When Shadows Call Read Online Free PDF Page A

scream in fear, or launch myself from the bed, my body reacted, drawn to him like metal to a magnet. My eyes drifted shut of their own accord and I couldn’t help the sigh that escaped my lips. Bliss .
    “Yes,” Azriel whispered, the ‘s’ slipping out in a sensual hiss. “You were meant for this, Darian. You have always belonged to the shadows.”
    The fear and anxiety siphoned from my body and I lost myself to sensation. Every nerve ending in my body sparked to life, and I wanted more . More of those delicious shadows caressing my skin. More warm, comforting dark. More of him . “Please . . .” I didn’t dare open my eyes. I couldn’t trust myself to meet his gaze with anything but desire in mine. “Please,” I said again. But what was I pleading for?
    Another lick of shadowy heat reached out to caress me, and I gasped, in pleasure this time. My behavior was shameful at best. What would people think— No. Those were Henry’s words. Henry’s concerns. And he was dead.
    “I will be lonely no more.” Azriel’s rich voice was soft in my ears as his shadows stroked my body. “And you are safe. Strong. You have become more than you ever were or could ever imagine. Isn’t that all you need to know?”
    “No.” I’d meant the word to sound forceful but I was too used to weakness for it to sound anything but simpering. “Tell me, Azriel, what are you?”
    “I am shadow,” he said.
    I swayed as a second set of silky tendrils joined the first, swirling at the base of my neck and climbing up through the tangle of my hair against my scalp. A moan worked its way up through my throat, but I swallowed it down. I still held on to modesty and convention, no matter what Azriel’s touch evoked. “Shadow?” I murmured as I gripped the edges of the mattress for support. My bones had all but melted; it wouldn’t take much for me to topple over the edge of the bed, and wouldn’t that be charming?
    “Shaede,” Azriel whispered.
    I felt the weight of his body leave the mattress completely and I opened my eyes, afraid he’d left me. The silky vines of Azriel’s shadow retreated, slinking away from my body in a graceful, winding dance. He’d left his corporeal body completely behind, becoming nothing more than dark mist. The shadows retreated to the far side of the room and swirled in a violent cloud before coming together to create his solid form. But even so, as he stood before me, I couldn’t help but notice how his body quavered. Like a mirage. Or an illusion.
    “Are you real?” I breathed.
    “As real as you,” he said.
    “What is Shaede?”
    “The ancient Celts called us Scáth Siúlóir. Shadow Walkers. But our Fae forefather named us Shaede.”
    “How can I possibly believe this?” I asked more to myself than Azriel. “You speak of magic and fairy tales. There is no magic in this world.”
    “Then you deny what your eyes see?” Azriel asked. “What your body would tell you? There is magic in this world, Darian. And you are a part of it.”
    “You changed me.” I’d intended my words as a question, but instead I made a cold, hard statement. I was no longer human. I felt that fact down to every cell that constructed my body, knew the truth of it in the depths of my soul.
    “I needed a companion,” Azriel said, neither confirming nor denying my assertion.
    “Are there others?”
    His eyes narrowed shrewdly, but then his expression softened. “We are the last.”
    “We?”
    “Yes, Darian. You and I.”
    I leaned back against the headboard and massaged my temples. I felt as though my skull would split in two. The room spun out of focus and beads of sweat dampened my skin. So warm. Heat stifled the air, too thick to breathe. I struggled to take oxygen into my lungs but my efforts brought only scorching agony. I was going to suffocate in this unfamiliar place with no one but a stranger to witness my death.
    “Darian,” Azriel’s voice echoed in my ears as if he spoke from a long tunnel.