Tasting Darkness

Read Tasting Darkness [Tempting Darkness] By Jessica Hall Book 2 Chapter 38 – It was the day Lycus met Kalen, the day Kalen’s bully beat him almost to death. Lycus’ blood boiled as he watched for a few seconds before intervening, the rage inside him was like an erupting volcano. Grew hotter and hotter as the memories of his father standing over his mother and beating her to death returned to the forefront of his mind.

He couldn’t save her, but he could protect the boy being pummeled by someone much older. So that was what he did. Lycus’s protective nature I watched grew to obsession. Kalen became his personal project to keep safe. Not only from the other kids but also from the teachers.

Kalen was the weakest of the Fae. Lycus should have been like him, a dark Fae. And he couldn’t bear watching the helplessness on his face, the same helplessness he felt tied to that tree muzzled and unable to fight back. Kalen distracted him and kept him intrigued as he watched who everyone called the strange boy, the outcast.

Yet as he watched Kalen, he realized he was the strongest of all. There was something odd about Kalen, something dark and hidden, and for years Lycus watched over him waiting for him to come into his own, only for him to remain the same.

It was odd seeing Kalen from Lycus’s perception, he saw so much more than we did, saw a different side of Kalen I was yet to witness myself. A darker side that was destructive and dangerous, so much worse than I could have even known without his memories becoming mine.

Something drew him to Kalen as if they were magnets, destined to collide on the same collision course. Lycus believed his growing feelings for Kalen were wrong until he no longer cared, and Kalen became his world, his infatuation.

They were on their own, it wasn’t much longer after they escaped the orphanage. They were living on the streets and in a dangerous neighborhood. Sleeping behind a dumpster one night by a busy nightclub. Some drunken men stumbled up the alleyway.

Lycus tenses because there was something familiar about the scent he could smell. He believed he was being paranoid and shook the feeling away until one of the men stopped to urinate on the dumpster they were sleeping next to.

Lycus eyed the man disgusted as he pi***ed on the ground. He growled and the man jolted clearly not seeing they were there. Yet his startled expression turned to a sneer as he looked them over. Kalen was fast asleep, unaware of the danger that surrounded them. The man was grubby, his light blue shirt stained and he quickly zips himself up and steps back.

“Look what I found?” he called out to his friends down the alleyway making Kalen jolt and wake up, he rubs his eyes as Lycus moves to get in front of him in a crouched position ready to shift. Kalen falls to the side not expecting Lycus’s abrupt movement. Lycus growls as footsteps draw closer and Lycus’ body twists, snaps, and breaks as the shift begins to take over.

He would kill the man that dared try to touch Kalen. Yet before the shift took over the other three stepped forward and Lycus, stunned by his fear, froze as he set his eyes upon a man that starred in his nightmares for years. His father. His blood ran cold at the sight of him and his father looked at him as if he was the sc**m of the earth.

“Leave them, Patrick,” his father told the man in the blue shirt, not even acknowledging him. Yet the drunken man was looking for a fight and launched toward Lycus making me realize he too was were -fae. Bl**dy thirsty and lived for a good fight or hunt. Lycus doesn’t hesitate to toss himself in front of Kalen to attack the man. Lycus took him down easily and his father watched with no expression at all, clearly impressed that Lycus was able to take down a wolf twice his size and without so much as looking exerted.

Yet when his father whistles loudly, he realizes he was calling for more of his buddies until the alleyway turned into some makeshift fight club. Yet as time dragged Lycus grew weary and he realized his mistake. By defending Kalen his father knew had leverage against him. A way to use him and as three more circled men came into the alley and surrounded him he looked at Kalen in panic as his father moved toward him, where Kalen rocked with his hands over his ears having a full-blown panic attack.

Violence was never Kalen’s thing, nothing scared him more. He grabs Kalen by his hair making him cry out, yet Lycus was too far and surrounded. Yet that moment of distraction as he met Kalen’s petrified eyes earned him a knife to the stomach as the demonic-fae plunged and piping hot glowing dagger into him. He howled, swiping at him as his blood spilled out onto the asphalt.

The scream that left Kalen also distracted him as he turned to check him when the two other Were -fae jumped him, tearing into him.

was coming he didn’t care, the only thing he cared for

get a good amount for this one,” he tells the men attacking Lycus. Yet hearing that seemed to flip some sort of switch inside Kalen. And his father shrieked. He had no idea what Kalen had done, too focused on trying to remain alive as they tore into him. Yet when one of the were -fae whimpers and lets his neck go, the next one

behind Lycus horrified. Lycus sta****ers to his feet in a panic looking for Kalen yet when he finds him, he is just as horrified as his father when a flash goes off

air around him thickened, the

broke his heart into a million pieces. Kalen’s skin ripples as black veins slivered across his bare arms and feet, he steps closer the aura emanating from him grew thicker, harsher, colder and that was when he realized what Kalen’s gifts were, he was an empath and a strong one. Instead of feeling other’s emotions, he forces them over the men that attacked

channeled emotion, and they didn’t use it as a weapon. Lycus didn’t even realize it was possible as he watched Kalen force it over them as if it

clawing at themselves, clawing at their faces, their skin shredding it to stop the cold ache of the depression moving through them, Kalen was touching them, yet whatever he was doing was making them suicidal as they tore themselves apart, one man

throat. Kalen killed them without so much as

himself and collapses to the ground. Lycus limps over to him before hearing his father take off. Yet when the sound of sirens reached

shipped off. One thing the fae authorities and the council didn’t like was power that was unknown because they couldn’t control it or know how to defend against it. He would become a science experiment and a

did. His injuries not wanting to heal, and even with a broken ankle. Lycus leaned down, scooped him up, and tossed him over one shoulder, burning magic he shouldn’t have, he opened a portal and stepped into a dark park. Behind some seedy

never left his side. Yet when Kalen woke

Kalen asked, clutching his head. “I had the strangest dream,” Kalen mutters and

he could see the lost expression on his

the owner of the laundromat?” Kalen asked. That was last week and Lycus realized Kalen

someone else,” Lycus tells him. Kalen seemed confused as he took in his surroundings. So Lycus never mentioned that night but it made Lycus wonder if Kalen knew what he was

Lycus noticed though, that the longer he went without his meds the stronger his aura got, the more unstable he got, and the more depressed. So he walked into the strip club and

not having Kalen within sight. Yet after the first week, he had enough to put Kalen on his medication again. Worried that if

His father waited until his shift was over and Lycus did his best to ignore his presence. He knew Kalen was safe out the back in the

off the stage, sn****hing up his tips. “Your boyfriend, interesting gifts he has,” his father

want?”

you going to the pharmacy a fair bit, talked to the pharmacist and his medication is expensive,” his father tells him and Lycus shakes

what would happen if I handed that to the council,” his father said and Lycus growls turning on

wouldn’t have to, we could come to an arrangement,”  “I have nothing you want, or I can give you,” Lycus tells him looking at the

you halves, you will triple this,” his father says, handing the cash