Page 55 of To Crave Darkly
“De Santis was right. The marks are Enochian, and I think I have managed to translate it. Which, I might add, wasn’t easy. Nobody speaks Enochian anymore, not even the archangels. Do you know how difficult it is to translate a language that is probably as old as life itself?”
I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you liked a challenge, Levi?”
He barked out a laugh. “Well there’s challenging and then there’s attaining the impossible. This definitely fell into the latter category.”
“Then I am impressed if you have managed to make sense out of it. What did you learn?”
Levi grimaced. “Nothing good. This is what I think it roughly translates to.” He pulled a piece of paper out of the pile in front of him and handed it to me. There were only three lines of text written in Levi’s scrawl:
A heart entwined
A soul combined
Together lives as One
I swallowed. My throat was suddenly dry, and my stomach churned as the fear gnawed on my insides like a free for all buffet. “What does it mean?”
“I think it means that you now share a soul with this Orion, whoever he is. That’s why he can reach your mind and why you can feel the connection through your heart. You are literally bound to him, heart and soul.”
“I’m tied to a demon?” I asked incredulously.
“Is there any way to break it?” Fenris asked.
“Not that I can see. Their very lives are bound to each other. If one dies, so does the other.” Levi’s words echoed round my mind like a sick merry-go-round.
Oh, god. The paper in my hand fell to the ground as my limbs trembled. Terror gripped my chest like a vice cutting off my ability to breathe. I was going to faint. This was ridiculous. My vision swam and a hysterical burst of laughter lodged in my throat. The last thing I saw was the panic in Fenris’ eyes as he rushed to catch me before I fell to the ground.
Chapter 22
LORI
I came to with a jolt.
“Lori?”
I opened my eyes to the sight of Fenris leaning over me. Such beautiful eyes.
He grinned. Shit, had I said that out loud? Dammit. I totally had. I groaned as I sat up gingerly. What happened?
Oh, yeah. I found out my existence was tied to a fucking demon and there was no way to break it without one or both of us dying. Whoop-de-fucking-do.
I was back in the Med-Bay but there was no sign of Levi.
“Levi went back to looking to find a way to break the bond. He said you’d be fine once you woke up. Are you alright?”
“Other than feeling slightly embarrassed that I fainted, yeah, I’m fine. And if you tell anyone that I did, I will stab you.” I levelled him with my best death glare, but he clearly wasn’t intimidated. I suppose he had been up against scarier enemies.
He just chuckled and crossed his heart. “I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”
“Good. Now can we go and get something to drink? I need something stronger than coffee. I am going to need whiskey and lots of it.”
Fenris smiled mischievously. “I know just the place.”
***
The perfect place turned out to be a club, which was definitely the right kind of place.Midnight Sin, or justSinfor short, was where nightlife happened in the Conclave. It wasn’t as fancy as my club, but there was definitely an atmosphere I could lose myself in for a while. It was loud and surprisingly crowded considering it was still early. This was familiar territory and I was relaxing already.
“Find a table,” Fenris said, his mouth close to my ear so he could be heard over the music. “I’ll grab us some drinks.”
