Chapter 38
Seconds passed. Seconds where Leviathan hunched over and groaned, his hand dropping to his groin. For a few terrifying heartbeats, Cullen was frozen. Unable to move or breathe or think.
And then he was stumbling to his feet, pushing past Leviathan’s reaching hand as he ran for the door. To his shock, he made it, Leviathan remaining where he was as Cullen raced down the hall.
He was sure he remembered the way now. The way to those massive wooden doors that led outside. He knew the way. He could make it.
A left down this hallway. A sharp right down the next.
Leviathan’s aura erupted behind him, chasing him through the palace halls as he ran and ran, his heart racing and his breaths sawing out of him in panic.
What had he been thinking?
How could he have done something so stupid?
He was going to die now.
Here. In this terrible, dark place full of death and emptiness–
He shook the thought from his mind, biting back a whimper that threatened to escape when Leviathan’s aura surrounded him, seeping into him as he ran.
He was coming.
He was close.
Closer than should have been possible.
But of course he was faster than he had ever let on.
Faster…and he knew the palace better. Perhaps that had been part of his plan all along; to portal Cullen everywhere, to keep him from learning these dark, empty halls. To keep him from running.
But Cullen had always marked it all when they’d explored this place together. Every step. Every window. He knew. He was sure he knew…
He nearly cried with relief when he rounded another corner and those giant wooden doors appeared on the floor below. He raced down the slick stone steps, slipping on the last one, and then ran for them.
Leviathan could have sealed them, he knew.
Could have appeared right in front of him and tore his throat out with those terrifying dagger-sharp teeth–but he didn’t.
That terrible aura continued to seep into the air around him, into his body and chilling his blood, but Leviathan was following at a slow pace.
Cullen knew it wasn’t a mercy. Or a hesitation.
No, Leviathan was hunting him. Taunting him. The knowledge set off some primal terror in his chest. Something that felt tight and hot and made him feel like throwing up.
He ran faster, shoving open one of those damn doors and spilling out onto the short staircase that emptied out onto flat, hard ground.
Several agonizing seconds passed while he paused at the bottom of the steps, his eyes roving the empty landscape.
Nothing but miles and miles of smooth rocks with jagged edges.
A wide stone bridge just a short distance away, the only way across the wide ravine that led down to that terrible blood-colored river.
Nowhere to go.
Nowhere to go…
But he’d known that when he had run. He didn’t know how to portal out of here.
Knew this was some other world and that there was no way out.
But it didn’t stop him from running the moment he heard those doors creak open again.
He had just cleared the other side of the bridge when the voice echoed into his mind, the tone soft and vicious.
Do you really think you can get away?
He flinched hard–and stumbled back with a cry of shock as something under the ground cracked.
Thick rock walls slid up through the ground, blocking him in on two sides. All that remained open to him was straight ahead–which led to a sharp right turn into what he was sure was just another long hall of rock–and the other side of the bridge.
Where Leviathan was now standing, fury rolling off him in deadly waves.
His eyes were that solid, shark-like black again, his features distorted in that unnatural way that had haunted Cullen’s nightmares since he’d escaped Walker’s soul bindings.
Shadows swirled around him in deadly tendrils.
Cullen felt his own shadows, usually somewhat dormant things, recoil inside of him, as if they were terrified of Leviathan as well.
He drew in a harsh breath and stepped back, his heart pounding so hard he was worried it would blow right out of his chest. He tried to find his voice–to apologize, to beg for his life, maybe–but it was lost to him. He could hardly even meet that deadly gaze without panic tearing into him.
“Do you know what happened to the last man who dared to strike me?” Leviathan asked softly as he approached. Cullen slid his foot back another step but froze when a nasty snarl rumbled in Leviathan’s chest.
“L-Levi–” A vision took over his mind, making him break off with a sharp gasp.
A man was leaning heavily against a tall pole, his bare arms bound behind his back, blood seeping from deep cuts along his chest and stomach. And his face…his face had been peeled away. Revealed nothing but bone and sinew–
Cullen jerked backwards as the vision vanished, leaving him standing in the scorched wasteland, his hand pressed up against the nearest stone wall as he gasped for air. He wretched at the memory but nothing came up.
Leviathan was smiling.
“Leviathan,” he choked out, hating the way his legs were trembling, threatening to collapse under him. “Leviathan, I–”
“Run.” The word was little more than a whisper on the breeze. Cullen stared at him for another immeasurable moment, his pulse deafeningly loud in his ears, and then he turned and ran into the maze that had been erected around him.
Watching the brat vanish into the stone labyrinth sent something boiling in his blood. Something that pulsed excitement and impatience through him, something that made his cock twitch in anticipation.
Cullen would pay for striking him. He would make sure of it.
And by the end of it, the brat would admit every secret he had tucked away in that precious little head of his.
He ran.
For seconds or minutes or hours; he couldn’t be sure. Gray wall after gray wall blew past him as he bolted down new directions.
No breaks in the rock. No exits. He was sure there was no end to this maze, no escape. He was probably curling himself deeper and deeper into this endless labyrinth and when he finally cornered himself–
I don’t want to die.
The thought pulsed through him, made tears burn at his eyes and spill down his cheeks.
All that time spent being suicidal…all those times he’d told himself it would be better to end it now then to end up…
in exactly the situation he was in now. Being chased and cornered like a rabbit by a feral dog.
He would be torn apart and eaten and it would all be his own stupid fault.
And Walker and Dom and the Diviners would never know exactly what became of him.
Would never know that he still missed them and that, despite the bloodlust, he was still himself.
He would die alone in a dark maze and it would take too long and he would suffer and–
He slammed right into a wall as he rounded the next corner, his body half bouncing off of it before his hands came up, pressing against the immovable surface.
Cornered. Cornered and killed. Cornered and eaten.
Just a mouse in a trap…
Strong arms threw themselves around his chest, dragging a terrified scream from him as he was yanked off his feet.
Either Leviathan had masked his presence somehow or Cullen had been too lost in his thoughts to notice his approach. But he was here now, Cullen wrapped tightly in this mock of an embrace, the terror a writhing thing inside of him–
“There are far worse things I could do to you,” a harsh voice hissed in his ear, “than kill you, Cullen.”
He whimpered, squeezing his eyes closed. “Please…”
“Please, what?”
“I…I don’t want to…”
Sharp teeth sank into his neck, dragging a scream from him as his body arched in his hold.
“Levi…” A memory pulsed through him with the word, making him go still in his arms. Leviathan, kneeling before him, his eyes dark with desire and excitement as he asked him to call him by the shortened version of his name.
It had been unexpectedly playful. Playful and kind, as if they were a normal couple sharing inside jokes while they were locked away in their bedroom…
The teeth left his throat and the scorched world around them took over his senses again. Fire and brimstone and smoke and Leviathan’s sweet scent wrapped around him, mixing with the air that gagged him.
“L…Levi…” He tried again, his tears continuing to pour, even when his panic changed to something else, his throat throbbing with pain and, somewhere deep inside him, pleasure.
“You are mine, Cullen.” He whispered, stepping forward to pin him to the wall.
Cullen gasped, twisting his face to the side with a wince as he was pressed against the hot stone.
It scraped against his cheek as Leviathan shifted, forcing his legs apart as he pressed himself forward, rubbing against him through their clothes.
“Stop…” He gasped, trying to break the hold on him. “Stop, I don’t want–”
Leviathan snarled softly and Cullen’s clothes vanished, as if they had never existed at all. He cried out in shock and tensed as Leviathan began to rub his now bare erection against his ass.
Heat, quick and hard, curled in his stomach, making him gasp and press closer to the wall, desperate for friction against his cock as it grew hard. This damn body.
“You think I’d kill you?” Leviathan hissed, rubbing against him again.
Cullen tensed and whimpered, his body trembling as Leviathan pressed him harder to the wall.
“You think I’d give you up just like that?
After all I’ve done to keep you?” He shifted and Cullen cried out in shock as he started pressing into him.
“Wait–”
His hand dropped, hooking under his leg and forcing it up, allowing him to slide deeper inside. Cullen groaned softly and pressed back against him, his body betraying him again.
“Levi…” He broke off with a cry as he began to move, his thrusts slow and hard. He hit too deep, pressing against his stomach, and new tears pricked at Cullen’s eyes.