A Shade of Kiev 3(26)

“Don’t get too used to them. They flicker back and forth.”

She walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, stretching out her legs.

“I don’t know what this place is, why you rescued me from that dungeon or what you intend to do with me but… I don’t know. You just seem different to the man I knew in Aviary, who stole a newborn from his helpless mother.”

Her green eyes were full of honesty.

I cleared my throat and stood up, suddenly uncomfortable beneath her gaze.

“Whose child are you bearing?”

“Kyle’s, my husband’s.”

Kyle. The name rang a bell. He was one of the last vampires I’d seen back in Aviary. He’d been taken there along with Anna and another human boy. He was there the night I let them all escape.

Silence fell between us for several minutes.

“I don’t know why I saved you,” I said. “And I also don’t know what I’m going to end up doing with you. So don’t get too comfortable around me.”

I walked closer to her. She flinched as I reached out to touch her forehead.

Her temperature seemed normal. “If you lie down flat, I’ll check on your baby,” I said.

She looked at me doubtfully, but took me up on my suggestion. She lay down on the bed and lifted the shirt up to reveal her stomach.

She shivered as I placed my cold hands over her bump. I ran my hands over her skin, feeling her stomach at various points. Then I spread out both of my palms flat. Finally, I placed my ear against her stomach.

Sensing a healthy amount of movement, I pulled the shirt back over her. I stood up and she sat back up in bed, still staring at me.

“I need to get back to Earth,” she said. “My family and everyone at The Shade will be worried sick about me. I don’t know how much time is passing there each second that I’m here, but I’m scared it will be too long and they will lose all hope. I have two other children, Kiev.”

Her eyes were now brimming with tears.

I heaved a sigh.

I knew that she had to get back, but I had no idea how that would ever happen. Right now the best thing I could do was concentrate on protecting her and her unborn child from others, and from myself.





Chapter 23: Mona





Each step I took toward the circular chamber panicked my mind further. I tried to focus on Rhys’ last assurance to me before I left him.

I paused just outside the door.

I don’t even understand a word she says. How am I going to do this?

I pushed the door and it creaked open. I peeked my head inside and shut the door behind me. I inched over to the edge of the raised floor and looked down at the pool. The witch hadn’t surfaced. Although the stench had dissipated somewhat, it would return full force as soon as she appeared again.

My knees about to give way again, I walked down toward the pool.

I cleared my throat.

“I’m back,” I said, my voice cracking.

My voice echoed around the walls.

I waited with bated breath. But the witch didn’t resurface.

Perhaps she didn’t hear me?

I lowered myself to my knees and leant over the liquid, speaking louder. “Uh, excuse me. Lilith? I’m back. I’ve decided to—”

A powerful gust blew from behind me. I could barely scream before I fell face forward into the dark liquid.

In my shock, I opened my mouth to gasp for air, only to choke on a lungful of black liquid. I kicked and moved my arms frantically, trying to surface. I had underestimated how thick the liquid was. Each movement I made was ten times harder than it should have been.

I gripped the side of the pool, hauling myself up and retching. The pool’s rotten taste overwhelmed my senses. I clambered to pull myself out, but something closed around my ankle. I was yanked back down into the liquid with such force I lost my grip on the edge of the pool and was submerged once more.

I was pulled down further and further into the grave of this rotting corpse.

I did my best to keep my mouth shut this time, but my oxygen was running out fast. In my panic, I couldn’t think of any charm that could help me to breathe.

The grasp around my ankle didn’t loosen for a second. It only got tighter the further I was pulled. It felt like my hip might dislocate from the force.

My lungs were now screaming with pain. They felt like they were about to burst. As I felt I was seconds away from dying, my head bobbed above the black liquid. I opened my mouth and gasped for air. Wiping the fluid from my eyes, I opened them only to be met with pitch darkness.

I spread out my hands and felt stone walls all around me. When I reached my hand upward, it brushed a low rough ceiling. I was trapped in some sort of narrow container.

I was terrified that the hand would once again clasp around my ankle and pull me back into the black substance. I tried to push on the ceiling, but it didn’t budge.