Page 189 of Dark Souls

“I doubt it. Your father is a busy man. You know this. I advise you to make sure you have something positive to tell him when he returns. He may even buy you that new watch you wanted.”

She slammed the door behind her and I sank back into my bed, curling into a ball as small as that woman made me feel and wished so badly for a different life.

The sun was rising as I pulled up in the empty car park and turned off the engine of my Porsche. I leaned forward over my steering wheel, searching for any sign of Leif, but only concrete walls were in sight. Diving into my bag that was in the passenger footwell, I rummaged around for my phone to call him when the passenger door whipped open and a blur of a body swept into my car. A forceful hand grabbed my hair and, faster than I could comprehend, my head was slammed forwards into the steering wheel and my arm was twisted behind my back. I hissed between my fangs as my vampire side emerged as a form of defence, but I stilled when I realised just who was pinning me in place with insane strength for such a small woman.

“Ilaria?” I frowned, struggling against her grip, which only made her twist my arm to the point of breakage as I cried out.

“Did you know?” she hissed. Her normal pink eyes were a deep shade of crimson as she stared into mine. I had never seen the girl so terrifying and that’s saying something. Every time she looked at me, she had a face of thunder, but this was something else entirely.

“Did I know what?” I growled, attempting to lift my head, which only caused her to slam it back down and cause a throbbing pain to rocket through my temple.

“About the Demonski Upirs your parents have held captive for years?”

“What the fuck are you talking about, you lunatic? Get off me!” The girl had lost her fricking mind. What even were Demonski Upirs?

A few seconds later, she broke eye contact, flung herself away from me, and positioned herself as far from me as possible in the car. She ran her hands down her face as I sat up and stared at her, wondering what the fuck I could do to get away from this psycho chick. She’d always put the fear of life into me, since my first day at the Academy, and I’d watched her take out ten final year vampires in a training session. She was only twelve.

“Where’s Leif?” I asked, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice as my eyes darted around the car park.

“Not coming. It was me who texted you. I lied. It is the psycho sister you have to deal with.”

“If this is about Leif… look, we haven’t even done anything more than kiss.”

“It’s not about Leif.” She turned to face me in her chair, her vicious eyes flicking down to where my hand was resting on the button to free myself from this car and bolt out of there as fast as I could. She smirked. “Try it, Lia. Run and I will chase you down. You won’t get ten feet before I have you at my mercy. And right now, that is something I don’t have much of. Mercy.”

“What do you want?” I asked, defeated. She was right. I couldn’t outrun her. I moved my hand back to the steering wheel.

“To save both our soulmates from your parents.” What the hell was she talking about? Before I could open my mouth to ask, she shoved a phone in my hand with a video. “Watch that.”

With a trembling finger, I pressed play and watched the image of a man appear. A man whose face I had never forgotten. Hayes Cohen. I don’t know what it was, shock or fear, but I threw the phone back at her, holding my hands up as panic consumed me.

“What is this? I don’t understand. That man is dead!”

I knew he was dead because, after my mother grabbed the note he’d given me from my hand and I’d spent the next week dreaming of him and wondering what it said, I finally sneaked out to the village and found his house. His mother was there. When I asked if I could talk to him, she broke down in tears and told me he was dead. He died in a wolf attack. I cried myself to sleep for months and I had no idea why. It felt like I had lost someone important. Someone special before I even had the chance to know him. I told myself I was overreacting. I met him once for five minutes. Yet, the grief I felt was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. It hardened me more than I cared to admit.

“He’s not dead, Lia.” Ilaria’s voice had softened somewhat as she stared at my trembling lips. “He’s alive. Just watch the video.”

She handed it back to me, and it took every ounce of courage I possessed to press play once more. Tears filled my eyes as his face came back into view, nearly identical to how I had remembered him every night since that day, except he looked much thinner and less vibrant. His eyes were red and not those stunning blue gems that sparkled when had he smiled at me. His hair was longer and more unkempt, but it was definitely him.

When the video had finished, I continued to stare, unable to form a single word as silent tears rolled down my cheeks and fell onto the phone. My hand gripped it tightly, holding onto the only piece of Hayes Cohen that existed in my mind. My soulmate. He was my soulmate. Mine. And… and… my own parents did this to him? To me? I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted so badly to feel disbelief or rage at the accusation but I just… couldn’t. Because as much as I tried to believe my parents loved me in their own way, I’m not sure they ever really did. Not as much as they loved their ambition. Their money.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”

I blinked, lifted my face and wiped the tears from my face with the sleeve of my jacket. “Are you?”

Ilaria frowned deeply, that cold glare back in her eyes. “I may not like you, Lia. But I wouldn’t wish on anyone what they’ve done to you and Hayes. That’s just… cruel.”

I let out an exhausted laugh and shook my head at her choice of words. “Yeah. That’s my parents. Cruel.”

“They have my mate too,” Ilaria added, removing her gaze from me and watching the beginnings of the sun’s rays peeking over the horizon. “And I am running out of time to save him.”

“Why?” I shook my head, gripping the steering wheel in my fists. “I don’t understand. They captured Hayes to keep us apart. That doesn’t surprise me as much as it should. But why do they have your mate?”

“I am only telling you this because I’ve read your mind and I know you had no idea about any of this. I am hoping that you and I might actually be able to work together.” She continued telling me about who her mate was and how he came to be in my father’s possession. It didn’t feel real. Any of it. Like she was telling a story about some fictional characters with the same names as my parents. How did I not know about any of this? How had they hidden this secret life they were living from me for twenty-one years? I felt like a complete fool.

“My father has always worn a silver chain around his neck with a pendant. He never takes it off,” I said, feeling like I was having an out-of-body experience, watching myself sitting in this car with the vampire princess. I wasn’t sure how to feel or which emotion to deal with first. Shock, I guess.

“That is Luka’s sigil. That is what he uses to control Heathen. Did you know your father ownedThe Underground?”