Page 107 of A Bond with the Dark

“You say that to all your kids.”

“Yes, well. You all seem to love blindly without thinking of the consequences.”

“We get it from you.”

“I resent that,” she says, but I can also hear the smile behind the words.

“I’ll see you later, okay? I’ll text you the flight information when we have it.”

“Okay. Bye.”

Flicking the phone off, I throw it on the passenger seat and watch the headlights whiz by me going the other direction. I think of Sayah and all she’s become to me in the short time I’ve known her.

The danger sitting at the edge of us, always in the periphery, does nothing to stir the magick within her. I know that telling her of this ever-present and imminent fatality would stoke her fire, blow it wide open, and make her come to terms with her own fate. The things I’ve given her thus far—the bracelet, the information of the supernatural, and whatever else Tallyn’s spell did—have helped her to come to terms with her magick and find the well of power deep within her. But I have not indulged her with that information yet, thinking the fire must come to her terms. It’s not something that can be forced.

It’s something I learned long ago from my trauma, the magick of the dark that was honed by darker moments and tempered by my survival. My aversion to death and killing, leaving me weaker than some other vampires, caused me to learn to wield the magick I have by finding my ruin and building myself up from the wreckage.

I should be honest with her. Maybe doing so will ignite that magick within her and push her to her destiny—whatever that means. But something profound inside me tells me that she must find her ruin for that power to come to light.

Maybe her fire lies in wait in her destruction.

32

THEY’RE ALL MURDER-Y

SAYAH

When we land in New York and make our way to the baggage claim, I look around nervously for the coven of vampires that we’re coming to meet.

“Who’s picking us up?” I ask as we retrieve our luggage from the spinning carousel.

“My mom. Her name is Adaline. And don’t worry. She’ll love you. But when in doubt, tell her you’ll spell a necklace for her.”

“Dom!” a voice calls.

I turn around to see a beautiful blonde woman running up to him.

She’s as tall as he is and reminds me of a Viking warrior princess. Her hair is pulled back into two French braids that are bejeweled. Her brown leather jacket matches her thigh high-heel leather boots that allows her to tower over me. She still looks as though she’s in her thirties, but in human years Dom said she’s in her fifties, being only sixteen when she had Bash. Her eyes are the same color as Dom’s, bright hazel green, and there isn’t anything about her that screams vampire.

Until she turns and eyes me; only then do I feel her power like evaporating ice.

“Mom, this is my girlfriend Sayah.”

“That’s a pretty name,” she says, holding out her hand for me to shake. “I’m Adaline.”

“Thank you. Pleased to meet you.”

There’s a sinister softness in Adaline’s eyes that is a juxtaposition of beauty and danger. She looks as though she would take you to lunch and treat you well, but would also cut your head off in an instant and not smudge her makeup.

My heart’s pounding so hard it might kill me before Adaline can.

Or make me faint.

It’s hot in here.

Meeting the parents of a boyfriend is unnerving as it is, but meeting a vampire who’s a witch, makes it ten times worse.

A man comes up behind her who matches Adaline’s Viking vibe. He’s taller than her, which puts him at about six-foot-five. He has blonde hair too, that’s more on the dirty blonde side and hangs around his shoulders. He’s muscular and has bright blue eyes, his arms covered in ink. He’s handsome but in a rugged manly way. I can see him chopping wood on the moors of Scotland in a kilt.

---