Daughter of Shadows (To Darkness Bound Book 1)

by Zandria West

  A shadow blocks out the sky. For a moment my heart stops – it’s him. He’s found me. This is the end. But then my eyes adjust, and I recognise the man from the bar standing over me. He looks like he is exactly where he belongs. His snow-kissed stone-carved features and the heavy dark clothing he wears are perfect against the gothic backdrop of the demon graveyard. He’s beautiful. I should by rights be terrified of him, but I’m not.

  ‘Why are you here?’ he says, his voice tight with fury. Not: are you hurt? Or: do you need help? Or: phew, that nasty demon is toast.

  ‘I came to find you,’ I say, pushing myself up to standing though my legs are shaking. Then I pull the sleeves of my jacket up, raise my arms and present them to him, inner arms facing outwards. He frowns, his expression darkening. I force myself to continue. This is what I came for. This is what I almost died for. I have to know the truth. ‘What is this? What did you do to me?’

  He shakes his head and looks up at the sky. ‘There’s no time to explain now. When the sun goes down, you will be hunted.’

  As soon as he says it, I realise it’s almost night. I have no idea how much time has passed. I didn’t think it had been long, but the sky above us is muted silvery-purple and the sun is already low on the horizon.

  Well, shit. ‘Here I was thinking I was done with the being hunted part of the day already,’ I say, giving an unsteady laugh.

  He narrows his eyes and my stomach lurches. ‘This is not a joke, Lana. You think one demon coming after you was a problem? In twenty minutes, there will be a horde of them. Come. You must follow me.’

  What am I, crazy? Am I really going to follow this guy when I have no idea what his intentions are, other than to know he’s a powerful supernatural being who has cast some kind of spell on me?

  As I look around for a possible way out, I spot the demon who was pursuing me, lying on the ground. The demon that came so close to killing me. He would have revelled in it. Instead, his body is broken, seemingly frozen in an ugly, contorted posture that is obviously incompatible with life.

  ‘You did that?’ I breathe.

  The man’s frown deepens, if that’s even possible. ‘You left me no choice, though it will not be without consequence. Come. There’s no time to talk.’

  He reaches out and takes my hand. As he does, a shimmer of heat moves through me. It’s as though the marking on my arm is coming to life and it’s no longer painful, it’s powerful: vibrant, full of potential. The sensation is incredible and overwhelming. I gasp.

  ‘You feel it?’ he asks.

  I nod, unable to speak, unable to tear my eyes away from his gaze.

  ‘That is something at least,’ he says, and leads me back through the graveyard.

  I found him. I almost died in the process, but I found him. I can’t deny the connection that I feel between us. Soon, I hope, he’ll be able to answer my questions about what is happening to me. But first, we need to find somewhere safe. Night comes quickly here, more quickly than it does in the city. The dusk is already deepening towards dark. Every cell in my body is tingling with threat, with danger. The threat I feel is not from him, but from everything else around us. Not many humans survive a wander around Darktown after nightfall. He doesn’t let go of the grip on my hand.

  ‘Where are you taking me?’ I ask, as he leads me up a narrow stone stairway. The walls are moss-covered and faded with age.

  ‘Somewhere safe.’

  I follow him down a long promenade, and then we reach a doorway. I spot the crow, perched high above us, watching. The dark-haired man looks up and gestures, and the bird spreads its wings and glides silently away.

  ‘Ruark will keep watch,’ he says, then opens the door, and leads me through.

  5

  GABRIEL

  She’s here.

  After so long imagining it, the night has finally come. She stands before me, the binding between us singing with the music of a thousand stars. But it’s all wrong. She’s not safe. She’s in more danger than she can know. She doesn’t trust me. And I don’t know if I’m strong enough to protect her alone. The others are still too far away.

  The truth is: I panicked. After seeing her draw the Griearg’s attention, I feared for her safety and cast the binding sooner than I ought to have done. I should have held back and watched, waited for the others to arrive, done nothing until it was absolutely necessary. As it is, I have drawn her to me and into danger. This is the last place she should be.

  It wasn’t meant to be like this.

  Ruark spreads his wing and speeds off on watch. He, my trusted eyes and ears, will not let any enemies approach without me knowing of them.

  All I can do now is make Lana comfortable and keep her calm and pray that somehow we have managed to pass unnoticed. It is possible that the death of the Griearg will be assumed to be the result of some personal altercation. That, at least, would surprise no one. He was known for being a vicious bastard, even by the standards of demons, and that is saying something.

  But this girl, the human – Lana… For a moment I allow myself the luxury of closing my eyes and sensing her through the bond. It is so much more than I’d allowed myself to dream.

  She is utterly ignorant and completely knowing, both at once. She has danced in the darkness with demons half her life and has no idea why. She is so slight, she seems little more than a girl, her eyes like shining gemstones, her hair such a brilliant, unlikely blue, her body so fragile… And yet her spirit –

  ‘I need to know what the hell is happening to me. Who are you? What have you done to me? And why?’

  Her voice brings me back.

  I bow my head, unable to meet the questions in her gaze. I don’t have all the answers she’s hoping for and those I do have, she will not like. ‘I’m sorry, I have not made you welcome as I should. You must be tired. Please, sit, rest. I’ll bring you something to drink.’

  She shakes her head vigorously. ‘Nope. No way am I drinking anything until you tell me what’s going on. What did you do to me?’ She raises her arm again.

  I’d never performed the binding spell before and had no idea how it would manifest. And it’s fair to say, it is remarkable. The Bondmarks are rendered perfectly and with such power… Even here, just having her show them to me, I feel the power drawing me to her. The resonance between us is overwhelming. I sense her fear and uncertainty and exhaustion, but I also sense her hunger for me, a hunger so deep she is still scarcely aware of it herself.

  I swallow and stand up straighter. ‘The Bondmark is for your protection,’ I say. ‘It connects us, so I can sense when you are in danger. It allows you to access a portion of my power, for your own defence.’

  It does more than that, of course, but I figure a simple explanation will be easiest to begin with.

  ‘I’m sorry. And why do you think I need your protection?’

  I can’t help but raise an eyebrow. ‘You don’t think that what just occurred provides some demonstration of your vulnerability? I saved your life.’

  ‘Dude, I would not even be here if it wasn’t for you putting this mark on me. I came to find you. To get some answers.’ She points a finger at the centre of my chest.

  I’m sorry – dude? Did the human girl just call me dude?

  ‘My name is Gabriel,’ I say, with as much dignity as I can muster. ‘I have been appointed as your protector.’

  ‘Well thank you very fucking much Gabriel. But would you mind telling me who appointed you? And why? And whether, you know, I might get any say in this?’

  I take a breath. I trust my wisdom and learning in most respects, but I’m beginning to see that the reactions of this girl are not something I can anticipate with any confidence. I will tell her the truth, as simply as I can.

  ‘It was on the request of your father, whom I have known for many years. A month before he died, he called me to him. He gave me very specific instructions and made me promise to undertake them. I have followed them to the best of my ability.’

>   She blanches, as though all the blood has drained from her body.

  ‘Will you sit now?’ I ask gently, moving to her side, and supporting her as she lowers down onto the couch.

  She seems to be in shock. It is all I can do not to draw her into my arms, to bury my face in her hair, to rest her head on the crook of my shoulder. I long for her with every fibre of my being, but I know that to act on that longing so early in our binding would not be right. The bond is new and uncertain. And my duty to protect her is greater than my desire to comfort her.

  ‘My father told you to do this?’ She looks up at me. I nod. To my horror, she bursts into tears.

  I clear my throat. ‘You’ve had a shock. I should give you time to collect yourself,’ I say.

  If I stay I will do something I’ll regret. I won’t be able to stop myself. I stand and leave the room, closing the door behind me. Even through the door I can hear her sobbing. Anger pulses through me, dark and terrible and destructive. All I want is to destroy whatever it is that has hurt her, to destroy it so utterly it will be as though it had never even existed.

  But how can I do that, when the thing that has hurt her is me?

  6

  LANA

  I can’t tell if I’m crying because I’m grateful or because I’m fucking pissed off. My father told him to do this to me? Without saying anything to me about it? I don’t understand. Why would he assign a… a whatever-Gabriel-is to me as a protector?

  I reach automatically for the amulet that hangs around my neck. Protection. Wear it always. Through a heavy haze of exhaustion, doubts and fears are battling in my mind. Why do I need protection? What is it about me that means I always seem to be on the edge of disaster?

  It was never Jamie. He was always fine. The worst thing that ever happened to him was falling off his bike and breaking his arm when he was eleven. But me…

  A gentle knock on the door interrupts my thoughts. I sniff and wipe my eyes with my sleeve.

  ‘May I come in?’ Gabriel’s voice is low, filled with a tension that both terrifies and thrills me.

  ‘It’s your house,’ I say.

  He opens the door and enters, and every cell of my body is instantly aware of him. He looks at me so intently with those dark eyes, it’s as though he’s trying to see my thoughts, to see into my very soul.

  ‘So, um, maybe I’ll have that drink you mentioned,’ I say awkwardly. I need something. Now that the immediate terror has dissolved, I feel weak and so tired that it’s almost more than I can manage just to stay vertical. I’ve been awake for more than twenty-four hours now and I’m feeling it. I can’t stop thinking about what Gabriel told me: when darkness falls you will be hunted. I’m deep in Darktown, surrounded by demons who could tear me limb from limb without thinking twice.

  Yep, I definitely need a drink.

  ‘Of course,’ Gabriel takes an elegant crystal tumbler down from a shelf, unstoppers a carafe, pours a generous serving of a deep red liquid and brings it over to me.

  I take a big sip – I don’t know what it is, but it’s sweet and makes me feel instantly tipsy, which I figure is a positive step up from terrified. Gabriel sits beside me.

  ‘May I?’ He takes a hold of my right arm, turns it over and draws a breath. The crow stares back at us, pristine black feathers shining, one yellow eye watching. Gabriel lifts my arm so he can study it more closely. I’m suddenly very aware of his presence: his profile, which is so ridiculously perfect I struggle not to stare; the powerful lines of his body, especially now that he has removed his jacket and I can make out the hard muscles of his shoulders and chest. He begins to trace a finger over the crow’s outstretched wings. As he explores the image with his touch, my whole body sparks. Heat moves through me in shocking waves.

  ‘What are you?’ I ask, the words coming out barely louder than a breath. ‘And… and how did you know my father?’

  I still haven’t decided whether or not I believe his story. My father never said anything to me about it, and he’s not around now to confirm whether what Gabriel has told me is the truth.

  I want to believe him though.

  Gabriel releases my arm, and the cold that I felt the first time he let me go returns bone-deep, making me shiver. ‘I first met your father on an archaeological dig before you were born.’ I try not to gape as I struggle to do the math. At last, he smiles, a ridiculously sexy smile that lights his face like a beam of sunshine breaking through the clouds. ‘I am… a little older than I might appear to you. I was acting as a guide, at the time, in the deserts of Jordan. A new temple section had recently been discovered, and your father was brought in to lead the excavation.’

  I nod. ‘I think he told me about that once. Something happened… there was an accident of some kind, the university withdrew support and the work had to be stopped…’

  ‘Your father was a kind and generous man, Lana, and very driven. He recognised my particular skills and engaged me to work with him as he began recording his investigations. Your mother was there too.’

  ‘You knew my mother?’ I feel an ache so deep I can’t put words to it. Our father would never talk to Jamie and I about her. I always thought it was because her death still hurt him so much, he couldn’t even bear to speak her name. We had one photograph, in which her hair was a chaos of dark curls and half her face was lost in shadow, though it looked as though she was laughing.

  ‘Yes, I knew your mother. I was very sorry to hear of her death. It must have been hard for you, growing up…’

  I look away.

  I don’t want his pity. I just want the truth. All of it.

  Gabriel stands and walks to the other side of the room. He’s silent a moment as though lost in thought.

  ‘I didn’t have contact with your father again for many years, in fact not until a month before he died when he got in touch through a mutual acquaintance and asked to see me.’

  Suddenly there’s a banging on the door. Gabriel curses and strides to the window, raises the blind and looks out. It’s pitch black. Night time in Darktown.

  ‘Wait here,’ Gabriel says fiercely. ‘Don’t move a muscle. Don’t make a sound.’ I hear his footsteps as he paces along the corridor and takes the flight of stairs down to the front door.

  I sit rigid with fear. I can’t make sense of anything that he’s told me. The only thing I know is, it’s night now and night in Darktown means danger for mortals. I want to hide – I look around the room. Would I be able to find a hiding place if I needed to? There’s a cupboard in one corner and heavy velvet drapes that hang almost from ceiling to floor. Children’s hiding places. They wouldn’t help for even a moment if I were truly being hunted by demons.

  I hear the click of the door opening and quiet voices below. And then, finally, I let myself breathe. There’s no sound of conflict. I have no sense of danger. I raise a finger to the amulet and feel that the stone is cool. No need to freak out, Lana. Now I hear two sets of steps on the stairs.

  When the door opens again, I find myself momentarily dumbstruck.

  Ahead of Gabriel, a slender, blonde-haired man with eyes like blue flame crosses the floor towards me and then, as he reaches where I’m sitting, drops to one knee, bending his head so it’s almost resting on my lap. Hang on— is he… smelling me? I shift awkwardly. ‘Um….’ I say.

  ‘Lana, this is Alexander. He sensed that you were in danger and made his way as quickly as he could. I believe he is feeling somewhat chastened that he was not here sooner.’

  ‘Are you alright, Lana?’ His voice is light and musical, and his eyes look up at me with such cool intensity that I shiver. Then: ‘Which arm is it?’ he says to Gabriel.

  ‘The left.’

  Without even asking, Alexander takes my left arm and ever so gently turns it. ‘So, it’s begun….’ He breathes, staring at the snake that is coiled there, so perfectly rendered I almost imagine it will slither off and onto the floor at any moment.

  ‘Show her,’ Gabriel says, a command in h
is voice that I haven’t heard before. Alexander inclines his head, before standing, taking off his long leather jacket and then, in one easy move, removing the grey t-shirt he wears beneath it.

  I open my mouth and close it. The man is spectacular. Not as heavily built as Gabriel, but lithe and strong, his skin so smooth I just about have to sit on my hands to stop myself from touching him. And then I raise my eyes to his face and see him grinning back at me. My interest hasn’t gone unnoticed. I flush and try to think of something sensible to say. Alexander turns so his back is facing me. All words dissolve. Across the sculpted breadth of his back, twining in an intricate Celtic knot, is a tattoo of a snake. The same snake that is visible on my arm.

  ‘The binding has begun,’ Gabriel says.

  ‘I fucking felt it too,’ Alexander laughs, and turns again to face me. ‘Did it burn for you like it did for me, my angel?’

  I swallow, feeling the blood rush to all sorts of locations in my body that I’d really rather not be thinking about right now. ‘It hurt, if that’s what you mean. I felt like I was getting a rash.’

  ‘The rash would be Gabriel, not me. I’m guaranteed clean as a whistle.’ He raises an eyebrow suggestively. Gabriel groans and shakes his head.

  ‘Alex, really, now is not the time. Did you see any disturbances? Were you followed on the way here? I’m hoping that Lana’s presence has not been detected, but I killed the Griearg and now it almost feels…’

  ‘Too quiet?’ Alexander says, then he nods. ‘Yeah I wondered the same thing. When do the others get here?’