As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm

Chapter Eight

“My help? You’re the god here, Vir. How can I possibly help you?

He must have used up more energy than I thought when he created these supplies, because he was speaking nonsense now.

“The energy in the temple,” Vir explained. “If you can awaken it, use it again, then I think I could coach you on how to use it to send me back to the Direen.”

Oh. That again. I should have seen that coming. My brain wasn’t working right just yet, despite the food.

“I already told you, I have no idea how either of those things happened or how to do it again, okay? I came through the barrier, but I didn’t do anything special. It just happened. Same with the temple. It just activated, all on its own.”

“Those are some pretty big coincidences,” Vir pointed out. “I think even you know better.”

“Even if I do, that doesn’t change a thing,” I told him. “Anything that happened was random. Not because of something I did. Maybe it was because of me, but it’s not something I can force. You’re the one with the energy to summon things out of thin air. Just summon a way to go back home.”

“I’ve tried,” Vir said tautly, looking away. “I’ve been trying. Constantly. It didn’t respond to me; it was you. You hold the secret, even if you don’t know what it is.”

“Well, that’s just great,” I said. “But I’m not going to let you dissect me to find out. So, if you don’t have any better answers, I need you to leave me alone.”

He started to speak again.

“Otherwise, Aaron will kick your ass,” I added, chiming in first, raising my voice enough this time that the others would hear.

From where Aaron still stood by the food table stuffing his face, I heard a snort of approval.

Vir looked at me, then he sighed and got up, wandering back to the raised platform at the back. He lay upon it and stared at the ceiling. I watched him for a moment, feeling bad for him.

I frowned at that, searching my mind, but no, that wasn’t the Soulbond making me imagine the emotions. I truly did feel sorry for Vir. Inadvertently yanked from his home after a thousand years of defending it from unknown invaders. He had been the last one, the last of the shifter gods after all the others had died in its defense. Now the Direen would likely be lost to the invaders.

No, that wasn’t true. It had already been lost. I remembered the blackened landscape, old, desiccated bones covering it in a layer deep enough that it felt like rock crunching under my feet wherever I walked. The ashes of countless dead invaders covered a place that had once been glittering white and rose. It was a paradise, according to Vir, that had welcomed beings from all realms.

That’s what he’d told me, at least, when I’d accidentally stumbled into his realm while fleeing Johnathan.

I again glanced over at my ex. Vir was right that I was the one who had wielded the power in the temple, but each time I’d done something, it had been with him around. Perhaps he was more important than Vir wanted to admit?

Deep in thought, I finished my bread and cheese and lay back on the nearest cot, staring at the ceiling. I opened my eyes in wonder.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Aaron asked as he came over to sit near me.

“Yes,” I said as his presence enveloped me, distracting me from the beautiful mural on the ceiling.

I instantly relaxed. Although I didn’t feel the same torture of my Soulbond with Johnathan, Aaron still had that cool, calming effect, where the gentle pulses of the bond’s energy were muted when he was around. It was peaceful and nice.

“Yes,” I said, closing my eyes for a moment to bask in the silence of the moment as the last of the adrenaline left me.

When I opened them, I was no longer on my back. I was curled up on my side. Against something warm. A person. Looking up, I saw it was Aaron. I wasn’t sure what to do. Part of me had been prepared to awaken with someone pressed up against me, holding me. I wouldn’t have been happy, but neither would it have surprised me.

Me being the big spoon, though? That was unplanned for, and now, I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t curled up against his back, either. Instead, I was wrapped tightly around Aaron’s leg, holding it close.

I swiftly pulled my hand back from where it was perched precariously close to his crotch. Aaron had declined to put on more clothes from one of the trunks, and my fingertips had been less than an inch…

I sat up. Hopefully, I hadn’t done anything untoward in my sleep. Aaron himself was passed out cold, leaning back against the wall, seemingly oblivious to my presence against him, but who knows for how long he’d been out. I could very well have already been curled up to him before he fell asleep. Was that a telltale smile at the corners of his mouth? Did he know where my hand had been?

Get a grip. It doesn’t matter.

Shaking it off, I looked around. Everyone was asleep now, some on cots, others resting against the table or wall. My gaze continued around until it landed on Vir. He was awake and staring at me, not bothering to hide his unhappiness.

Oh, well. I pushed his concerns to the side.

It’s not that there wasn’t anything intriguing about Vir. Quite the opposite, in fact. There were a great many mysteries about him. And, in some ways, that was the problem.

I’d just gotten out of a Soulbond and discovered I had some sort of magical powers, or control over them, or something. Basically, I was slowly realizing that I wasn’t just a shifter. I was something more. There were so many other, bigger things, to worry about right now.

I mean, shit, the divine is real. Like, completely and totally real. Vir is a god. That alone was going to need a whole hell of a lot of therapy to process. The idea of being mated to one was so outside my mental capacity at the moment that I couldn’t process it. Literally couldn’t process it on any level beyond the surface.

Still, maybe I shouldn’t be a dick to him. I don’t need to rub Aaron in his face. Or my own, I noted, recalling how close my face had been to his crotch as well.

Walking a fine line was going to be the name of the game going forward. Keeping him at arm's length, without ruining anything…just in case. After all, if this was permanent, I knew I would eventually give in to my Soulbond.

My mental fortitude and discipline were nothing to scoff at, and I was proud of it, but I’d lasted barely a month while rejecting Johnathan, and it had nearly killed me. With him, I’d had a history of hatred, of knowing he was a terrible person.

I didn’t have that with Vir. I had unknowns, but even now, I could feel my Soulbond pushing my concerns to the side. What I did know of Vir was fairly positive. I doubted I could summon the same energy to deny the call to mate with him that I had with my ex.

In time, I would give in.

Which meant I had to find out how to sever it, and soon. Reluctantly, I got up and went over to Vir, sitting next to him.

“How are you doing?” I asked, letting my guard down so he could feel my sincerity through the bond.

“The Direen is in danger,” he said. ‘The Invaders will take over.”

“I was thinking about that, Vir,” I said quietly. “And I think you need to face the truth. They already did that. The entire place is a wasteland of bodies. You can’t go anywhere outside your lair without them finding you in a short period of time. What else is left for them to do there?”

Vir’s silence told me everything I needed to know. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, but deep down, he had already realized this truth. His guerilla warfare against them hadn’t stopped them from overrunning the Direen.

“The barrier is still up, though,” I pointed out. “Unless it came down while we slept?”

Vir shook his head, staring morosely at the ground as he accepted his home’s fate. He was doing rather well, all things concerned.

“Do you think they can bring that down?”

“No, actually,” Vir said, finally looking at me. “Now that I’m on this side of it, it’s become clear to me that it can only be brought down from this side. Which is impossible, because to bring it down would require me to have all my powers.”

“And since you were stripped of the real big mojo when you came through the barrier, that means you can’t bring it down,” I said. “Right?”

“Right,” he said.

“So, it’s impossible to bring it down then, right?”

“Not impossible,” he said. “But unlikely.”

“What do you mean?”

Vir shrugged. “There are other realms. Other ways to Earth.”

“So, what you’re saying, by the sounds of it, is that to defend the Direen, it would be best to be on this side of it. On Earth.”

“That makes sense,” Vir said, and I could feel a bit of energy return to his voice as he sensed a possibility for him here on Earth. A reason for being that wasn’t me. Since I wasn’t going to be his for much longer.

“Good!” I said, keeping my volume low. “Then you can haunt Shuldar and stop anyone from coming through.”

“Just what I always wanted,” he said dryly. “To be a ghost. Goodie.”

I shrugged, not sure what else to say. I was trying here, okay? When Vir didn’t say anything more, I started to rest a hand on his arm, intending to reassure him that everything would be okay.

No!

Catching myself halfway, I managed to stop before touching him, but that left my hand hanging awkwardly in midair for a moment before I lowered it back to my legs.

There was no hiding it. No denying what had clearly just happened.

“Ah, I should probably go stretch my legs,” I said, getting up and hopping off the ledge. “Might help me clear my mind, see if I remember anything about how I turned the temple on. Uh, activated it.”

Great choice of words.

Forcing a smile, I locked eyes with Vir, then turned and walked away, desperate to put some space between us.

“Shout if you need me. Or any help,” Vir said, his voice drifting gently through the quiet temple chamber.

I nodded and then headed out of the room, trying to ignore the pulse of true caring that filtered down through our Soulbond. That was the problem with Vir compared to Johnathan. Vir actually seemed to give a shit about me.

And that was what made everything all the more dangerous.