Page 139 of A Bond with the Dark

“Hattie, Scarlet?” I ask as she and Scarlet pass to follow their mom to the spell room.

Hattie gawks at me as though I’m her next meal. “What?”

“May I have a piece of your jewelry to spell so you can go in the sun?”

Scarlet looks dubiously over at Hattie and then unclips an earring from her ear, handing it to me.

Hattie looks me up and down, taking that calculated measure of me once again, and lifts her be-ringed, spindly fingers, slipping one off. Plopping it into my hand, she walks off with her sister in silence, not a thank you or a query.

There isn’t any desire within me that makes me want to do this for them, but I feel like I have to do something; otherwise, I’m going to go crazy with my thoughts. I feel the dread growing inside me with every passing moment and being here is not doing anything for my soul.

But being outside with the lake and the trees and the wind brings me ease and comforts me. It’s only here and now that I feel like someone, or something, is watching over me. Mama’s memory bites at me again, and I try to wrap my mind around the fact that my mom is gone and never coming back to help me.

What would she have said about all this?

I can only imagine my mother’s reaction to me telling her all about how there are vampires in the world, and sirens, demons, grimspawns, formweavers, and warlocks, and how everything that scared us as little kids is true.

Not realizing it, I reach the water’s edge and stop, getting my sneakers right up to taste the water that ebbs and flows to my feet.

I collapse to the ground, not worrying about getting my jeans dirty; I want to feel Mother Earth’s soil beneath me.

Putting my hands to the ground, one empty, the other holding the jewelry I collected, I will use my strength to get through this to come to me from that soil. Imploring the dirt to come to my aid and make me strong, to get Dom’s curse broken, to get through this weekend alive.

There’s a child that needs me as much as I need my mama right now.

How do I know when he’s right behind me every time?

It’s an extraordinary shift of energy, almost like a buzzing. I feel the danger in the air like one would feel a frost coming.

A shudder skitters down my spine.

“What do you want, Bash?” I ask, not sparing him a glance.

“I wanted to see if you’re all right.”

“You don’t care about me. Cut the shit.”

“And you think I’m a monster, just like the rest.”

“Isn’t that what you want to be, Bash? A monster?”

“I’m a vampire; it’s what I am supposed to be!”

“No!” I shout and jump up. “Something inside all of you pushes back that dark as much as the light tries to pull.”

“You say this when you have only spent a moment in the dark! I have spent centuries!” he spits back.

His words cut me deep.

“Although my dark is not as long as yours, it’s just as black! I have known darkness. Don’t come at me with that and say I haven’t; you don’t even know me.” I make sure that the tone of my voice is edged with angry sorrow and not just anger.

“I know you more than you think I do,” he responds, drawing closer to me again.

“You are so full of cryptic bull shit, I just watched you kill someone. You don’t want Dom to know that I’ve been in your dreams; I’m about tired of all these crazy, murder-y, psychotic games!”

I walk away, and he teleports right in front of me.

“I couldn’t tell you before because Talora always watches me.” His eyes tighten on mine. “I’ve had Scarlet sedate her for me. So I can tell you what I have to say.”

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