As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm

Chapter Forty-Nine

“Because, Dad, it didn’t,” I growled, holding on too tightly to the wheel as we raced for the town's limits. “It went wrong. Very, very, fucking wrong.”

My arms were starting to shake. Clamping down on my hands, I squeezed the wheel until my knuckles turned white. In the rearview mirror, I could see Vir sitting in the center of the truck bed, Johnathan’s body still cradled in his arms.

“Fuck,” I growled, shaking my head as we went past the edge of town.

Immediately, I pulled the truck over to the side of the road, doing my best to keep it slow and steady so as not to jostle those in the back.

“Dani–” my mother started to speak, but I wasn’t listening.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I shouted, slamming my hand onto the wheel, setting off the car horn. “Goddammit!”

I flung open my door and stepped out of the truck, needing to pace. To move. Anything to help me burn off my anger.

“How is he?” I snapped, trying to control my emotions, and failing.

Now wasn’t the time for a meltdown. We had more important things to worry about than my own feeble well-being. Now was the time to be strong, to keep it together, not just for myself but for everyone else.

“He’ll live,” Vir said quietly, probably sensing through our bond that I wasn’t doing so well. “But even for a shifter, he was pushed near to the edge. His recovery will be long, and I cannot speak to his mind.”

“Damn,” I cursed as Vir got out of the back of the truck and came over to me. “It wasn’t supposed to go like this, Vir.”

“I know, Dani, I know,” he rumbled, sweeping me up into his arms.

This time I didn’t protest. I didn’t try to keep any distance between us. Right then, I needed him in a way I’d never needed him before. His strength, his calm, helped soothe me.

“It’s my fault, you know,” I said. “He suggested the plan. I could have turned it down. Could have told him we’d find another way. But I didn’t. I didn’t even try.”

“Hush,” the shifter god said, stroking my hair gently, playing with the fading blue highlights, a remnant of a time before gods and vampires and daggers that could kill with a nick. A time when all I’d wanted was to live my life and find my parents.

I’d done that, at least. They were in the truck. Safe and sound. At least I wasn’t a total failure.

“Vir, I don’t know what to do now,” I said, stepping back slightly, looking up into his eyes as the fuzzy moonlight cast its pale glow over his face.

He really was stunning. That long hair, so perfectly straight and pooling ever so slightly at his shoulders, and the strong, regal nose, and, of course, those eyes. Royal blue and godlike, with the tiniest hints of sapphire fire in their depths, they threatened to drag me in every time.

But I couldn’t let myself. Not now, not ever.

“We’ll figure it out,” he said, and he stroked my cheek with his hand. It was a very tender, very human move.

I almost stepped into it, almost let myself get carried into that moment. It would have been so easy. So comforting. I leaned in, my resolve wavering, on the edge of crumbling at the moment as I sought out something, anything, that would tell me it was going to be okay.

“What’s that?” my mother asked from somewhere behind me.

I glanced behind me to see her standing outside the truck, staring back the way we’d come, her face slack with shock. The team in the bed all had their heads craned back toward Seguin as well.

Frowning, I looked up at Vir and then stepped to the side so his broad shoulders were no longer blocking my view.

A light purple haze could be seen from town. It had started near the ground, but it was rising swiftly into the air.

“Vir,” I said. “What the hell is that? It looks like it’s surrounding the entire town.”

“It’s a barrier,” the god replied, stunned. “A powerful one, at that.”

“He’s putting up a wall around town?” I asked.

Vir nodded slowly, his mouth slightly open. “It looks that way.”

“But…”

“How?” Vir said, finishing my unspoken thought. “How did he learn to use magic this quickly? That much power…that takes years to learn how to use. At the height of our power, Shuldar was shielded from the outside world by a similar barrier. One that concealed and only let in those who were wanted. That’s how it stayed hidden. But it took many priests a number of years to work that much magic.”

Lars hadn’t been practicing for that long. It was impossible. Until I’d led him to Shuldar, he’d not had any relics to practice with aside from the Idol of Amunlea. But according to Vir, until I’d somehow used the energy inside the Empress’s temple, the relic had been inactive. Powerless. So how had he learned all this in such a short time on his own?

The answer hit me like a ton of bricks. He wasn’t doing it on his own.

“He had help,” I whispered to myself so quietly nobody else could hear. “Oh, god, Vir, I have an idea. It’s not a good one. In fact, it’s probably a very, very bad one.”

“Dani,” my dad interrupted. “Why do you keep calling him Vir?”

“Oh. Right,” I said. “You’re out of the loop. Dad, meet Vir, Champion of Amunlea, Shifter God. Vir, meet Dad.”

“Hi, Dad,” Vir said, reaching out to shake my stunned father’s hands.

“Um, hi,” Thomas Wetter said, staring up at the living embodiment of our history.

“What is your idea, Dani?” Vir asked, turning away from my father, who was still staring, speechless and not moving.

“Someone is teaching him,” I said slowly, watching Vir’s face for a reaction. “Someone who knows what the relics can do and how shifter magic works.”

There was only one person that could be, and after several moments, I saw the recognition blossom on Vir’s face.

“You think they’re working together?” he asked, rubbing his jaw in thought.

“Do you have a better idea?” I countered. “Because that’s about as bad as it gets, and it makes too much sense. Which usually means it’s correct.”

“But why?” Vir said, posing the question that I, too, was still trying to ponder out.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I have no idea.”

“Vir,” my father finally whispered, shaking his head. “You’re real. Like, actually real. A god.”

“Yes, Dad,” I said. “Try to keep up. His brother, Irr, the shifter god of death, is somehow working with Lars and teaching him how to use the relics we gave him, and that’s bad, really bad, because he’s probably out of our power to defeat.”

Behind us, the purple barrier rose higher into the night sky, shimmering in and out of sight. We all stared as it formed a perfect dome. I couldn’t see from where we were, but I assumed that the entire town was swallowed by the magic wall. It was bad.

“Great,” I muttered, trying not to think about what the humans in nearby towns were going to think. “Just great.”

My father, still stealing glances at Vir, came over to me and wrapped me in his arms. A dad hug goes a long way, and I took a steadying breath, only to feel myself enveloped by my mother as well.

“I’m so glad you guys are safe,” I said quietly. “I was so worried about you.”

“My daughter,” my dad said. “The heroic rescuer.”

I laughed, trying to fight back a sob. “I had a bit of help.”

“Just a bit,” my dad said, eyes twinkling. “I see you found Aaron and his team.”

“Yeah. Good guys, them,” I said, glancing up to where the vampires were just chilling in the back of the truck bed. “Aaron’s fine, by the way, since I can see you looking around. He just got hurt on our way out of the Underworld. Apparently, Hades packs a mean right hook.”

My dad stared at me, probably trying to figure out if I was telling the truth or not.

“There’s so much I have to catch you up on,” I said with a hysterical hiccup-laugh. “But we have bigger problems to deal with first.”

“Do you think you can stop him?” my mother asked.

“Maybe,” I said. “I don’t know. He’s stronger than Vir now, and worst of all, we have no idea what he’s going to do next.

My father turned to me, his eyes large and solemn.

“I do,” he said.