Page 11 of Craving Darkness

Valen swung open the door but didn’t back up; he just stood there glaring down at the curvy redhead bombshell with a thunderous expression. “How the fuck did you know where to find me?”

She let out a scoff. Even her scoffs sounded sexy. Damn. “I know you, Val, and I know this city. It doesn’t take much to find out information.”

“Bullshit, no one knows about my places. Who told you? If it was my assistant, I’ll kill him.”

I inhaled sharply at the conviction in his tone, at how casually he spoke of ending someone’s life.

“Don’t be so dramatic. I knew he was here for you. I followed him yesterday, knowing he was going to get your place ready.” There was a quiet shuffling of feet before Syn sounded irritated. “You’re not going to let me in? We need to finish our conversation from last night.”

I peeked over the side of the couch to see Valen standing in front of the door with his arms crossed. “I don’t think there’s anything more to say on the matter. You already told me everything there is to know.” His tone was dismissive, but she either missed it or had chosen to ignore his unspoken words.

“But I didn’t have the chance to tell you how to get out of the mate bond.”

There was a beat of silence as Valen hesitated. Grudgingly, he took her bait. “How?”

There was a sexy chuckle from Syn. “You have to kill her.”

“I’m not going to kill my mate,” Valen all but growled the words.

Syn sighed. “It’s the only way to break the bond. Until you do, you won’t want to be with anyone else. You can choose to, of course, but your mate will always be there, in the back of your mind, like a shadow. The only way to allow yourself to love another is to get rid of her. Permanently.”

I watched from my position on the floor as Valen ran his fingers through his long black hair. “Thanks for letting me know. Now, tell me what was going on with those vamps last night, and why you wouldn’t let me kill them?”

“Valen, your mate…”

“Leave it, Syn. Tell me about the vamps.”

She let out a frustrated sound. “Fine, but this isn’t over. Their Master is Powerful. He told me a few months ago that he would protect my club in exchange for allowing them to feed from my girls.”

“And if you don’t let them?”

The silence was heavy between them as I stared in horror. She was letting those monsters take blood from her employees? Did anyone even know? Did they agree to it?

“Look, Valen, it’s a good deal. He’s not someone I wish to get into a battle with, and it’s not hurting anybody.”

“If that’s true, then why did you call me, telling me you needed my help? I rode across the country for no reason?”

There was the briefest of hesitations before she spoke. I immediately sensed that whatever she was going to say was going to be a lie or half-truth. “He has been pushing for more, and I panicked. But it’s really not that big of a deal. Now that you’re here, though, we can spend more time together. Like old times.” I couldn’t see her face, but I could imagine the seductive smile she must have been wearing based on the tone she was using. She was trying to seduce him.

I started putting the pieces together as I turned to look into Valen’s coffee cup, then gave in to temptation and took a big swallow. Syn was in love with Valen, and he only thought of them as friends. It would have been tragic if she weren’t encouraging him to kill some woman who was apparently standing in her way. A woman whom Valen wasn’t convinced he wanted to keep or not. Poor girl.

“Sure, we can have lunch sometime.” It sounded like a brush-off to me, but Syn clapped her hands in excitement.

“Wonderful! Let’s make it tomorrow. I can see you’re not in the mood for company right now, so I guess I’ll go…” Her voice trailed off as if waiting for Valen to change his mind and welcome her inside. When he didn’t, she let out a low hum. “Oh! Before I go, I need to know what you did with the girl last night. I went by her shitty little apartment this morning, but she wasn’t there. I need to turn her over to the Master.”

Valen let out a menacing sound that even had me cowering back, and I wasn’t even in front of him. “Why the fuck would you do that, Syn?”

“Because I had to make amends for what you did to his second in command, Valen,” she snapped back. “You don’t fuck around with this guy. He wants the girl, so he’s going to get the girl.”

As quietly as possible, I set the coffee down on the floor, then I scouted around to the end of the couch furthest from the doorway, hoping that Syn wouldn’t look in and see me lurking in his home. I wrapped my arms around my knees and buried my face against my legs. No matter what I did or how far I ran, I could never get away from people trying to hurt me or give me away to someone I didn’t want. I sat quietly, with tears burning hotly behind my eyelids as I waited for Valen to give me up.

“This isn’t you, Syn. The woman I knew would never sacrifice a young woman to protect herself. I don’t know where the Syn I knew went, but she sure as fuck isn’t here. Go back to the vamp Master and tell him to fuck right the hell off. He’s getting no one.” With those parting words, Valen slammed and locked the door. Syn banged on the door once, pleading with Valen to open back up and listen to her before I could hear the elevator motor start to run as the lift lowered back down to the ground level.

I didn’t move from my spot as I heard the heavy footsteps come towards me and stop right in front of where I had curled into myself. I took several deep breaths until I was sure the tears that threatened to fall had dried up. My face was probably a blotchy red from being so upset, but at least I wasn’t crying.

I brought my head up to face Valen, surprised to see that he was hunched in front of me. “Hi,” I said weakly, attempting to smile but failing miserably.

“Hey,” Valen rumbled, studying me as if attempting to figure out a complex puzzle. “I’m guessing you heard all that?”

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