Dwellers of Darkness (Darkness Series #3)

by Brown, Stacey Marie

  Mom somehow sensed my approach since she stood waiting at the property line. My stomach twisted in knots, nervous of what was going to happen. No one would be happy about Lars.

  “Ember,” she yelled as she ran to me. “We were so worried about you. I was going crazy. Elighan didn’t know what happened to you.” The strength of her arms crushed the air out of my lungs.

  “Can’t breathe, Mom,” I choked out.

  “Good, because I was planning on killing you once I knew you were all right.” She stepped back, gripping my shoulders tightly. Her eyes wandered from the top of my head to my feet, making sure I was in one piece. “Don’t do that to me again.”

  “Didn’t have much of a choice.” I looked around, ready for a raging Dark Dweller to come out of the woodwork. “Where’s Eli?”

  “He went out searching for you. He said he could feel you but was having trouble locating the exact spot. What happened?” She dropped her grip on me.

  “About that... there is something else I need to tell you guys.” I cringed knowing how they’d all react.

  Mom froze in place, and I saw her nose sniff the air, her eyes growing wide. “Oh, crap on ash bark. No!”

  “Oh, yes.” Lars stepped from the shadows, addressing my mom with a cool expression. His head gave her a terse nod. “Sionnach.”

  “Lars.” Mom nodded in return, quickly regaining her composure. “How disappointing. I was hoping I would never have to see you again.”

  He sneered. It was one of those icy smiles that always made me squirm in my seat. “You should have come to me, Lily. I could have saved you from a lot of agony. All those years on the run keeping Ember away and then being tortured merely because of your obstinate nature.”

  “I wanted to get her away from that life. To keep her safe. You would have only thrown her in head first.”

  Lars stepped closer. “And did you prevent it from eventually happening? No. You simply left her ignorant, vulnerable, and weak.” Anger punctuated each word.

  I had never seen him lose his cool before. No matter how frustrated or upset he’d gotten with me, he kept an air of control. He was always in charge, but something in his tone now made me feel his restraint was slipping.

  “She had a life and was loved. Loved more than you could possibly understand.”

  My head snapped to look at my mom. Something in her words and menacing glare caused my stomach to plummet.

  “You do not know anything of the kind. You never gave me the chance.” He opened his arms before clasping his hands together.

  “Oh, I think I knew you both well enough to realize she was better off without either of you.”

  Fear clung to my lungs. I struggled to breathe, knowing what was coming. I had felt it for a while but never let myself fully accept the thought. Now, I was watching myself being swept down a river toward a waterfall, helpless to stop it.

  “She is my blood!” Lars bellowed and his body shook. “My blood. My family.”

  Noooo... I was now going over the waterfall into the crushing rocks below.

  “What does that matter to you?” Mom stepped closer, her shoulders rising. “You have no idea what family even means. All you cared about was power. You couldn’t love anyone but yourself. She doesn’t belong to you, Lars.”

  “And she belongs to you?” he snapped back.

  My heart battered against my ribs. One idea absorbed my thoughts. Was I listening to my mother and father fight? Did my gaze dart between two former lovers? My parents? Everything about it seemed wrong. Lars and Lily together? In love?

  My head shook back and forth not wanting to accept the notion. Lars was the exact opposite of what Mom liked. Sometimes opposites attracted, but this was still hard to grasp. I was more shocked and confused about the fact my mom and Lars could have been together than the fact he might be my father. It had been there all along, this possibility. From the moment I had met Lars I felt a strange connection to him.

  “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?” I looked into Lars’ face, searching it for evidence that I came from him. His glowing, yellow-green eyes stared back into mine. His jet black hair was the same color as mine. I always thought the eye color we shared was a Demon thing. Guess it was more than that. I certainly hadn’t got his tan skin tone. My nose and lips didn’t seem to come from either of them.

  “I did not feel you were ready for this information at the time. There were more pressing matters.”

  “More pressing matters? Training me and creating a weapon against the Queen was more urgent than telling me you are my father?”

  Lars and Mom stilled, both turning to me. A huge gulf filled the space. Dread shot into my gut like an arrow. There was more they weren’t telling me.

  “Y-You are my father, right?”

  “No. I am not your father, Ember,” Lars said matter-of-factly.

  The rug slithered out from under me. A Ferris wheel in my head was spinning my emotions and thoughts around and around. “Wh-what? I thought... you just said...” I didn’t know what I was trying to say anymore.

  “I said you were my blood, not that you are my daughter.”

  Blinking, I stared desperately at him then at my mom when he didn’t continue.

  Mom compressed her lips together, and sighed. “Ember... Lars is your uncle.”

  What? My uncle?

  “My twin brother was your father. He is dead,” Lars stated as he regarded me.

  Mom glared at him, “Why don’t you tell her how he came to be that way.”

  Lars’ Demon-colored eyes slanted. “There was no other choice.”

  “So convenient for you, wasn’t it?” Mom hurled back at him. “You wanted everything he had.”

  “Power maybe, but I lost the two things that meant anything to me to acquire it.”

  “You know nothing of loss. You destroyed the—”

  “Stop! Stop!” I grabbed at my head. My entire body trembled with anger, confusion, and fear.

  There was a tense silence before Lars spoke. “Ember, do you remember when I told you about the previous Unseelie King?”

  It took me a moment before the memory came back to me. It happened the first time I talked with Lars, after I almost drowned and ended up passing out on his land. He had hinted that he had killed and taken the title from the last King. “Yeah.”

  “Your father was the previous King,” Lars’ body became rigid and his stare distant.

  I shook with denial and turned to my mother. “You told me my father lived in New York. I saw a picture of him. Was it all a lie? He wasn’t real either?”

  “I didn’t lie exactly. He was an old boyfriend of mine. You found the picture of us and assumed he was your dad, and I let you believe it. He really does live in New York with a wife and kids. That is all real.”

  “Just minus the fact he isn’t my father. That my father was a Demon who was the Unseelie King.”

  “You have to understand. I wanted you to have nothing to do with this world or life. I thought I was doing the best thing for you.”

  “Best thing?” I yelled. “Lying to me? Keeping me ignorant and unaware of what existed out there? I thought I was crazy most of my life.”

  Mom’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at me. “I am so sorry.”

  “Sorry is not going to change the reality I had to live through your ‘murder’ and had to be committed for a while because I was seeing and hearing things. Sorry won’t bring back my father.”

  “Mark is your real father for all intents and purposes. Devlin knew nothing about being a parent or caring for a child.”

  “You never gave any of us the opportunity.” Lars thundered, but my mind fastened on something else she said.

  “Devlin? Was that his name? You told me it was my father’s family name?”

  “It was.” She responded softly. She hadn’t exactly lied about it, but that didn’t make me feel any less angry.

  I still felt tricked. The whole time I had another clue laughing in my fac
e, like some twisted inside joke that I was never let in on. Ember Aisling Devlin Brycin. My name was one long farce. Every one of the names hinted at who I was or about the world I came from.

  “Tell me about him.” I hugged myself to keep from exploding.

  “Devlin was my twin.” Lars shifted his weight to the other leg. “My brother and I shared identical looks and powers... the ones you have inherited. We were very close and did everything together, until he fell in love. Then everything changed.” Lars’ lids shifted to glance at Mom before they came back to me. She kept her head down, staring at the ground.

  So the Demon Unseelie King, my father, fell in love with a noble Fay, my mom. They had a torrid love affair. When I came to exist, all of their lives went to shit.

  How very Shakespearean.

  My father was dead. Killed by the present Unseelie King, my uncle. Forget Shakespeare, we should be on a reality TV show.

  The notion that I would never get to meet him, to know who he was, struck me. I was sure I should feel something, anything. I didn’t. I only felt numb and detached.

  “Why did you kill your own brother? To become the King? To be more powerful? How could you do something like that?”

  Lars pinched the space between his brows. “I had to. It was not something I wanted to do. He went insane and was no longer fit to rule.”

  “So you killed him?” A strangled cry punched out of my throat. “Is that how you solve things? He was your brother no matter what.”

  His lips turned down, and he bowed his head. There was no sadness or emotion in his voice. “It is how it is done. You never retire from being the Unseelie King. It is a fight to the death, and whoever wins is King. Devlin killed thousands of humans and was no longer suitable to be King. He lost himself and became volatile. I remained the only one powerful enough to challenge him. It was up to me.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this?”

  “After what you went through, you were not exactly stable. I did not think it would help you to hear that the former, tyrannical Unseelie King was your biological father, had gone insane, and almost wiped out a country. That your own uncle had killed him and became the current Unseelie King. You needed your human father and friends to focus on. To revenge them. To stabilize you,” Lars stated. “It was also unsettling for me to see how untrained and defenseless you were. I needed you to focus on your powers and be able to protect yourself.”

  For most of my life, I had wondered about the man in New York, my alleged real father. Before Mark, I looked at men on the street and pretended they were my dad. I witnessed fathers pushing their kids on the swing or playing with them on the front lawn. I imagined how it would be to have one. My father would tell me how sorry he was and promise never to leave me again. That he loved and missed me so much.

  My daydreams never included him being a Demon or an Unseelie King. Or deceased. I envisioned getting together with my father’s family over Christmas dinner, not over a thousand year-old text that prophesized my killing a Fairy Queen with a mythical sword. My dreams had been a little simpler: a dog, a ball, and a lawn.

  That was never meant for me. My biological, Demon father was dead, while my true dad was locked up in the Otherworld by a psycho Fay bitch. That was my reality.

  Someone has a really sick sense of humor.

  Mom held her hand out to me. “Ember, I am so sorry I lied to you. I only wanted to protect you.”

  “No.” I stepped out of her reach. “I’ve had enough of your idea of protection. It’s only brought me pain and heartbreak.”

  Her face filled with horror and devastation. I didn’t care. I pivoted and dashed into the dark night. I needed to be alone. My thoughts were like angry gnats, buzzing around my head. I heard Mom call my name repeatedly, but she didn’t come after me. I continued till they were out of sight, then the earth came up to collect me as my legs crumpled.

  Breath went in and out of my lungs too quickly. The world around me spun, and I curled into a ball. When the wards went off, it felt distant and far away. Somewhere in my brain it registered Lars must have crossed onto the Dark Dweller’s property.

  “My lady. My lady. Are you all right?” Simmons fluttered to my face, his expression full of concern and fear. “We have been so worried about you. Sir Torin has been going nuts.” Simmons paused, really taking me in. “What has happened, my lady? You don’t look well.”

  I couldn’t answer. If I opened my mouth, I would crack open. I was afraid the shards of my heart were too shattered, and I would never be able to put myself back together.

  “I will go get Sir Torin. He will help.”

  “Find Elighan instead, Simmons,” Cal’s voice spoke from above me. “I think he is back now.”

  Simmons’ chest filled with air, and he frowned as if he would ignore Cal’s instructions. But his attention turned back to me before he nodded and flew off.

  Cal landed lightly on my shoulder. My arms were wrapped around my legs as I rocked, lost in thought. My father had been the Unseelie King. A part of me had always wondered if it was Lars. Was I disappointed it wasn’t? Yes. I had wanted it to be him. Because he was alive. Maybe I’d felt a strange connection to him because my true father was his twin, and he is family.

  What made my father go crazy? Is this why there’s so much resentment between my mom and Lars? I needed to know so much more now the truth was out. In spite of that, my mind had other plans. It wanted to shut down and forget everything I learned. Cole’s voice came back to me: “Once the truth is out, there’s no going back, and you will wish you could.”

  “Brycin?”

  I didn’t respond or move as Eli crouched in front of me. “Are you okay? You scared the shit out of me when you disappeared. Hey, talk to me.”

  “I have been talking to her for the last few minutes with no response. Think girlie here has finally broke.” Cal tapped at the side of my head. “Noodle snapped. No more cookies in the cookie jar.”

  He’d been talking to me?

  “Ember?” Eli said more firmly. “What happened to you? How did you get away from Weiss? Talk to me.” He clasped my hands, then looked at Cal. “What happened?”

  “What? You assume I know? Like I eavesdropped? Me?” Cal touched his chest, dramatically.

  Eli cocked his head and scoffed.

  “Yeah, yeah okay,” Cal replied. “Girlie here found out her real father was the previous Unseelie King, and the current one is her uncle... who killed her father.”

  Eli jerked; my lids blinked at the quick movement. His hand went to rub his head. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me?”

  “I don’t kid about fucking.” The words were out of my mouth before I even realized I spoke. They sounded robotic, which hit me even funnier. It was something Eli had said to me when we first met, when Mrs. Sanchez put us together to run the ropes course. I recalled how flustered he made me, how sexually heightened and uncomfortable my senses became around him. This has never gone away, but that day felt so long ago. I was a human girl then, blissfully unaware of what I really was and what was ahead.

  I began to laugh. Uncontrollably.

  “Oh, yeah, the cookie has crumbled. The pixie dust has dissolved her brain.” Cal patted my head.

  My stomach ached as I continued to laugh.

  “Ember, I need you to focus.” When Eli pulled me to my feet, Cal catapulted into the air, his wings fluttering keeping him in place.

  Eli’s green eyes flashed in the moonlight. His face was half shadowed. With his hair just starting to grow, his green eyes wild, and scarred face stern, he looked scary, threatening and ruthless. Sexy and dangerous were addicting qualities. They let you forget the world around you, and I wanted to forget everything I had learned in the last half hour—to stop feeling the gut-wrenching sadness for one moment. My basic need took over.

  My lips met his with such force he shifted back. His fingers touched my face, and our lips moved brutally over each other.

  “Okay, I think it i
s time for me to exit,” Cal mumbled. “Maybe go see a hot brownie about a woman.” He zoomed off.

  Eli’s kiss deepened. I groaned and started to tug at his t-shirt.

  “You know I am never one to turn down sex...” Eli pulled back a little. “Ever.”

  “Good.” I smiled and kissed his neck.

  “You will tell me what happened with you tonight?”

  I tilted my chin up to look at him. “Right now I need a few minutes of forgetting everything I just discovered.”

  Eli’s one eyebrow curved up. “A few minutes? Is that all?”

  “Didn’t you say there were a few things you wanted to do to me on your bike?”

  Both Eli’s eyebrows hit his hairline. “What I had in mind will definitely take more than a few minutes.”

  “I’ll give you twelve. Let’s see what you can do in that time.” I grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the shed where the Harleys were parked.

  “Damnú ort bean dhubh,” he growled and followed me.

  I leaned over the bike to grab my shirt off the ground. It was still wearable, but once again my underwear did not survive. Eli snatched the top out of my hands and drew it over my head, his knuckles sliding down the sensitive skin on my sides. His eyes penetrated mine the whole time.

  I shivered. “We need to get back.”

  We went way past the twelve-minute mark, and Lars was not going to be patient much longer. I was surprised no one came for us. I needed this time to get my head back on straight, or in this case, lose it completely, several times. I felt a hell of a lot better. The things we did on the bike with the engine revving would cause me to blush for years. It was shocking we didn’t blow up the engine.

  “You need to talk to me first,” he said against my neck while he buttoned my jeans.

  “Is this your version of talking?” I pulled his hands away and stepped away. “Come on. Lars isn’t going to wait much longer.” I turned to leave. Eli fingers wrapped around my bicep and yanked me back to face him. His expression turned severe and forbidding.

  “Don’t play me, Brycin.” His grip became tighter; his green eyes flickered brighter. “I know when you’re using sex as a distraction. I’m not as simple as you think.”