Page 58 of As Darkness Fall
“You need to figure it out,” I said quietly, passing by him to leave the room. I knew that if I stayed I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from consoling him. And if I consoled him, I would hug him, and if I hugged him…
“We need you along on this mission. We can’t do it without you.”
“It’s so reckless,” he protested. “Please, Dani. Let me find another way. Something that keeps you safe.”
I shook my head. “There’s one other thing you need to learn about humans and having a partnership.”
“What’s that?” he asked eagerly.
“You have to learn totrustin us. To let us go, sometimes, even if you want something else.”
This was treading dangerously close to acceptance that the Soulbond was forever, and I couldn’t deal with that. Not now. I had too much else going on. Maybe once my parents were safe, I would have time and mental capacity. But not now. I needed to shut it down.
Vir opened his mouth to say more, and I knew I’d have to cut him off. Perhaps even sharply.
But both of us were saved as someone knocked at the door, and Jo stuck her head in.
“Sorry, I have to go,” I told Vir, heading for Jo, who was looking back and forth between us.
It was the coward’s way out, but I didn’t care. I took it anyway.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“You’re awake!” I said excitedly, grabbing Jo by the arm and pulling her out of the study that we had coopted as our planning room.
I told myself it was because I didn’t want Jo to see any of the notes on the table or the whiteboard. If she read them, she might decipher what our plan was. I definitely wasn’t hurriedly escorting her out because it would get me away from Vir. That totally wasn’t my style.
I’m pretty good at lying to myself.
“Yeah,” Jo said, though she didn’t have her usual energy about her.
Her charm and pep was something I loved about Jo, and a large part of me feared that her experience at Lars’s hands had torn that from her forever.
We entered the main room, with its two-floor, wall-to-ceiling windows that let in magnificent amounts of sunlight. The rays bounced wildly off the white tiled floors and created a warm, comforting feeling to the place.
At least, it normally did. Right then, the sofas had been shoved to the side to make room for folding tables, upon which a veritable armory had been laid out. Fred was busy organizing everything, doling out equipment to the rest of the team while Aaron watched.
The head vampire—I’d yet to figure out if the rest of his team were also vampires, though it made sense—stood alone, bathed in rays of light.
Light doesn’t hurt them.The thought came unbidden but seeing Aaron standing directly in the sunlight drove the point home. I’d never thought of it until then, but he and his team could operate day or night without hindrance. Nor, I noticed, did they do anything wild like turn glittery. They were just…paleskinned bloodsuckers.
I made a mental note to figure out what they wereactuallysusceptible to. After all, everything had a weakness. For shifters, it was silver, the metal poisonous if it entered our bloodstream. That was why Lars had tied Vir and me up with bonds of silver in the temple. Because our strength had been sapped by the metal, leaving us weaker than normal humans.
Vampires had to have something. I just didn’t know which of the myriad legends were accurate in this case. Was it the cross? Holy water? Wooden stakes? Something else? I didn’t know.
Jo and I paused to watch the men work, our conversation momentarily forgotten. The sight of so many weapons would do that, even to me, who was expecting them. Jo shuffled her feet, much less at ease.
“Everything okay?” Aaron asked, suddenly at our sides.
I frowned at him, noticing the way he directed the question at Jo. Not at me.
What the hell are you doing here, bud? Do you spy a free meal? Do you think that because she’s weak, you’ll be able to feed on her?
Jo was definitely noticing his charms.
“We’re fine,” I said, glaring at him before looking at Jo. “Come on, let’s get you something to eat.”
I put a hair of extra emphasis on the last word while letting my gaze linger on Aaron. When he finally looked at me, there was confusion in his eyes.
