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It took her a moment to realize what was missing. While the house was small and there were two bedrooms and a bathroom, attached to the main room, there was no kitchen.
“This is your home,” she whispered.
“It is. I will make you as comfortable as possible,” he said as he took her to a bedroom with a single bed and one nightstand. The small closet had some clothes hanging within, but they were far too small to fit a man.
“You have no kitchen,” she said as a spasm racked her body.
Colton lay her gently on the bed, then helped her to remove her jacket. He took off her combat boots, then went to a small room. She heard a tap run, before he returned with a wet cloth and began cleaning the scrapes on her knees. “You’re observant. I don’t require a kitchen. I have a bathroom but only occasionally use the shower. Our abilities make these facilities unnecessary.”
Riley wanted to know more about the strange house and why a basic necessity like a kitchen would be irrelevant, but Colton’s odd architecture and lack of modern facilities were not the main issues. Even her impending death couldn’t curb her curiosity. “Tell me about the demons.” She flinched as he wiped a pebble from her skin.
“You are the first person to survive a demon attack. Their venom is stronger than a reaper. Their victims usually die immediately. I don’t envy you the pain of the next few hours.”
Riley recalled her conversation with Halak. Trying to focus on his scratchy voice while her insides felt like they were being seared with the blowtorch. “He said I needed the venom. I don’t understand what he meant.”
Colton shook his head. “I’m surprised Halak talked to you. They usually just drain their victims or massacre them. The shadows are mandated not to show mercy for female attacks anymore, so I will be with you until the end.”
“Mercy?”
“We used to euthanize a female who was bitten by a reaper. This was done to spare her from the pain when death was a certainty, but a female recently survived the transition and we must now wait for nature to decide,” he said.
She put her hand to her lips as she coughed blood onto her fingers. While her insides felt like she was being cooked alive, her lungs filled with fluid. She was drowning in her own blood. It boiled in her chest like a fiery cauldron. “What are the shadows?”
Before he could answer, her midsection seized. Her muscles attacked one another in a fight for supremacy. Squeezing and twisting in knots beneath her heated skin. She shook so violently, Colton had to hold her down on the bed. When she thought there would be an end to the madness, her eyesight wavered.
The light was swept away as dark shadows invaded the corners of her vision. Arcs of black mist consumed her surroundings, turning it to a gray haze as if she were watching a black-and-white movie in real-time. One watched through a foggy lens.
She could see every detail in the room. The bed, the side table, and the sexy man holding her. A picture of a cougar sitting on the limb of a large tree hung on the wall beside the door. But none of it was in color. Even through the grey haze of agony, her new reality was intriguing. An alternate reality that called to her, welcoming her into the night.
Colton squeezed her arm gently. “You’re in the final stages, Riley. Demon venom is toxic. I would give you something for the pain if I could.” He moved his arm in an arc, encompassing the room. “You have entered the shadows. You see them as we do. This dark world is what we travel. Every light has a darkness, and every darkness has a pathway. We travel those dark highways in a matter of seconds, pulled from one dark tunnel to the next. Some fast. Some slow. Streaming from one location to another in seconds. It’s a unique gift that came at a price.”
She pulled up her knees, wrapping her arms around them, laying in the fetal position as Colton rubbed her arm. The searing pain in her stomach had eased, but her lungs still felt like she was breathing boiling water. “What is your purpose?”
“That’s an interesting question, considering the circumstances. We fight the demons. For hundreds of years, we’ve been fighting reapers, but when the demons found a way to access our world, we joined with our enemy. We are in a war. Fighting to save humanity and ourselves. If we lose, all will be lost.”
While her body still felt heavy, her broiling intestines had turned to a low simmer, allowing her to focus on Colton’s voice. “What are reapers?”
“For the most part, they are like us. We both possess a demon soul, but they have chosen to feed on human blood, which kills off their animal. I am a cougar in my animal form. A reaper possesses only his shadow warrior form, but his shadow abilities are stronger.”
“Before the demons, you were fighting the reapers. Why?” she asked.
“They prey on humanity. Before Dannika took over the reaper clan and united us, they were killing indiscriminately. They are attempting to reform their eating habits, but there have been some defections.”
She took a deep breath. “The pain isn’t as bad.”
“Unfortunately, that means we have come to the end. We call this the last hope before oblivion,” he said sadly.
“Why?”
As if to answer her own question. Riley’s chest arched in the air as her shoulders dug into the mattress. Her jaw locked in an unshed scream as the bones in her spine cracked. Her heart stopped as her eyes glazed over. A vision rolled through her mind. A distorted, misshapen creature with shadow-imbued eyes. Her eyes.
She tried to reach out with ghostly fingers. To secure her inhuman body. To anchor her soul between the human and shadow world. Her shadow form contorted and reshaped, but no air entered its chest. It didn’t breathe.
Black blood trickled from her mouth as her eyes remained open and unseeing. Was it another vision of the future, or was she watching events unfold in real time? Would fate be so cruel as to make her witness her final moments? Why did her soul seem to be in an alternate location than her body?
Colton had said that shadows moved in the pathway. Was part of her displaced in this dark new world? She focused on the images in her vision, reaching out with shadowy fingers, attempting to join with her inert body. Pain ripped through her skull before her chest rose with its first breath.
The room remained black and white, but everything was ultra-focused. The dust particles floating in the air were as distinguishable as the wooden carving of a wolf displayed on a wall-mounted shelf. The sound of a beating heart thundered in her ears before her vision blurred.
