As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm

Chapter Forty-Six

They were waiting for us when we arrived at Aldridge Manor, pulling up to the front door.

“Are you ready for this?” Vir asked from the passenger seat–I’d insisted on driving.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I promised as I stared through the windshield at the cadre of enforcers standing on either side of a smug-looking Lars. Then, I focused my eyes on him, looking for something.

I didn’t spot it.

My wolf whined, wanting to be set free, eager to tear his throat out. We hated him, and someone had to make him pay. Why shouldn’t it be us? We–

“Dani.”

I looked over at Vir, the sharp bark of his tone catching my attention.

“You must restrain yourself,” he said quietly, reaching out to rest his hand on my upper arm.

His touch was warm and comforting. And it didn’t burn me. I glanced over, meeting his eyes, but I didn’t let myself get lost in the blue fire. Now wasn’t the time for us. Whatever “us” meant.

Now was the time for my parents. After they were safe, and we no longer had to deal with Lars, then—then—I could perhaps allow myself to start truly figuring out what to do about Vir and our Soulbond.

“Thank you,” I said, back in full control.

He smiled. I fought back the flip-flop of my stomach by pushing open the door of the borrowed truck. Nothing helps a girl forget about a boy more than rescuing her parents from certain doom, right? That’s what I was banking on, at least.

The rest of the team, minus Aaron, who was still recovering, joined us from the back of the truck, hopping out of the bed where they had been sitting. All of them were armed to the teeth, but that didn’t seem to faze Lars or his men. Nor should it. We were massively outnumbered.

There had to be nearly fifty enforcers lined up alongside Lars. I wondered just what lies he’d told them about me to get them to help. Many were not his everyday thugs, the ones who hung off his every word. They were just men from the pack who were stronger or had more experience fighting than others.

Either way, it was a lot. Fifty against six. I didn’t like those odds at all.

If everything goes to plan, then you won’t need to fight them. That’s the whole point of this. To get out without violence.

“About time you showed up,” Lars said from the center, standing lazily, without concern. “Though I wish you hadn’t brought them.”

I knew he meant the vampires. Just how Lars knew about them was beyond me, but perhaps the secret wasn’t that well kept. Maybe I’d been living under a rock most of my life and this larger world we inhabited was common knowledge among the older members of our pack.

What I did wonder was why he hated them so much.

“We have the Idol,” I said, gesturing toward Vir, who held the golden statuette in one arm.

“So you do,” Lars said, licking his lips greedily. “So nice of you to return what is mine. Now, hand it over.”

I threw my head back and laughed as callously as I could. “You must still think me that innocent, naïve child if you believe I’m going to trust you. Show me my family first. For all I know, you don’t have them.”

Lars glared at me, angry at my dismissive tone. Good, I thought. Let others see me ignore your Alpha status. Every bit of power we can take from you, the better for the rest of the pack.

“Very well,” he said, motioning to one of his men. “Wouldn’t do to have anyone think I’m not a man of my word.”

I snorted. “I think most people would be more surprised to see you keep your word than they would if you broke it.”

Lars bristled at the insult to his honor.

“Dani,” Vir said cautiously.

Damn. He was right. I was letting my wolf’s anger at him get the better of me. Making me say things I didn’t need to say.

The front doors of the mansion opened, and four people emerged.

“Mom?” I called, recognizing the short, stiff stride of my mother when she was pissed off.

Beside her came another man, lacking hair on his head but with a full beard desperately in need of some taming.

“Dad?”

The two of them looked up. “Dani?” my father said, horrified. “What are you doing here?”

“It’ll be okay,” I promised, working hard to keep my composure as I saw my parents for the first time in close to a year. A year of searching for them, while trying not to think that they were dead, believing I’d never see them again.

Yet, here they were. Alive and well in front of me. I swallowed, suddenly nervous about the rest of our plan. Until now, it had been Vir and me and the rest of the team. I had full confidence in them to extract ourselves if Lars tried to betray us.

But my parents? They were a different story. They weren’t aware of what was going on, of how I’d changed. I needed them to stay calm if we were to do this.

“There,” Lars said with false magnanimity.

I cringed. Did he actually believe himself to be one of the good guys?

“Let them go!” I snarled, taking a step forward.

Vir’s hand on my shoulder restrained me. I stayed put, but the semi-circle of enforcers around Lars stirred at my action. They were ready. I might be stronger than before, but I certainly wasn’t that strong.

“You can have them once I have the Idol,” Lars said.

I shook my head. “No. You outnumber us. By a lot. They come over here. We put the Idol down and back away. Nobody gets hurt. Everyone wins.”

Lars seemed to consider my terms. Then he spat orders to the men at his side, and the circle of shifters fanned out until they were almost surrounding us.

“Very well,” Lars said. “That sounds reasonable.”

He pushed my father toward us with casual disdain. I snarled silently. Thomas Wetter had been one of Lars’s staunchest supporters for the longest time, and to see the Alpha treat him so disrespectfully was yet another sign that he was unworthy of his position.

Not my responsibility, I told myself, taking deep breaths.

My parents approached. I wanted to wrap them both up in giant hugs and hold on forever, but I couldn’t.

“Be ready to shift,” I told them both. “If he’s going to betray us at any point, it’s now. I don’t think he’s stupid enough to want to lose as many men as it would take to bring us down, but then again, he’s lost his mind, so who knows what he’ll do.

“Dani,” my father hissed, seemingly not hearing a word I’d said. “What are you doing? You can’t give him that.”

“Dad,” I said, meeting my father’s azure eyes calmly. “I know what I’m doing. I need you to trust me, okay?”

“But–”

“Trust me,” I repeated strongly.

My father looked ready to protest again, but my mother put a hand on his shoulder. “Thomas,” she said quietly. “Look at her. She’s gotten this far. We should trust her.”

“The Idol,” Lars said impatiently. “Put it down.”

“Yeah,” I said, setting it carefully on the ground.

As one, my entire group backed away, heading down the driveway toward the truck, my parents safely ensconced behind a wall of vampires armed with semi-automatic rifles. They weren’t getting any safer than that until we were gone from the manor.

Lars strode down the driveway, his circle of enforcers collapsing around him as he picked up the Idol.

“Be seeing you,” Lars chuckled wickedly as he bent down and picked up the golden statuette.

“I think not,” I said, smiling broadly as my parents were all but forced into the backseat of the truck.

“What have you done, Dani?” my father asked as he went in last, my mother already putting on her seatbelt, rolling her eyes.

“Relax,” I told my father, hopping into the cab and firing up the engine. “I’ve got a plan.”

“Your plan is to give him the Idol of Amunlea? Do you have any idea what it can do?”

“Yes,” Vir said from the front seat. “As a matter of a fact, I do.”

I snorted. “It’s fine, Dad. We’re on our way to get him now.”

“Get who?” my father asked as the truck rumbled down the driveway and onto the road, picking up speed despite the mass of people we were carrying.

I grinned at him through the rearview mirror.

“Our man on the inside.”