Bereft

- 34 -

The Sin gave no warning before pinning me to the wall, my breath escaping in a startled gasp as my body was caged by Darius' larger form. Violence sparked between us, radiating from the eldritch creature in waves as it burned wherever his frame made contact with mine. His knee was between my legs, one hand curled about my throat as the other pinned my left wrist above us. I used my free hand to shove between our bodies and push, but Darius was immovable. He dipped his head closer toward my neck, his breath scalding against the vulnerable flesh as his nose lightly traced from shoulder, to jugular, and higher still.

As I breathed and my heart raced with fear, I inadvertently took his scent into my lungs. He smelt like fire, like water. Like the rocks dreaming at the bottom of a cold, dark abyss, crushed by a million leagues of salt and pressure. It should have smelled awful, that bitter, smoky scent clinging to his clothes and skin, but it didn't. He smelt of the earth, of all the primordial bits and pieces people never consider, the rock and bone and sulfur that twisted our world into being before things green and wild could grow. Saule had said it was impossible to capture energy, that no one could bottle lightning. I think she lied. I could taste the shock of peril on my tongue, could feel it jar through my very being.

I think someone bottled lightning when they made Darius.

"Listen to me, you mewling human," he hissed as the sharp edge of his teeth skated the rim of my ear. "You've said your piece, now you will listen. You do not insult me. You do not question my competency. I have existed through inconceivable eons—have survived through the most trying of tortures and tests. You have no right to question my capabilities. If your cult returns here, I said I would stop them and you will believe in my word. You have no right to doubt it."

"I have every right!" I choked when his hand tightened and his teeth snapped together much too close to the sensitive skin of my ear. "It's—my—life—!"

Darius drew back. We stared at one another, the intensity of his scarlet glare catching my breath. "No, Sara Gaspard, it's my life. You are all that stands between me and the event horizon of utter degradation. One step further along the road of starvation and I will lose everything that I am. Do you think I will allow some stupid cultists with guns and bloody aspirations to take that from me? To ruin my life?"

Darius withdrew and the pressure of his touch retreated to allow for a modicum of space between us. I rubbed my neck where the memory of his oppressive heat remained and refused to drop his gaze. "No," I said, choosing my words with care. "No, I think you are just selfish enough to move worlds if it means you get to keep on living."

"So long as we understand each other." The Sin smirked, the fire leaving his eyes in trickling increments. Blackness swirled between his coal-colored lashes. "By the way...." He dipped a hand into the front pocket of his jeans to retrieve the receipt I had left for him that morning. "Saule Ozlin and her coven exist on my sufferance alone, Sara."

I eyed the receipt and swallowed my first retort, if only for Saule's sake. I'd promised her Darius wouldn't seek her out again, and I meant to keep that promise. "S-so was it helpful?"

"It remains to be seen." Darius tucked the paper away again, crossing his arms. "It was the address for one vampire, undoubtedly one of the den's fetchers the coven has been observing. If I mask my presence and follow him, the leech should eventually lead me to the main den."

"So potentially helpful." I sighed, as I kneaded my arms to discharge the lingering static. My gamble to ask the witch for information had paid off. Darius tsked under his breath, sitting on the proffered edge of the couch's back as he looked toward the books knocked from the mantel. The frame that had once held the picture of my sister and I was broken on the hearth, the picture missing.