Page 5 of Bound By Darkness

I catch her scent on the breeze and my cock instantly hardens.

What the fuck?

I don’t understand what is going on with me. Is her Succubus call so strong that I can’t control myself? It must be. Either way, it bothers me, because it takes me back to a time I’d sorely attempted to forget.

I follow her gaze to Cambion, who’s kneeling on the hard floor of the forest. In his hands is a stone about the size of an egg. It’s golden, with flecks of purple and brown. The stone appears to be floating between his palms as he works the yellow embers over every surface.

His face is devoid of expression, and the whites of his eyes show. The embers continue to dance on the surface of the stone and his hands are an unyielding blur, revolving around the thing, turning it in the air.

Revenant comes to join our viewing party and the sprite lands gently on Eilish’s shoulder. It’s strange he doesn’t detectthe darkness within her. But I suppose I didn’t, either. Until I saw proof of it for myself.

We stand like this for some time, until, without warning, Cambion’s pupils return and he blinks a few times. When he’s finished, he looks up at us, the stone resting in his hands. It’s glowing slightly, a gently radiating golden yellow. He holds it gingerly, eyeing his handiwork.

“It’s finished,” he proclaims. He sounds exhausted.

The air around us tenses as we all realize what this means. If the stone can unlock whatever is hidden away inside Eilish’s and Revenant’s minds, maybe it will provide the final information we need to defeat Variant once and for all.

But, if it doesn’t work…

If it leaves us with the same questions we’ve had since the beginning, the entirety of our journey will seem pointless—our battle with the manticore, our capture, Thoradin’s death... all of it. It will be for nothing if we can’t settle on a plan to eliminate Variant.

Maybe it’s already all for nothing,I think to myself as I look at Eilish.

I bring my attention back to the stone. No one moves to touch it. At this moment, it still represents hope. Our futures hang in the balance, and no one is willing to accept the certainty of a destiny decided.

Finally, Revenant extends his hand, and Cambion drops the stone into his palm. As he does, Revenant’s eyes roll back into his head, and his body freezes. He’s rigid before us, the stone glowing in his palm.

CHAPTER TWO

FLUMPH

Mortal Realm

When the stone hits the vamp’s hand, his eyes roll back in his head like he possessed by a demon. But I knows he ain’t. I knows it’s the stone doin’ it to him.

“What’s he see?” I ask the group.

They all jist standin’ ‘round, watchin’ him like he the most interestin’ man in the three realms. I guess, maybe, right now, he is.

“How the fuck should we know?” asks Cambion, real rude-like.

“Okay, fuck me fer existin’!” I shout, offended that everyone’s still bein’ snippy even though I be a hero an’ all.

I look over at Baron again and he don’t look so good.

“What’s happenin’ to him?” I asks.

“We don’t fucking know!” Cambion respond, even ruder-like.

Dick.

I grunt and lean over to whisper in Eilish’s ear. “How long’s Baron gonna be like that for?” There’s only so long I wanna stare at a sick-lookin’ vampire havin’ visions.

“I don’t know, Flumph,” she say, an’ then she shrug me off her shoulder. I’m about ta get offended but when I looks at her face, I realize she ain’t bein’mean, jist worried. Her expression show she all kindsa anxious.

If this transmuter rock work for the vampire, then that mean it probly gonna work on her memories, too. If it fail, though, then maybe it fail for her, too. An’ without her memories, we can’t hope to go up ‘gainst Variant. We dunno what she know or what kinda power she got in her—or how much o’ that power she got.

I turns my attention back to the vampire. His skin’s even worse lookin’ than before. Sun is shinin’ in from beneath the trees an’ where it touch his skin, the flesh turn gray an’ sickly lookin’. I’m ‘bout to say somethin’, but don’t wanna get shushed agin.

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