Page 89 of A Bond with the Dark

Now that I know his secret and know that the entire time I felt the hesitation, the feeling that I was being drawn to him is now known that it’s part of his vampire power; the power to keep me calm, make me feel at ease and take away my worry. But there’s more to it than that. Something deeper draws me to him that’s stronger than hypnotic, but it isn’t him who’s bewitching me. It’s as if the very fibers of my being are pulling him to me instead of his alluring nature drawing me to him. The more I get to know and fall for him, the harder it is to fight, even if there is still an aching doubt that tells me there’s something dangerous about him.

As he basks in the daylight and reunites with the incandescence, I interlace his fingers with mine and share it with him. Even though some of my neighbors are out and about for their morning walks with their dogs, and we probably look pretty strange standing in the morning with our arms out, none of that matters to me.

What matters to me is that he’s embracing the radiant morning with all of him; every ounce of his flesh is reeling in it, and I hope it’s seeping into his soul. The dark clusters of evil circulating about him for hundreds of years are being chased away, and he will leave this moment feeling as refreshed as he could have ever imagined.

“What are you thinking?” I ask him as I turn him to face me.

The soft features of his face that had once been hardened and sad are now relieved with ease; soaking in the sun, he bends down so that he’s at eye level with me. He looks at me like I have brought him water in the desert. “I am thinking that I adore you, Sayah. More than I can explain. You have given me back the light. I cannot tell you what this means to me. You have no idea how many years I’ve spent in shadows.”

“I can’t imagine, Dom. I cannot fathom being without the sunlight.”

“So,” he breathes, taking a step back but still clutching my hands, “The first thing you thought of instead of running for your life was to help me meet the light again? You thought nothing of your life, the danger you are in now, or any of that?”

“I mean, it was all swirling around in there, but mostly, I wanted to help you.”

“You are something that is not of this world, Lasayah Thorne. I do believe you have angel blood mixed with the witch’s.”

The sound of my name on his lips makes it sound surreal. Within seconds, those lips are on mine, and I feel myself fall a little harder for him, a little deeper, even if there is an echo of a doubt that he is my one.

Despite the slight nagging feeling deep within my bones, he will still be an epic love.

26

A TINY FLAME

DOM

I’m relatively certain I’ve met the woman I’m destined to spend my life with. I cannot get over the way Sayah lives; her life and magick and blood and resilience stagger me. They’re all attached to a string threaded through me, and the more I pull at it, the more it unwinds something within me.

Instead of running from the monster I am and the family that wants her dead—albeit she doesn’t know that part—she took that terror within herself and still found a way to help me.

Making me a sun talisman.

Meeting the sun for the first time after centuries solidified that she’s a powerful being with the magick to conquer anything. We still have yet to get her to find her fire, but we’re working on that tonight as we prepare for her parents’ celebration of life.

She wants to do some magick for the celebration without telling people it’s real magick.

“While we’re thinking of things we can do,” I say as we sit at the patio table on her deck, basking in the remnants of the afternoon sun, “why don’t you grab that spell I got from my mom, and we can work on fire some more?”

“All right,” she says, scooting the chair to bound into the house. When she returns, she hands me the spell Mom had sent me. “I don’t see how I will do fire magick at the celebration.”

“You’re not. But while we think, do those exercises I told you about. Open your mind. Feel that fire. Listen to your blood and bones and magick. It’s in there; we just have to draw it out.”

“Why are you so adamant that I learn fire magick?” she says thoughtfully, though her tone suggests she’s playing.

“I think it’ll help to have all four elements. Once you unlock fire, you will unlock many other powers.”

She smiles at me and closes her eyes, holding a red tapered candle before her.

I chant the words of my mother’s spell and watch as she concentrates on pulling up her powers, chanting the words with me.

“Good,” I respond as the aura around her gets brighter. “Now, blow that candle to life.”

Her eyes still closed, she sets her breath free on the wick.

Nothing happens.

“Ugh!” she growls.

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