Page 187 of Lost in the Dark

My pussy clenches and spasms repeatedly, tugging on the cocks buried within me even though they can be pulled no further, creating an even sweeter feeling deep within me as jet after jet of his hot release floods my channel and womb, only the smallest amount finding space to escape and dribble between us. My orgasm that rolls through me is endless, his roar elemental as it surrounds me, as if we don’t belong to this plane of existence at all when we are together.

Once again, it strikes me how oddly hollow it sounds. Even the sound of his claws tearing into the bedding, ripping it apart with the full fury of his power bent upon them, sounds alarmingly distant.

I drop against the bed, the residual shocks of my orgasm slowly fading from me. He remains lodged within me but turns us so that he can lie at my side. There is almost something tender about the way he turns us, and once we are settled, he can’t seem to get enough of lightly stroking his hands over me, his silver eyes bright with emotion. The connection continues even after, some time later, his cocks slip from me, the wet trail of his seed spilling out after them.

Eventually we get up and change the sheets. Pulling on a tank and some loose shorts, I crawl into bed. I smile as the bed creaks beneath the weight of Gralius settling beside me, one dark wing blanketing me. My eyes flutter and close as the shadows descend deeper and deeper. His breath is a sigh against my cheek.

And then everything snaps. The world detonates around me as the restful darkness of the night is overtaken, my walls buckle and fall away. Everything is gone.

There is blood, so much blood. I am aware of it pooling from me from deep wounds on my torso. With a scream I leap from the bed, only distantly aware of Gralius’s shout of concern following me as I run from the room. I can hear only the squeal of tires and the screams. I can see the large pickup as it skips the curb and then I’m in my living room. Or what’s left of it. It too is dissolving before my eyes but not fast enough to miss the horror of my kitchen, the piled food decaying everywhere. Takeout boxes set down and forgotten, the food I never remembered eating and apparently never did eat.

I shake my head in disbelief, my screams echoing around me until I am alone in the darkness.

Alone.

Gralius

Everything unravels too quickly, the world tearing apart in a burst of shadows. Naomi goes limp in my arms as she stares out at it, her entire world reduced to nothing by a dim reflection of what it once was now that the veil has settled over it and claimed her. While my world is one that is filled with shadows, it is not like being caught within the veil. There is no true color in the veil. The muted lavender and plum have only the faintest hint of their once soothing hue. I can feel the wyrms stirring at the other side as they consume the trace threads of her energy that still touch upon that world.

I feel her calm within my arms, her fingers going lax against my bicep. My heart breaks when I feel her shift away as she releases me and pushes through my wings furled tightly around us to protect her in the sudden descent of the veil. I look down at her, silently pleading for her to look up at me, but she cannot see me. She cannot even feel my presence now. I am nothing more to her than I would be to any of the humans who have passed close to me. I am an echo of a sensation to her, a ghost in her world, and that reality shatters my heart.

A pained sob of grief breaks from me as I reach out for her, desperate to grab ahold of her, but she does not even feel my touch and seems more insubstantial to me as the moment passes. Without looking at me, she walks over to the shadow of her computer and turns it on to open a file.

“Strange dream,” she whispers. “I’d better get back to work.”

I have to strain to hear her words as they seem to get lost one by one into the void. She is no longer even connected to the energy of the meleth except where the veil is anchored to it. Somehow, though, I manage to catch the faint words and keep that clutched close to my chest as I hover unseen behind her. She doesn’t note my presence any more than she recognized Wilox fluttering or perching near her, his soft cries unheeded. The veil has enclosed her completely from our presence.

She might notice Wilox’s absence in time since he was such a part of her mortal life, but it is unlikely that, in this state, she will give any more attention to it than she would any of his nightly jaunts. The familiar keens for her attention, his sadness piercing, adding more weight to my own grief as he attempts repeatedly to rouse her from the grip of the veil until, in defeat, he finally falls silent. Though he does not blame me, I feel the weight of his sorrow as acutely as my own as he shadows her, invisibly offering comfort that she cannot feel.

With a heavy heart, I follow her through her routine of activities, even watching over her as she “rests” in the vain hope that she will be comforted by my love and somehow awaken from the veil’s shadow dream. I do this knowing that it is unwise for me to try to remain here. Demons are not meant to linger here and can succumb to madness far easier than the souls caught within the web of the veil. Yet I cannot leave her.

I trail her through the house for what seems like days—weeks even—sitting as close as I can so that I can touch her and demonstrate my love even if she is unaware of it. I know she feels it though. At times, I see her skin shiver and her eyes gloss with tears, driving the blade of my grief deeper into my soul. After a while, I stop touching her, unhappy with the torment it seems to give when she finally begins to break down and cry.

Her cries are like an echo now, as indistinct as her individual words. Even her form is becoming more shadowy, and I know that soon I will only catch perhaps the smallest glimpses of her. Despair fills me at that knowledge as I witness the erosion of her lingering energy body firsthand. It is barely there, just a soft curtain of spun threads that allows me to still see her, and I want to rage at the gods themselves for what was stolen from us.

I know I cannot remain. That it is time for me to go. But some part of me cannot leave without saying goodbye and embracing her one last time and hope that we might meet again if—somehow—she finds her way to the river Lethe and is reborn among her own again. It is rare for those bound within the veil to the earth, but it is a hope I keep within me all the same.

Pain roars through me as I step up closer behind her, closer than I have dared because of her reaction to my touch. Wilox’s head turns toward me, his gaze sadly following my movements as I lean in just behind her shoulder. I take a moment to breathe her in, my eyes drinking in this last memory of her as she stands in her kitchen, going through the motions of chopping the illusion of food on her cutting board.

“Naomi, my love,” I whisper.

I set my hands on her shoulders, and the motion of her blade stills. She stares off into the distance and blinks, a sheen of tears filling her eyes. I hate that my touch brings her sorrow with the remnants of memory that are ingrained yet inaccessible to her. She sorrows without knowing why and it kills me, but this will be the last time.

I stroke my hand down her arm, her energetic body almost insubstantial now, and I sigh, struggling to find a way to put my feelings into words.

“I want you to know that I love you, and that I will always love you. That I will wait for you, but I cannot do that here. I would deteriorate with you if I could,” I choke out. “But I cannot. Soon we will both exist in this place not even being aware of each other until madness claims me and I will not even remember you any more than you can now remember me. But I am holding to your oath. You are mine, and I am yours. If you remember nothing else, carry that knowledge within your soul and return to me when you remember and are freed of this place.”

However long that takes.It can take hundreds of years for a lost soul to realize that they are dead and be able to leave the veil. But it does not matter. For her, I will wait an eternity.

I close my eyes, tears seeping out, something I never believed that a demon could manifest until now. Until I felt the ramifications of a broken heart. Shaking my head, I press my lips against her hair, and her body trembles with a soft sob, tears falling freely down her cheeks as my wings fold around her in one last embrace.

“Until then, I shall go,” I whisper against her hair. “And I will wait for you. No matter how many eons it takes, I will wait for you to find your way back to me. You will find a way. I must believe that. But know that I love you and would deteriorate here with you if I could so that we could spend eternity here if we can have nowhere else.”

Pressing one last kiss to the side of her cheek, I withdraw, pulling my wings around myself vulnerably as I step away. Her entire body shivers and seems to dim further. Unable to bear the pain of it, I turn from her, making my way to her door that will allow me to find one of the familiar routes through the veil. I turn the knob, and the shadowy mist spills in as I draw the door open wide.

A soft sob draws my attention, snagging at my heart, and despite my decision I turn to look back. Naomi stands there in the middle of the room, her arms wrapped around her middle, her downcast eyes barely visible. She does not look at me but at the floor instead as she trembles, but the words that pour from her mouth ensnare me.

“Please,” she whispers hollowly. “Please, I don’t know who you are, but please don’t leave me.” Small threads of light in her energetic body pulse with her power, a power never fully actualized for a witch cut down in her youth. Before me is a witch of strong magic, fighting back against the hold of the veil by her own power and I am in awe of her. “Come back.”