Page 176 of Dark Souls

“My life is about to completely change, isn’t it?” he muttered. I placed my hand on his shoulder as he glanced at me, a mix of apprehension, excitement and fear in his eyes.

“I think it already has.” I dangled the sapphire crystal in front of him and placed it in the palm of his hand. “Protect this with your life, Ronnie.”

His fingers wrapped around it tightly, and he lifted his gaze to the house before taking slow steps to the front door. I went to follow him but stopped when my mum grabbed my arm.

“Did you get their names?”

I nodded. “Mitchell and Parisa.” Mum closed her eyes, fighting a wave of anguish at the familiarity of them. “Do you know them?”

“Yeah. I know them. And so do you. They’re Lia’s parents.”

Cave Of Truths

Asthelastbeamsof daylight disappeared above the small, jagged opening above, I was plunged into darkness. Nightfall. It was possibly my last night on this Earth, and I was here, spending it alone, captive in a cave with nothing to comfort me but the belief that I’d done enough to keep them safe. Story of my fucking life. Had my final act to save the only people I loved been my last attempt to give my life meaning? Would this one good deed give retribution for all my sins? Would I be able to let go of some of the self-blame and hatred I held for myself when I took my final breath if I knew my sister was free? If I knew Ilaria had saved her? Maybe.

Ronnie should have turned by now. The sire bond would force him to find Ilaria and tell her everything. And all I could do was pray that she understood my actions. Pray that she would still be willing to help Hana, even though I’d broken her fucking heart. I knew she would. Because I knew Ilaria. She’d go toThe Underground, find Wesley and get the information she needed to find my sister.

As my vampire senses adjusted to the night, I looked down at my battered body. Thanks to my quick healing, the three broken ribs and fractured collar bone from the 400ft fall into this stone prison were now just a dull ache as I rolled over onto my side and attempted to lean up on one elbow. I had no fucking clue where this place was, but before The Devil sent his foot flying into my chest, kicking me backwards through the small opening in the ceiling of this cave, I’d have guessed we were still in England from the rolling green hills in the distance and the sound of the sea smashing against the cavern walls. Not to mention it was freezing down here. The Devil had transported us, giving me the first major clue who he was since I’d met him. I guess now he had no intention of keeping me alive. It didn’t matter to him anymore. Only one type of vampire could transport themselves with magic, and they belonged to the Romano Clan. The Devil was a member of the very clan Ilaria was destined to lead.

My skin scraped along the coarse, grainy sand as I dragged myself towards a fallen rock. Gripping onto the slimy surface, I tried to use it as leverage to help me stand upright and take a good look around. Uneven rocks shaped the walls, sharp and crumbling, making it seem impossible to climb or even lean against them without the risk of death. They curved inward above me, cocooning me and amplifying that suffocating sense of entrapment. The only glimmer of hope for escape was through the small opening so far above that it felt like a cruel illusion. It was a taunting promise of freedom for anyone who dared to reach it. I knew The Devil chose this place for a reason. To mock me. If I could shift into Heathen, I’d be able to fly out or use his telekinesis to break away the rocks to climb. It was just another bitter reminder of what had been taken from me.

Of course, there was always a silver lining. Being in my vampire form meant I couldn’t die. I could attempt to climb these walls, jump as high as I could to reach the ceiling, only to fall and smash my head open on a rock, and it wouldn’t even matter. I’d come back to life and be able to try again. But what would be the point? Even if I escaped, one rub of that sigil and Heathen would be summoned back to him. It was all fucking pointless.

My stomach grumbled and fangs tingled with hunger as a sign of how much energy it had taken me to turn a giant of a human like Ronnie and heal my injuries from the fall into the cave. I needed a decent feed to replenish myself but had a fat chance of hunting a single living creature down here. I glanced around, finding evidence of the long-forgotten victims left to rot in this stone tomb. Their cracked and brittle bones were bleached with age, showing just how long this place had been used for.

Was that The Devil’s grand plan? To starve me of blood and organs for centuries until I was just a rotting corpse? Starvation was nothing new to me. The Knowltons had kept me in a state of starvation for years to weaken me. Much to their frustration, yes, it had weakened my body, but it never weakened my mind. It was the isolation I couldn’t stand. And now, after Ilaria, the thought of being stuck down here without ever seeing her again, not knowing if she was safe or what she was doing, was the worst imaginable torture.

I kicked the sand at my feet. I noticed something sharp poking out and bent down to retrieve my scorched dagger made from the charred remains of my family home. The Devil had thrown it down here after my body. Picking it up, I twisted the familiar wooden stake in my hand, my skin itching with the need to scrape it along my flesh until the addictive burn became unbearable. I guess The Devil was allowing me one comfort down here. To bring myself pain. Anger sparked through my veins and I tossed the stake away. I allowed my body to slide down the rock, fell on my ass in the sand and closed my eyes.

I wasn’t scared of dying. The amount of times I’ve come so close to giving up over the centuries, to wanting this all to just go away permanently and knowing the easiest way to make that happen was to allow them to kill me was countless.

Never surrender.

Even now, hundreds of years later, my brother’s words still spoke to me like my own personal bible. I’d failed him in life. Fuck if I was going to fail him in death, too. I would never surrender.

A few hours must have passed because it had grown even darker. The faraway sprinkle of stars shimmered through the break in the rocks above as I stared up at them. Every drip of water that fell from the cave’s ceiling echoed in the confined space.

The incessant ache in my chest where I knew my heart beat only for her was a welcome pain; a keepsake of the bond that I never believed I’d be lucky enough to find. In the grand scheme of my life, I’d only had her in it for a flicker of a moment, but she’d never know how much those moments mattered. How being with her, holding her in my arms, erased years of suffering and pain. She was the remedy to my darkness. And I never even told her how much I loved her. I’d die knowing that was my biggest regret.

I crippled over at the waist unexpectedly. An excruciating stabbing shot through my chest, straight into my heart, causing every beat to become a torrent of insufferable anguish. Looking down, I half-expected to see a wooden stake lodged in my chest, but instead, I grabbed at the unmarked skin as I gritted my teeth and fell forwards. What the hell was this?

Ilaria.

Was she hurt? I tried to focus my mind through the pain and feel what she was feeling through our bond. What I found, I didn’t fucking like. Panic, disgust, outrage and… guilt. She was with another man. Another man was touching her.

Staggering to my feet, I gripped the jagged rocks and roared. The sound shook the cave walls, causing a few small rocks to dislodge and crumble down. Another man dared to put his hands on her. Kiss her. And she didn’t like it. She was panicking.

Red-hot lava fuelled my veins as I leapt from the floor, catapulting myself as high up the rock walls as I could. Barely halfway, I dug my claws into the sharp, slippery surface, cutting my hands in the process as I tried to scramble higher. My foot slipped. The fall was quick but brutal. Landing on my back, I felt all the air knocked from my lungs in one vicious blow. I wheezed, rolling over onto my stomach and forcing myself up on all fours, trying to catch my breath before I attempted again.

The turmoil that threatened to tear my soul apart subsided. The bond returned to a deep ache of longing at our separation. I squeezed my eyes shut and dropped my head into my hands in the sand. I didn’t want to think about what that meant; about what kind of situation Ilaria had put herself in to help Hana. To help me. But I knew I had to trust this. I had to trust her and that she knew what she was doing.

A scuffle in the darkest corner of the cave caused my head to snap up. I wasn’t alone down here. Using my speed, I zoomed across the cave and grabbed the neck of a man who had been hiding behind a boulder. I slammed his back against the rock as he held up his hands, his red eyes wide with fear. As I took in his sunken cheeks, the black circles beneath his eyes and his dirty, tousled brown hair, I hissed with warning.

“P-please,” he choked, his chapped lips trembling beneath his fangs. “Don’t kill me.”

I held his gaze. He was a young vampire. I could tell. In his late twenties would be my guess. No match for me and he knew it. I released his neck and he dropped to his knees in the sand. His clothes were torn and damp, hanging from what once would have been an athletic body of ripped muscles but had been clearly weakened by starvation.

I took a few steps back from him, keeping my gaze on him to ensure he didn’t try anything stupid as he peered up at me with uncertainty.

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