As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm

Chapter Four

At that moment, the energy filling the chamber went out.

It wasn’t a slow decrease that faded away into nothing. It was instant. One moment, we were surrounded by deceptively beautiful billowing clouds of violet energy. The next, the chamber was so dark I couldn’t see. Given my current state, my wolf was nowhere to be found, resting deep inside me and stressed to the breaking point by the past few days.

With the relief given to us by the severing of our Soulbond to Johnathan, she’d retreated immediately to sleep. I couldn’t blame her. I wanted to do the same thing. But I had priorities, things that had to be done first.

“Sever what?” Vir asked, blinking in surprise. “You mean…”

“Yes,” I said. “Our Soulbond. The one you let form between us. I want it gone. Now.”

Vir was quiet. I couldn’t see, but I could feel him in the dark, studying me, watching me. Judging me.

What do you see, god-man? Do you like it? Do you find me wanting? I know I would.

“You’re certain?” he confirmed after a long silence had passed between us. “Positive that’s what you want?”

“Yes,” I snapped, wishing I could still feel the energy. I wanted to see his face. I wanted him to properly see mine, to view the determination and the confidence I felt. “I don’t want to be Soulbound to anyone.”

The idea that I was currently bound to a freaking god of all things was beyond my mental capacity at that point. I knew it—in a remote, detached sort of way—but to truly consider what that meant was going to have to wait. I needed a bath, food, and some freaking clothes! I was tired of my goodies being on display for any person who walked into the room.

“How is this even possible?” I tiredly asked when he didn’t respond.

“I don’t know.”

I sat up straight, staring at his eyes. They glowed ever so softly with that blue flame. I could pick them out, even in the darkness.

“You don’t know,” I repeated slowly.

“No.”

“But…you’re a god. Like, immortal deity-level stuff here.”

“I’m aware,” he said wryly.

“But you don’t know?”

“No.” The answer was firm and immediate. “This has never happened before.”

I sighed. “That seems to be happening a lot with you lately. For a god, there sure is a lot you don’t know.”

Vir surprised me. I thought he would get irritated or upset with me. After all, he was some thousands of years old, with all the wealth, knowledge, and power that came with that. Yet, here was I, a plucky, unimpressive, extra non-special mortal, telling him in polite words that he was dumb.

Man, it felt good.

But that reaction never came. Throughout it all, he remained calm. I might have even picked up a hint of humor through our bond. Or maybe that was just what I could sense of him here and now in the dark chamber.

“This may surprise you, Dani, but just because I’m a god does not make me omniscient. Not even Amunlea, my creator and Empress, had that sort of power.”

I rolled my eyes and pointed at the ceiling, figuring he could see my reaction, even in the dark. Godly powers had to be good for something,right? “I suppose he’s the only one with that gift?”

Vir didn’t respond.

“Fine, fine. You’re not perfect. Good to know. But it doesn’t change my decision on the matter. I want the bond severed. I want to be free. I’m tired of having my fate decided by someone, or something, else. It’s time I started making my own decisions without outside influence. This might sound ridiculous to you, given your advanced age, but I’m twenty-one now. I’m an adult, and I don’t want anything telling me what to do. Especially not another bond.”

Blue flame blossomed in Vir’s hand, illuminating the chamber, letting me see him properly. There was no heat to the flames, only light that washed over us and out across the darkened runes carved into the floor and walls. They didn’t respond to his power, lying dormant, as they had for centuries before today. Before I’d used them.

Nope. Not going down that path. No time for that. Focus on the issue at hand. Getting rid of the Soulbond.

Vir wasn’t looking at me. Well, not my eyes.

“Really?” I said, moving a hand to cover my tits. “You choose now to go all creep-show on me?”

“That’s not what I was looking at,” Vir said quietly. “I was staring at this.”

He lifted a finger toward my chest. I shied away slightly, but he pressed the tip of his finger above the naughty bits. Into the skin over my breastbone. Over my heart.

“Fascinating,” he whispered, gently pushing against me in rhythm with my heart.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to maintain my composure.

It had been a long, long time since I’d been touched by anyone like that. So gently and caring. Not to mention, by someone who looked like Vir. Tall, inhumanly sexy, with eyes that snared and bespoke of wicked delights humans could only dream of. I was naked. He was shirtless.

Vir could have made a move on me, and I’m not sure I could have resisted at that moment, exhaustion and blood-covered lower body or not. That’s how powerful a Soulbond could be. Deep in me, my wolf stirred, awakened by the touch of someone she respected. Someone she would submit to.

An Alpha predator worthy of her respect.

Which was exactly why I had to convince Vir to sever the bond.

“I’ve never…felt anything like this before,” Vir said.

“A heartbeat?” I retorted. “Come on now. I’m not buying that.”

“No,” Vir said, ignoring my sarcasm. His tone never changed, still filled with that sense of wonder as he felt my heartbeat. “Feeling.”

A beat that was increasing the longer he touched me. I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself. He was feeling? Feeling what? Anything?

“It is an interesting feeling,” Vir continued while I struggled to comprehend what was going on in the mind of a god. “One that I do not hate. Not at all.”

“That’s great,” I said, resorting to my usual standoffish, prickly attitude, not sure what else to do. “Why don’t you go not-hate it somewhere else?”

Vir smiled.

“Call Aaron in here,” I suggested. “You can attach your end to him. You two are made for one another, trust me.”

“That’s not how these things work,” Vir said, slowly removing his finger. “You need a soul for the bond to work.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Besides,” Vir added just a little too quickly, “he’s a jerk.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said, recognizing a deflection when I heard one, which was just fine. I had something we had to focus on as well. “The phrase is opposites attract. You two are so similar you’d repel one another. Like magnets.”

Vir chuckled, and I could sense his relief that I didn’t press the subject. I would, just not now. Later, once everything was settled and I was free of my bond to Vir. Then, I could figure out just who the heck I had hired to escort me out into the middle of nowhere, because I was damn sure now that Aaron wasn’t human.

But I was also damn sure I had no idea what he was.

The light in Vir’s hand grew brighter, and the spear he manifested when he needed to fight appeared in his hand.

The blue energy swirled around us. It wasn’t like before, where Vir had worked the purple energy in the room and touched it to my chest to reveal the Soulbond. This time, he used his own power and touched himself.

Instantly, a bright golden line of what appeared to be rope burst into existence, linking my chest with his. It slowly pulsed, and with each pulse, I felt a gentle redirection of my anger at Vir, turning it into more positive emotions. Warping my perspective.

How more people didn’t see these things as evil was beyond me. My ex, the over-cooked lump barely breathing in the corner, had been the single worst person I’d ever met. I hated him with every fiber of my being. Yet, we’d been Soulbound together through some cruel twist of fate until Vir had severed it with his magic spear.

If I hadn’t resisted, if I’d given in, I’d have been happy with Johnathan. We would have lived forever after, made babies, and I would have become someone else. That man destroyed my family and later tried to kill me.

The Soulbond didn’t care. It drove us to be together, in ever stronger waves, until I’d nearly gone insane trying to resist. Death had been preferable at the end instead of the pain it had caused me.

No, I was done with Soulbonds. Never again. I would work at my relationship like a real human. I would make love instead of be granted it by some unseen force that linked me to another without choice, without freedom.

“You’re sure this is what you want?” he asked. “Before I go through with it.”

I nodded. Nothing more needed to be said.

Vir brought the spear up, its razor-sharp edge heading straight for the line. I knew from watching the first time that it would slice right through the Soulbond, turning both ends black as the magic slowly faded into the person. I braced myself for the feeling of emptiness that would come with it.

An emptiness that I craved.

He went to cut it.

Clink.

“What the hell was that?” I asked as the link floated higher in the air. “Did it just bounce off your spear?”

“That’s what it looked like to me,” Vir rumbled, trying again.

Clink.

“It sounds like it’s hitting metal,” I said, staring in disbelief.

Vir turned his head, his eyes wide. “I don’t think I can sever it, Dani,” he said quietly. “It’s not working. Maybe…maybe if you can bring back the other energy? Maybe it’s strong enough.”

“Let me try,” I said, reaching down, placing my hands on the floor, feeling dried blood crust and fall off me.

I closed my eyes, the glow from Vir’s energy winking out as he let me focus.

As before, I reached out, searching for the energy, for the power that had been swirling in the room.

Nothing happened.

From the entrance of the chamber, I heard the shuffling of feet as someone approached.

“Well, well, well,” Aaron, my hired, decidedly non-human guard and guide, said as he entered the chamber. “Isn’t this cute.”