Darkness Below (The Shadows of Miskatonic Book 1) by Barbara Cottrell

Author:Barbara Cottrell [Cottrell, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798986593814
Publisher: Vanishing Edge Press
Published: 2023-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

The agony was unbearable. Ellen twisted and turned, but the earth refused to release its grip. Tons of rubble pressed down on her body. It was only a matter of time before she died. She could feel the life leeching out of her.

“God, please forgive me, I had to do it, I had to,” she whispered.

The words were hot and coppery in her mouth. Ellen didn’t expect an answer (she was a long, long way from God), so she was surprised when she heard a faint mewling.

The plaintive cry was answered by the distant sound of rumbling. A man lay a few feet away. He stared at Ellen with big brown eyes, his face wide with terror. When she reached out to comfort him, she saw a tattoo on her arm.

Numbers.

The air around her grew hot. Ellen struggled to stay, but the man whose body she occupied turned inward. His life flashed before her. He slipped and slid in the mud, pursued by howling dogs and men shouting in German.

Something was in his hand. Something he had taken from them.

He headed toward the barbed wire fence, carrying her along.

The sharp points waited for them, glistening in the rain.

I don’t belong here, she thought.

Oh, you do, the unseen man replied. You do belong here. You need to be here.

Ellen threw up her arms as her body hit the fence.

Wake up, wake up, wake up . . . Her eyes flew open.

Her hands scrabbled across her body, searching for shredded skin, for the deep grooves of the nightmare.

Nothing.

Slowly the real world returned. The room she was in was unfamiliar—full of strange shapes and long shadows. A man slept beside her. After a few moments she remembered.

Stuart.

She hadn’t planned on sleeping with the man in the library, but the evening had been so comfortable, the seduction so smooth, Ellen surrendered to the moment. It had been a long time since she had been with a man. She reveled in the simple pleasure of making love. Stuart masqueraded as a vampire, but he had none of the usual hang-ups. No desire to bite or draw blood.

There had been only one odd moment. As she raced toward an orgasm, Connie Blake popped into her head. For a split second it felt like he pushed his way inside her, like he was trying to take over.

Ellen shook her head. “Impossible,” she blurted into the darkness. But was it? she wondered. How much do you really know about Connie Blake and what he can do?

Stuart shifted in his sleep. “Katie.”

The name that spilled out of his mouth was full of innocence. Ellen knew it wasn’t an ex-girlfriend. Or a current one. Not that it mattered.

He was a one-night stand. A single-serving friend.

Ellen smiled at the man beside her. He let her wash the makeup off his face the night before—an act of trust that set the stage for everything that followed. His face was less severe without the mask. His features were fuller. In the light of day he looked like the Midwestern boy he was.

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