Page 48 of As Darkness Fall
“Maybe,” I said, relaxing now that I knew my friend was going to be okay. “But I’m the one who was big into the old gods. Jo, not so much. She’ll just think it’s a cool coincidence.”
Vir nodded, accepting my word for it. Trusting me. I looked at him, then at Aaron. I wanted to trust them. I wanted to let them have their secrets, to keep their privacy. Yet, I couldn’t. Not this time. There was too much at stake. My parents’ lives, in fact.
“Aaron,” I said quietly. “I think it’s time you told me the truth. I need to know who the, uh, hell, I’m working with.”
Sometimes a great pun comes along at the worst of times. I managed not to laugh, but they both knew I was thinking it.
“No more secrets,” I added, refocusing. “No more false fronts. I need the truth.”
The cabin was silent for a long time after that. I watched Aaron’s face, noting the troubled look in his eyes, the slight clouding to the normally electric blue within. He readjusted his grip on the wheel numerous times, clenching and unclenching his jaw simultaneously.
The truck rolled along, taking us back to Kellar. No one spoke.
I wanted to give him as long as he needed, but after ten minutes had gone by, I was starting to grow impatient. Whether Aaron noticed this and finally spoke, or if he’d come to a conclusion on his own, I would never know because the shock of his next words was all I remembered.
“I’m a vampire,” he said tightly, still staring straight ahead.
Licking my lips, I sat back into my seat, staring at him and the side profile of his face. Pale skin. Brilliantly blond hair. Eyes so brightly blue it almost defied nature.
“Oh,” I said, drawing the lines between those features and still coming up in disbelief. “You’re joking, right?”
“No.” The soft, firm reply told me it wasn’t a joke or a prank. He was telling the truth.
Which, of course, he was. Aaron knew now wasn’t a time to fuck around. I was the one who didn’t immediately accept his answer.
“And you know Hades,” I added as if he was now going to change his answer. “And this fool.”
Aaron’s head bobbed up and down slowly. “Yes.”
“How old are you?” I asked quietly.
“Old enough,” Aaron said in a voice that indicated he wasn’t going to be answering more questions like that. Some things, it seemed, were still off-limits.
I looked between the two of them. “Gods. Vampires. Magical artifacts. Right. Sure. This is totally normal. I’m not going crazy at all. I probably died back in the mountains. Johnathan caught me and killed me. This is all just some sort of hell loop or something. It must be.”
Aaron turned to look at me. “Hey, crazy lady. You can turn into a wolf at will. To some,that’scrazy.”
My jaw opened and closed as I sought an appropriate response and came up empty. I wanted to snap back at him that, of course, it wasn’t crazy. It was normal. I’m a shifter. Except he was right. From anyone else’s perspective, itwascrazy. Aaron could do a lot, but he couldn’t do that.
“Okay, fine,” I said, exhaling slowly, rubbing my face. “So, gods and vampires exist. Whatelseis out there that I don’t know about?”
Neither of them replied.
“Figures,” I growled. “More secrets.”
What a world I lived in.
For a moment, I was transported back to nine months earlier. The day of my Soulshift. All I’d wanted was to be free, to get out of Seguin, and explore the world on my own. A grand adventure to broaden my horizons.
Well, horizons broadened and then some.
No kidding. I’d never imagined that the world would be as wild as it was turning out to be. I’d always thought that we shifters were the only ones out there, the only beings besides humans to exist on the planet. I could not have been more wrong.
It was rather humbling and mildly nauseating all at the same time as I tried to come to grips with it all.
“Are you okay, Dani?” Vir asked gently.
“Yup.” I shook my head. “I will be. After alotof wine, and if we ever find someone with the proper worldly knowledge, some therapy, too. With wine.”
