Page 6 of As Darkness Fall
“Really?” I said, moving a hand to cover my tits. “You choose now to go all creep-show on me?”
“That’s not what I was looking at,” Vir said quietly. “I was staring at this.”
He lifted a finger toward my chest. I shied away slightly, but he pressed the tip of his finger above the naughty bits. Into the skin over my breastbone. Over my heart.
“Fascinating,” he whispered, gently pushing against me in rhythm with my heart.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to maintain my composure.
It had been a long,longtime since I’d been touched by anyone like that. So gently and caring. Not to mention, by someone who looked like Vir. Tall, inhumanly sexy, with eyes that snared and bespoke of wicked delights humans could only dream of. I was naked. He was shirtless.
Vir could have made a move on me, and I’m not sure I could have resisted at that moment, exhaustion and blood-covered lower body or not. That’s how powerful a Soulbond could be. Deep in me, my wolf stirred, awakened by the touch of someone she respected. Someone she would submit to.
An Alpha predator worthy of her respect.
Which was exactly why I had to convince Vir to sever the bond.
“I’ve never…feltanything like this before,” Vir said.
“A heartbeat?” I retorted. “Come on now. I’m not buying that.”
“No,” Vir said, ignoring my sarcasm. His tone never changed, still filled with that sense of wonder as he felt my heartbeat. “Feeling.”
A beat that was increasing the longer he touched me. I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself. He was feeling? Feeling what? Anything?
“It is an interesting feeling,” Vir continued while I struggled to comprehend what was going on in the mind of a god. “One that I do not hate. Not at all.”
“That’s great,” I said, resorting to my usual standoffish, prickly attitude, not sure what else to do. “Why don’t you go not-hate it somewhere else?”
Vir smiled.
“Call Aaron in here,” I suggested. “You can attach your end to him. You two aremadefor one another, trust me.”
“That’s not how these things work,” Vir said, slowly removing his finger. “You need a soul for the bond to work.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Besides,” Vir added just a little too quickly, “he’s a jerk.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I said, recognizing a deflection when I heard one, which was just fine. I had something we had to focus on as well. “The phrase is opposites attract. You two are so similar you’d repel one another. Like magnets.”
Vir chuckled, and I could sense his relief that I didn’t press the subject. I would, just not now. Later, once everything was settled and I was free of my bond to Vir. Then, I could figure out just who the heck I had hired to escort me out into the middle of nowhere, because I wasdamnsure now that Aaron wasn’t human.
But I was also damn sure I had no ideawhathe was.
The light in Vir’s hand grew brighter, and the spear he manifested when he needed to fight appeared in his hand.
The blue energy swirled around us. It wasn’t like before, where Vir had worked the purple energy in the room and touched it to my chest to reveal the Soulbond. This time, he used his own power and touched himself.
Instantly, a bright golden line of what appeared to be rope burst into existence, linking my chest with his. It slowly pulsed, and with each pulse, I felt a gentle redirection of my anger at Vir, turning it into more positive emotions. Warping my perspective.
How more people didn’t see these things as evil was beyond me. My ex, the over-cooked lump barely breathing in the corner, had been the single worst person I’d ever met. Ihatedhim with every fiber of my being. Yet, we’d been Soulbound together through some cruel twist of fate until Vir had severed it with his magic spear.
If I hadn’t resisted, if I’d given in, I’d have been happy with Johnathan. We would have lived forever after, made babies, and I would have become someone else. That mandestroyedmy family and later tried to kill me.
The Soulbond didn’t care. It drove us to be together, in ever stronger waves, until I’d nearly gone insane trying to resist. Death had been preferable at the end instead of the pain it had caused me.
No, I was done with Soulbonds. Never again. I would work at my relationship like a real human. I wouldmakelove instead of be granted it by some unseen force that linked me to another without choice, without freedom.
