Page 125 of A Bond with the Dark

“You’ll need this,” Adaline adds, handing her a heavy stone. “Put this on the sensor so the alarm doesn’t go off.”

“I’m coming with you in case anything weird happens,” Scarlet says, glancing from Hattie to her mom.

“Dom is going too,” says Adaline, moving over to the table. “This is his curse to break, and he should be there.”

Hesitation hits my heart, thinking of the last time I sent him to a city on a mission.

That’s what got him marked.

This is all my fault.

“So, me, Dom, and Scar?” Hattie asks, walking over to the chair to put on her boots. “Shouldn’t Ollie come too? You know, one more male backup in case he and Dom have to veilweave anyone?”

“We can send Ollie, too,” Adaline agrees, putting her spell items away.

“It’s a four-hour drive,” Hattie says, lacing up her other boot. “We better get moving.”

Silence again befalls the group as we exit the spell room. Dom’s hand in mine is no comfort to what we will experience. Not just him leaving me alone with vampires, but there’s something sinister in the air. I can feel it, like coming down with a cold. Nausea pools in me, and aches filter through my bones.

Bash is sitting on the couches with Talora, and Allison is at the table with Jasantha. Joe, Ollie, and Everett are outside puffing on a cigar, the austere smoke of it illuminating in the pale porch light, the dark lake invisible in the background.

Dom beckons Ollie with his finger, and he appears before us on a breath.

“We’re going with Hattie to get the artifact,” he instructs.

Ollie nods, scratching his chin, the sound of the stubble on his face resounding. “All right. Leaving our girls here then?” he asks.

“Yes,” Dom says and looks at me. His green eyes slant a bit. He, too, has the memory of the last time he went away to a city. “It’s gonna be okay,” he tells me as he reads me. “The spell will work. I know it.”

I'm not sure whether it’s his vampire allure that makes me believe it or if something surfaces in myself that makes me think it’s going to be okay, but suddenly, I feel like it is.

Ollie’s next to Allison in that same inhuman movement, explaining what he’s going to do. When he’s back, we walk the four of them to the vehicles outside, and I let Dom swoop me up into a hug.

“Be careful,” I tell him softly.

“I will, love.”

He kisses me sweetly and then evaporates into the car.

Sounds of the car doors shutting and the engine roaring to life skim my ears, and I shiver, maybe at the still early spring air or at what they’re going to do. The headlights come on, and the echoing of tires on gravel replaces all other sounds.

When they’re gone, crickets and a distant owl hum to me.

I’m left alone with his vampire family and the brother who’s dangerous and terrifying, whom I’d been in secret assignations with.

At least I get the feeling that Adaline likes me.

I make my way back into the house. As I walk by Bash as he sits with Talora recumbent in his lap, he looks at me, and that fury catches me sideways and hard.

Ignoring it, I walk up the spiral staircase and back into my bedroom.

Walking to the balcony, I lean on the railing and stare at the stars.

The night is calm; there aren’t any interruptions of clouds in the sky. The winds are sleeping, and yet the trees still sway. The smell of moist Earth touches my nostrils as I notice how bright and sparkly the night sky is. The moon’s coming up, not quite half a moon, but the silver in it puts any silver on Earth to shame.

As I look up and beg the moon to keep my man safe, I feel Sebastian’s presence before I know he is there.

Turning slowly, I see him in the doorway.

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