In Darkness We Must Abide: The Complete Third Season

by Frater, Rhiannon

  “Which Aeron wanted you to see, Vanora,” Greg grunted. “So you’d love him.”

  “Siana cast the spells. The Fates played their part. And I slipped into the magic long enough to...” Leto sniffed the air “...find your scent.”

  “She’s not talking about your fine musk,” Greg said, giving Vanora a mischievous leer. “She’s talking about your vanilla-scented magic.”

  Leto shoved Greg off his feet, flinging him into the darkness at the back of the garage. “Respect, demon!”

  Vanora didn’t defend Greg, but she also didn’t move against Leto. She remained standing, holding her ground, unwilling to budge in her stance against the wolf-woman.

  Greg huffed as he stomped out of the darkness and glared at Leto. “I did what you asked. I told Snow White what you wanted her to know. I deserve some credit and respect for that.”

  “You interfered!”

  “Aeron would have kidnapped her and then what?” Greg took a threatening step toward Leto, his thick fingers curled into fists.

  The She-Wolf scoffed at him. “And then I wouldn’t be prowling about Houston looking for Vanora. Aeron sleeps during the day. I do not. I could have spoken to her without difficulty in his haven.” Leto set her hands on her hips. Her fingertips were wolf claws.

  Vanora wondered if it was a threat.

  “We’re talking now,” Vanora said, motioning to Greg to step back. To her surprise, he obeyed. “And I would really rather not be Aeron’s prisoner, if you don’t mind.”

  “You’re the only one who might be able to kill him. To do that you must be near him,” Leto responded.

  “Not until I’m ready.” Vanora met Leto’s dark stare and lifted her chin defiantly

  “What do you mean...ready?” Leto cocked her head, curious despite her surliness.

  “You know why he can’t be killed, right?”

  Leto curtly bobbed her head. “But the vision should have revealed what his mother did with his thread of life.”

  “Unfortunately, the vision was interrupted by Arianrhod.”

  “Are you certain?” There was obvious suspicion looming in Leto’s gaze.

  Vanora returned Leto’s stare, unwilling to capitulate to yet another immortal being trying to rule over her life. “Arianrhod cast a spell to disrupt the vision. She made certain I understood what she’d done to create me and determine my fate. Most likely, she also interfered so I wouldn’t see what happened to Aeron’s thread of life. I have no idea where it’s hidden.”

  Leto growled with frustration. “She’s dead, and yet she thwarts me!”

  “She saw the future and realized her own descendants would turn against her. Including my mother.”

  “Witches. Moody bitches,” Greg muttered.

  Vanora cast a dark look over one shoulder at the demon.

  “Well, you are!”

  Ignoring the incubus, Vanora returned her attention to Leto. “Arianrhod may be dead, but her spells live on to make sure I don’t turn against Aeron.”

  “But you will,” Leto said, a slight smile plucking at the corners of her mouth. “I see the defiance in your eyes.”

  “I don’t want ancient gods, goddesses, or prophecies ruling my life and making choices for me. My life is my own,” Vanora responded significantly. “But this will not be easy for me.”

  “Why is that? You know what his mother planned for you. Don’t you want to defy her? Thwart her?” Leto’s voice was mocking.

  “Did you know I was made with half his soul?”

  “That’s why she’s been lusting after his marble pillar ever since she went on her freakin’ vision quest,” Greg added a bit too gleefully. “That worked against ya, didn’t it, Leto?”

  Vanora elbowed the incubus as hard as she could and was rewarded with a loud grunt of pain.

  “Yes, I knew, Vanora. The Fates witnessed your becoming and notified me. Who do you think warned your female ancestors? Who do you think influenced the Romanian government to take over your family’s old estate so that the Socoli vampire would be unleashed? It was the Fates in an attempt to disrupt Arianrhod’s magic. I let them go about their business until I realized they were powerless against Arianrhod’s spells, and that is when I intervened. I attempted to make Aeron believe I am his ally so I could discern how close he was to fulfilling his mother’s prophecy. When I discovered your existence, I recognized that at last this war may be at an end. So tell me Vanora. Can I count on you to assist me? Or are you merely Arianrhod’s pawn?” Leto’s eyes narrowed dangerously, her body tensing.

  “I am not a pawn. And I am so much more than the sum of her magic,” Vanora spat out. “Do not doubt that.”

  “Well, if you’re really sharing a soul with pasty and dickish, then what does that really mean? I don’t have one, so I have no fuckin’ clue how it works,” Greg said, contempt clear in his words.

  Glancing toward the winter sun slowly dipping behind the trees and two story houses in the neighborhood, Vanora shuddered at the thought of Aeron soon awakening. “Well, the soul is your spiritual essence. It’s the mystical aspect of a human.”

  “Which is why I don’t have one. My mystical aspect is in my big, turgid-”

  Vanora slapped her hand over Greg’s mouth, then immediately withdrew it when she felt the demon lick her palm. “Gross.”

  “If you share a soul with Aeron, then you share the core of his being.” Leto looked quite thoughtful. “Perhaps, even his power?”

  A memory uncoiled in Vanora’s mind and she looked up sharply at the She-Wolf. “I saw my magic reflected in him.” Withdrawing her hand from her pocket, she tugged off the glove and summoned her magic. The golden light filled her veins. “Exactly like this.”

  Leto laughed, a deep throaty sound. “Oh, this is quite fantastic.”

  “She’s powering up in a big way,” Greg added.

  “I’m still learning how to control it, but...” Vanora’s voice faded as a thought occurred to her. Could she possibly be able to use her power to help Armando break free from Aeron?

  Leto tilted her head and scrutinized Vanora for a long, silent moment. It was unnerving. “There is much more to you than meets the eye. I misjudged you when I thought of you as a mere tool to be wrested away from Arianrhod to use against Aeron. You’re more than that.”

  “She’s a fuckin’ weapon,” Greg agreed.

  Stepping closer, Leto bent toward Vanora. “I saw myself as Aeron’s secret enemy. But that’s not the truth of the matter. You’re his greatest foe if you embrace that role.”

  Vanora laughed, pulled on her glove, and lifted her chin. “Oh, I am. It won’t be an easily fought battle. Every aspect of my being longs for him, except for my heart. That belongs to another.”

  “Oh?” Leto tilted her head, curiosity in her eyes. “This has apparently escaped Aeron’s notice.”

  That was a relief to know. Vanora already feared enough for everyone she loved. “And it needs to stay that way. Honestly, it’s that love that helps protect me from Arianrhod’s magic.”

  “Ah, the magic of true love,” Leto muttered, but she wasn’t trying to be sarcastic. If anything, she looked sorrowful.

  “Disgusting. Makes me want to barf.” Greg pretended to retch.

  “Greg,” Vanora said, her voice a warning, “behave, yourself.”

  Greg shivered dramatically. “I like it when you’re bossy, vanilla tits.”

  Leto took a sharp step toward the demon, but Vanora held up a hand to ward her off. To her surprise, Leto capitulated. The wolf at Leto’s side snarled disapprovingly at Greg, then looked to Leto for approval.

  Vanora drew a breath between her cold lips and dared to say the words on the tip of her tongue. “Leto, I want you to assist me. If Aeron and I share a soul, it can’t be just a one-way street, right?” Vanora had been contemplating this possibly since she’d come out of the vision. Aeron had been drawn to her as much as she’d been drawn to him. If anything, he was more obsessed, but he’d had thousands of
years to fixate on her. “If I’m going to destroy Aeron, then it will be on my terms. You need to agree to let me do what I need to and help me.”

  Leto tilted her head. “Go on.”

  Vanora’s mind was flooded with ideas on how to deter Aeron and concepts of plans to discover where his thread of life had been hidden. She needed to organize her thoughts into a coherent plan.

  “I need time,” she said at last.

  “Time?” Leto was clearly amused by the request. “You’re speaking to an eternal creature.”

  “The time crunch is going to come from Aeron hunting you down,” Greg pointed out. “It’s not like we have some sort of mystical deadline, right, furry tits?”

  Vanora saw Greg tense for the blow. This time she didn’t intercede. When Leto slapped him back into the depths of the garage again, there was a delighted grin on his face.

  “Worth it,” he grunted.

  “Do we have some sort of mystical deadline?” Vanora asked.

  Leto shook her head. “The demon is right. The only constraint we have is how long before Aeron finds you.”

  “Then I need to buy some time for myself. And you need to help me keep my loved ones safe.”

  “I planned to take you to Aeron,” Leto said, tapping her long claws against her hips. The wolf at her side looked up at her expectantly.

  Greg shambled out of the garage, popping his neck, and flexing his hands. “So we’re really going to do this, huh? Cause you’re not taking her without a fight.” Green flames formed around his fingers.

  “No, we’re not fighting,” Vanora said sharply, but her gaze was on Leto. “Right?”

  Dropping her hands, Leto reluctantly bobbed her head once. “If you need more time...”

  “I need you to retrieve my sister, then protect her and the vampires inside this house. It should be safe. No one knows about this haven. I’ll come back later tonight.”

  “And where will you be?” Leto asked.

  “I need to go see Armando,” Vanora replied, then immediately realized she’d slipped.

  “Aeron’s favorite son?” A slow, cruel smile spread on Leto’s lips. “I see.”

  “Yeah, dames love the tall, dark, mysterious, complicated ones.” Greg snorted. “But if the Spanish asshole is keeping her out of the arms of the other asshole, I’m all for it.”

  “Gee, thanks for your support,” Vanora muttered.

  “Your secret is safe with me. If you can turn him against Aeron, then he will be a valuable asset. I’ll rescind my order for the likos to kill Armando on sight.”

  A cold chill slid through Vanora’s veins at the She-Wolf’s comment. “Why are you doing all this Leto? Helping Aeron in the purge? If I help you, what will it benefit me and the world?”

  Eyes glinting, Leto laughed darkly. “The time of gods is over. It should never return. I stood apart from his war until I realized he was going to win. That is when I entered the fray. My seven daughters did this world no favors by creating more of their kind. If not for Aeron’s purges, their progeny would have seized the world long ago from the hands of the humans. An eternal battle suited me quite well until I understood that Aeron would eventually win and be a much more brutal ruler than my seven daughters would’ve ever been.”

  “So we destroy Aeron and his vampires and what?” Vanora pressed, demanding an answer.

  “I slink back into the shadows of history.”

  “And what about the surviving vampires like my sister? Armando?”

  Leto shrugged. “Perhaps when we defeat Arianrhod’s legacy, we will all cease to exist. It was her magic that created this false destiny that consumed us all.”

  Vanora shuddered at the thought. “So we defeat Aeron and die anyway?”

  “Sucks to be you,” Greg decided, but he didn’t flash his mocking smile.

  Giving him a sharp look, Vanora said, “Why do you think you’re immune?”

  “Demons don’t come from Leto like the witches, oracles, vampires, and werewolves. Y’all are fucked, but I’ll be sad though.” There was a note of sincerity in his words. Was he thinking of his long lost wife?

  “Could this really happen?” Vanora asked Leto, fear weighing in her gut like an anvil.

  “Until Arianrhod’s evil is undone, we will not know.”

  “And Siana? She can’t see the future? What may be?” Vanora hugged herself, trying to still her wildly beating heart.

  “The future is clouded by Arianrhod’s magic. Until Aeron is removed, the future without him ruling cannot be revealed.” Leto bent toward Vanora. “The question is, do you want to fulfill the destiny she created for you, or defy her and set the world free? There isn’t a middle ground. Whatever you decide will have consequences for all. Not just for yourself, but for the world.”

  Greg was silent at Vanora’s side and she glanced at the incubus. He looked just as disturbed as she felt. Realizing Vanora was looking at him, the demon poked her arm with one finger. “I told you, Snow Princess. You’re a goddess.”

  Swallowing hard, Vanora focused on Leto. She didn’t dare ask if his assessment of her nature was true or not, for she feared the answer. When she had claimed her power from Arianrhod, what had it done to her?

  Leto was clearly waiting for her to respond.

  “We destroy Aeron,” Vanora said at last.

  “You are wise and deadly, my daughter.”

  Alisha Socoli woke within the mausoleum, her sister’s name a whisper upon her lips. Then she remembered all that had occurred the night before and that Vanora was not with her. Fear and worry buffeted her already aching brain, and she sat up with a small moan.

  Dexios emerged from the darkness. “The sun is on the horizon. You’re up early.”

  Standing sluggishly, Alisha stretched her body hoping that her muscles would unclench and maybe her headache would relent. “I feel different tonight. Stronger. Except for my head.”

  “You shouldn’t be in pain,” Dexios said thoughtfully. “My blood should have restored you.”

  Alisha pressed her hand to her forehead. “It hurts quite a bit. Almost like...”

  The portent slammed into her and nearly knocked her off her feet. Reeling, she staggered through the darkness searching for a way to release her power. When she lost her balance and pitched forward, Dexios caught Alisha about the waist. Gently, he lowered her to her knees, and, holding her upright, he set his palm against her forehead.

  “You’re on fire,” he said with worry.

  “I don’t have my paints,” Alisha wailed, her hands quivering. Then inspiration hit, and she started to sketch in the thick grime covering the stone floor. Dragging her fingertips through the dust, her gift manifested. Tears coursed down her cheeks and her head throbbed in agony, but the prophetic image eluded her mind’s eye and poured into her hand instead. Her gift felt different, and it scared her.

  When at last Alisha was released from the throes of her gift, sweet relief filled her and she let out a hiccupping sob. Lifting his phone, Dexios activated the screen and shined it on the image etched into the dust.

  Alisha cried out and lunged forward, rubbing the prophecy out of existence with her hands. “No! No!” she gasped.

  Dexios dragged her back to their sleeping pallets and set her down on one. “You can’t wipe a prophecy away so easily,” he chided her.

  “It can’t be true,” Alisha whispered. “It can’t be.”

  “Do you even know what it meant?” Dexios asked her.

  “I...” Alisha realized she didn’t actually know what the sketch had implied, but it had frightened her.

  Dexios sat across from her and set his hands on his knees. Clearly disturbed, he stared at her with his eyes glinting in the dark. “That was your sister and Aeron.”

  “Yes.”

  “Tied together by a thread stretching from one heart to the other.”

  “Yes.”

  “So what does it mean, Alisha?”

  “I’m not sure. It...” She pressed the hee
ls of her hands to her closed eyelids. “It scares me.”

  “Perhaps it just means they are joined together by prophecy,” Dexios suggested. “That they share a soul. Which we already know.”

  Alisha dismally wagged her head. “No, no. It means more than that. I feel it.”

  “We must tell Leto,” Dexios decided. “As soon as we see her.”

  Unsure if she could trust the werewolf or Leto, Alisha pressed her lips together to keep from snapping at him. Dexios and Leto were just expecting her to go along with their plans, but Alisha wasn’t about to capitulate until she knew what they actually planned to do with her sister.

  It was then Alisha remembered. Vanora had visited her while she slept and told her to wait in the mausoleum for her. It hadn’t been just a dream, but something more. While she had slept, something had happened to Vanora that had enabled her to reach out to Alisha.

  Opening her eyes, Alisha stared at Dexios in a daze.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “We can’t leave until I talk to my sister,” Alisha answered.

  Cocking his head, Dexios said warily, “And why is that?”

  “She’s coming.”

  “Is that what your prophecy says?”

  “No, that’s what she told me. While I was sleeping.” Surrounded by the dead Socolis, Alisha had never felt so removed from her old life. Her brother was dead, her home was destroyed, and her sister was changing before her very eyes. But what was Vanora becoming?

  “Your sister can contact you in dreams?” Dexios actually didn’t sound doubtful.

  “Apparently,” Alisha said with a slightly hysterical giggle. “When did my life become so fuckin’ insane?”

  Dexios didn’t answer, but merely stared at her.

  “Let me borrow your phone. I want to call Vanora.”

  “You need to feed again. You need to be at full strength.” Dexios said, changing the subject. He shrugged off his coat and extended a bare wrist.

  “Give me your phone first.”

  “Feed, then I’ll give you the phone.”

  Alisha scowled.

  “Feed so we’ll be ready for whatever the night brings.”

  “Death. Destruction. Fire.” Alisha uttered the words bitterly.