As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm

Chapter Forty-Eight

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I said, standing stock still.

Around us, there was more noise. Staring into the long grass, I saw the whispered shapes of wolves gliding through the blades, making barely a noise as their furred forms slid past. I stopped counting at four and decided just to assume there were a lot more.

We were surrounded.

From behind Lars, the grasses parted to reveal two more enforcers, still in human form. Between them, they dragged a limp form.

“Johnathan,” I hissed, horrified at the sight of him.

Two sets of silver manacles bound his wrists and ankles. He hung, unmoving, from where the shifters held him by his upper arms. Along his forehead, a wicked gash had dripped blood down the left side of his face. It was dried but not fully healed.

I couldn’t tell if he was alive or not at. The way he slumped between his captors wasn’t telling. I didn’t think Lars would kill his son, but then again, I wouldn’t put anything past him. Not anymore.

“I think you misplaced this,” Lars said, snapping his fingers at his thugs.

The shifters tossed the body at us with casual disdain. Vir and I caught him as gently as possible, easing him to the ground. I put my fingers to his throat, breathing in a sigh of relief when I felt the faint pulse of life.

“He’s still alive,” I told Vir. “Weak, but he’s there.”

“Of course, he’s alive,” Lars spat. “How else am I going to teach him that he should know where his loyalties lie?”

“Oh, I think he knows that just fine, Lars. He chose a side. You just don’t like that it wasn’t yours.”

The Alpha laughed. “The boy knows no respect for his elders. For the man who raised him.”

“You don’t get respect just for being old, Lars,” I said, standing up, facing the Alpha. “You get it by earning it. By being someone deserving of respect. Just because you lived and fucked someone until they popped out a child doesn’t mean you’re a good father or a good person.”

“Take him with you,” Lars said, waving a hand at me. “I never want to see him again.”

“I think it’s probably safe to assume he feels the same,” I snapped. “Given the way you’ve treated him.”

“Ha!” Lars barked. “That traitor got what he deserved. After all, I caught him trying to steal this.”

Lars reached behind his back and withdrew a long, wickedly sharp-looking dagger. He held it casually in one hand, admiring the blade, his lips twisting upward in a caricature of a smile.

There was a mild crossguard at the blade base, the burnished-gold color unlike any metal I’d seen before. The handle itself was wrapped in dark brown leather that looked like it had recently been oiled. The blade portion was perhaps six to eight inches long, tapering to a narrow point. It was made of some slate-gray steel, far darker than most metals.

I nervously swallowed as Lars slipped his wrist through the loop of leather at the base, designed to ensure he didn’t lose grip. Then, he weaved the blade through the air in several casual strokes.

The last thing I wanted to do was fight him. I’d gone up against Lars once before when he wielded that dagger, and somehow I’d escaped with my life. Doing so a second time didn’t seem like a recipe for success.

“Yes, it’s pretty, isn’t it?” Lars said, chuckling softly to himself as he admired the blade. “That’s why I had a replica made, you see. I keep this one on me at all times. While the other sits out. Waiting for someone to show me their true colors. Like him.”

“That’s your son,” I said, trying one last time to evoke some compassion in Lars.

“I have no son,” Lars growled, leveling the blade at me.

My throat went dry. At my feet, Johnathan stirred, saying something, but his words were too slurred to be understandable.

“Vir,” I said, making a decision.

If we were going to fight, then we would take as many of them down with us as possible. The others would be on guard and would come running in no time. If Vir could protect us long enough, maybe we could drive them back.

I sensed the energy burgeoning in Vir before it manifested around him in a swirl of blue that wrapped itself in circles around his wrists and cast a pale glow over the clearing.

“Ah-ah-ah,” Lars said, wagging the blade at us. “No more of that, I think.”

I stared as power blossomed from Lars as well. A brilliant lavender, far brighter than the violet energy I had wielded in the temple.

“Dani,” Vir hissed. “This is not good. Not at all. He’s summoned the power of the Idol already.”

Licking my lips, I nodded, the motion jerky and uneven. “Yeah, you know what?” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady. “I’m going to have to agree with you. This is not good.”

“I’m glad we’re in agreement.”

I shot Vir a glare. “Now is not the time for you to develop a sense of sarcasm,” I ground out.

“You see,” Lars said, the power swirling around his limbs and torso. “I am prepared. So I wouldn’t try anything if I were you.”

“Can you take him?” I asked Vir.

The Champion of Amunlea shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I don’t know,” he said after a pause.

Well, that wasn’t good either. If Vir wasn’t sure, it meant Lars had already amassed nearly enough power of his own to counter a literal god. Sure, most of Vir’s true world-shaping powers had been left in the Direen when he crossed through the barrier to Earth, but he was still a god. That should have counted for something.

“Trust me, Champion of a dead empress,” Lars said, speaking to be heard over the dull roar of the matching energies. “You don’t want to try this. After all, in this realm, you are not a god. You can die.”

I stiffened, my head whipping around to stare at Vir. “Is that true?” I hissed.

Vir had never mentioned that little tidbit before. If he, a being I thought to be immortal, could die, then we most definitely were not going to fight.

“With the knife, yes,” Vir answered softly.

Okay. Well, that was good to know.

“So, what are you going to do?” I asked Lars, the clearing now brightly lit by both matching energies. “Kill us?”

I needed him to talk more. There was no way the light wasn’t visible to our companions in the truck. We were maybe a hundred yards into the brush. Fred and the others would have spotted this in an instant. I’m not sure how much help they could be, given all the wolves I knew to be stalking us in the grass, but if they could keep the others at bay, maybe Vir and I could manage something.

I fervently wished I’d hit Lars in the temple in Shuldar. That I’d killed him, then and there, when I had access to powers like Vir’s. Maybe then I would have been helpful.

“No,” Lars said, surprising me. “It’s not worth the price it would take. I could kill you, yes, but too many of my men would die in the process. Can’t have that.”

Interesting. Now, why would Lars still need his men?

“You’re letting us go?” Vir asked, his voice tinged with disbelief.

“For the greater good.” Lars grinned. “This one time. After all, you’ve given me all I need. You are no longer of consequence to me. So, I offer you this. Get out of Seguin. Leave my town, and never come back.”

“Just like that?” I asked. It seemed too good to be true. There was no way he could be serious.

“Unless you wish to die,” Lars said with a shrug. “Then step forward, and I’ll prick you with the knife. One tiny cut from the blade, and poof. No pain. Just the sweet embrace of death awaiting you.”

“Sweet embrace of death? Listen to yourself, Lars!” I called. “This isn’t you.”

Lars howled with laughter. Around us, the wolves howled in answer. There were a lot more than I thought. Shivers ran down my spine, and I stepped closer to Vir, seeking out what little protection he could grant.

“You have no idea who I am,” Lars said. “None at all. Not even your father, that lying bastard, has any clue who I am or what I can do. Now, get out of Seguin. If you show your face here again, I will force you to watch, helpless, as I cut your parents’ throats with a regular blade. They will bleed out before I do much worse to you. Am I clear?”

By the time he was done, Lars was roaring, his face red with fury but also eagerness.

“Yeah, we got it,” I shouted at Lars before lowering my voice just for Vir. “He sounds off his rocker.”

“Something like that,” Vir replied.

“Go!” Lars said, sweeping an arm out like some sort of generous overlord.

Vir bent down, picked up Johnathan, and then together, we slowly made our way out of the clearing. I ground my teeth together, looking at Lars’s son. Although I still didn’t like him, I couldn’t help but feel some newfound respect toward him.

The danger he’d put himself into to try and help me out had been very, very real. And he’d volunteered for it, offered to go back to Seguin to play the part of the fallen son looking to regain his father’s trust. Yet, he’d never intended to do that. Instead, he’d been there to steal the dagger. To prevent Lars from having both relics after I gave him the Idol.

Except that had failed because Lars had expected treachery from everywhere. Not just me. I wondered if he’d been surprised at Johnathan’s betrayal or if he’d somehow seen that coming, too.

Regardless, I was going to find out what Lars’s plans were. Then, I was going to come back to Seguin with a goddamned army of vampires if I had to, and we were going to take that asshole down. For good.

That was all in the future, though. Right now, my main concern was getting out of Seguin alive. I wouldn’t put it past Lars to go back on his word.

Wolves shadowed us the entire way back to the truck. Vir bristled with energy, and none of the purely mortal shifters stood a chance against him, and they knew it. We arrived at the truck, where Fred and the rest of the team stood, guns ready, with the truck against their backs.

“Everyone in,” I snapped. “Fred, front seat, Vir, in the back.”

They piled in as I fired up the truck. Once everyone was secure, I spun it around and–this time with the lights on–raced down the dirt path back toward the road.

“So,” my dad said dryly from the back seat as I wheeled us through the turn to get onto the road, rubber squealing. “Why do I get the feeling that didn’t go as planned?”