Chapter 4

Ihovered in front of the open door, taunting me, beckoning me. My Naima had gone within, and I wanted to be near her again. The wretched window was cheating me out of her emotions, which were rightfully mine to revel in. She was even more beautiful than I remembered when I’d first seen her all those years ago. She had been so close, almost within my grasp. I should have gone after her first instead of yielding to my rage at the sight of that vermin brutalizing what was mine.

I once more glanced at the endless corridor ahead of me. I had seen others go in before like that little Spark and never return. I had no doubt this was a trap. The others have been too stupid, but I was not. Granted, I had sufficiently gorged both on Beasts and weak Wishes. Worst case scenario, if I was locked within, I had enough energy to pierce through the Veil and return to the safety of my world. But that would delay my plans to crossover into the Mortal Plane.

My prey had never been so close than in those few moments with her hands pressed against the glass. I wanted to touch her flesh, taste her fear, drink the flow of her emotions. If I could brand her, then this slight delay will have been beyond worth it.

That last thought convinced me to proceed.

I entered the dark corridor, unfazed by the absence of light. We didn’t need it to see clearly. The door closing behind me didn’t frighten me. I didn’t scare easily, if ever. And I always had a backup plan whenever I embarked on one of my reckless plans. The tunnel began to descend at a slight incline. Thick panels blocked the access to connecting corridors along the way. I hated feeling that they were leading me like a sheep to the slaughterhouse. But, surely, they weren”t foolish enough to think they could control me?

Still, the thrill of the unknown and excitement of potentially seeing my Naima again overtook my emotions. The corridor curved twice before I reached my destination. It was a reasonably large rectangular room, empty but for the Mist. The same thick glass windows as those outside delimited the space. A single, perfectly sealed door gave access to the antechamber on the other side. I made a beeline for it and tried to push it open. Naturally, it didn’t budge. The lack of handle on this side of the room made it all the more obvious they didn’t want me to escape.

However, testing the hunch that had been bubbling at the back of my mind, I raked my claws against the surface of the glass wall. I barely managed to repress the triumphant shout rising in my throat.

The sliver of pain—although rather pleasant—I had felt earlier when I’d raked my claws against the windows of the large room didn’t manifest itself now. I intensified the pressure, still nothing. As creatures of the Mist, we couldn’t enter a room or a house within the Mortal Plane without the owner giving their express consent. Attempting to damage anything in the human world in a place where we weren’t welcomed would cause considerable pain. However, if the Mist could penetrate that location, we, too, were free to enter.

By opening the outside door to let me in, they had in fact granted me access to the entire facility. And this glass wall, in spite of its thickness, would be no match for my incredible power—free of pain.

And then, you will truly be mine, my little Naima.

The thought of my ethereal essence swirling inside Naima had me burning with excitement. I glanced around the room beyond what I believe to be a holding cell. A working desk was propped against the wall at the opposite end from where I stood. An oddly out of place chair sat a couple of meters in front of the cell. I could only presume it was to make a human comfortable while discussing with me from a safe distance. Cameras both inside and outside of my cell told me they could see everything happening within from any angle. It was good to know as I didn”t want to give away my intentions too soon.

Once more, the thought of Naima’s fear made me hot and cold all at once. I glided around the space, knowing the agents—and hopefully my female—would shortly come to converse with me.

I couldn’t tell how long it took, maybe ten minutes. But I was growing increasingly angry to have been made to wait this long. Patience didn’t sit particularly high in my list of personal traits. Just as I was considering bashing in the glass wall to go hunt for my female, the door opened at last. My disappointment at the sight of a tall, slender male quickly vanished when my Naima walked in after him.

She stopped in front of the door, and he placed his hand on the small of her back to urge her in. Although it had been brief, an instant, all-consuming jealousy flared within me that he would dare touch my mate. I advanced menacingly, glaring at him. Naima stopped again a few steps in, a frown marring her forehead, no doubt in response to my threatening demeanor. The male seemed amused and discreetly lifted his hands in a surrendering gesture. Naima didn’t notice, but his surrender mollified me.

Dismissing him from my thoughts, I moved up to the glass wall and pressed my right palm against its cool surface. My female glanced at my hand, knowing what I wanted. Although she tried to maintain a neutral expression on her beautiful features, I could see her wheels turning as she tried to decide what kind of power dynamic she wanted between us.

As if that was even open for debate…

“Come to me, Naima,”I mind-spoke to her, impatient to taste her emotions again.

The wretched wall blocked too much of them and, from this distance, I perceived nothing at all except for what her body language conveyed. She wasn’t scared right now, but worried. Her blossoming fear was such a turn on. I would make her tremble, plead, and beg for the mercy that only I could grant her. While I drowned her in the sea of torment and despair she craved, I would feast on the whirlwind of her emotions—a perfect blend of fear, pain, and pleasure. And then, I would comfort and gently love her, as she deserved and also hungered for. She was my prey and my bride.

My beautiful Naima… I had missed her so much. Since her troubled youth, she had often dreamed of me, asking me to punish her for ruining her parents’ marriage. Whenever I complied—and I always did—she would flee. How I had loved the chase. I almost always caught my mate and punished her before consoling her. As Naima grew older, our encounters became darker and more intense. She no longer wished me to comfort her after the fact. It coincided with the increasingly bad relationships my woman got involved in, with wretches that physically marked her, bruising the perfect skin that was mine and mine alone. You didn’t damage such perfection.

“Come to me, Naima,”I telepathically reiterated, this time more forcefully. She should have answered my first call.

Naima flicked her long, natural black curls over her shoulder and pinched her lips. It was subtle, but I knew my woman too well for such things to escape me. Her hazel eyes shone with a rebellious glimmer as she sustained my gaze somewhat defiantly. However sexy it made her, I was greatly going to enjoy curing her of this sass and attitude with a proper spanking.

Still, the impertinent female strutted towards me with pretend confidence that could have almost fooled me if not for the waves of her inner turmoil oozing through the glass to me. It was still much too faint to my liking. I felt like a parched man who was only given water with a dropper. The clicking sound of the medium heels of her short boots quieted as—to my utter annoyance—my woman stopped at least a meter away from the glass and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Hello again, Zain,” Naima said in a casual tone. “I hear you’re my Nightmare.”

I scoffed, offended to be associated with such inferior creatures.

“I am no Nightmare,”I snarled with disdain. “They are stupid creatures, controlled by their impulses and primal needs. They relentlessly pursue their goal in a single-minded fashion. They may appear clever at times in the methods used to sate their addiction. But in the end, it always ends up being their downfall. I am far more refined,” I said, puffing out my chest.

She gave me a dubious look. “Of your own admission, you are my stalker. You seem to take great pleasure in frightening me by clawing the glass and tapping on it with that little riff that reminds me of too many terrifying dreams to count. While I don’t fully remember them, I know you chased me, chained me in dark places, made me beg, and who knows what else! I just remember waking up screaming. That rather sounds like nightmares to me,” she concluded in a clipped voice filled with sarcasm.

I would have to spank her out of that, too. But Naima’s words were such a turn on as I visualized various scenarios where each of these instances played out in her prior dreams we shared.

“You’re such a tease! How can you speak such naughty words to me and yet stand so far out of reach?”I said in a purring tone.

She gasped and shook her head.

“Oh my God! You are disturbed!” Naima exclaimed, staring at me in disbelief.

“No, my beauty. I am your Darkest Desire,”I countered. “And I will prove it to you.Open the door, my love.”

“No fucking way!” she said, taking a step back. “Why would I wish for someone who wants to hurt and terrify me?”

“Pain has always been one of your fetishes,”I retorted matter-of-factly. “Why do you think you’ve only dated abusive men? You love being a victim.”

She recoiled. For some reason, the hurt and betrayed look on her face stung instead of giving me the malicious gratification emotionally distressing her normally gave me in the Mist.

“Fuck you! This conversation is over,” Naima hissed, her eyes suddenly too bright with what I assumed to be repressed tears.

The sour scent of her emotions knotted my insides. The sight of her distress should have been sweet, should have given me a hard on even. Was the Mortal Plane twisting my perception of her feelings, or was the glass wall distorting them instead?

Naima turned around and headed towards the exit with determined steps. That both angered and excited me.

“Naima, get back here!” I ordered in an imperative tone, knowing she wouldn’t comply. “Come back and open this door, or you will regret it!”

She ignored me. Once again, my bride had provoked me before fleeing. She wanted to be hunted down, and I would gladly oblige. My threat would only raise the stakes and intensify the emotional rush we’d both get out of it. It was the way we played this game; an enjoyment she’d deprived me of for far too long when she began therapy after Jared’s death.

The male, who had watched our entire interaction with increasing worry, had only heard Naima’s words, mine having been spoken telepathically to my mate. His frown as he questioningly watched my mate stomp her feet towards the exit suddenly shifted to panic. Alerted by his expression, Naima stopped and looked at me over her shoulder. Her horrified expression at seeing my fist drawn back with massive amounts of ethereal energy swirling around it, gave me a pleasant tingle. Too bad she was too far for me to taste her fear as well.

Putting my back into it, I swung as hard as possible. The booming sound of the impact resonated like thunder. The glass cracked, forming a compact web at the point of contact, before spreading veiny tendrils in every direction.

“That’s impossible!” the male whispered, his pale skin draining from blood.

“You are not welcomed in this place!” Naima shouted, thinking quickly on her feet, while taking a couple of steps backwards.

I chuckled when the ominous vibrations from buildings we were forbidden access to failed to manifest themselves.

“Nice effort, my love,”I taunted, while raising my fist again to bring down the barrier keeping me from my prize. “But one with greater authority over this dwelling than you gave me access.”

“RUN!” the male shouted to my woman as the glass wall came down under the force of my blow. “I banish you from this building!” he then added for me.

I immediately felt the shift. The walls glowed with a light, neon green hue, reminiscent of a radioactive pool. While touching their surface would be safe although unpleasant, any attempt to damage or break them would feel like acid had been poured on the attacking limb. By rights, now that I’d been banished, just gliding into the antechamber should have subjected me to excruciating pain. But the Mist from my glass cell spilled into it, allowing me to advance further unscathed.

Summoning four of my shadow whips, I projected one forward to slam the door shut before my woman could escape. I swallowed back the mind-numbing hiss of pain from the tip of my tendril touching the door. Two more of my tentacles wrapped around Naima’s midsection and thighs, yanking her back to me. And the fourth one smacked out of his hand the unusual gun the male had just pulled out of the holster hanging on his hip.

As soon as my bride’s back hit my chest, I possessively closed my arms around her and receded back into the glass cell where the remaining Mist was thickest. The orgasmic feel of her warm flesh against my ethereal form was nearly driving me insane. But I needed to focus as time was ticking. The Mist in the cell was thinning as it also tried to occupy the antechamber.

“Open the way back to the outside world,”I ordered the man.

“NO!” Naima shouted, struggling in vain to free herself of my embrace.

The acrid scent of her terror, multiplied a thousand-fold now that no barrier between us dampened it, was making me nauseous. I had expected it to energize me, to be the sweetest—the most divine even—aroma I had ever inhaled. Not this… What was wrong with our connection? The male’s horror and fear for my mate was delicious. I could gorge on it for days. Hers should have been even more delectable.

“You cannot take her out there!” the male exclaimed. “She will get killed!”

“If that had been my intention, no harm would have come to her,”I replied with disdain before turning to my mate to telepathically whisper reassuring words. “Relax, my love. You will not be hurt.”

Her scream turned into a choked gasp as my ethereal essence slithered over her beautiful dark skin before slowly penetrating it. Once again, I struggled not to be overwhelmed by the blissful sensation of a part of me taking root inside of her, anchoring me to my bride. But that wondrous experience was tainted by the growing stench of her terror. I would need to figure out what the fuck was causing this, but now wasn’t the time.

Naima attempted to double-over in response to the discomfort of this alien presence inside of her, but my arms held her up, tightly against me.

“Open the damn door, human, or you will face my wrath,”I hissed at the foolish man. “I will release her before I exit. You should know that I want her alive, not dead. She is mine, and I’ve achieved my goal.”

The older man hesitated and cast a worried look at my mate. For some reason, that pleased me.

“How can I trust you?” the fool asked.

The door I had closed suddenly burst open with three more agents storming inside the room. The older man raised his hand in an arresting gesture, preventing them from committing some regretful act that would have cost them dearly. I had no qualms draining every single one of those bastards. Then again, their emotions broadcast clearly that they didn’t want to harm my woman and, oddly enough, they didn’t want to harm me either.

“Your trust is irrelevant,”I snapped. “Make me ask another time, and I’ll just burst your doors open. Do you really want the Mist roaming freely inside your building?”

He must have sensed that I would do it, too. Yes, it would hurt, but I had enough energy to plow through. The biggest headache would be getting my mate to a safe place where she could comfortably spend the three days of the Mist. To my relief, he fished a remote control out of his pocket and opened the door behind me leading back to the corridor maze that still stood between me and freedom.

“Wise decision,”I said tauntingly while gliding backwards through the opening.

To my surprise, the older man followed us at a safe distance. Worry and hope swirled within him, while near panic was taking hold of the other agents who followed in his wake. I couldn’t help feeling a begrudging respect for the man. His almost paternal protectiveness—devoid of possessiveness—towards my mate pleased me. But so did their collective helplessness in controlling me.

“NO!” Naima shouted as we entered the maze. She stretched a desperate hand towards the agents.

“Hush, my love,”I whispered, nuzzling her nape. “I do not make promises I won’t keep. I will release you before the exit. You will not be harmed.”

“What did you do to me? Where are you taking me?” she asked.

“I made my claim official,”I said before lowering the zipper of her form-fitting leather top. The silly female jerked in my embrace, likely fearing I would molest her.

“Stop! What are you…”

Her words died in her throat when I slightly parted the collar of her top to show the dark swirls of my brand forming above her heart.

“This is me, my love, inside you,”I whispered, my index finger briefly caressing my brand. “I am a part of you, now. You are mine, forever.”

“Oh God,” she whispered, horrified.

That stung instead of thrilling and empowering me. I should be swimming in a pool of euphoria right now, but all her reactions—perfect though they were—triggered the wrong responses from me.

Navigating backwards was awkward, but a swift glance over my shoulder confirmed that, at long last, the door was only a few meters away.

“Open the exit door, human,”I ordered without slowing down.

A troubled expression crossed the older man’s face. Guilt, worry, and uncertainty warred on his features. His eyes rested on my brand on my woman’s chest. Whatever internal debate he’d been having, my emblem seemed to help him reach a decision. Raising the remote control, he opened the door behind me.

The strength with which Naima’s terror slammed into me left me reeling. I felt nauseous, hot, and cold all at once. A part of me wanted to move away from her while the other ached to appease and soothe her.

“You may go, my love. I will see you soon,”I whispered before kissing her ear.

I released her with an odd mix of reluctance and relief. The latter echoed hers, although laced with a hefty dose of disbelief: she hadn’t believed I would keep my word. That upset me more than it should have. But, to my surprise, the older man Naima had called Thomson didn’t express relief but something akin to triumph and hope as he pushed my mate behind him. I would need to find out what the fuck was going on in this place.

I flew into the Mist, welcoming its cool and invigorating embrace, but lurked by the door long enough to make sure it properly closed behind me to keep my woman safe. I needed to hunt to replenish the energy I had expended breaking that massive glass and gain even more while waiting for my bride to go to sleep.

And then, the real fun would start.