Page 111 of A Bond with the Dark

Being a vampire, I have known darkness. I’ve seen evil and stared true fucking terror in the eyes, and yet I cannot fathom what she’s gone through.

I’d do anything to keep pain from making a home in her. I’ll seek out her demons and give them their names; I’ll learn the shape of her grief to cut out of her soul and add it to mine so she may live lighter for even a day.

To taste my deceit and learn what it costs is a wreckage I cannot afford. Even the ghost of the thought of losing her catches my soul in a vice, a spikey and unyielding kind of torture I wouldn’t wish on anyone. The weight of that agony is enough to ruin me, to break me beyond all recognition.

Fuck becoming a grim—if I lose her, that is something I’ll never recover from.

If anything comes for Sayah—my family, the warlocks, the fae, the Nyktorim—they may as well take me too. I am nothing without her.

I’ve found the thing my damned soul has longed for, the very thing that beckons me out of the shadows that lost me. The kiss of darkness has been on my breath longer than she’s been alive. Yet the second she entered my life, the wind shattered at my feet, fracturing the evil seeping out of my bones.

She is soothing, like silk and honey and rain and the hurricanes of summer will bow to her. Finding her fire means bending the breeze, tilting the rain, and folding the Earth to her command. Broken flames will climb the pyre on which all the things that came for her lay down to die upon.

As my spiraling thoughts touch the moonlight, the Earth begins to tilt toward my resolve. Until I met Sayah, I’d been parched; the drought from an existence so long and lonely even time became raw and tender.

The way she says my name is like a promise. How she looks at her son like he’s her salvation. The way she bleeds words that slide into my center and drop an anchor within me. Her tangled magick searches for softness within me to be soothed. I love her for everything and nothing more than the mere fact that she exists.

To keep the darkness from taking us both, I’d gladly give myself over to this warlock; I’ll become a mindless grim to let her live.

If that was the bargain, I’d gladly take it.

I’d take a life of darkness to let her live in the light.

34

REPARTEE WITH MOONLIGHT

SAYAH

As I open my eyes the following day, I see his right arm draped over my bare side. We fucked all night long last night. I came probably eight or nine times, and my pussy is raw and sore today. I almost forgot about the whole reason why we came here, but then I see the mark that looks like a brand on his arm. It’s bright white against the rest of his skin, which is a light olive color. I want to rouse him awake and get down to business to get that mark off him. Thoughts are pulsing from me like blood from an open wound, their immediacy sluicing through me.

How will Adaline remove it?

Can she break the bond?

What can we do to get him released?

What the hell are we up against?

He stirs as though the cage of protection around my thoughts is still down, and they are coming alive, escaping, and crawling into his mind.

“Morning,” he says, his breath hot and ticking to my shoulder blades.

“Morning,” I say in a lofty voice, the kind I use to cover up my real emotions.

The sun shines into the room, and I can now see the lake perfectly from my spot on the bed. It’s still early enough in the morning that there’s fog coming off the lake and sitting atop it like whipped cream on hot cocoa. The balcony outside looks to be a wraparound because I can’t see the beginning or end, just the two chairs that sit outside awaiting company.

“I’m going to take a quick shower,” he says, rising from the bed. His cheeky bubble butt flexes as he stretches and grabs some clothes from his suitcase on the floor. “Coming?” he asks as he enters the bathroom, his sexy figure semi-hiding behind the pocket door.

Thinking that a shower is just what I need to calm my aching thoughts, I pull myself out of the comfortable bed and skip to the bathroom, the chill from the air outside the blankets making me shiver.

The large double shower is nice and roomy; he turns the nozzle, and the water spray is still cold. He pulls me into his arms and holds me until the stream is scalding hot, easing the chill of my mind and body.

Shower sex and the calming water helped ease my thoughts, though they’re waiting for me as I dry off. After dressing, I check the phone for messages and see two from Gauge.

He had responded to my last message of the night prior, our nightly ‘Goodnight, I love you. Sweet dreams. Talk to you tomorrow.’ text we always send when we aren’t with each other, along with a different character making a kissy face.

Good morning, boo-boo; I love you and miss you. Have a great day!

---