Gray's Shadow (Kings of Hell MC 4)

It was yet another reminder for Shadow that human life was about constantly wanting something, and suffering when you couldn’t get it. Such a pathetic, tragic existence in comparison to the peace and contentment of being one with the swarm.

Shadow understood what his human body needed, but what Gray had offered him was yet another form of torture. Soft bread with salty ham that leaked juices all over, and crunchy vegetables with a tangy sauce. He could hardly swallow, and rinsed out the disgusting taste with the water he got with the meal.

But once Shadow understood the concept of eating, he tuned in to his senses, trying to understand what was appetizing. That was when he first smelled one of the rats that visited his cell and lived in the bowels of Gray’s home, unbothered by anyone. It had been a fat catch, and its fur had the aroma of dust. Delicious. Sometimes, he even rubbed his prey against the mould on the walls, which turned out to be surprisingly aromatic.

He’d broadened his repertoire after that discovery, and started capturing some of the bugs living down there. Their little bodies fell apart between his teeth, exploding with a sweet juiciness that drizzled down his tongue, nourishing him from inside out.

His previous form didn’t need to seek out food, but once he got a taste for hunting, the instinct struck every time his ears picked up faint sounds resonating all around him.

But while the hunt left him physically satisfied and made the passing of time easier, it was not comparable to having company. A cockroach wouldn’t talk to him, and when he tried to just hold one in his mouth for a while, it kept fidgeting, so he’d eaten it in the end.

He wasn’t even sure if he’d slept at all since his imprisonment, because every hour spent in the dark, dreaming of the warm touch of Gray’s body against his own, became a blur. The separation felt like physical pain, and Shadow had once even resorted to catching Gray’s ankle through the gap under the door, but all that had given him was another bruise, this time left by Gray’s heavy boot.

Desperate for even the briefest contact with his human, Shadow didn’t tell Gray that the food didn’t agree with him, because he’d have likely stopped visiting Shadow at all if he knew. And while Gray always kept their interaction minimal, at least he cared enough to come here. Shadow could hear his voice and capture his scent—sweet and tempting beyond even the youngest and healthiest of rats—to then fantasize about it for hours on end.

What Shadow hadn’t expected were visits from someone other than Gray, but god-knew how long into his incarceration, two people cared to dedicate him some of their time.

The sound of their footsteps on the stairs was a call to action, and when Shadow heard them again, the burger patty was back on the food tray, forgotten as he rose, starved for interaction with someone who would listen and spoke to him in return.

“I was thinking,” Shadow said before Knight and Elliot even reached the door. “Maybe you could bring me a watch? How long have I been here?”

“You know how to read a watch?” Elliot asked from the other side, just before the bolt screeched and the door opened, revealing his only friends.

Knight came in first, his arms full of paper bags that surely contained leftover food that constituted most of Shadow’s diet, since there were only so many creatures living down here with him. They’d worked out that fresh food was disgusting to Shadow’s palate, while dishes that had already gone off—moldy or rotting—hit the sweet spot.

Knight shrugged. “It’s been almost a week. Let me tell you, I’d have gone crazy if I were in your shoes,” he said, shaking his head until his lush brown hair floated in the faint light of the single bulb.

Shadow calculated in his mind. “A week? I thought the new moon was approaching already. Every minute feels like seconds.”

Elliot raised his eyebrows. “The other way around?”

“Yes, seconds like minutes.”

Shadow accepted the food, some of which smelled deliciously funky, but he could eat at any time. Elliot and Knight, however, would only stay for so long, and he needed to make the most of their companionship.

“Did you talk to Gray? He won’t listen to what I say at all.” Shadow rubbed the fuzzy beard that had grown on his face. He spent most time cozied up under a couple of blankets that kept the cold at bay, but once he was out, the damp air nibbled at his flesh.

Elliot let out a low sigh and looked back at Knight. Shadow only realized what was going on when Knight spoke to the dirty wall. “Come on, Maureen. Gray is nothing like Roger. Your man was scum. A woman like you should never be just left behind, even less so with a baby. He clearly wasn’t thinking straight.”