Page 5 of Rising Darkness

I was ready when Elan tried to pry it from my hands. Holding tightly, I refused to let go. “I didn’t do it for you.”

Elan’s face turned a dark shade of red. “Turn over the book,” he spat furiously.

“You’re disturbed if you think I’m going to just hand you the grimoire. I am the Veil Keeper. The Book of the Keepers rightfully belongs to me,” I growled as I held it close.

“You think you have the power to stand against me?” Maniacal laughter filled the room and sent a shiver of dread down my spine. “The only reason you’re still alive is because I needed you to find the grimoire. I knew if I let you run around for a while, you’d find it. There’s always been a bond between the book and the Keeper, and after searching fruitlessly for years, I willingly took a gamble. It doesn’t hurt that you also make an excellent bargaining chip for my son.” He motioned mindlessly toward where Tye stood motionless, hands curled into fists, veins popping in his neck, looking for all the world like he wanted to cross the room and do… something.

Tye’s jaw clenched so tightly he could have cracked his teeth. The muscles strained below the surface, and his Adam’s apple bobbed with every harsh swallow. “You promised,” he grunted with difficulty, as though his jaw had been soldered shut.

“I won’t kill the girl. As long as she complies. Those were the terms.” Elan’s tone became avaricious. “Release the grimoire, Lorn.”

I laughed mirthlessly. “Over my dead body.” Did he think I didn’t understand what his motivations were? I’d always known whoever was releasing the shades wanted one thing… power. I doubted he’d be able to make the words appear when I, myself, didn’t know how to access them, but I’d also learned never to underestimate people.

I’d never thought my entire coven would turn their backs on me on the night of the Solstice and subsequently try to kill me because of my mixed bloodline. I’d never thought my adopted mother, Avalon, capable of being so vile that she’d have my father, Cardoc, possessed by a class three shade just so she could control him and his loyalty. I’d never thought one of my mates would become my enemy, even if we hadn’t formed a relationship yet. And I’d never be daft enough to believe Elan wouldn’t find a way to unlock the contents of the Book of the Keepers if I handed it over.

Elan grinned, but it was a cold, detached expression. “How about overhisdead body?”

Faster than I could comprehend, Elan sent a bolt of sizzling blue power into Tye. The blast raced through him, electrocuting him and seizing his muscles in unnatural ways. Tye’s cries of pain had me gasping despite everything he’d done. The chasm in my heart where my mate bonds used to reside yawned farther.

Anger blinded me, and I reacted, done with gathering information and ready to end this. Thrusting out a hand, I used all the power I had as a newborn vampire and slammed Elan backward, sending him flying into the wall on the farside of the room, ending his attack against Tye.

For a split second, I warred with myself over fleeing, or racing to Tye’s side.

Goddess, I was stupid for doing the latter. I dropped to my knees in front of him and quickly checked to make sure he was breathing. “Tye?” I called, and he groaned in response.

“Run,” he hoarsely whispered.

He wanted me to run? I couldn’t make sense of this man. He infuriated me to the point I wanted to kill him, and yet that rage, that wrath, only made the confusing chemistry between us burn brighter. It was maddening.Hewas maddening.

Incensed, I growled at his nearly unconscious form. “I should hate you. I should leave you here to die.”

“Do it,” he challenged, barely cracking his eyes. His rough voice chafed against the rawness of my heart. “Go.”

I wasn’t an angry crier, but pressure gathered behind my eyes, anyway. Elan groaned in the background as he picked himself up off the ground with murder in his eyes.

I closed my own and hurried to call upon my shadow touched magick. Small and quiet, I latched onto it and magnified it, pulling it to the forefront until it heated my arms and tingled into my fingers. Since I’d been turned into a vamp—or, one-third vampire, at least—it hadn’t felt as strong as it used to be. But in my time of need, it responded, flaring brighter and brighter until I forced it outward to create a portal.

Dragging Tye slowed me down, and before I’d been able to get us through the eddy of magick, Elan released a guttural sound and hurled another blast of magick. I ducked, sprawling out across Tye’s chest, and my power slammed back into me.

Hands landing on my hips, Tye gathered whatever strength he had left. “Watch out!” he grunted, and rolled us, using his body to block mine. But it was too late.

Elan hit us both with a crippling zap of magick. A million volts of electricity seemed to fry my insides. The force of the spasms clashed my teeth together so hard, blood filled my mouth. Tye convulsed against me as he rode out the same agonizing torture.

I shook, and my muscles locked. Barely able to turn my head when Elan approached, I almost missed his smug expression.

Dizziness swamped me while my lungs seized, and I was helpless when he reached for the grimoire wedged between Tye and I.

“If only you’d chosen to behave,” he tsked, and I waited on bated breath as he lovingly caressed the grimoire.

Flipping the book open, Elan’s entire countenance changed as he turned one page, then another and another.

“It’s…”

“Blank,” I wheezed, using the last of my oxygen to taunt him. Fuck it. If I was going to die, I wanted to go out having the last word.

A virulent roar pierced the air, and Elan hurled the grimoire to crash against the wall. Pages fluttered to the ground, and I whimpered at the destruction of the only hope I had of defeating his darkness. Of sealing the gate. Of saving my dad.

Turning his rage on me, Elan lashed out with wave after wave of power, stealing my remaining breath in a flurry of pain that chased away my last fragments of consciousness.

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