Return to the Darkness - Ripley Proserpina Page 0,41
person who couldn’t be alone with her thoughts.
The house shook and I jumped to my feet. What the hell?
That was when I saw him.
Erdirg.
He stood surrounded by a red light. It was like he was there, but he wasn’t there, too. He stared at me and I back at him. My breath caught in my throat. Motherfucker. What was he doing here? In this reality, he was dead. Stopped by Mr. Chee after I’d been killed. And yet he stared at me, his darkness pulsating around me.
“Mate.”
Oh, he was still on that track. I looked left and right. He hadn’t moved since he shook the house, and no one had awoken to see what happened. Maybe I was the only one who saw him here or felt the house move.
Why? I made my tired, scared, overwhelmed brain work. He wasn’t moving. Maybe he couldn’t. Erdirg always found me, except when he was sleeping. And Mr. Chee had woken him up in my world. Maybe… maybe he was finding me here because that’s what he did.
“I’m not your mate. Not in this or any other universe. If you know what’s good for you, you’re going to go away. Or I’m going to knock you out again and this time, I’ll make it hurt.”
It was a baseless threat. I had no idea how to go about doing that. I wasn’t even sure I could recreate what I’d done the first time. I didn’t feel as dark as I used to. I was thawing inside. Inch-by-inch. Could I find that darkness again and do what I had to do?
What choice did I have?
Was I still the girl who had no one and didn’t believe I ever would? Was I dark? Could I return to that place? Was my life going to be shaped by who I was before I was eighteen? Would I ever really be able to escape the person I was in order to be who I should, or was something always going to drag me back?
There were too many questions to answer that right now. Not with the nightmare of my young life staring at me across the room.
The house shook again, but he didn’t move. That was when it hit me. “You’re stuck, too.”
His nose wrinkled when he glared. I studied him. For so long, he’d hidden his true form from me. It surprised me that he didn’t now.
He stood as tall as I remembered, his skin that bright red like traditional illustrations of the devil. That was who he was—the demon who inspired the Christian devil.
“I’m not stuck,” he said. His voice rattled the walls, but still, the men asleep on the floor and in chairs didn’t so much as twitch. “I’ll be coming for you. Nothing could keep us apart.”
“Is it because you’re weak?” I didn’t expect him to answer. “I put you to sleep and you aren’t ready to fight.”
“I could wait right here for you.” He took one step toward me, his cloven hooves stumbling when he seemed to hit something between us. “You’ll come to me.” Shifting, he seemed to study the guys. “You couldn’t keep away.”
“If you’re waiting for me, that’s fine. It wasn’t enough to put you back where I found you. I’ve always known that. I’ve always known I’d have to end you for real.”
Erdirg laughed. “I am glad I chose you. Any other mate would be afraid. Not you. You have spark. Fight. It will make your surrender that much sweeter.”
The light around him faded, drawing around him tighter and tighter until he disappeared.
The moment the living room was bathed in darkness, Aaron stirred. The others slept on, but he blinked and sat up. Breathing in deeply, he suddenly stilled and turned to me. “Something was here.”
I nodded. “Erdirg. He’s waiting for me.”
Aaron lifted a shaking hand to his hair, pushing it through the strands. “He’s dead.”
“Not in my reality. In mine, remember, he’s just asleep. But he’s looking for me.” Mate. If that happened… I shuddered. I wouldn’t let it. And what was more, the guys wouldn’t let it happen. With that, some of the anxiety in my chest eased. If I got to them, we could do this together.
I realized I was staring into nothing and turned my gaze to Aaron. He was watching me closely. “Who we are now, I don’t think we could beat him. If he comes here. We’re not strong like we were. Together I mean.”
I surveyed the room. Oliver twitched in his sleep.