Tasting Darkness

Tempting Darkness By jessicahall Book 2 Chapter 16 Aleera POV | felt like | was stuck in a void, yet | could hear sbuzzing noise trying to reach me, voices | was familiar with as the darkness suckedunder. Fragments of memory were coming back to me. The dead look on Darius’s face was like he was looking through me. The power that emanated from him was demonic and as dead as the look in his glazed over eyes.

1/ m.techkaushal- 500x300 - 1 Eyes | was sure would hauntfor the rest of my life. Yet as | peered into those endless depths.

I had seen and felt things, things | couldn’t explain, things | wished | could unsee. People in lab coats, the smell of metal, something that shouldn't have a scent but did. It was potent, and the metallic taste of it on my tongue | could 11 metallic taste of it on my tongue I could still taste even while in this state.

It was like a ghost of a memory that wasn’t mine, all seen in the pools of darkness that swirled within the darkness of untapped power when he touched me, sucking my magic out of me. | felt the coldness of it licking at my bones and sinking deep into my soul. The screams of a child and the smell of burned hair and metal I could still smell.

The blurring vision of people in lab coats, yet | felt blind and delirious. Was this ssuppressed memory of mine, or was it Darius’s? Was it a figment of my imagination or a reality he was once trapped in? Yet as the screams and the smells overwhelmedand tried to trapinside myself, | felt a tugging sensation. One that was luringout of the darkness, callingout of myself, callingout of the void that was once my power.

| felt cold despite the warm hands touchingand the sparks rushing over my skin. “And she is right to fear it.

She is the last harmony fae, but she shouldn't have been. You two would have been unstoppable if you were still one too,” | hear Kalen’s voice, his words growing clearer, and | hear someone sigh. His words confused me, and | wondered which of our mates he was speaking to. The bond felt numb, felt like it was stunned, and my eyes were too heavy to force open. | wanted to know who Kalen was speaking to and what his words meant, yet my tongue felt thick in my mouth.

“I won't let them do that to you. | will keep you safe,” Darius whispers, and | 000 finally figure out who held me.

The sparks made my skin tingle and burn, yet his voice didn’t sound like the sdemonic crazed voice from earlier. No, he sounded like his regular self, but what he did to Kalen, what | felt through my bond, made my eyes burn with tears.

Kalen however, was accepting. | remember that much, almost willing and resigned to his fate, | couldnt explain it. How could he be willing but not at the stime? Gentle fingers stroked my face, brushing my hair back, and | realized we were in the shower, the sound of rushing water reaching my ears and the feel of it hitting my skin.

“I can feel her. She is waking. You should take her before she wakes,” Darius murmurs. “No, you hold her,” “She won't wantholding her, Kalen. Not after what | did,” Darius says, and | tried to blink, try to move, yet | felt paralyzed, but finally, my body willed my eyes to open.

| stared at the ceiling, and | could see the side of Darius’ face, yet | couldn't turn my head to look for Kalen.

Darius gasps looking down and seeing my eyes open and peering back at him, looking away fromwhen | catch myself staring at him. “She is fine. Her bond is fully awake,” Kalen says.

“Kalen, please,” Darius says, his voice pleading, yet | couldn't understand why. “No. You will hold her,” Kalen says, his voice sounding firm, which was odd. He was never so demanding, especially with Darius. What was more shocking was watching Darius give in to his demands as Kalen stepped out of the shower where | could no longer see him. Darius turns slightly, watching him get out before turning his face back to look at me.

“I won't hurt you,” he whispers. He sounded so defeated and unsure of himself, and it was odd seeing him like that. | wondered how long it would last before he was back to pushingaway because if past behavior was any indicator, he would do just that. However, for now, he was being pleasant.

| couldn’t think of any other word to describe his out -of-character behavior. Yet | knew he wasn’t the monster | encountered in the classroom. No, this was a different side, one | had a feeling only Kalen ever saw.

He swallows before moving his hand back to my face. His thumb brushed over my lips. His touch burned and seared my bond like it wanted to recoil away from him for what he did to recoil away from him for what he did to Kalen and yet run to him at the stime. “You don’t wanttouching you.

| get it But | need to if | am to give it back,” he murmurs though, by the look on his face, he appeared to be conflicted. | too, was conflicted because it sounded like he was asking permission, something he never does, yet | was powerless and immobile to stop anything he would do.

... A broken toy for him to break or fix. So | was shocked when his lips pressed against mine, his thumb on my chin tugged my lips apart so his tongue could slip inside and brush mine. The energy of the power radiating off him zinged through me, and his arms holdingto him pulledcloser as he kisseddeeper, yet | felt nothing, only the barest scraps of his magic when he pulled away.

P “Take it, Aleera. Pull on my magic,” he growled, yet | saw the monster he becomes without it, so | refused.

My bond even refused, not wanting to see that side of him again. It scared me, scared the bond, tarnished it with knowledge of what he could become. Darius sighs and presses his lips to my head. “I will give you back to your mates then,” he whispers, looking away before he stands.

Darius cradlesagainst his chest and moves toward the bedroom door. It opens seconds before he reaches it, and Tobias steps in with a towel. He growled at Darius, and | felt mortified, caught between them both as they stood off.

Tobias dried my skin as best he could. Darius then placedon the bed before walking back through the bathroom, only to return moments later. | recognized the black purse instantly, and anger festered insideas he opened it and pulled out a syringe. Lycus snarls at him as he draws the liquid from the small vial. “No! You have done enough damage.” Lycus snarls, gripping his wrist only for Kalen to crawl onto the bed from the other side. “He is reversing it,” Kalen says simply, before falling on his side beside me. He pullsover and onto my side, and | wonder how long | will be paralyzed. | hated it, and gosh, | hope | get feeling back before | need to use the bathroom.

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