Page 42 of As Darkness Fall
I lowered the blade to his neck. “You’re not really in a position to bargain here,” I warned.
“You don’t want to do that,” Lars said with a confident chuckle.
“You’re right,” I admitted. “I don’twantto do it. But that doesn’t mean you haven’t earned it. Killing you would be the best thing for the pack. Not to mention, you sent a hit squad after meandyou kidnapped my best friend and were going to threaten her life if I didn’t do as you want. Tell me again why I shouldn’t just kill you and save us all a boatload of trouble?”
“Because,” Lars said, madness tinging his eyes as he stared up at me unblinking, “if you kill me, you’ll never find your parents.”
I froze.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“What did you just say?” I hissed in a deadly whisper, not sure I had heard him correctly.
My hands were shaking as I tried to process what I thought I’d just heard. The blade dipped closer to Lars’s neck, and he flinched. I caught myself in time, steadying my grip, even as my mind raced.
Had he really said—my parents?
“Explain yourself,” I snarled.
“Dani,” Vir called. “We should go. Now. Before more arrive.”
There was an urgent warning note in his tone, but I ignored it. I ignored everything. The world around us ceased to exist in my mind. There was just Lars and me. The two of us, and I had a blade to his neck that would kill him with one nick, sucking his soul from his body.
Which was precisely what I was going to do if he didn’t start answering me. I lowered the blade again until it was resting on the skin of his neck. Just a hair more pressure, andpoof, no more Lars.
“Talk,” I ordered. “What did you mean about my parents?
“I meant what I said,” Lars said, smiling, though he didn’t chuckle. The bobbing motion might have split his skin. He knew how on the edge he was. Literally. Yet, he was still acting like he was in command.
“Did you now?” I growled. “Because it sounded to me like you were trying to tell me that my parents are still alive.”
“And if you kill me,” Lars said lightly, “they will never see the light of day again.”
“You’re telling me they aren’t dead?” I asked in a strangled voice, working to process this.
Nine months ago, the night of my first shift, my Soulshift, my parents had gone missing. It was the same night I’d discovered I was adopted, and the questions I had for the people I considered my parents could have filled a list a mile long. I’d never gotten to ask them a single one, though, because they had disappeared before I could.
I’d looked for them. For months. All the money I’d made in the underground fights in Kellar, getting my ass kicked time after time, rigging the fights to make the most cash,allof it had gone into trying to locate my parents, to find out where they were.
As it turned out, they hadn’t left. Someone hadtakenthem.
“You want to tell me where they are,” I said in a sweet falsetto, blinking my eyes as I smiled broadly at Lars.
“I’m sure,” Lars growled. “I tell you, then you slit my throat because you no longer need me? No, I don’t think so.”
“Tell me now,” I raged.
“And give up my only leverage? Danielle dear, I’m not stupid. That’s not how this works. But I understand. You’re new to the game. You weren’t expecting this. I can see that now.”
My arm trembled, and I almost opened his throat anyway. The blade would kill with just a cut, but, I thought, it was probably better to err on the safe side instead. I should probably take his head. There would be no coming back from that.
Lars scowled when I didn’t move. “You’re going to let me up now. That’s how this works.”
I punched him. Hard. In the nose. It broke. He stared up at me impotently from his back, knowing he couldn’t move, couldn’t retaliate. He had to sit there and take the punishment. For an Alpha, used to ruling and having his way, it had to be extra humiliating. At least, I hoped it was. The fucker deserved that much at a minimum.
“Aaron,” I called, bringing him over to where we were.
“Yes?” he asked, barely restrained hatred evident in his voice.
