Your cart is currently empty!
Chapter 17: What Becomes of the Dark
The Spice District
VLAD
It was hard to keep the parameters of why he was searching for Alice in mind, though Vlad tried like the dickens to keep that thought in his head. In this form, it was difficult to stay tethered to reality. There was no nuance. Everything was black and white; obstacle, threat, or prey.
The vampires he tore limb from limb on his way through the streets? Prey.
The djinn tracking him from a third floor window? Threat.
But when he thought of Alice, a new word was added to the list: Desire.
Yes, Vlad could feel the beginnings of a slip and there was no William standing by with a silver sword. If he wasn’t careful, not-quite-Vlad would be all that was left.
He could see Dolly’s in the distance, but he could also see the well-dressed bone creature blocking his path. Something nagged at him, a shriveled piece of recognition…
Obstacle, thought not-quite-Vlad.
Obstacle, Vlad agreed, cracking his neck and stretching his wings.
They practically spanned the narrow street, those wings.
And as he shot into the air, he remembered that flying was like breathing.
Remembered what it was like to spar in the dark depths even demons called the “chasm of loss.”
Recalled the particular way the fire swayed when the old gods came calling.
Pulse pumping ribbons of adrenaline as the creature motioned him forward, he remembered that he had a name in some unpronounceable tongue and it was meant as oath to break obstacles.
And belatedly, perhaps too late, Vlad remembered that he couldn’t remember these things at all.
Comments
14 responses to “Chapter 17: What Becomes of the Dark”
-
See, this is what happens when you mess with the God of Death’s Level-1 brownies—you get an ironic role reversal and the antagonist from The Princess and the Frog on your ass. All while she shows why a convenience store cashier would be selected as the keeper of hell on earth.
-
Haha I cackled as I read this. Highest praise hahaha!! I was only sad that I couldn’t find a bone vest for the shadow man. My poor computer was like: NO MORE CC GIRL.
-
-
I am liking the contessa. She’s a lot of fun already.
What in the world was that thing Vlad fought? Yikes! Did Alice subconsciously conjure that thing up when she told Ben they needed to make sure Vlad couldn’t find her? He did deserve to get his butt kicked for not picking her, tsk tsk!
-
Yeah, you’ll find out in later chapters but suffice it to say, Alice is crazy powerful. More powerful than anyone even knows. So powerful she can summon something dark and ancient and very strong…
But 100% Vlad deserved it. I LOVED writing him getting his butt kicked.
-
-
Ha! Alice has a good head on her shoulders. No getting word-tricked into having to do questionable things for her! My inner fey is both amused and highly annoyed by her not falling for it.
“That jackass declared Jimena the contest winner and he couldn’t even taste her food?”
😂😂😂 Glad to see you have your priorities all straightened out, Alice.Yikes! What on earth is that thing that went up against Vlad – and won?! Also, that monster inside Vlad is scarily powerful. It doesn’t seem bothered by Vlad’s curse at all, either. I wonder what would happen if it got out, or completely took over Vlad. Nothing good, I’m sure.
Whoa! Well played, Alice. Well played indeed. This is what she should be doing instead of hiding away in the middle of nowhere because of Ben. That was a masterful manipulation if I ever saw one! 😁
-
HAHAHAHAHA yes! Now, if she had to go up against your inner fey, I don’t know if she’d be that successful.
A theme in this story is characters “having their priorities straight” ::wink wink::
Whew boy, I can’t wait for you to get answers to all of these questions!
-
-
love the cat-and-mouse-ness of all your character interactions! Contessa vs. Alice, Vlad vs. Alice, Vlad vs. William, well all of them, really. makes it so fun to read and hard to stop! Although when it comes to Vlad and Alice, it feels like it’s going to turn into cat-and-cat 😛
-
Okay thinking of all my characters like cats actually makes a lot more sense. I’m so glad this is coming through! I wanted the story to feel like it had tension—all these people wandering around with secrets, what will happen when they collide?
-
-
What the fuck is that creature in the skeleton mask? We see his face at the end, but god help me, how the fuck is there anything stronger than god-rage Vlad? 0.o
The Contessa as a King of Police … You know what, I’m on Team Contessa. That chick should be the King/Queen of Police. Why the eff not? Let’s give her a 5-year plan and see what changes she brings. Can it be any worse than the current system? Yes, yes it could. But it could also be worlds better, and I’m banking that if a strong woman were seated in that position it would be better than worse. I know that’s not their agreed plan, but I’m not against the idea of Contessa’s original idea.
-
Right?!?!!?! Hahahaha oh god, so many good things about Contessa Queen of police that I can’t say because spoilers, but let’s just say she runs a tight ship 😂
Uh, yeah, so uh, that’s a monster Alice casually summoned from the Underworld in the previous chapter to ensure she wasn’t followed.
So what’s stronger than Vlad?
Alice 😈
-
So she runs a tight ship eh? Does she BURN SHIPS DOWN too? You know… a la The Strauds opening 😉
OH! HOLY SHIT.
I mean it should make sense that a God of Death > vampires, but FUUUUCK. Also, it’s obvious that Vlad is not an *ordinary* vampire. I mean if he were, William wouldn’t be practicing his hide and see skills.
Can I just stan a black woman as a mightier opponent to a white toxic man (or you know let’s just call it what it is, the embodiment of white, toxic masculinity). Like GOOSEBUMPS.
The rage of women who are poc and have suffered the most from white men, being THE revenge, but also issuing next lvl forgiveness to the atrocities committed against them. Goodness, this is too much for my Sunday-brain to handle, but STAAAAAAAAAAAAN so much. -
All I can do is blush and flutter my eyelashes and say THANK YOU 😊 🥰
-
LMAO. TEASE.
-
-
I am loving the customer service skills as a defense 😂
I have no words about Vlad. ONLY ANXIETY
Leave a Reply