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“I don't know, but it was as if he knew there was something worse out there than the hellhounds. I could feel your brother's power. He was strong. He could have taken them out.”
“That was one thing that never made sense to me. He could manipulate those beasts, change their thought pattern, so when we showed up, and I saw his writing…”
“His writing?” I ask, a little confused.
“Yes, he used his blood to write on the pavement but died before he could finish. It said AL.”
“You thought he meant I killed him?” Shame washes through the bond, and I know I am right.
“No, we thought you abandoned him. Left him for dead,” Tobias answers. He doesn't say much after that. Instead, we watch the fire burn for a while before he gets up and tells me he is going to have a shower. I watch him slip into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Yet I am still thinking of that night and how everything went wrong when I thought of Darius and him leaving.
I mulled over his words over the past few weeks whenever I mentioned marking him. It didn't seem like he was worried about what I would know so much, but more about how I would feel about him and what the others would find out. Yet I tried to wrap my head around what they could possibly find out that scared him.
Unless it was to do with them? It suddenly clicks, and my eyes dart to the bathroom door where Tobias had gone. Feeling for Darius, I know he is close by. Almost as if he is beneath us somewhere. I pull on the sensation of his bond, trying to feel where he is.
The more I pull, the stronger the urge to go to him becomes. Suddenly, however, a portal opens up behind me. I blink, wondering where it came from. Standing, I stick my hand in before jerking it out when I realize I pulled on his magic from here.
Wherever he is, it’s cold. The air feels different, icy cold. But it is definitely his power I can feel, and it is his power that I use to open it, my bond searching for his before it latches onto him and his location. Glancing around the room, I step toward the portal, pushing my hand through it and shuddering at the cold draft. The suction of the portal pulls me in, and I step into a dark concrete room.
I blink, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, when I notice lighting coming from the other end. Just glimmers of light. I move toward it, my feet aching from how cold the floor was down here. Reaching the arched concrete doorway, I peer inside to find Darius leaning up against a bed.
My eyes scan the room, wondering where I am when I hear a giggling noise making me look at the wall to find the glimmering light is actually images projecting onto the wall as if it were a movie.
I watch, making sure to remain quiet, not wanting to alert him I am here, when I see a little girl's face popping up only to abruptly cut out. The room goes dark, and his thunderous growl makes me jump. I step closer to the door, peering in, when his voice suddenly sounds behind me, making me jump.
“How did you get in here?” he snarls, and I spin around to face him. I don't answer his question. Instead, I ask my own.
ChapterForty-Two
"What is this place?" I ask him, looking around. This place gives me the shivers like it was full of dark energy. It felt like I walked into a tomb or over someone's grave. Darius says nothing, making me look back at him to find his eerie demonic eyes watching me.
“You shouldn't have come down here,” he snaps at me as his hands slam against the wall on either side of my head. The moment they do, lights flicker, and I hear the sound of a generator turning on, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling blink to life, illuminating the space.
“It's a bunker,” he finally says, pushing off the wall and stepping away from me.
“Why are you here?”
“I followed you. Don't ask me how because I don't know how,” I tell him, looking around the space. I find a tiny kitchen, a bunk bed, and scattered belongings that look old and abandoned. Childlike crayon drawings litter the walls, and teddies lay on the bed with more dust than stuffing.
I move around the space, looking around, yet I feel his gaze on my back as he follows me. Yet the more I look, the more I start to understand where I am.
“This is where your mother and sister hid during the plague?” I ask him, glancing at him over my shoulder. He neither agrees nor denies, but I know I am right.
“Have the others been down here?”
“No, and you shouldn't be down here.” Turning around, I face him, looking him over. He seems pissed that I intruded, but at least here, we have some privacy away from our mates. And maybe he might tell me something.
“Tobias is awake,” I tell him. “He's having a shower.”
He says nothing, just stares.
“We were talking about his brother,” I mention, feeling the bond when he slams his walls up, blocking me out. But he isn’t quick enough, and I note the flash of guilt that hits me.
“Tobias doesn't know, does he?” I ask him.
“Tobias doesn't know what. There is a lot Tobias doesn't know, Aleera,” Darius says, and I know I’m onto something.
“Doesn't know you blame yourself for his brother's death,” I whisper. Darius stiffens and stares at me for a few seconds.
