Sorry i haven't updated in a while. But here it is, next chapter! As a warning, there's a twist coming up you guys might not like...but no spoilers! I own no characters, but I hope you enjoy the story! :)

The Shadow Men had arrived. I didn't know how they'd gotten there. I didn't know how I'd missed them. But they were there. They circled around us, swathed in inky blackness, covering their hideous features. Their eyes smoldered like hot coals and when they grinned maliciously, their teeth were like shards of glass and stone. They regarded me hungrily and I shrank away from them.

The Shadow Man who had spoken first was leering at Julian, his gaze as crimson as blood. "My dear young Shadow Man," he crooned, in a voice like smooth steel. "We have all seen the soft side of you." The others laughed at his words. Their laughter reminded me of owl's wings beating in the night.

Julian glared at him, but didn't acknowledge the creature's accusation. "Why does it matter what I do?" he asked. "You abandoned me after I was reborn. You shouldn't care about me anymore."

"Oh, but we do care," the Shadow Man hissed. "You make us look horribly weak. You don't deserve to be called a Shadow Man." He smirked wolfishly, revealing rows of sharpened teeth. "I have to admit though, it was a very touching scene we saw last night. I've certainly never heard a mighty Shadow Man like yourself crying out for a human girl. You almost burnt the house down, from what I understand."

The Shadow Men cackled gleefully.

Julian lowered his eyes in shame. My heart ached for him.

"And you, my dear girl," the Shadow Man said, turning to me. "What could you possibly possess, that would reduce our youngest member to this?" He whirled around me, and the shadows that writhed around him made my skin prickle. He drew a clawed hand over my cheek, speaking inches from my ear. I fought back a wave of revulsion. "What is this light inside you?" he whispered to me. "What makes you so precious to him?"

I trembled, but didn't answer him. "Oh, come now," he insisted. "There's no need to be rude." I went rigid when I felt his horrible, forked tongue flick against my neck.

"Don't touch her," Julian snarled, his hands curled into fists. The air snapped around us like lightning.

The Shadow Man retreated, crawling along the ground like ink spiraling through water. "I see how it is, now," he chuckled evilly. "Did you hear that, friends? I can't lay a claw on her, but our young Julian can put his hands all over her."

They laughed like a pack of hyenas.

Julian had never looked so humiliated in front of them.

"Just shut up!" I blurted out, before I could stop myself. The laughter slowly died away. The silence was deafening. Julian was watching me, tense with fear.

The Shadow Man cocked his head, narrowing his eyes. "Excuse me?" he said. He was deadly serious now. He skittered across the ground and stopped right in front of me. His glare bored into me. "Are you challenging me, little human?"

"Who would want to challenge a pitiful creature like you?" I asked scornfully. I knew I was being stupid, but I couldn't seem to stop. "You can rot in Hell for all I care."

His scarlet gaze blazed. "You stupid, stupid girl," he growled. "I'm going to enjoy killing you in front of him. Slowly." He raised one clawed hand. "Take her."

The Shadow Men lunged for me, jaws gaping, talons outstretched.

Julian was in between us in a heartbeat. They reeled backward, as if some invisible wall had thrown them back. They screeched in fury and wheeled around us, struggling to break through.

The red-eyed Shadow Man hissed. "You can't hold us back forever," he taunted. "What should we do to her, I wonder, when we take her?"

Another Shadow Man scraped his claws together. "Crunch through her bones," he suggested. "Let him hear them snap inside her."

"No," Julian rasped.

"Or maybe we should peel off her skin," another added cruelly. "Let him hear her scream."

"No."

The shadows howled with the thrill of it.

A new voice split the air. One that I thought I'd never hear again.

"Stop! We didn't agree to this!"

The Shadow Men stopped in their tracks. They kept their starving gazes fixed on me. I shivered. They began to inch backward, giving us room, obeying that new voice. Julian's chest rose and fell with every breath he took. He didn't move away from me. I peered over his shoulder, stunned when I saw a figure striding through the shadows. He parted them like water.

It was Tom.