Available Darkness Season 2

locking a starving vegan in a room with a juicy steak, knowing full well that no matter how much he claimed to love animals, he would revert to their own animal nature to survive.
    No, I am stronger than this.
    Duncan tried thinking of better things, like Caleb.
    Not Caleb now, wherever he was, assuming he was still alive since he’d vanished into Jacob’s portal. He thought of Caleb as a young child, and how much he’d loved the kid. Caleb looked up to his Uncle Duncan, and gave the old man the closest thing to a paternal role he would ever have. He wished Caleb’s adopted father hadn’t felt so threatened, and hadn’t made Caleb feel guilty as a result. Hell, his dad had made Duncan feel guilty, and that was almost impossible.
    Duncan remembered going fishing with Caleb when the boy was 11, and first starting to notice girls. Caleb asked Duncan what to do when a girl didn’t like you like you liked her. He pointed at the lake. “See that lake?”
    Caleb nodded.
    How many fish do you think are in there?”
    “I dunno, maybe a few hundred.”
    “And how many fish do you think are in all the other lakes in the world? How many in all the seas?”
    “Millions?” Caleb looked confused. “Why?”
    “Let me ask you, Caleb. Remember that brim you nearly caught last time we were here? Just as you were reeling it in, it popped off the hook?”
    “Yeah!” Caleb said laughing.
    “You didn’t get all bent out of shape about that, right?”
    “No, not really.”
    “Why is that?” Duncan asked.
    “I don’t know. I figured I’d catch another one.”
    “Exactly,” Duncan said, holding up a finger. “It’s the same with girls and women. There’s no shortage, and never will be. Getting hung up on only one will end in nothing but heartache.”
    “But she’s not a fish, she’s a girl. A beautiful girl. She’s smart, pretty, and even likes to play soccer!”
    “Yeah, but there’s plenty more out there too, son. There’s always someone else out there. Trust me.”
    Caleb’s line went taut as another fish bit on his line, almost on cue, as if proving Duncan’s point.
    Duncan couldn’t remember what happened with that particular girl, or anything about her outside their shared conversation on the lake. There had been many girls in Caleb’s young life until he finally met the woman he married. Duncan never once considered that he might’ve been wrong. There was always someone else to occupy a space in your heart. Maybe that sort of realization could only come after living through centuries and watching everyone you love die, until you finally stopped allowing people to get close enough to miss them.
    Now, as Duncan sat with nobody caring one way or another if he lived or died, he wondered if he’d been wrong from the start. Some people, whether lovers, or someone welcomed into your family — there were some people whose absence could never be replaced.
    The housekeeper’s voice cut through Duncan’s thoughts, and with his attempts to forget she was easy prey beside him. “Can you untie my hands, sir?”
    “I’m afraid not,” he said, meeting her eyes.
    She paused, then asked, “Why not?”
    “Because if I touch you, you’ll die.”
    The woman’s eyes widened as she stood. “What do you mean?”
    Her aura darkened to deep crimson. Something in her scent changed, and stirred his hunger further. He also found himself sexually aroused, which only disgusted him more.
    “The man who brought you in here, did you see him burn anyone by touching them?”
    She nodded yes, shaking as her eyes brimmed with tears.
    “That man is a monster. And now I am, too.”
    She stared at him, unmoving.
    “What are you, fucking stupid?” Duncan barked. “Go away!”
    She turned from him and ran up the stairs, as fast as she could with her hands tied behind her back. She banged her head on the door as she wailed, “Please, please let me out!”
    As her fear escalated, Duncan’s inner creature stirred, like a stomach growling over the scent of baking bread. His cock was rock-hard.
    Duncan was at the top of the stairs a second later, surprised by his speed, once he surrendered to the creature’s will and let it guide his actions.
    The housekeeper screamed.
    Duncan reached out and silenced her forever, drinking her soul, and feasting without thinking of the monster he’d become. As he ingested her life force, and her memories, he finally knew her name — Melora.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 5 — Abigail

    Abigail