Home > Dark Surrender (The Dark Ones Saga #3)(25)

Dark Surrender (The Dark Ones Saga #3)(25)
Author: Rachel Van Dyken

I didn’t hang my head.

I didn’t cry.

Maybe because I knew it was too good to be true. A siren.

And a glorified gardener.

Who had elf blood.

Whatever that meant.

Green thumb?

Yeah, right.

More like, it was the only job I could get.

I think.

The memory was fuzzy.

Like all of my memories lately.

I ran out of the room before I did something stupid like cried — or worse, begged him to kiss me again.

As I stumbled down the stairs, keys clenched in my right hand, a jarring slice of pain struck between my ribs as though I was having some sort of serious heart attack.

With a cry, I fell down the last three stairs and with a loud crack landed on both kneecaps.

That was going to bruise.

“One reason,” a gruff voice said as two legs appeared in my line of vision. “Give me one reason not to rip his head from his shoulders.”

Strong arms pulled me into the air nearly sending me into the ceiling before placing me on the ground. Mason sniffed my neck and then knelt before me, his gruff hair covering most of his face as twigs and leaves poked out from the sandy brown mess.

“Be still.” He demanded in a low voice before his mouth descended just inches from one knee, he blew across the ripped part of my leggings, exposing one bloody knee, and then did the same to the other. Within minutes, the stinging stopped, and then the crazy wolf man licked me.

Twice.

I tried to jerk away, but his strong grip held me firm.

When he stood. The pain was gone.

The burning in my body — still sadly there.

I didn’t realize anyone else was in the room until a hand appeared from my peripheral and slowly slid up my neck. “I can only stop it for so long.”

I turned and saw green.

Bright green fire.

Ethan’s eyes locked on mine before he very casually touched his lips to my neck while Mason held my hand.

A brief pain stabbed me in the neck.

And then.

The burning increased before steadying off into a pleasant hum that didn’t make me want to scratch my skin off.

“What did you do?”

And why was I between two immortal men like a sandwich?

“Fighting fire with fire.” Ethan lifted a shoulder casually. “It will get better, give him time, it’s a very….” His eyes went back to normal. “Tedious process.”

“That?” I pointed back up the stairs. “That was tedious?”

“It’s harder for sirens.” Ethan spoke the words slowly before sharing a look with Mason.

“Sirens.” Mason spat the word. “Are always hard. Never soft.”

“That’s the point I think.” Ethan offered a slight smile while Mason let out a low growl.

“Thank you.” I rubbed my arms as I stepped away from both of the overwhelming men and then tried to find my way out of the house.

By the time I reached the front door, it had been at least fifteen minutes.

The car was exactly where Alex had left it.

What was I even doing?

Going back to work?

Like that was going to make everything suddenly better? Like my life would make sense again?

But it was all I had.

The monotony of a job.

I had to get away.

From all of them.

But especially from him.

I glanced back at the house and slowly looked up only to see a curtain fall from the window.

Alone again.

Only this time, I knew what it was like to be a part of something — to belong. So the pain at getting in the car and driving away wasn’t only acute. It was a painful awareness that I really didn’t fit in anywhere, that there was something wrong with me, not everyone else.

He didn’t want me.

I was a means to an end.

I closed off my mind to the feelings he’d brought out in me and focused on the road.

Drive to the immortal compound.

Water the plants.

As I had done since the day I was hired.

I tried to conjure up the memory and was left seeing an image of myself at the compound listening to the human training coordinator rattle off instructions. But how had I known about the job? How had I even gotten there?

Already being with the immortals was muddling my mind if I couldn’t even remember what I had been doing two years ago!

Or was it days?

Panicked, I turned up the music and pushed all thoughts of Alex and the immortals away.

Alex

London, England 1815

THEIR EYES WERE empty, as though someone had sucked the souls directly from their bodies. The scent of earth filled the air.

I fell to my knees amidst the gory scene before me, dipped a finger in the blue blood… and tasted.

The youngest elf had just left to get Sariel.

They’d been nervous about another one of the elves.

The scene unfolded before me like a play. One of the elves, the smaller, announced a pregnancy.

A hush sounded around the room as a moment of silence descended over the chosen women.

Elves were capable of mating with immortals and humans alike, they helped further the races — though every time they brought a new life into the world, it meant that they sacrificed their own.

To bring life.

It meant their own death, no matter who they mated with, human or immortal.

That was why they were a protected race.

But weak.

Weaker even than a human. Even though they had blood that fused with both worlds, they were a lot like Dark Ones — they didn’t belong in either.

   
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