Page 103 of As Darkness Fall
“Yes, Dad,” I said. “Try to keep up. His brother, Irr, the shifter god of death, is somehow working with Lars and teaching him how to use the relics we gave him, and that’s bad, really bad, because he’s probably out of our power to defeat.”
Behind us, the purple barrier rose higher into the night sky, shimmering in and out of sight. We all stared as it formed a perfect dome. I couldn’t see from where we were, but I assumed that the entire town was swallowed by the magic wall. It was bad.
“Great,” I muttered, trying not to think about what the humans in nearby towns were going to think. “Just great.”
My father, still stealing glances at Vir, came over to me and wrapped me in his arms. A dad hug goes a long way, and I took a steadying breath, only to feel myself enveloped by my mother as well.
“I’m so glad you guys are safe,” I said quietly. “I was so worried about you.”
“My daughter,” my dad said. “The heroic rescuer.”
I laughed, trying to fight back a sob. “I had a bit of help.”
“Just a bit,” my dad said, eyes twinkling. “I see you found Aaron and his team.”
“Yeah. Good guys, them,” I said, glancing up to where the vampires were just chilling in the back of the truck bed. “Aaron’s fine, by the way, since I can see you looking around. He just got hurt on our way out of the Underworld. Apparently, Hades packs a mean right hook.”
My dad stared at me, probably trying to figure out if I was telling the truth or not.
“There’s so much I have to catch you up on,” I said with a hysterical hiccup-laugh. “But we have bigger problems to deal with first.”
“Do you think you can stop him?” my mother asked.
“Maybe,” I said. “I don’t know. He’s stronger than Vir now, and worst of all, we have no idea what he’s going to do next.
My father turned to me, his eyes large and solemn.
“I do,” he said.
Chapter Fifty
“You what?” I gasped. “How?”
“It’s a long story,” Thomas Wetter said, addressing the group as a whole. “A story which I’m ashamed to say I played a large part in.”
“I’m sure you didn’t do so because you thought it was a great idea at the time,” I pointed out.
My father shrugged. “At the start, I did. But at the start of it all, Lars was a very different man than he is now. I thought all he wanted was to find Shuldar. To prove to the other pack leaders that our histories are true, and not just made up as so many believe.”
“That’ll be hard for them to say now,” I said, hooking a thumb at Vir. “Being that he is a god and all.”
“How can you know this?” my dad asked.
“Um, long story short, I sort of accidentally dragged him here from the Direen,” I said, grimacing.
My dad stared. “You went to the Direen?”
“Several times, actually. None of them on purpose, oddly enough. But, Dad, we’ll bring you up to speed later. First, Lars. Evil Plan. Go.”
“Right, right,” Thomas said, shaking his head. “We wanted to find Shuldar. Lars bankrolled me for years. During one trip or another, I forget now, I ran across Aaron and his team. I hired them to help out.”
I bit my liphardat that. Not because it surprised me, but because I knew my dad was lying. There was a lot more to that story than he was telling. I could see it in his eyes. But he didn’t want to discuss it, and so I kept my mouth shut, letting him continue.
“We hunted for Shuldar for years. Slowly, we grew closer and closer. I started to find hints that we were in the right area. Bits and pieces of shifter history that seemed to indicate Shuldar was a real place. But we could never find the city itself.”
“That’s cause it’s underground,” I muttered.
My father smiled. “Youhavebeen busy.”
