Page 32 of As Darkness Fall
“Oh, for fucks sake,” I snarled, reaching for the door. “I’ll pump the damn gas.”
Vir followed me out, standing around while I started pumping. I didn’t speak to him. He didn’t speak to me. Which was mildly amusing since there was a lot weshouldhave been talking about.
Until I was ready to discuss the fact that I, a mortal, was now bound to an immortal, divine being who was thousands of years old, there wouldn’t be much talking. And it didn’t seem like my mind was going to truly wrap itself around that concept any time soon. So instead, we stood in silence.
For a bit.
There was another question, one that had been eating at me more and more as time went on.
“Vir,” I said quietly, looking up into the shifter god’s deep blue eyes. “What am I?”
I shivered as I asked the question, fearful of his answer. I shouldn’t have been. His answer wasn’t anything I expected.
He grimaced in apology. “I don’t know, Dani.”
“Me neither,” I whispered as the pump clunked to indicate it was full. “But I need to find out. Somehow.”
But if a god didn’t know, how was I going to do any better?
Chapter Seventeen
“Turn here,” I said, lifting a finger and pointing at a gravel drive approaching on our left.
Aaron responded immediately, slowing the truck and wheeling us through the turn with practiced ease, the sudden change in course not messing him up the slightest.
That’s him. Mr. Calm-Under-Pressure.Hopefully, it’s something that indicates competence and not a façade that will break at the worst moment.
“Why here?” he asked once the truck was bouncing along the drive, heading up to the house at the end. “This isn’t the Aldridge place.”
“I know,” I said. “Change of plans.”
My eyes were focused ahead on the farmhouse with the giant wraparound porch that was swiftly coming into view. It was unusually bright. All the exterior lights were turned on, which wasn’t a normal sign. Was something else wrong?
“Dani,” Aaron cautioned, looking around suspiciously as he slowed to a halt in front of the house.
“I know,” I growled. “We need information.”
Was that really it, though? We had all the information we needed. We knew the last place Jo was being held. Johnathan had given us that, along with everything else he could think of on the basement labyrinth beneath Aldridge Manor. It should be more than enough to get us in and out with hopefully minimal conflict.
“Then, we should have brought him,” Aaron criticized.
I glared at him briefly, but my eyes kept returning to the unusually bright farmhouse. It had been years since I’d seen it this lit…
“We don’t need him, nor do we need to risk him blowing our cover,” I said. “We went over this.”
“We also went over all the information we need,” Aaron pointed out.
“Not all,” I said quietly, studying the house, trying to figure out if the lights were a warning sign or something else. I didn’t get out of the car. Not yet.
“The longer we’re here, the more noise we make, the better chance people will have of seeing us driving around,” Aaron said.
I almost looked to the back seat to invite comment from Vir, but I held my stare. Aaron was providing criticism and counter-points, but he wasn’t going against my commands, and until he did that, I didn’t need to worry.
“I told you, we need the trucks,” I said. “Jo can’t shift yet. That means she’s slower on foot than you and your men. We can’t outrun Lars or his enforcers that way. We need something faster. The trucks are it.”
“We need surprise for this,” Aaron said, his continued protests making it clear he was thoroughly unhappy with the unexpected delay in our plans.
I grunted, the wordless reply the only acknowledgment I was going to give him for now.
