As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“You’re awake!” I said excitedly, grabbing Jo by the arm and pulling her out of the study that we had coopted as our planning room.

I told myself it was because I didn’t want Jo to see any of the notes on the table or the whiteboard. If she read them, she might decipher what our plan was. I definitely wasn’t hurriedly escorting her out because it would get me away from Vir. That totally wasn’t my style.

I’m pretty good at lying to myself.

“Yeah,” Jo said, though she didn’t have her usual energy about her.

Her charm and pep was something I loved about Jo, and a large part of me feared that her experience at Lars’s hands had torn that from her forever.

We entered the main room, with its two-floor, wall-to-ceiling windows that let in magnificent amounts of sunlight. The rays bounced wildly off the white tiled floors and created a warm, comforting feeling to the place.

At least, it normally did. Right then, the sofas had been shoved to the side to make room for folding tables, upon which a veritable armory had been laid out. Fred was busy organizing everything, doling out equipment to the rest of the team while Aaron watched.

The head vampire—I’d yet to figure out if the rest of his team were also vampires, though it made sense—stood alone, bathed in rays of light.

Light doesn’t hurt them. The thought came unbidden but seeing Aaron standing directly in the sunlight drove the point home. I’d never thought of it until then, but he and his team could operate day or night without hindrance. Nor, I noticed, did they do anything wild like turn glittery. They were just…paleskinned bloodsuckers.

I made a mental note to figure out what they were actually susceptible to. After all, everything had a weakness. For shifters, it was silver, the metal poisonous if it entered our bloodstream. That was why Lars had tied Vir and me up with bonds of silver in the temple. Because our strength had been sapped by the metal, leaving us weaker than normal humans.

Vampires had to have something. I just didn’t know which of the myriad legends were accurate in this case. Was it the cross? Holy water? Wooden stakes? Something else? I didn’t know.

Jo and I paused to watch the men work, our conversation momentarily forgotten. The sight of so many weapons would do that, even to me, who was expecting them. Jo shuffled her feet, much less at ease.

“Everything okay?” Aaron asked, suddenly at our sides.

I frowned at him, noticing the way he directed the question at Jo. Not at me.

What the hell are you doing here, bud? Do you spy a free meal? Do you think that because she’s weak, you’ll be able to feed on her?

Jo was definitely noticing his charms.

“We’re fine,” I said, glaring at him before looking at Jo. “Come on, let’s get you something to eat.”

I put a hair of extra emphasis on the last word while letting my gaze linger on Aaron. When he finally looked at me, there was confusion in his eyes.

Like you don’t know what you were doing, I thought, letting my gaze do the talking.

Then, I pulled Jo away, heading for the kitchen. She was my friend, and I wasn’t about to expose her to an ancient vampire who might just eat her. Besides, he was my ancient vampire until I decided otherwise, and I wasn’t interested in sharing.

Sharing? Since when have I claimed him? Wait. Oh, no.

I licked my lips nervously, glancing over my shoulder, only to see Aaron staring after us. My confused brain couldn’t decide who he was staring at.

Am I jealous?

Was that it, then? Could I possibly be jealous that Aaron’s attentions were no longer solely directed at me? It wasn’t like I could blame him. I hadn’t given him or Vir the opportunity to get close to me. Why shouldn’t they seek company elsewhere? I didn’t own them.

“How are you doing?” I asked Jo as we rounded the corner, leaving the immobile vampire and my confused emotions behind. Now was not the time for that. Jo needed my focus. “Seriously, I mean.”

Jo sighed, unlinking her arm from mine and resting back against the counter, a troubling twist to her face.

“Not good,” she said, tilting her head to look up at me.

Whereas I was tall and long-limbed, Jo was short and compact. She got the womanly curves while I got the “makes men uncomfortable when she puts on heels” height. On the flip side, men seemed to treat me with a bit more respect than Jo, simply because I could look many of them in the eye with ease.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t come sooner,” I said. “I had no idea Lars had gone that far off the deep end that he would kidnap anyone.”

“Oh, Dan,” she said, using the short form of my name that only she could somehow make sound feminine. I didn’t tolerate anyone else using it. Only Jo could get away with that. “I’m not upset with you. I’m just so grateful you came at all.”

“Of course,” I said. “As soon as Johnathan told me what had happened, we mounted up and came to get you.”

Jo smiled, but there was no joy in the look. “So, he really is on our side now?”

I nodded. “Yes. His father basically disowned him, left him to die, which let him begin to see things clearly, to the point that he turned on him.”

“That’s good, I guess.”

I nodded, not sure what else to say.

“What are you guys planning now? That’s a lot of guns out there, Dan...”

“We’re going after my parents,” I said, deciding not to tell Jo the whole truth. “I can’t let Lars have them as well. Not for a single day longer than necessary.”

I wanted to tell Jo everything. To tell her about the Idol and Vir and Hades. Everything I’d discovered, I wanted to tell her, but I didn’t. The reason I wanted to tell her was for my own benefit. I longed for someone I could talk to, to foist my problems upon.

But it couldn’t be Jo. Not now, at least. Maybe later, if she recovered properly from her rescue, but now, it was too soon. I didn’t want to risk overwhelming her. Which meant concealing lots of the truth, and probably having to lie, before it was all said and done, which didn’t feel good at all.

“You’ve changed, Dan.” It wasn’t an accusation. Just an observation.

“I—I know,” I said.

“In a good way,” Jo added, looking anxious that I’d gotten upset at her. “Stronger. More confident.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’m still trying to figure it all out myself, to be honest.”

“You always did take forever to learn to trust yourself,” Jo said with a laugh. “Probably because the oxygen up there is so much thinner, your brain works slower.”

I stared at my best friend, then threw my head back and howled with laughter. Jo joined me. I heard someone poke their head into the kitchen at one point, but they didn’t stay. They left us as we went from laughter to tears, embracing one another as our emotions flooded over for a brief moment.

“Does that explain why you’re so dense, then?” I asked. “Trying to breathe all that concentrated bullshit down there?”

Jo laughed some more. Eventually, we subsided, breathing heavily, neither sure of what to say next as the mood passed. We grew somber once more as we listened to the sounds of guns and other items being assembled and packed in the next room, a constant reminder of the state of our worlds.

“How can I help?” Jo asked. “I can’t let you go after your parents while I sit here and do nothing.”

I grimaced. Here it came.

“Jo,” I started to say but stopped as she sighed.

“I can’t, can I?” she said. “That’s what you’re going to say.”

I shrugged helplessly.

“It’s because I haven’t had my Soulshift yet, isn’t it?”

My heart broke for Jo. She’d looked forward to that night for so long, for when the two of us could finally be together, shifting and running under the Wild Moon as friends once more. Her heart had been set on it, on finding her mate and starting a family.

And now, thanks to her parents’ addiction problems, she didn’t even know when her real birthday was. As it turned out, they had been celebrating it wrong for most of her life.

“I’m sorry, Jo,” I said, gathering her into a hug. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Jo nodded into my chest, squeezing me back. I could hear her sniffling, and I waited until it died down before pulling away.

“Who’s going to protect you, then?” she asked.

I grinned. “Aaron and Vir are pretty good at that. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Jo glanced out of the open doorway to the kitchen. We couldn’t see Aaron and his men, but I could imagine that she was picturing him there, along with Vir.

“They are pretty big and strong looking,” Jo mused. “But, Dan, two of them? At once? I know you’ve changed, but…”

“Not like that!” I said, swatting at her, trying to cover my horror. There was no way Aaron’s hearing wouldn’t have picked up those words. I didn’t want him getting any ideas. Because that most definitely was not going to happen.

Jo grinned wickedly but didn’t push the subject, much to my relief. Not about those two, at least.

“Aren’t you worried about Johnathan? Whatever happened between you and him? Your Soulbond?”

“He’s not an issue,” I said, thinking about how much differently I thought about Johnathan now that we weren’t Soulbound.

The truth of it was that I actually found myself almost worrying about him and his part in the plan. It was weird. Then again, I could worry about him as a person since I could see him as one now. One who had been manipulated and used by his vicious father and was only now beginning to see the light.

And taking steps to fix it.

“That’s it?” Jo asked. “Just, he’s not an issue anymore?”

“Not to me,” I said, trying to politely shut down the topic.

“You have changed,” Jo said for a second time. “I like it. I approve of this new confidence.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Now, what can I do?” she asked. “Even if I can’t go with you, there must be something I’m good for.

“You can man the fort,” Aaron said, interrupting us.

I looked at him sharply. He was staring at me this time, his attention unwavering. I raised my eyebrows in question.

“It’s time to go,” he said.

Time to go steal from a god.