A Mermaid's Ransom Read Free Page B

that had locked him here.
    While Dark Ones couldn't survive long away from this hated world, they could hunt anywhere for limited time periods. He controlled exit and entry through that rift, and they knew if they displeased him he would leave them there to weaken and die. Because they were as eager for the fresh blood as he, they went. And because knowledge was a power of its own, the Dark Ones brought him choice pickings for his blood needs and rituals like this. So far, only one Dark One had not returned. Dante let it be known that the Dark One had displeased him and was cut off from this world, a death sentence. In reality, he assumed the creature had fallen upon some mishap, but additional fear of his power was always useful.
    His place here had certainly changed over these twenty years. When the seawitch had come, he was a skulking scavenger, probably no more advanced or articulated in his desires or goals than this dumb creature he'd just killed.
    Then came the apocalyptic battle between the angels and the Dark Ones for possession of the human world, and the seawitch's decision. Dante didn't like to think back on that terrible day. This world had always been a prison for him, but it had windows, a way for him to gaze out into other worlds. When she chose to destroy them, she'd bricked up his cell door, sealing out everything, condemning him to relentless fire and darkness. A coffin with no death, nothing but screaming and terror, pain and anger.
    She had said, "Prove to me you deserve to be set free. And perhaps I will come back and do just that."
    He hadn't believed her of course. Words meant nothing. But she had affected him. Because of her, he accepted two absolutes. Power was the only avenue to change. And hatred was the fuel that would allow him to obtain it, if he honed it to accomplish his ultimate objective. Within a month of the rift closings, mad with bloodlust, he'd brought down his first Dark One and forced the creature to submit to his feeding upon him.
    She'd taken away his fear and left rage. Rage combined with cunning was a formidable weapon. All the stronger Dark Ones were gone. What was left were a few thousand lower and middle echelon Dark Ones who had been rudderless.
    Straightening, he swayed, but forced himself to walk across the now broken ritual circle, stepping over the woman's body. He took a seat on the throne he'd created for himself out of the hard, shiny black wood that came from the only type of tree in the Dark One world. Appearances were important, so he ensured his posture was one of casual indolence instead of physical exhaustion before he sent a mental compulsion to the Dark One he knew was waiting outside the chamber. He released the spell cast on the chamber door to allow him entry.
    When the skeletal creature slid in, talons scraping against stone, red eyes quickly darting over the area and then hungrily latching onto the fallen corpse, Dante inclined his head and spoke in the rasping language the creature understood. "You may take her for your own food now. However, you will go through the rift and find me another as soon as you are done, or I will remove her from your belly before you digest her."
    There was no night or day in the Dark One world, only unrelenting gray earth and fire in the sky. Time had no meaning, existence measured by breaths and meals, pain and survival. Either you were alive to eat the next meal, or you weren't.
    "Yes, my lord." The creature's voice rasped, as grating as its talons on stone. Another reason Dante liked having his private chamber. He could shut them all out, not hear the grunts and hissing, the interminable roar of fire, the pops and snaps of flame. The whistle of icy winds over a landscape devoid of anything but the skeletal black trees and the creatures that pulled themselves through the ice and mud, serving as food for the Dark Ones when nothing fresh from the outside was handy.
    As the creature departed, dragging the body by a stiff arm,