Falling into Darkness

by Shania Tyler

  Amity put the cross around her neck and said, “I am.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Stay here. I can’t have you getting hurt.”

  “I want to find Heather,” she insisted. “And he can’t hurt me while I wear this.” She pointed to her jewel.

  Ronan frowned and then looked into her eyes. He hadn’t touched her mind since last week, but if it was the only way to keep her safe . . . He touched her hand and locked her eyes with his. He felt her body relax as her green eyes lost focus before regaining it.

  “Stay here.”

  She nodded slowly, but then she frowned and Ronan felt a push at his temples before a flood broke and his thoughts tumbled from him and into her. Her eyes widened. “What is this?”

  “Stop,” he told her, breaking their physical connection.

  Amity grabbed his shoulders as she shuffled through his memories. “So, this is what it’s like?” Ronan tried to move away, and pull his mind from hers, but her want was greater than his and her fingers dug into him as she looked for the thing she wanted most.

  Heather’s location.

  Then she broke from him, grinned, and headed for the door.

  “Wait!” he called. “I don’t want you there.”

  She turned with one foot on the stairs, grabbed his cheek, and said, “This . . . thing is on my campus, kidnapped my friend, and tried to scare me away. So, there is no way I’m not going after him. You’ll have to tie me up to stop me.”

  The thought of her bound and tied while he pleasured her was not unappealing.

  She rolled her eyes. “Concentrate.”

  He moved the thought to the back of his mind. “You know, it’s quite rude to read one’s every thought.”

  She tilted her head. “Oh?” she asked. “And exactly, what were you doing just a few moments ago?”

  He touched her hand and said, “I was trying to protect you. You are invading my thoughts.” Then he took her hand from his cheek and kissed her fingers. “This bond we share is secret where I come from and the ability should not be abused.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “How is this even possible?”

  His fingers smoothed over the back of her hand, and she gasped while watching the goose bumps spread over her arms. “I believe this is what your people call fated love. This reaction we have to one another is rarely found. It is a gift in itself.”

  “But I am not from your world,” she whispered.

  “Yet, in a way, you are.”

  She lifted a brow.

  He grinned. “Your city of Morwen is connected to my city of Morwen on the other side of the door. Long ago, our lands were merged to help a group of powerful elves escape, right here on this very ground. You said Morwen was in your blood? You have no idea what that means.”

  She shook her head. “This is so much.”

  “There are things I would love to explain in more detail, but we haven’t the time. Just remember that when it comes to my thoughts, there will be times when it is necessary to know what each other is thinking, but don’t read everything I say or there will be no trust between us.”

  She frowned into his eyes, but he felt her mind slowly lift away from his until it was just a pressure at the walls. “I like the thought of trust between us,” she whispered. “I like the thought of an us.”

  He kissed her fingers again. “So do I.” Though it could never last.

  She looked between his eyes with worry and sighed. “How am I to not try and read your mind when you look at me like that?”

  He dropped her hand. “Let’s go get your friend, and we will discuss this later.”

  She nodded and then ran up the steps and Ronan watched her bottom swing from side to side. “Don’t even think about it,” she said over her shoulder.

  No one had to be a mind reader to know what he was thinking.

  They went to the gymnasium.

  “This way.”

  Amity followed Ronan down the dark hall with only the street lights in the distance to guide her.

  They went around the building and through a backdoor that led back into the woods.

  Before Amity could ask, Ronan answered, “They moved.”

  When she’d looked into Ronan’s mind, Amity had seen Coach Shelton standing in the gym and had been amazed at Ronan’s gift of finding people . . . she’d also been amazed at his memories . . . especially the ones that had her as the main focus. She’d been drawn to the moment before he’d bit her thigh and had felt the painful hunger he’d gone through before he’d taken from her.

  “Am I going to turn into a vampire?” she asked.

  He wrapped his arm around her waist and maneuvered her through the dark woods. “No. You must have vampire blood in order to become a vampire.”

  “Meaning?”

  “You must be born a vampire to be a vampire.”

  She leaned her head against his side and asked, “How often must you feed?”

  “I don’t usually need to feed at all,” he confessed. “But . . . there was something about you.” She felt him shake his head in the dark as he continued. “I find it quite a task to explain how I am drawn to you.”

  She smiled, thinking everything about their relationship strangely wonderful.

  But then Ronan whispered, “It’s like I have this ability to find things and people, but . . . what I’ve been truly searching for . . . is you.” His fingers found their way under her shirt and onto her flesh. “And when I touch you . . . It feels like the end of a long and exhausting journey, like I could fall asleep forever and be content.”

  She held him tighter as warmth moved through her limbs. “I feel the same way,” she whispered. She’d never felt so complete in her life. She felt at home in his arms and as well as a safety that surpassed anything her world had to offer. “I remember you mentioning there was more than one god in your world. Does Monrel come from your world?”

  “No,” he told her.

  She hesitated and asked, “Does he come from mine?”

  “No, he comes from somewhere else, walking through darkness from one world to another.”

  “There are other worlds?” she asked.

  “Many, from what I am told.”

  They fell into a comfortable silence and then Ronan stopped walking as light in the distance bloomed.

  Amity straightened and touched her necklace.

  There was a fire up ahead with a cauldron hanging over it. Smoke lifted into the air from its opening and a man dressed in a black robe walked around it, chanting something. Monrel, who was nothing but a walking shadow, circled the other man and sprinkled something dark on the ground.

  Ronan’s hand pushed Amity down into the bushes as they observed the man work.

  Amity scanned the forest. “I don’t see Heather.”

  “She is here,” he told her.

  “How do you know?”

  “I can smell her, along with Monrel and someone else.” Then he shook his head and with the faint light from the fire, she made out his tense features. “I’ve smelt Heather faintly everywhere on campus, but much stronger here, which could only mean fresh wounds.” Then he hissed a word Amity didn’t quite understand and said, “No wonder I haven’t been able to find her. They’ve been spreading her blood all over campus.”

  Amity looked toward the man and whispered, “Is Heather in the pot?” Her stomach turned.

  Ronan shook his head. “No, but her blood is in it.”

  “What are they doing with it?”

  The male’s voice grew louder and Amity watched him move. He was large and Amity guessed him to be Mr. Shelton. A second later, a dark smoke began to pour from the pot.

  “I haven’t the slightest clue what they are up to,” Ronan said. “But I will not be waiting to find out.” He turned to her and said, “You stay in the trees. If you spot Heather, go after her, but stay away from the men and leave them to me.”

  Amity did a lot of head nodding and then watched Ronan scurry away from her, keep
ing himself low in the trees, and then standing up and starting toward the fire, making large steps to make his presence known.

  Ronan shouted something in a tongue that Amity didn’t understand. Mr. Shelton’s chanting grew louder from underneath his hood. Monrel hissed and sped toward Ronan to protect the cauldron. Amity gasped, fearing for Ronan’s life, but in the next moment, she was rendered speechless by the fight.

  Ronan, from behind his coat, pulled out a large double-edged sword made of a sky-blue crystal stone that Amity had never seen before. It reflected the firelight and blinded the scene for a moment, but then she watched as Monrel and Ronan connected. Ronan looked like a martial artist as his blade moved around Monrel, gliding over the edges of the dark creature, cutting, and slashing. At first, Amity had no clue what he was doing, but then she noticed that Monrel was getting smaller in size.

  Monrel would reach out a hand in the fog to attack Ronan, but Ronan weaved out of the way, missing the wispy hands by an inch and then cutting from the bigger mass. Over and over, Monrel and Ronan fought and Monrel continued to dissolve. Ronan moved with such grace, but the intensity remained in his eyes.

  Amity moved around, sticking to the trees as Ronan had told her to do and stilled when she saw Heather tied to a tree. There were slashes all over her arms and legs. And then she stood as she watched Mr. Shelton move toward Heather with a blade in his hand. The knife was small, but made of the same crystal as Ronan’s.

  Amity came out of the bushes and rushed toward Mr. Shelton. “Get back!” she shouted.

  The man froze, but his face could not be made out from under the hood.

  “I know who you are!” she shouted.

  Mr. Shelton removed his hood . . . But it wasn’t Mr. Shelton.

  “Danny?” She couldn’t believe her eyes. He’d been so chivalrous walking her home when he thought Ronan was bothering her, but now she knew she’d been safer with Ronan.

  The basketball player grinned. “I’m the one who sent Monrel after you. After seeing you and Ronan together, I’d found his weakness. With you missing, we’d have had plenty of time to drain your friend.”

  “For what?” Amity asked.

  Danny frowned. “You wouldn’t understand. You’re not like us.”

  “You’re an elf?” she asked.

  “Half elf,” Ronan asked, coming over to stand with the three. Monrel was gone.

  Danny sneered at Ronan. “Where’d you send him?”

  Ronan slid up next to Amity. “I sent him many places. So, it will take him some time to gather up his body.” Then he smiled. “He’s not going to make this fight.”

  Danny grinned as well. “I had you fooled.”

  “You did,” Ronan said. “I could smell nothing past whatever it is you athletes spray yourselves with after your activities, but now I see you.”

  Danny turned fully to Ronan with the head of his blade angled straight ahead. “Well, I’m not a shadow. You can’t get rid of me the same way you got rid of Monrel.”

  “You’re right,” Ronan said, pushing Amity away from him. “So, I’ll simply have to get rid of you in the usual manner where you’ll end up in hell.”

  Danny sneered again and then lunged toward Ronan, but Amity didn’t stay to watch. She moved over to Heather. Her friend was knocked out, but still breathing. She looked pale and weak, and Amity wanted to weep upon seeing the wounds. But she had no time for weeping. She had to get her friend to safety.

  She unbound her friend’s hands and feet and then looked around for some way to move her when she heard a loud grunt.

  She turned and saw Ronan hit the ground.

  Danny flipped the blade a few times in his hands and began to laugh. “I may be half elf, but I’ve vowed my service to Monrel and he gives me strength . . . I wonder how glad he will be once he finds out I’ve killed the great Ronan of the House of Heron?”

  Amity looked around for something to hit Danny with, but upon finding nothing, she spotted the cauldron and ran for it. She positioned herself by it and shouted, “Hey, you need this?”

  Danny turned toward her with large eyes. “Don’t touch that!”

  Amity placed her sneaker on the pot and lifted a brow.

  Danny frowned and took a step toward her.

  That was all the distraction Ronan needed to end Danny from behind. The sword went straight through Danny and then Ronan shouted something, and Danny vanished into smoke before their eyes.

  Amity went over to him. “Where did you send him?”

  “Hell,” he told her, right before he wrapped his arms around her.

  They stood there silently by the fire. Ronan placed his blade over the pot, and said a word. Like Danny, the cauldron disappeared.

  “Can all vampires do that?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Only those from my house and only a select few.” He looked at her. “Some can only move small things. Some can move large things that have little life, like rocks or sticks.”

  “And you?” she asked.

  He stood. “I can move anything.”

  Wow. Then she looked to where the pot had been. “What was that?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, coming to stand before her again. “But there were reports that Monrel was building a new weapon using elf blood. It was why the stronger elves were sent here to Earth. I sent it back to my world, so I’ll see what’s inside it upon my return.”

  Amity was frozen in place as she watched Ronan walk over to Heather and pick her up in his arms as though she weighed nothing. Her heart was racing. “You’re going back to your world?”

  He stood before her and said, “I must. My people need my help.”

  She frowned. “When do you leave?”

  “At the end of the semester.”

  Her eyes widened as she did a quick calculation in her head. That only gave them days together, unless . . . .

  “You can’t come with me,” he whispered.

  She lifted her head to him. “What do you mean?”

  He touched her shoulder and spoke in his foreign tongue.

  Amity felt her body being pushed and then she was steadying herself once more as she stood in Ronan’s basement suite. She was so stunned by Ronan’s ability that she checked herself over to make sure she still had every part of her. It was frightening, but a future without him in it . . . she didn’t even want to think about it.

  Ronan gathered Heather in his arms, covered her with a blanket, and then walked over to Amity and took her hand. “Come with me.”

  They walked up the short staircase and into his office.

  He sat her down and then knelt before and stared into her eyes. “My world is too dangerous. My life is too dangerous. When the day comes that they find out I’m part elf, I want no one hurt but me. I’ve been lucky these past centuries to be undetected, but it’s only a matter of time before they know my true blood.”

  She touched his cheek and whispered, “Centuries? How old are you?”

  He smiled. “A little over two hundred.”

  Her eyes widened. “Wow.”

  He grabbed her fingers and whispered, “I did not lie when I said it feels as though I’ve been searching for you my whole life, but my destiny is not that of a man who can rest. Death is the end of my journey. I must fight to free my people.”

  Amity pushed from her chair and grabbed his face tightly. She stared into his beautiful eyes and realized just how much she was willing to give up to be with him. She’d had her own thoughts about her destiny. She was Amity Woods, and she was destined to fight for the rights of others.

  But perhaps . . . her fight didn’t have to take place in her world. “I can help you.”

  He grinned, but it was sad and he whispered, “Do you not think I want you with me?” Then he shook his head and tears sat in his eyes, but did not fall. “You are the best and worst thing that has happened to me. Now that I know you exist, I will forever ache for what we could have been. In my world, a connection like ours is not co
mmonplace . . . . But destiny is set.” He stood then, taking her with him.

  Amity couldn’t hold back her own tears. “Please,” she whispered. Her fingers curled around his coat sleeves, clinging to him, afraid that if she let go, he would disappear, much like he’d made the cauldron vanish.

  Ronan grabbed her head and kissed her hungry. “I will always be yours, Amity Woods.”

  Amity clung to him, weeping and drowning in her love for him.

  He swept her up into his arms and, not breaking the kiss, took her from the room and upstairs before laying her gently on the unused bed. His lips traveled over Amity’s body before he removed their clothes.

  And then he was inside her and their coupling was slow and sweet at first, but soon grew as their emotions took over with their need to bind themselves in a way that would last past time, past space, and over worlds.

  Amity came and Ronan followed and when the morning came, they did it again. They spent the last days of the semester in one another’s arms, but the end loomed over their happiness; however, they said nothing about it.

  Epilogue

  .

  One Month Later

  * * *

  “Amity Woods.”

  * * *

  The entire auditorium erupted into shouting and screaming, the roar louder than that for any other student, as Amity walked across the stage to receive her diploma.

  She shook the hands of the faculty and staff she’d grown to love and who’d grown to know her very well. She had to hold her breath as she shook Ronan’s hand.

  Ronan’s blue eyes gave her a secret smile and he said, “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Scott,” she whispered.

  He grinned and Amity forced herself to leave the stage without making a huge scene by jumping into his arms and kissing him.

  Outside, her entire family was there. Her mother and father, fifteen aunts and uncles, over twenty cousins, and her twin little brothers. She hugged them all and they took hours to take all the photos that everyone wanted before they agreed to meet at the spot where Amity’s dinner would be held.