30. Adelaide

30

ADELAIDE

I go to Zaiah and plant a kiss on his mouth, slipping my tongue between his lips as I wrap my arms around his neck. "I won't let you die," I promise when I pull back slightly.

"Same," he says with a smile that makes me want to rip his clothes off right here and desecrate this ancient place. "Time enough for that later," he adds.

Giggling, I lower my gaze. "Am I that transparent?"

"Nah, I just know you, babes."

"Let's get back to the tower room and catch some sleep before nightfall, if we can," I say, stepping back from Zaiah.

Everyone agrees, but as we all prepare to leave the underground library, the ground beneath us rumbles again.

The rumbling intensifies, and suddenly, the bookshelves around us start to sway dangerously. Dust and small debris rain down from the ceiling.

"Shit," Corvus curses, his eyes darting around. "We need to get out of here. Now."

Zephyr's shadows flare out, trying to stabilise the shaking shelves. "I don't think this place wants us to leave with all this knowledge," he grunts under the strain.

Ignatius's hands burst into flames. "Well, it doesn't have much of a choice. We're getting out, one way or another."

A deafening roar echoes through the chamber. The far wall crumbles, revealing a massive, writhing mass of shadows. It's like nothing we've ever seen before - a creature made entirely of darkness, with countless glowing eyes and grasping tendrils.

"What the fuck is that?" Zaiah shouts.

I don't know, but I can feel its power. It's ancient, angry, and definitely not on our side.

"Run!" I yell.

We sprint towards the exit, dodging falling debris and lashing shadow tendrils. Ignatius throws fireballs behind us, trying to slow the creature's advance, but it's relentless.

"The exit's blocked!" Corvus shouts as we reach the base of the slide we came down on.

Zaiah's eyes glow brighter. "I've got this," he says, his voice strained with concentration. The air in front of us shimmers, and suddenly, a portal appears. "Get in."

We don't hesitate, diving for the portal one by one. Before I reach it, I feel a tendril of pure, undiluted evil wrap around my ankle. I cry out as it tries to pull me back.

"Addy!" Corvus reaches through the portal, grabbing my arms.

For a moment, I'm suspended between two worlds - the ancient, angry darkness behind me and the safety of the pocket dimension Zaiah has created.

The tendril of darkness tightens around my ankle, its icy touch sending chills through my body. I can feel it trying to pull me back away from the safety of Zaiah's portal.

"Don't let go!" I cry out to Corvus, gripping his arms with all my strength.

"Never," he grunts, his muscles straining as he fights against the force dragging me back.

Zephyr joins him, grabbing my hand in a grip that crunches my finger bones together.

Suddenly, I feel a surge of power come from nowhere. Let go, little bitch.

"Like fuck!" I scream.

Not of them, you idiot. Of your control. Let me take over.

I'm dragged backwards, and my hand slips free from Corvus. I don't have time to mess about. "Do it!"

I let her power flow through me, feeling it course through my veins like liquid fire. With a primal scream, I kick back at the shadow creature, my foot connecting with solid darkness.

There's a shriek of pain, and the tendril releases me. Zephyr yanks me forward, and we tumble through the portal together into the safety of the pocket dimension. We can see the evil entity raging on the other side, but it can't get to us.

"Give me back my control."

Do I have to?

"Do you want to get home or not? Because you can't do the ritual, so shut the fuck up and give me my body back."

She heaves a sigh but fades into the background again. "That's right, cuntface. Who's in charge here?"

Not fucking you, that's for sure.

Her wry tone hits home, but I brush it aside. "Okay, so what now?"

We all take a moment to catch our breath, looking around at the strange pocket dimension Zaiah has created. It's a swirling mass of colours and shapes, constantly shifting and changing.

"Nice work," Ignatius says to Zaiah, clapping him on the back. "Where exactly are we?"

Zaiah shrugs. "It's a sort of in-between space. We're safe here for now, but we can't stay long. It's not stable."

I nod, still shaken from the close call. "So how do we get past that thing and back to MistHallow?"

"We wait for it to fuck off," he says. "I can't create a portal out of here. If I could, we could've used one to get in." He shrugs as if that were obvious, but I guess it is when he puts it like that.

"Great, so we are sitting ducks?"

"Yep."

"We need her, don't we?"

"Can you control her?"

"In a word… no. But we don't have much of a choice, do we?"

"Not unless we want to be eaten by that thing in about, oh, two minutes."

"Two minutes? Fuck."

I take a deep breath, steeling myself for what I'm about to do. "Crimson. Can you help?"

There's a long pause, and for a moment, I think she's going to ignore me.

Are you joking? That thing will eat our faces off.

"What? It doesn't have a face, therefore no mouth. It won't eat anything. Thought you were meant to be some badass, anyway."

Rude. I am a badass.

"Then help us get out of here, or there is no ritual, and if I die, you probably do as well." It's a stretch, but it's a working theory.

Are you ready for that, little bitch?

I look at the guys and then back to the monster lurking on the other side of the portal. "Yeah, I'm ready."

"Wait!" Corvus says and spins me around to face him. "Do you know what I said to Crimson about Lucian?"

I raise an eyebrow. "That you will punish me if I drink from him again?"

"Not just him, any other vampire. That side of you belongs to me , Adelaide. Are we clear?"

"We're clear."

"Right," he says, letting me go and stepping back. "Good."

But I'm not done yet. "You have permission to spank me if I drink from another vampire."

His blue eyes heat up to boiling point and his fangs drop as he moves in closer. "I will spank you so hard, my handprint will be a permanent mark on your arse, Little Dollie."

Smiling slowly, I turn from him. "Crimson? You got this?"

Oh, I do, but do you?

"Just shut up and do it, but remember, you give me back control once we are free. If you don't, you stay in my body, which I'll go out on a limb and say is weaker than you're used to. If you do, you get everything that you want. Okay?"

Deal. On three…

"Oh, I've been burned by that before," I growl and brace myself for impact.

And fuck, did I need to brace.

The pressure in my head is excruciating as Crimson takes over. It feels like my skull is being split open from the inside. I scream, clapping my hands to my head as the pocket dimension shakes and implodes.

The guys scramble backwards as dark red energy crackles around me. I feel Crimson's savage joy at being in control again, her eagerness for violence.

She raises my hands, and shadows pour from my palms, merging into a massive, writhing mass. It slams into the creature on the other side.

The two shadow entities clash in an epic battle of darkness versus… darkness. Crimson's creation tears into the beast, ripping and shredding.

The beast fights back, lashing out with its evil, shadowy tendrils.

I can feel Crimson's savage glee as she directs the battle through my body. The raw power coursing through me is intoxicating but frightening as fuck. Part of me wants to give in to it completely, to let Crimson take full control and unleash her full power.

But I can't. I can't let her have me.

With a final, crushing blow, Crimson's manifestation of darkness shreds the timeless creature into fragments. It dissolves into thin wisps of shadow, emitting a piercing cry from beyond this world.

As soon as the threat is neutralised, I stumble as I try to regain control of my body, nearly collapsing. Corvus catches me, steadying me.

"Addy?" he asks cautiously. "You with us?"

How was that?

"You back in the box?"

Unfortunately.

I nod weakly at Corvus. "Yeah. It's me."

The guys exchange wary glances, clearly unsure if they can trust that it's really me.

"It's okay," I assure them. "I'm in control. Crimson kept her word. But we just pissed off something very old and very powerful."

Corvus wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me close. "But we got what we came for. We have the knowledge we need."

I nod, leaning into him. "Yeah, but at what cost?"

As if in answer, a piercing shriek cuts through the air. We look up to see a flock of shadow creatures circling above us.

"I think," Zephyr says grimly, "that this is just the beginning."

We exchange worried looks. "Come on. Let's get out of here and back to the tower room. We have work to do. How the fuck do we get out of here?"

"Quickly," Ignatius says.