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Beco to breathe through the jaggedness of the pain He laced his fingers together at the back of his head He had surely died and gone to hell After all, where was his life now? No other pain he couldthat was scalding him from the inside out His family&039;s screams haunted him so heavily

His chest was on fire His heart felt as if it were going to ashes The pain was sharp and relentless as it spread up from his sternuus Clenching his teeth together, he was afraid to open hisout His gu hi every last pulsation of his still-living heartbeat

Nikolai had been awake for only an hour, finding his antique, as though he&039;d been transported into another tiold The tapestries The bedclothes Thewas the strangest he&039;d ever endured After the odd boy had finished his explanation, and his request, he&039;d left Nikolai alone in the stark catacoiven The boy said his name was Aiden Aidenan Irish naly all-powerful being to be called so sohuman The bruises on his back, left over froainst the stony walls, bothered hi this new bedchamber further, Nikolai found that Aiden had locked the door Not that it mattered much Nikolai wasn&039;t about to try and escape, for he had no idea what city he was in, let alone what real that barred hi had been so eerily quiet and still He&039;d lain on that stone slab, reliving the hter over and over and over He didn&039;t kno long it was going to haunt him He almost didn&039;t mind it anyway, for at least he could continue to see their faces He&039;d remained like that for hours, completely tormented by the visions of souls past, and it would probably continue to haunt him for the rest of his existence He wondered when he&039;d fallen asleep long enough for Aiden to transport him up here He wanted so much to die

Finally, the bedrooes Nikolai stared at the strange boy as he entered A devilish smile played across his pale, inhuman lips, finally revealed He&039;d taken off the scarf he&039;d initially worn around the lower half of his face And aspair of incisors just behind those lips Nikolai stifled a gasp What exactly was he? A De his bangs behind one pointed ear, revealing the intensity of the unnatural color of his one eye "The plan is in ed to choke out "I can&039;t take it anymore You have to kill me"

Abruptly, Aiden sent the hard back of his hand clear across Nikolai&039;s jaw, knocking hi mixture of blood and saliva spewed frolared up at hilint in his eye and a sort of understanding sically lifting hi him at all "I believe that to know thy eneree?"

Nikolai couldn&039;t answer Paralyzed by fear, he was unable to spit out anything rinned darkly "I have beco Nikolai slowly, his hands clasped behind his back

"But what is that?" Nikolai asked "What aift inside of you It&039;s what you were born with It&039;s what your father possessed It&039;s what your grandfather possessed" Aiden&039;s eyes narrowed at the last part

Nikolai gaped at hi what he&039;d just heard His arms dropped to his sides "Wha-what? My father?"

"Yes" Aiden gave a cocky smile and tilted his head to one side, almost as if he resented Nikolai in some way "Someone like you only comes around maybe every thousand years Maybe I needed to do a lot of research-pull a lot of records You are e call a Revenant You are hu, unfortunately, but you have the dark powers inside of you They are doroing to be very useful to me"

"It doesn&039;t feel like they are very dormant I don&039;t think my friends could do ers The antique bedside table exploding to splinters "Whoops," he said sarcastically "Hope that wasn&039;t worth a lot ofaway fro I can&039;t afford to replace And anyway, they are doric tricks now, but it&039;s nothing compared to what your potential is when you&039;re fully turned"

Nikolai winced "What does that mean?"

"Nikolai" Aiden peered at him over his shoulder as he paced "Did you know of your distant relatives? Your great-grandfather, perhaps?"

Nikolai winced What an odd question No He didn&039;t And in fact, his father didn&039;t either His grandfather was as far back as his farandfather was orphaned at infancy"

"Ah" Aiden nodded "That sounds like soh I&039;ll introduce you to your great-grandfather as well" His grin was crooked and thin

What on earth was he talking about? He decided to change the subject "What is the dark gift?" Nikolai asked "The one inside of leaaze dropping to his hands That wasn&039;t what he&039;d expected, after identifying for most of his childhood with a fictional boy wizard

"It has been inside of you for generations It lives in your family They just never told you, because perhaps they didn&039;t realize what the truth was theood relationship with your father, did you?"

Nikolai was nothing h it felt fahtmare he kneell froed anywhere in his life, he knew that And even though he was more miserable now than he&039;d ever been, there was the odd sensation of belonging "No," he answered sirasped Nikolai&039;s pal it over, he traced the intricate system of lines with one of his claws "You weremore than a monster But not to worry You&039;ll find purpose in all of this soon enough" He sat Nikolai on the bed, eyes boring incredulously into his "There is one more task left before you take your first hulanced for a ht itself had wronged him in some personal way "We can&039;t have you be just as weak as the o after You possess fantastic powers, Nikolai, but you&039;ve never been exposed to the opportunity toI can offer you" He turned back to Nikolai, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder "I am about to relieve you fro" His words seeesture did

Nikolai frowned, not knowing at all what Aiden meant by that Despite his own desperation, he leaned away from the boy-monster "I don&039;t think so" He clenched his jaw He could see how dangerous things were about to beco,"