As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Hades.”

Aaron nodded.

“This is just some friend of yours,” I said slowly. “Right? Like, a pal you play tennis with on Sundays?”

I couldn’t really imagine Aaron being the type to play tennis with someone, but my brain was having a hard time wrapping itself around the other option.

“No,” Aaron said quietly. “I hate tennis.”

Of course, he did.

“Hades,” I repeated. “Like, god of the freaking Underworld? That guy? That one? Is that the Hades you’re talking about? You’re positive it’s not just some pal of yours?”

“A little of both,” Aaron said, trying to be light-hearted. I think. Or maybe he was being serious.

Vir snorted from the back seat. “He doesn’t have ‘pals’.”

“Sure, he does,” Aaron fired back. “You’re just not among them, so you don’t think he does.”

I cut Vir off as he opened his mouth to say something. “Enough. I don’t have time for your teenaged bickering. My parents are in danger here, okay?”

Vir fell silent.

“Now, Aaron,” I said, focusing my full attention on the driver. “You’re telling me that you owed money to the god of hell? Am I getting that right?”

“Not quite,” Aaron said. “I owed him a debt. And it’s the Underworld. He doesn’t really like it when you call it hell.”

Vir muffled a cough. “He always was a touchy one,” he muttered.

Aaron craned his neck around. “Can you blame him? I would be, too, if an asshole like Lucifer came and stole my thunder.”

I stared at Aaron, suddenly feeling very, very tiny.

“Who are you?” I whispered. “You’re clearly not just some treasure-hunting accomplice my father worked with.”

I’d already surmised that much, but it was one thing to be able to run fast and be stronger than most. But knowing the god of He—the Underworld—well enough to say you were pals? That was on an entirely different power scale than anything I’d imagined for Aaron.

“Well, if you want to get technical—” Vir started to say before falling silent at a sharp shake of Aaron’s head.

I glared at Vir, trying to will him on, get him to continue.

“Now probably isn’t the best time,” Aaron said quietly. “We wouldn’t want your friend to wake. She doesn’t know any of this.”

“She won’t,” Vir said with a confidence I hadn’t expected.

“Is she okay?” I asked, worried. “Did something happen? How can you know she won’t wake?” I was turning in my seat, trying to get a better look at Jo.

“Relax, Dani,” Vir said, laying a hand gently on my arm, letting me feel his calm. “I simply put her to sleep. Precisely so she wouldn’t be aware of this. She already heard my name. That could make things difficult.”

“Maybe,” I said, relaxing now that I knew my friend was going to be okay. “But I’m the one who was big into the old gods. Jo, not so much. She’ll just think it’s a cool coincidence.”

Vir nodded, accepting my word for it. Trusting me. I looked at him, then at Aaron. I wanted to trust them. I wanted to let them have their secrets, to keep their privacy. Yet, I couldn’t. Not this time. There was too much at stake. My parents’ lives, in fact.

“Aaron,” I said quietly. “I think it’s time you told me the truth. I need to know who the, uh, hell, I’m working with.”

Sometimes a great pun comes along at the worst of times. I managed not to laugh, but they both knew I was thinking it.

“No more secrets,” I added, refocusing. “No more false fronts. I need the truth.”

The cabin was silent for a long time after that. I watched Aaron’s face, noting the troubled look in his eyes, the slight clouding to the normally electric blue within. He readjusted his grip on the wheel numerous times, clenching and unclenching his jaw simultaneously.

The truck rolled along, taking us back to Kellar. No one spoke.

I wanted to give him as long as he needed, but after ten minutes had gone by, I was starting to grow impatient. Whether Aaron noticed this and finally spoke, or if he’d come to a conclusion on his own, I would never know because the shock of his next words was all I remembered.

“I’m a vampire,” he said tightly, still staring straight ahead.

Licking my lips, I sat back into my seat, staring at him and the side profile of his face. Pale skin. Brilliantly blond hair. Eyes so brightly blue it almost defied nature.

“Oh,” I said, drawing the lines between those features and still coming up in disbelief. “You’re joking, right?”

“No.” The soft, firm reply told me it wasn’t a joke or a prank. He was telling the truth.

Which, of course, he was. Aaron knew now wasn’t a time to fuck around. I was the one who didn’t immediately accept his answer.

“And you know Hades,” I added as if he was now going to change his answer. “And this fool.”

Aaron’s head bobbed up and down slowly. “Yes.”

“How old are you?” I asked quietly.

“Old enough,” Aaron said in a voice that indicated he wasn’t going to be answering more questions like that. Some things, it seemed, were still off-limits.

I looked between the two of them. “Gods. Vampires. Magical artifacts. Right. Sure. This is totally normal. I’m not going crazy at all. I probably died back in the mountains. Johnathan caught me and killed me. This is all just some sort of hell loop or something. It must be.”

Aaron turned to look at me. “Hey, crazy lady. You can turn into a wolf at will. To some, that’s crazy.”

My jaw opened and closed as I sought an appropriate response and came up empty. I wanted to snap back at him that, of course, it wasn’t crazy. It was normal. I’m a shifter. Except he was right. From anyone else’s perspective, it was crazy. Aaron could do a lot, but he couldn’t do that.

“Okay, fine,” I said, exhaling slowly, rubbing my face. “So, gods and vampires exist. What else is out there that I don’t know about?”

Neither of them replied.

“Figures,” I growled. “More secrets.”

What a world I lived in.

For a moment, I was transported back to nine months earlier. The day of my Soulshift. All I’d wanted was to be free, to get out of Seguin, and explore the world on my own. A grand adventure to broaden my horizons.

Well, horizons broadened and then some.

No kidding. I’d never imagined that the world would be as wild as it was turning out to be. I’d always thought that we shifters were the only ones out there, the only beings besides humans to exist on the planet. I could not have been more wrong.

It was rather humbling and mildly nauseating all at the same time as I tried to come to grips with it all.

“Are you okay, Dani?” Vir asked gently.

“Yup.” I shook my head. “I will be. After a lot of wine, and if we ever find someone with the proper worldly knowledge, some therapy, too. With wine.”

And I haven’t even thought about how to deal with the fact that I’m Soulbound to a god.

A lot of wine and a lot of therapy.

But first. Figuring out how to get my parents back.