Light Shadows

  “What the fuck…” he begins, taking in the broken furniture. Then his eyes land on Dorian and Alex—still erected as supernatural statues. He ghosts to his brother within the next blink and grasps his still, marble shoulders. “What happened? Who did this to them?”

  I wring my hands in front of me nervously. “Um, I think I did.” Niko’s alarmed expression snaps to me, a frown dimpled between his brows.

  “What?”

  “But I swear, I didn’t mean to! I don’t even know how I did it. One minute I’m having a mental mini meltdown and the next moment, I open my eyes and they’re like this! And now… now I don’t know how to fix them. I didn’t even know I could do this, Niko. Please, you have to help them.”

  Niko places a hand over the top of Dorian’s head and closes his eyes. “Wake,” he commands, his voice heavily accented. To both our dismay, nothing happens. Dorian still stares on, concern and love etched in those beautiful, unblinking eyes.

  Moving to Alex, Niko does the same, gaining the same results.

  “Fuck,” he spits out, pacing the floor. He runs a hand through messily styled black hair and tugs the front longer layers in frustration.

  “What? Why can’t you fix it? I thought your power was—”

  “It’s not my power that’s the problem, Gabs,” he interjects brusquely. “It’s yours. Like I suspected, only you can reverse it. I couldn’t even penetrate the spell. What did you do?”

  “Nothing!” I’m in front of him before he can take his next breath. “I didn’t do anything! I was just sitting here, trying to wrap my head around all this,” I say, waving a hand between my father, Dorian and me, “and the next thing I know, they’re like that! I didn’t do a damn thing!”

  As if my words have flipped some unseen switch, every light in the room flickers violently and the trembling under our feet resumes. I flex my fingers as that familiar burn snakes up my hands and wrists. I can feel it coiling through every vein and artery. I’m losing control again. And if I managed to royally screw things up by just thinking things were fucked up, imagine what I would do if I verbalized my fear and frustration.

  Against good sense and his own self-preservation, Niko grasps my shoulders, steadying me. Immediately, I feel his influence, coaxing me into peace. It’s not enough, but I feel him. I feel him trying to break through.

  “Look at me, Gabs.” His voice is calm and soothing, as if he’s speaking to an infant or a rabid beast ready to strike. Pretty sure I’m the latter. “I need you to calm down, baby girl. If you want me to help Dorian and Alex, you have to listen to me. Can you do that?”

  I nod my head, because I want to believe him. I want to be confident that everything will be okay.

  “Good.” His eyes never leave mine. He cups my face gently, nudging his way into my mind. “Focus on me, ok? Focus on the sound of my voice and the feel of my hands on you. See me and only me. Just let me in, Gabs.”

  “Okay,” I whisper, willing myself to do as he asks. I trust Niko wholeheartedly. Even when Dorian let me down in every way possible, Niko’s friendship was constant.

  As if tiny strings of silken, pulsing magic extend from my body, I reach out to him, urging my heart and mind to open. My consciousness touches his—his thoughts and feelings become my own—and I see myself through his eyes. It’s all so overwhelming and incredible, yet I don’t react. One blink and I could lose this connection.

  I can’t read his mind, per say, but I can feel it. Of course, I expect to feel his playfulness and zeal for danger, maybe a bit of dark perversion, but instead, I’m filled with melancholy and nostalgia. My throat tightens, his sadness strangling me, and I try to swallow down the darkness closing in on me. I don’t understand it—Niko has always been so carefree and mischievous. How could so much sorrow be festering just beneath so much beauty?

  I open my mouth to ask him, the question eating me alive, but he blinks and the link is lost.

  “There,” he mutters, taking a step back.

  I blink rapidly, trying to grasp exactly what happened in those last seconds. I can’t even be sure of what I felt. Did he see inside my head? I don’t think he breathed me, but I’ve seen Dorian use his eyes to penetrate my mind, almost using his power to calm and desensitize me.

  “I see what you did. Damn, Gabs, your magic is…incredible. I can’t quite understand it. Just trying to breach the surface has nearly drained me. And I didn’t even come close enough to manipulate it. I can’t.” He frowns, tilting his head to one side. “You’re not like us. You’re not like them. You’re so much more.”

  I roll my eyes and blow out a frustrated breath. “Yeah, yeah, I’m different. I’m a fucking enigma. But none of that even matters when I can’t even control myself.” I wrap my arms around my waist, digging my fingers into my sides. “I don’t trust myself, Niko. Not with their lives. Not even with my own.”

  In a flash, he’s in front of me, so close that I can feel cool air flare from his nostrils. “Snap the fuck out of it, baby girl. Many of us would kill for your power, and believe me, some will try. Whether or not they succeed is up to you. So cut the pity party and reverse the fucking spell.”

  “What?” I scoff. What the hell has gotten into him? Why is he talking to me like this?

  “You heard me. Reverse it. Now, Gabs. Fix what you’ve done before it gets worse. Before you kill them.”

  “But-but I can’t! I can’t do it! I don’t even know how!” Cold tears prick my eyes, but none fall. Fire licks my knuckles as I close my hands into tight fists.

  “Now, Gabs! Do it! Show me who you are! You wanted this; you chose this power. Now use it, goddammit!”

  “No! I don’t know how!” I shriek, my voice rattling the chandelier hanging overhead. A few crystal teardrops fall around us, pelting the floor like frozen rain.

  “Yes, you do!” Niko’s eyes grow paler, icier. He bares his teeth with a growl and steps in closer, yet he doesn’t touch me. Still, I can feel his power fan over me. I can feel the darkness seeping from his pores, infecting me. I feel his irrational rage intoxicating me until it is my own. Until I am drunk with fury and bloodlust.

  Winds howl and whip around us, and everything that isn’t nailed down crashes to the floor. I don’t care. I want to break it all. I want to destroy everything in this room to fucking rubble. I want to burn this hotel to the ground and dance on the ashes. I want to bay at the moon like the animal that I am.

  “Come forth!” Niko shouts in a heavy, ancient tongue. It’s neither English nor the language of the Dark, yet I understand it. I feel the words beckoning something inside me, overriding my human instincts and speaking straight to my darkness. Calling to the beast thrashing deep within me.

  Niko continues to chant, possessing more and more of my soul with every accented word. I can feel myself slipping away, but I can’t control it. I want to do as he says. I want to submit to this darkness.

  In his next uttered command, I am standing directly in front of Dorian and Alex. Another flash of light, and my hands are outstretched, reaching out to them. Then I’m chanting too, words I’ve never heard nor spoken. Words I don’t even understand.

  “Wake.”

  I can’t tell if it’s me that speaks the word or Niko, but as soon as it’s uttered, every droplet of crystal fixed onto the chandelier above us shatters. My hand goes up reflexively, halting their descent in mid-air before even one can touch us.

  “Gabriella?”

  The moment I hear his voice, my concentration falters and the broken glass above us explodes into glittering grains of sand. With iridescent dust raining down on us, my Dark Prince and my father return to me, stirring from their petrified state.

  “Gabriella?” Dorian repeats, his hands running over me, checking for injury.

  “I’m fine.” I look to Alexander, who frowns with confusion, then back to Dorian. “I’m sorry. Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

  “What exactly did happen, Gabriella?” Alex asks, h
is voice laced with a hint of accusation.

  I open my mouth to answer, but Niko steps up, resting a hand on my shoulder. “Just a little hiccup. Our Gabs is a natural with immobilization spells.” He looks down at me with a smile on his lips, and he winks slyly. “But she was able to reverse it without much provocation.”

  Bull. Shit.

  I narrow my eyes, yet I don’t say a word. Without much provocation, my ass. Niko knows good and damn well I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Why is he lying?

  Before I can think to call him on his story, he steps around the couch and stands beside Alexander. “Geez, baby girl. It would be nice if you didn’t try to break my birthday present to you as soon as you get it.”

  “Your birthday present?” Dorian is on his feet and in his brother’s face, nearly touching his nose with his own flared nostrils. “Explain. Now.”

  “Easy, D,” Niko says pushing against Dorian’s chest, yet he remains as unmovable as stone. The younger man shrugs with nonchalance and strolls to what’s left of the bar.

  “You have thirty seconds, brother, or I won’t be as amenable,” Dorian warns, returning to stand beside me. He pulls my body into his side protectively as if Niko’s next words could ignite further conflict.

  “Fine,” Niko sighs, before knocking back a swallow of scotch from what must be the only remaining glass. “If you must know, I couldn’t tell you, dear brother. I couldn’t trust you. Your thoughts are not safe, and if I had any hopes of recovering Alexander, I couldn’t tell you my plans.”

  I feel Dorian flinch beside me and I look up in time to see him nod solemnly. Niko’s words, as true as they may be, have stung.

  “So you knew? All this time, you knew my father was alive?” I press with an air of skepticism. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but hell, that’s a pretty monumental secret to keep from someone you supposedly care for. It’s just like the Skotos men to withhold imperative information. They proclaim to love and protect me, yet they covet me with lies and deceit.

  “No, Gabriella,” Alexander answers, taking a step toward me. “He didn’t know anything. No one did.”

  “No one but Cyrus,” Niko interjects. “He saved your father 21 years ago and hid him until he knew it’d be safe enough for you both.” His gaze rests on both me and Dorian, searching for understanding. “My plan was to use the grand royal wedding as a diversion and move him then. When that didn’t happen, I had to resort to plan B. Judging by the mess, I can see the reunion was an eventful one, yes?”

  Dorian leaves my side, stalking—almost ghosting—to where his younger sibling pours another drink. “You knew what would happen,” he seethes between tightly clenched teeth. “You knew there would be bloodshed, and because of your carelessness, it was Gabriella’s blood that was shed.”

  Niko frowns and puts down the crystal glass just before it touches his full bottom lip. He doesn’t ask Dorian to elaborate; he doesn’t have to. He can hear it in his thoughts—the reason why my shirt is stained with my own blood. I can feel the turmoil rising in both their guts as Dorian explains the shift in the link. What was supposed to connect us may very well be the thing that destroys us.

  “No,” he barely whispers, eyes wide with terror.

  “Yes,” Dorian nods, sounding defeated. “We have to do what we can to reverse it. And there’s only one person I know who can handle that kind of spell…”

  Three sets of ocean blue eyes fall on me simultaneously, each filled with varying degrees of regret and apprehension. And fear. Fear for what they know they must do.

  “I know what you’re thinking. Don’t look at me like that,” I say admonishingly. I pull the tattered shirt around me tighter, suddenly feeling exposed.

  “Gabriella…” Dorian takes a cautious step in my direction.

  I shake my head furiously. “No. That’s insane. I won’t let you do it.”

  Niko pipes up, his voice level, yet his mind and heart troubled. “If we have any chance at finding a way to break the link, we’ll need—”

  “I said, no!”

  “My child,” Alexander says gently. He comes to stand in front of me, his pale blue eyes softer than I’ve seen them since he arrived. “There are things that we can’t provide you, no matter how badly we wish we could. Even with our abilities combined, we do not possess that brand of power. Only one has the capacity to evoke that type of magic. As much as it pains me to say it—as much as I’d rather die than submit to that sadistic tyrant—we need Stavros.”

  “Fine. Then I’ll go alone. You know what he’ll do if he sees you’ve deceived him. And I won’t sentence you—any of you—to death.” I look at the three beautiful men before me, all willing to place their lives at Stavros’s feet to protect me. It’s my turn to protect them. “I lost you all once. I can’t go through that again. So please…please don’t force me to. Let me go to him alone.”

  “You know there’s no chance in hell that we’d let you do that,” Niko retorts, moving to my side. “Gabs, you’re stuck with us—all of us. Where you go, we go.”

  Dorian steps into view, capturing my attention and my gaze. He brushes my cheek with his hand, offering tranquility in his gentle touch. “We don’t love easily, Gabs. You of all people should know that. And when we find it—when the Divine bestows that precious gift upon us—we hold on to it.”

  Niko slides his palm against mine, intertwining our fingers, and his gift of peace washes over me instantly. “We fight for it.”

  Alexander takes my other hand, and we come full circle, sharing this unconventional bond of strength and serenity. He turns to me, nostalgia in those wide, blue depths. “We die for it.”

  As badly as I want to fight against them and disregard their wishes, I can’t. It’s more than just their soothing touch immobilizing my defiance—it’s their love. And that is stronger than any magic in this world and beyond.

  This was it; that was all I needed. The decision was made. I would do anything for the people I love. Even make a deal with the devil himself.

  I FEEL HIM all over me.

  Sliding over the surface of my skin, tickling the nape of my neck. Grazing the shell of my ear with an unspoken whisper, his voice so clear that I swear he’s right beside me.

  Thanks for not saying anything, baby girl. I owe you one.

  I look across the room at Niko, his blue eyes delving into mine. He tips his head in my direction before crouching down to assess the still unconscious concierge he’d dragged in here. I look up to find Dorian staring at me, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. It’s enough to make me visibly shiver. Intense Dorian is hot as hell; pissed Dorian is just downright scary.

  “Got something against room service?” I ask Niko aloud, trying to divert Dorian’s attention. He purses his lips before releasing me from his cold stare. “He’s human; he’s perfectly harmless.”

  “Human? Yes. Perfectly harmless? The jury’s still out on that.” Niko rifles through the young man’s pockets, retrieving his wallet. “Dave Kramer, 19, 5-foot-9, black hair, brown eyes and he’s an organ donor. Good to know.”

  “He’s a child, Nikolai,” Dorian admonishes, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “There better be a good reason why you incapacitated him and risked exposing us all.”

  Niko deftly strips off the server’s blazer and yanks down the collar of his dingy shirt. “This good enough reason for you, brother?”

  Alexander, Dorian and I move in closer to peer at the black ink embedded in the man’s shoulder, stunning us all into silence.

  Thanatos

  “What the hell does that mean?” I ask, my voice barely a strained whisper. Part of me already knows the answer.

  “Death,” Dorian answers, his forehead furrowed in concentration. He kneels down to get a closer look, running his fingertips over the man’s clammy, yellowish skin. “One of the original eight families of the Dark. But obviously, he isn’t one of us.”

  “Human,” Alex spits out beside him. “How would he even know wh
at that word means? Surely this is a coincidence.” He wrings his hands in front of his lap, and the act immediately draws my eye. I look down to find that I’m nervously doing the same.

  “No coincidence,” Dorian says, shaking his head. He plucks a strand of stringy brown hair from the man’s head and brings it to his nose. “Hmmm. And not entirely human.”

  Dorian passes the thin strand to Alexander who not only smells it, but tastes it. Blech.

  “It can’t be,” he mutters, his blue eyes sparking with ire.

  Dorian nods grimly. “But it is.”

  Alexander looks at his old friend, seeing the man he knew and fought with for nearly a century. The man he considered closer than a brother. “Do you think…?”

  “It’s possible. When dealing with the Dark, anything is possible.”

  I roll my eyes and clear my throat dramatically. “Someone wanna fill me in on the big secret?” I ask, tired of trying to decipher their fragmented conversation.

  Dorian’s eyes find mine. “Gabriella, those pictures you showed me from the tattoo shop—do you still have those?”

  I grimace. “I did. But they were stored in my cell phone, which was left broken in the parking lot of Cashmere.” I take a cautious step towards the young man’s slumped body. “Do you think he could’ve been one of those guy’s from the pic?”

  “Possibly,” Dorian shrugs. “We’ll definitely need to look into it.”

  Niko stands and strides over to the cart housing almost a dozen covered dishes. “Anyone hungry?”

  “Not me,” I reply shaking my head. I had actually been feeling kinda queasy since…well, since the human boy showed up.

  Niko unsheathes a platter of fresh fruit and plucks off a grape. He rolls it between his fingers before bringing it to his lips.

  “Wait!” Dorian calls out, flashing to the cart and knocking the grape from his brother’s fingertips.

  “Hey! Get your own—”

  “Shut your mouth and think for a minute,” Dorian commands, uncovering each of the dishes. “Thanatos is the Dark House of Death, but most importantly, silent, almost gentle death. Use your head, Nikolai. Human boy wearing the mark of Thanatos just happens to wheel a cart of food to this room.”