It seems I’m in the middle of a terrible nightmare—none of this can be real. It’s a horror movie come to life.
“No.” My mother runs to her husband who’s bleeding out on the floor. “Have you gone insane, Connor?”
“Not me, Mother,” Connor spits out. “I won’t let you do this to Nyah.” He holds the gun up, and closing his eyes, he shoots her too.
I let out a loud scream. My brother has just killed my parents...parents who were forcing me to marry a man who intended to feed off me during sex. This is the worst nightmare I’ve ever had…except it’s not a dream, it’s reality.
My hand is still bound to Malachi’s, and as I struggle to free myself, he pulls me to him, so I’m pinned against his body.
“Continue the ceremony,” he orders the priest. “I have to marry her before the clock chimes.”
The priest opens his mouth to speak, but he doesn’t get another word out as my brother takes aim and shoots him as well. I’ve never seen this side of my brother before. I don’t know whether to be elated, because he’s actually doing something to try and save me, or worried in case I’m the next person he shoots. Oh god, he just shot our parents and killed them. I start hyperventilating in Malachi’s arms.
“Just one left,” Connor growls at Malachi.
“Foolish boy. You think you can stop me?”
Malachi swirls his hand around, forming what looks like a bolt of energy. He throws it toward my brother who manages to jump out of the way at the last second. Connor rolls on the floor, turns around, and aims the gun at us. I urgently need to get away from Malachi, and I stamp down hard on Malachi’s foot. I use such force he has no choice but to let me go, and I run to my brother at the same moment he shoots the evil man I was destined to marry.
“Quick, Nyah,” Connor urges as he gets back up on his feet, and grabbing my arm, he pulls me along behind him, heading toward the door. “We need to get away from here and disappear.”
But before we have a chance to take another step, a blast of energy pushes us apart.
“No!” Connor shouts. A clock chimes somewhere in the room. “It’s too late. Let her go, Malachi.”
Malachi rises from the floor in an unearthly manner and floats toward us on a swirl of black smoke.
“It’s never too late. I’ll just have to wait another year,” Malachi responds. I start to run again, instinct telling me to get the hell out of this place, but I’m stopped in my tracks when a glass cage surrounds me. “Welcome to your prison until then, Nyah.”
“No,” my brother yells.
Connor picks up a nearby vase and starts to hammer it against the side of my prison—the vase shatters, but the cage remains intact. He then picks up a chair and throws it at the glass, and still it doesn’t crack. While my brother is trying to free me from the outside, I am trapped inside, pounding the walls with my fists, but our efforts are all in vain. There’s no hope of escape. I’m trapped, and no matter the force used, I know this magical prison will never shatter.
Malachi lets out an evil laugh that freezes me to the core, and in that moment, I realize we’re defeated.
“And as for you. There’s only one way to deal with a troublemaker like you,” Malachi smirks, waving his hand toward Connor.
My brother screams, and I’m helpless in my glass cage as I watch his bones crack and reshape. His feet turn to hooves, great antlers grow out of his head, and fur covers his body. Malachi has turned him into a stag.
Malachi continues, “We’ll be requiring a wedding breakfast in twelve months time. While I fuck my new wife and take all the power her virginity can give me, I’ll be feasting on her brother.”
Connor, now in deer form, turns and looks at me once before trotting out of the house, leaving me alone in my prison to contemplate my future.
Chapter Two
Griffon Taylor
One year later
The heavy rock music of Black Sabbath blasts out from the stereo of my black McLaren 5705 Coupe. Over the last few days, I’ve been traveling from San Francisco to Boston for a job. It’s a long drive, but you won’t get me on a plane. I’d much rather pound the kilometers by road than in the