Beast In The Darkness (An Elighan Dragen Novelette) (Darkness Series) Read online

  Beast in the Darkness

  (An Elighan Dragen Novelette)

  By

  Stacey Marie Brown

  This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination and her crazy friends. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It cannot be re-sold, reproduced, scanned or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  Copyright © 2013 Stacey Marie Brown

  Published by Twisted Fairy Publishing

  All rights reserved.

  ALSO BY STACEY MARIE BROWN

  Darkness of Light

  (Darkness Series #1)

  Fire in the Darkness

  (Darkness Series #2)

  Dwellers of Darkness

  (Darkness Series #3)

  Blood Beyond Darkness

  (Darkness Series #4)

  Beast in the Darkness

  An Elighan Dragen Novelette

  Chapter One

  The tree pressed hard into my back as I leaned into it. The solidness of it eased the pain that stabbed over every inch of my body. My fingers wrapped around the last wooden dagger which lay entrenched in my skin. I grunted as I tugged it out. Blood trickled out the dozens of holes where I had already removed the wooden spears. I had deserved each one and let them impale deep into my body without a fight. Lorcan had not felt the same. He yowled and fought every one of them that had burrowed in. He took off moments after Brycin had.

  Nothing about my night had gone to plan. Good and bad.

  Just an hour ago, my cock had been deep in her. Happy. It was the first time I had ever felt that way while fucking a woman. It was the truth when I told her I would follow her anywhere. I realized when she left the ranch a few months before I didn’t like her not being around. Wanting and missing someone was completely alien to me. Fae, Nymph, Water Fairy, even human, I had always enjoyed their company, but not much thought went into them after we fucked. This one . . . this one had been different from the beginning. I had hated her at first for it, trying to continue to deny my feelings for the Dae. That was no longer possible.

  Showing myself to her tonight hadn’t been a premeditated plan to bed her. Actually it was one of the last things I thought she would do. Hit me, yell at me, throw me into a tree . . . well, all those things had happened, but I didn’t expect my dick to be in her while she did them. Her slight innocence on what to do, but her strong desire to be free, inhibited, and unrelenting, completely undid me.

  Then Lorcan changed everything. All the trust she had shown me earlier disappeared—transformed to hatred and a look of utter betrayal.

  “Fuck!” I yelled up at the night sky. Everything was so screwed up now. Her revulsion of me was clear. Who could blame her? When you hear the guy you just slept with killed your mother, it kind of changes things. There was so much Brycin didn’t know. So many lies were tangled and woven together. That’s how the Fae were. Secrets were the law we lived by. Truth held great power in the Otherworld. We traded, negotiated, and dealt in secrets. We also kept them. We had been since the day the Seelie King took the Fae into hiding in the Otherworld.

  I sat there till the sky began to lighten, recalling what had happened and what I could have said differently. It probably didn’t matter; the outcome would have been the same. In the end she would have left. Truth would make sure of that. Forcing myself to stand, I wanted to see her once more, even if I only saw a glimpse of her through her window. It would be enough, it would have to be. The thought of seeing her roll around again with the Incubus had me growling. Not that I had the right anymore. Hell, he was probably better for her than me. I needed to walk away from her. If she knew what had really happened . . . yeah, it was better if I left.

  I hobbled towards the spot where I could see her room. She was near, my blood in her thumped like a GPS. I seemed to be able to feel her farther out than she could feel me. That helped me find her in Seattle and how I found her here.

  I took a step and grunted. The punctures were healing, but still stung like a bitch. It would hurt to shift, but I’d heal faster in my Dark Dweller form. I was about to turn when a sharp ripping pain ran through my veins. My knees gave out and I crumbled to the ground. It was like knives slicing at me from the inside. Then it dissipated and everything went cold. Silent. I gasped for breath, feeling an emptiness I had never known before.

  Ember.

  When I first gave her my blood and I felt the humming of me running through her, it bothered me. It was intrusive and intimate. Then it became white noise in the background. I grew used to it. Now it was a part of me. How I knew I was alive. Because she was alive.

  Now I felt nothing.

  That only meant two things. She was suddenly out of my range, which would be strange since I felt her near just a minute ago.

  Or she was dead. She had been out of my range before—it had never felt like this.

  “BRYCIN!” I roared, my legs pushed me up and forward. She couldn’t be dead; there was no way. Then the thoughts started rolling into my head. What if Lorcan went to find her and something happened? Would he kill her? Or did she finally have enough? No, Brycin would never kill herself no matter what happened. It was not who she was. She was too strong for that. She would try to kill me first.

  I ran not knowing where I was going, but hoping with one more step, I would feel the blood dance inside me again.

  Instinct kicked in as my adrenaline hit uncontrollable levels. My body responded and I let the call of the beast take over. My spine curved taking me down. My clothes shredded as the beast formed. Throughout my change I never stopped running. Hours went by, even when the sun grew high in the sky, I didn’t stop. I trailed the outer rim of the Unseelie King’s property, moving out in intervals.

  It was only in extreme cases we stayed in our Dark Dweller form. It was too risky, but I didn’t care. Her smell was easier to track in this shape. I could smell her scent out beyond Lars’ border, but I couldn’t tell how recent it was.

  Hunger and fatigue did not stop me. The only thing which did was hearing the Demon and his minions leave the safety of his property to go looking for her also. My hopes she remained somehow safely back in her room in his compound vanished.

  She was gone.

  A roar so deep within me thundered against the mountains, shaking the surface below.

  Chapter Two

  Three years later

  The fumes of cheap whiskey burnt up through my nose as I took another swing. My reflection in the cracked mirror taunted me. A week ago I was the one who had thrown someone into it, causing the crack. I guess I should be thankful Mike had let me back in tonight. The other guy had been an asshole, and deserved what he got. Now a huge guy in the fractured mirror stared back at me. His shaved head, scarred face, hard expression, and extremely taut shoulders looked like he would snap your neck like a toothpick if you even looked his way. My Dark Dweller nature loved this. I was back to who I was supposed to be—a killer—something to be feared. That fucker, Drauk, was right. I had become a pussy. I had gotten soft living here on Earth. She had turned me weak, making me all human-like, with feelings.

  Just thinking of her now had me reaching for my triple shot of whiskey. I slammed the rest of it down my throat.

  “Ahhh, yeah that’s the stuff.” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
I could feel the killer in me building again which put me in a fighting mood. “Another one, Mike.” I tapped at my glass.

  He frowned and grabbed the bourbon bottle. He was never one to cut anyone off. If the money kept coming, he kept pouring. Last week he had cut me off. I guess I couldn’t blame him I trashed his bar. Someone called the police and once again, for the seventh time this month, I had been arrested. When I escaped Weiss’ feeble cuffs and ran off, he had put a warrant out for my arrest. I knew tonight’s crowd. No one would call.

  “I don’t want no fights in here,” Mike grumbled as he poured the dark liquid in my glass.

  I grabbed the glass and held it up. “I promise not to start any fights,” I replied back. With anyone that doesn’t deserve it, I thought to myself.

  Mike huffed, shaking his head.

  That hadn’t always been the case lately—deserved or not, if you got in my way or irritated me, my fist found a way to your face. Gulping down another burning swallow, my adrenaline picked up. Oh yeah, the Dark Dweller was pawing at the surface, ready and willing, for someone to come up and start something.

  “How’d I know I’d find you here?”

  I looked up into the broken mirror, a warped image of Cooper stood behind me.

  “Because you’re just brilliant like that,” I retorted.

  Cooper’s hand pounded down on my shoulder. “Yeah, that must be it.” He sat on the stool next to me and held up two fingers. “A beer, Mike.”

  I scoffed as I tilted my glass back.

  “Hey, one of us has to be clear-headed enough to get you out of whatever mess you’re gonna get yourself into.” Cooper took a swing of the beer Mike had placed in front of him. “Our Second sure as hell won’t be sober, so I guess that means it has to be me.”

  A growl only Cooper could hear came from my chest. It wasn’t the first time I heard comments about me falling down on my job. There was a time I cared about my role as Second. I had wanted it then. No longer did I feel that way. I just wanted to be left alone. It still bugged me, though, because I hated being reminded I failed. Again, it all stemmed back to her.

  “You better be careful. Weiss has a hard-on for you. Take it easy tonight.”

  My glass clinked on the wood as I slammed it down. “You think I should be afraid of that asshole? He’s a measly human. What the fuck do I care? And when hasn’t he had it out for me?”

  Cooper’s eyes darted around. My outburst had his panties all in a twist. He was still a little apprehensive because, on a few occasions, usually in the middle of a fight, I had started to shift in front of the humans. Most of the time I got so drunk I hadn’t remembered it the next day. But really, so what? They saw my eyes and claws turn, but they had been drinking, too. They wouldn’t actually believe it happened.

  I gave up on caring awhile back.

  “We have a run tomorrow. Cole would like you sober enough to do the drop, if that’s at all possible.” Cooper no longer hid his annoyance with me. Cooper and Gabby were the only ones who would still say what they felt to my face. Cole had tried. We had even got into a huge physical altercation a year ago. We both beat the shit out of each other and walked away even madder than we were before. He mostly ignored me now. His focus was trying to get Jared back from the Otherworld—if the kid was even alive anymore.

  I took the last gulp in my glass, letting it burn down my chest. If only it would take away all my failures, starting with what happened to my parents. Then it would need to move on to how I let Jared get past me. I should have stopped him, protected him. Sadly, I needed to shield him from his own uncle. Another mistake had been not killing Lorcan. Because I didn’t have the strength or will power to kill my own brother, I had lost two of my family.

  We had stopped feeling West over three years ago and assumed he was dead. There was little doubt Lorcan had killed him. West should never have left with them. He hadn’t known how far Lorcan would really go in his pursuit to get back into the Otherworld. None of us really did. Now West was gone.

  Because of Lorcan, we had lost Jared, too. Jared was part human so he didn’t have as strong an internal connection to the Dark Dweller as the rest of us did. She had been my only connection to Jared. Through the dreamscapes, which she brought me in on, I would learn she would see him and her friends in her dreamwalk. The night she disappeared she had told me Jared was all right. That was three years ago. We didn’t know if he was all right or not anymore.

  All these things piled on top of my biggest regret. I didn’t know if it was for letting her in or letting her slip through my fingers. It didn’t matter anymore. For two years I had searched for her. There wasn’t a place I hadn’t venture to, thinking maybe if I went a little farther she would be there. I went crazy tracking her.

  I only turned human if I needed to talk to someone; otherwise, for two years, I had mostly remained in my Dark Dweller form. I slipped from town to town through the night, living on fresh deer carcass. Even a year after returning home, it remained hard for me to stay in my two-legged physique. The Dweller did not want to go back. It wanted out and it wanted to kill.

  “I think I can handle a drop.” I tapped my glass on the bar, trying to get Mike’s attention. This was a precarious time for me: still sober enough to feel my raging anger, but drunk enough to act on it. I wasn’t adequately numb yet. A few more drinks and I’d hit that blissful place where I didn’t feel or care. Sleep hadn’t offered peace to me in years. Drinking myself into oblivion was one of the only ways I found it.

  “Cole is expanding a deal with the Apocalypse Riders. A few of them want to go with us for the drop tomorrow. To have it known we have their back. They’ve had some trouble with the Portland Hells Angels.”

  My mind immediately flashed back to Puck and McNamm, two ex-riders of the club. Cooper must have forgotten. He would never intentionally bring up anything related to her anymore. I had flown off the handle too many times when they had. The thought of Puck’s and McNamm’s hands anywhere on her body still made me see red. Good thing they were already six feet under, because the pain I would inflict on them now. They had made it out easy. The killer in me wanted them alive again, just so I could hunt them down and tear them apart bit by bit. Slowly.

  Glass shattered breaking around my hand.

  “Jesus Christ, Dragen!” Mike yelled from the other side of the bar. “You want to add that to your tab as well? If ya ever pay me, that is.”

  I dug into my pocket and pulled out my wallet, slapping a hundred on the counter. “Here. Will that shut you up, old man? Now can I have another fuckin’ drink?”

  Mike’s eyes narrowed. He had always respected us, giving us more leeway than he gave others. I think deep down Mike sensed something different about our group and had a healthy fear of us. I knew I had been pushing that line with him. Just another thing I didn’t care about.

  Cooper rubbed his face as Mike swept away the broken glass and then filled a new one with cheap liquor.

  Cooper turned and faced me when Mike got out of earshot. “We’re all done with your shit, Eli. We’ve given you space, but seriously it is time.” He stressed the last three words. “I don’t know what happened with her, but I can guess . . .”

  It was instantaneous. I pushed off my stool. Fury roared under the skin. The topic of her was off limits.

  Cooper sighed. “Jesus man you need to get it together. You are completely unraveled. She is gone Eli. You need to deal with that.”

  They had stopped saying her name some time ago. Owen had ended up flat against a wall with a broken nose one night when he referred to her by name.

  Brycin . . . one simple word evoked a torrent of emotions. The absence of feeling my blood humming in her still had not eased. You’d think by now I would be back to how I felt before I gave her my blood. But, like I changed her DNA, she seemed to have changed mine. Now I only felt emptiness there.

  To be fair, the night I hit Owen was the night the Unseelie King had tracked me down. He had never offic
ially dropped the reward he placed on Brycin’s head for breaking her contract with him. I figured he put it there so he had others looking for her as well. They came up with nothing. He told me it was pointless. If the Unseelie King couldn’t find you . . . you were probably dead.

  That was the night I officially understood she was gone. For good.

  “Fuck sake, Eli, calm down. I won’t bring her up again.” Cooper kicked at my stool. “Now, sit the hell back down.”

  Air filtered roughly through my nose as I breathed out. It took me several moments before I calmed down enough. As I sat back down on the seat my phone buzzed in my pocket. A slightly trashy, but beautiful, dark haired brunette showed up on the screen. Her lips puckered in a kiss.

  I clicked it off and shoved it back into my pocket. In my current mood I had no doubt I would end up knocking on her door later this evening. But no matter what, she could never fulfill me or the Dark Dweller which raged inside. Only one had ever appeased the animal. Though nothing would ever tame it; there was only one it truly craved. One it would never have again.

  “Will you answer her so she will stop calling me, looking for you?” Cooper nodded towards the phone in my pocket.

  I frowned and took a sip of my drink.

  “Natasha is coming tomorrow so you better deal with her.”

  My frown deepened. She was only interested in her father’s dealings when they involved me. I still recalled the night Natasha had kissed me at that bonfire party when I was looking for Brycin. That night everything changed. Our connection solidified.

  Natasha had been convenient and easy. I had never led her to believe I was in it past the fucking. She always seemed to want to make me the guy who would change for her. I wasn’t the first guy she screwed in hopes he’d eventually fall in love with her, but she seemed most determined for it to be me. I had always been upfront and honest, but she only heard what she wanted. That wasn’t my fault. She was a good lay; desperation to claim me had her open to anything, to try anything. I used it to my benefit. Compassion was not a Dark Dweller trait.