Tasting Darkness
Tempting Darkness Chapter 11: Darius POV

My anger gets the better of me. I stole her magic, something I didn’t think I would do again. I didn’t want her powerless, yet I couldn’t have her digging around in my head. My anger will also be how I lose them if I am not careful.

Instantly, I regretted it as I walked out of the classroom. The betrayal I felt from her stole my breath. My mate’s anger was scorching me through the bond. However, Tobias’s energy was curious as it washed through me, and I knew he would be following me. Opening a portal in front of me. I stepped through it before he could follow me.

Letting the suction of it zap me into new surroundings. It was cold down here. Far below the ground and directly beneath the castle were the bunkers. When my mother and sister lived down here, I swear it felt warmer.

Now it felt as cold as the nagging at my soul, cold as the nagging guilt that plagued me. No one knew this place was here except my father when he was alive and the two guards that kept watch in the cells, and of course, my mates. Aleera is utterly unaware that she sat in the cell that was the only entrance into this place besides portaling. However, only those with b***d could portal into this place.

The b***d encryption that protected the place kept everyone out. Walking around and across the bunker, I sit on my sister’s old bed. It was only a single, and she had drawn a fake window on the wall. I remember that day so clearly. She was so excited when I brought the paints down to her and snuck them in against Dad’s orders.

The beating I copped for that was worth it just to see her face light up as she painted what she envisioned outside to look like. My father was a good father, but with my sister and that idiocy on my part, he lost it. If there was a closet full of skeletons, this place held mine, the bones and b***d spilled by these hands, the souls destroyed and lives lost, this is where they are stored as a reminder of the kind of monster I truly am. An entire species of Fae is eradicated because of me.

No one had b***d on their hands as I did. No one can say they have killed more people than the Dominic – Fae King. Was this my karma? A punishment for my past? Now I risked losing them all, the only four people I care about, and they would leave when they figured out what I had done.

So many secrets, and now they were unraveling. I tried to make it up to her and apologize, but mum never looked at me the same after that day. She never uttered a word to dad or anyone again. She slipped into herself and became a shell. Her life force was gone, and she was an empty vessel of my mother.

I did that to her, and she took it to the grave rather than risk losing another of her children. Waving my hand in the air, I let my magic fizzle through my fingertips, casting the memory like a projection, and watch it repeatedly, wondering how I forgot, looking at any little detail I may have forgotten or overlooked.

Though, there was no denying it was my fault. The familiar echo of the sound of her laughter as she skipped around the vast bunker. She was so small, pale from not being in the sun, but full of life even though forced to live down here.

”Darius, Darius, look at me,” Sarah squealed as I stepped into the bunker. She did a cartwheel running over to me. I clapped, watching her do another before she slammed into me, wrapping her tiny arms around my waist until I scooped her up. I had just gotten home from school and couldn’t wait to show mum the grade I got that day on my test.

I ran straight down here. I always brought my homework down in the afternoon, and mum would help, and I wanted to show her that despite her being underground, I was still doing ok. She hated being apart from us, but none of us could bear the thought of leaving my sister down here on her own after the second wave hit. My father couldn’t stay with her. He was too busy trying to find a cure. Setting her down on the ground, I placed my bag on the coffee table and rummaged through it.

Mum was making afternoon tea at the industrial–style bench and cutting sandwiches into the little hats, as my sister would call them. ”Mummy, mummy, can I have a drink?” Sarah asked, and my mother looked over at her and smiled warmly, a smile I never saw again after that day.

”In a minute, sweetie Darius is showing me something,” my mother tells her, and she sticks her tongue out at me. I stick mine out back at her, and she rushes off. My mother stops what she is doing when I stop beside her and hand her my paper.

She beams happily and gives me praise, hugging and squeezing me tight, telling me how proud she is. Something dad never did since mum became trapped down here. ”That’s great, honey,” she says, giving me a hug and kissing my head when we hear Sarah cough.

The room fell silent, and it felt like time had stopped along with my heart. We turned from the counter to look at her. The scream that left my mother was loud, visceral, guttural torment. That noise my mother made would forever haunt me. The sound of Sarah’s voice and the look on her face haunted my nightmares for years until I marked Kalen.

The b***d drained out of me when I looked at her. My drink bottle fell from her hands as she coughed, b***d sputtering out of her l!ps. The plague worked like acid, eating away at them so quickly no one stood a chance. No help was ever fast enough.

”I just wanted a drink,” Sarah murmured as the orange cordial spilled on the floor, pouring liquid death all over the floor along with her life. ”Mummy?” she gasped as b***d seeped from her tear ducts, ears, and nose.

Sarah collapsed and seized on the floor while my mother wailed, clutching her and all I could do was stand there in horror until my mother screamed at me to get help. But it was too late. They never survived. I had filled my bottle up from the tap upstairs before school. Tainted water. That error took her life and killed her.

When she stopped seizing, I knew as I stopped at the door to the cells. A noise so agonized and tortured I knew I didn’t just kill my sister; I had killed my mother too. I flick my fingers, shutting it off, unable to see anymore, unable to watch her shut down, unable to see the horrified look on my father’s face when he came down. How did Aleera survive and my sister didn’t? Why didn’t I die that day with her, with mum? I sat in the ruins of what killed my family. Staring at the place haunted me more than anything.

Time slipped by, and it wasn’t until I felt the tug of the bond that I found myself in my room. How many hours had passed? I had no idea, but my mates were all asleep. Aleera was asleep on the edge of the bed beside Kalen.

Her head lay on his arm, and I brushed her hair back from behind her ear. Her bond tugged at mine, and I wanted to crawl in beside her, wanted to give in. Thank god she looked like her mother. I don’t think I could bear staring into the eyes of her father every damn day.

Even asleep, her bond tugged at mine, wanting my power, and mine wanted to give it to her, Ryze shakes his feathers out where he is perched on the headboard. Such wise birds and I hated the way their beady eyes scrutinized me, though when be spoke, it shocked me.

”Solace in harmony,” Ryze spoke. My brows furrow. ”Alirra, solace in harmony,” he says, mispronouncing her name. I glance down at her, and Ryze leans down, raking his tongue across her cheek, and his tongue glows red, but he was still juvenile.

Yet his message was clear. He wanted me to give her power back. I stroke his head feathers, and he moves, sitting back up his tail, swishing around, and slapping Lycus in the face. Lycus swats it in his sleep, which seems to egg Ryze on because he continues to do it.

Leaning down, I brush my l!ps against hers, my l!ps warm as I give it back, letting her bond take it when her eyes fly open. I stand back, and we stare at each other. She looked at me like she wasn’t sure she was dreaming, her bond tugging at mine, wanting the connection back.

When she sits up abruptly, she looks at our sleeping mates, and I quickly slip into the bathroom to escape back to her old room. ”Darius?” I heard her question herself and felt her confusion, but I didn’t stop needing to get away from her, get away before I broke and gave in to her.