A Toiling Darkness Read Online Free Page B

hooker?”
    “No, a drug dealer.”
    “More trash,” I mumbled, and waited until
someone disappeared into the room a few minutes later and came back
out carrying a shrivelled carcass. The body was mummified, all
wrinkled skin and bones. The leftovers disappeared out the door
next to the one Seeker was in.
    I didn’t dwell on what Seeker had to do to
make the body like that. I already knew the process, even saw it
happen live once. It was disgusting. He has to embrace them, hold
them close while kissing them. Once his lips touched skin, he fed.
And he fed fast. Or if he was in a really bad mood, slowly to
torture his meal. I suppressed a grossed-out shiver. He held an
unfortunate power, one I didn’t envy.
    I survived off of human food, and even then,
I only ever ate when I wanted to. I could go days without
sustenance, no problem. My only reliance is sugar—a nice, safe
little addiction that started when I came to the New World with
Eithna, another old acquaintance. She was not part of the False
Immorality club.
    Baron nodded, letting me know I could go see
him and so I hopped off, going into the room without hesitation.
Not even his bodyguards could scare me away right now. Not that
they ever could.
    The room was only big enough for a small
couch, a fireplace and a side table with a lamp on it. The lamp was
on, the dull light casting dark shadows all around. Seeker sat on
the couch, stretched out with his head back. His hair was pure
white, almost translucent, his skin golden and limbs long and thin.
When he was standing, he pushed eight feet tall.
    I stood in front of him, waiting for his
completely white eyes to open and acknowledge me. His eyes were
always unsettling because they had the power to look right through
me. He probably did too—his vision was a lot better than mine. His
eyes were the whole reason he was known as Seeker.
    He was a true seeker who not only saw the
everyday things with an eagle’s eye but also information. He
literally saw information. When I first met him, he tried to
explain it to me and I couldn’t grasp the concept. Something about
being bilingual and multicultural, and knowledge being opaque.
Sounded like a bunch of garbage to me, but for him it all made
sense. He was the best of the best after all. Seeker wasn’t just
what he was, it was his name. He owned the name Seeker because he
was the greatest. A lot of beings had ownerships to names, like
Lord Kay being a lord for an example. Or Baron. Even I did too. I
own quite a few names, actually. We were big and powerful, and not
many tried to mess with us.
    I inwardly sighed with that thought. Even in
this weak child form I was still big and bad.
    While Seeker was the best, he has one rather
very annoying flaw. He has a really bad habit of falling into comas
that would last days at a time. His guards claimed conservation, I
say he’s just lazy. He also had the right to charge a lot for just
the tiniest bit of information. In most cases it was a taste of
life force for information—except me of course. I could get
information for free, only because he fears me. I think he saw his
death the day he met me and I was the cause of it. Not so much
seeing the future, just the knowledge that I was capable of killing
him and it was no skin off my back to do it. I would too. He’s been
kissing my ass since day one.
    “Darkness.” The seeker’s voice was raspy as
he enjoyed the high off the life force he had just consumed. He
wasn’t enjoying it as much anymore with my presence however. His
words were slow and careful, a hint of fear in them.
    “Seeker.”
    “To what do I owe the pleasure of your
company?”
    “I want to know why a slauve is in
existence.”
    He closed his eyes and sighed, some unknown
weight off his shoulders.
    “This one only kills if it is
justifiable.”
    “Justifiable?” I asked, thinking about the
word. I’ve heard it enough times.
    I’ll destroy her. I’ll bring her the same
misery she brought to you,