst. “I have waited this long; I can wait a little longer.” He took a few slow steps back and then turned for the door across the room, his eyes wild with rage. “I will be back to see you in a few days.”
“What?! Days?!” Cullen burst forward, unsure if he meant to attack him or rush past him to the bedroom door.
“Hang on! Take me back right now!” He reached for him, nearly touched his arm, but Leviathan disappeared with a wave of quick shadows.
Cullen gasped, looking around the now empty room in terror and confusion.
It was as if the other man had never been here at all.
He stalked away from the room, feeling even more sick than before.
He’d known, of course. Known that Cullen hated him, that he was scared of him.
He’d known he would resent what he had done at first and that he would be afraid and confused.
He may not have ever experienced being human, but he still knew how their brains worked.
Especially after being locked away inside them for all that time.
Still…feeling that hatred coming from him…
Seeing how much he hated him and hearing his pulse race with rage and fear…
it was all too much. It had taken all his strength not to fix it right then and there.
To not pin him to the bed and force him to like him…
No, he wouldn’t do that. He didn’t need to.
Time would fix the problem for him, especially since Cullen was a demon now.
His body would betray him before his heart did.
And that was certainly something Leviathan could work with.
Cullen wasn’t sure how long he stood there, his chest rising and falling with quick, desperate breaths while his mind raced with memories.
The cold night. The waves and waves of shadows that had begun to pool around him. Leviathan using Cullen’s own power to attack his friends and portaling them away so he could give him his terrible “present”. The fear on Walker’s face and the taste of his blood…
Cullen gasped softly and raised a slow hand to his mouth, hesitantly running his fingertip across his teeth.
They felt normal. But he knew…he remembered–vaguely–the feel of fangs slicing through his gums, remembered burying them in his boyfriend’s shoulder…
And when he’d attacked Leviathan just now, he was sure sharp, dagger-like claws had sprung from his hands.
But when he raised them now they looked perfectly normal.
Had he imagined it?
He thought of the slices that had been slashed into Leviathan’s cheek, the shock that had been in his eyes when he’d turned back to Cullen and knew it wasn’t possible. That had happened. His nails…his teeth…
He reached to touch his eyes, though of course he wouldn’t feel a difference, even if they’d changed. He could have gone to look for a mirror–but he didn’t need to do that either. Because he could see it now.
The…sharpness.
The scrapes in the wood on the floor and the dust moats floating in the dark air. The thin layer of smoke that hung far above his head. Not from the fire but from some sweet, smoky scent coming from outside. Something was burning.
And somewhere far away, water gurgled and bubbled as if it were boiling.
And down below him, somewhere in what must have been a massive building, Leviathan’s heart beat a frantic, angry rhythm.
The more he focused on it all, the louder it grew, so he shook his head and brought his hands up to cover his ears as he squeezed his eyes closed.
Too loud. Too close, all of it.
The crackling of the fire. The heat in the room. The reek of blood. The memories of his body taking over, forcing him to attack his boyfriend, to bite him and drink his blood like some kind of freaky vampire.
And Walker…Walker had stabbed him. Or tried to anyway. Had screamed that he was a monster and that he needed to get away from him.
It hadn’t hurt so much at the time, not with his mind all blood-soaked. But now…now the thought of it brought him to his knees.
Walker didn’t want him.
Walker was scared of him.
More tears came and his lips trembled. And since Leviathan was no longer standing here watching him like some kind of fucking creep, Cullen let the grief of it all wash over him.
He sat back against the edge of the bed, curling his body in on itself while he dropped his head into his lap and sobbed at the loss of it all.