Page 78 of Dark Souls
Karma
“I ’m sorry about this.” Ruby gave us all a tight smile from across the table. “You can always count on Leif to be late to family night, even though I told him to be here half an hour earlier than the rest of us. That normally guarantees he’s on time.”
Ilaria held her hands up. “That might be my fault. My invitation told him half an hour later.”
Ezra scoffed and Ruby frowned, looking between the father and daughter. “What invitation? Since when do we send invitations to family night? I never got one? Did you?”
Lorcan shook his head, looking just as confused. The rest of the family didn’t seem to have any knowledge of it, either.
“I just didn’t want any of you to miss it,” Ilaria said, struggling to hold back a fit of giggles. I narrowed my eyes at her with a smirk. She’d been super excited about tonight all day but wouldn’t tell me why. What was she up to?
“Miss what?” Ruby questioned, glaring at Ezra and Ilaria. We didn’t have to wait long to find out. The dining room doors swung open and in walked a very naked and very blue warlock.
Silence. Eyes wide. Mouths open. And then Ilaria and Ezra burst at the seams, spraying spit and hitting the table with their hands as they lost their minds with laughter. Leif stood frozen, wearing only a blue thong that matched the colour of the blue paint that covered him from head to toe. Even his hair was dyed blue. Only the whites of his shocked eyes and the swirling of his colourful irises stood out among the sea of blueness. He suddenly slammed his hands over his private area but it was a little too late.
“Oh my goddess, Leif! Why are you blue?” Ruby screamed. “And naked? Is that a thong?” She slammed her hands over her eyes.
“I can’t–I can’t–” Ilaria was crying now, tears streaming down her face as she bent over in her chair, unable to control herself. The rest of us were struggling to hold back our own laughter, even though we still had no idea what was happening.
“You little shit,” Leif growled, his eyes set on Ilaria. He pointed a blue finger in her direction. “You set me up!”
“Payback is a bitch, bro!” Ilaria wheezed out between chuckles.
“Payback for what?” he gaped, running forwards to grab a silver lid from a serving plate to cover his ass.
“That monstrous spider you sent me! And for turning dad into a teapot.”
“You were in on this?” Ruby scolded Ezra, who had his head buried in the crook of his arm that was resting on the table. He lifted his tear-streaked face, took one look at his son and then lost it all over again. Ruby pressed her lips together to stop herself from joining in with the rest of the room.
“Someone please explain before I die from laughter without even knowing why,” Maddy cried.
“Ilaria texted me, saying that in order to break the ice and to make the demons feel more welcome, we’re throwing a fancy dress party tonight. I even checked with dad and he said he was wearing a fur blanket,” Leif grumbled but the sides of his lips were twitching too.
“What was the supposed theme?” Logan laughed, shaking his head at his grandson.
“Anything but clothes,” Ilaria was crying again and I couldn’t help but laugh along with my devious mate. “I expected you to wear a bin bag or make an outfit out of cardboard, not turn up painted blue! So much better than I could have planned for!”
Leif sighed as the room roared with laughter. He slammed the lid back on the table and held his arms out wide, twirling in a slow circle and giving us all an eyeful. “Go on then. Have a good laugh. I think I look fucking awesome so I really don’t give a shit.”
He went to pull out a chair at the table and Maddy screamed, “Wait! Don’t sit your bare blue bum on my cream chairs! Towel, Arius! Get a towel!”
Soon we were all finally sitting around the dinner table and digging into our meals but every few minutes one of us would burst into another fit of uncontrollable hysterics again, sending a ripple effect like a Mexican wave around the table at the sight of Leif. Even Zoran had cracked a smile and I swear I saw his shoulders shake with a silent chuckle.
“Surely, you can just click your fingers and put on some clothes, Leif?” Alina asked.
“Why would I? I think this is an improvement. It’s rather liberating actually,” Leif said before stuffing a vegetable in his mouth. “Might try a different colour every day of the week.”
“Oh goddess,” Raiden groaned. “You’ve just given him the perfect excuse to let his nudist nature out.”
“I have to ask,” Sienna waved her fork towards him. “Why blue?”
Leif shrugged. “It’s my favourite colour. And I’ve had blue fucking balls recently so seemed fitting.” He nudged Zoran, who glared at him, and Leif gave him an amused smirk. Apparently, their night out hadn’t been that successful on the ladies’ front, though neither of them would go into details.
When the meal was finished, Ezra stood up at the head of the table, clearly trying to avoid looking at Leif as he started his speech, “I just wanted to take a minute before the chaos of family night ensues and officially welcome Luka, Hana and Zoran to the family. Ronnie, you seemed to wangle your way in too. Well done.” We all laughed when Ronnie stood up and took a bow. “We also need to say good luck and farewell to my blue son, Leif, who is leaving us to head back to his planet tonight.” That earned another laugh as Leif shook his head with a smirk. “Hopefully he will shower beforehand but knowing him, this is the perfect way to make an entrance into his new coven. Blue or not, we are so proud of you and clearly it is not going to be the same around here without you. Not only will there be less laughter but we are going to miss you more than you know.”.
“Oh please, stop with the dramatics, Dad. You’ve literally forced me to sign a contract that states I will come to every Friday family night, which you do realise will mean I have to travel between realms every few days in Heroux.” Leif smirked, folding his arms across his chest. “You’ll see me more than you do now.”
“Shh, you are ruining my speech.” Ezra frowned, glaring at him. “To new adventures!” He raised his beer in the air and we all joined him in his toast.
My eyes met Zoran’s across the table and he reluctantly joined in late by lifting his beer an inch off the table under my warning glare. He was still struggling to adjust to being a part of this very loud and proud family and I couldn’t blame him. As lovely as they were, they were a lot. There were so many names, so many relatives and family friends that all seemed to want to know everything there was to know about us. Zoran and I were not the most social of creatures. Hana, on the other hand, was thriving.
As everyone stood up to leave the table, I stayed seated with Zoran, Leif and Lorcan as we finished our drinks. I watched Hana giggling with Ilaria and Sienna in the corner of the room as they showed her how to use her new phone. They were now snapping pictures of the three of them and my heart expanded at how happy she was.
“You should get a phone,” I said to Zoran. Of course, as predicted, his response was a grunt of disagreement. “Since you aren’t planning on sticking around and you refuse to let me come with you to hunt this witch, then at least learn how to make a phone call.”
“Yes, time to get your head in the future, Z-dog. If not for that reason then just so I can send you inappropriate memes,” Leif added with a smirk, lifting his beer to his blue lips.
Turning his head to scowl at Leif, who was sitting beside him, he growled, “Do you really expect me to take anything you say seriously looking like that? And what the fuck are memes? Actually, keep your memes. Sounds like something sexual.”
Leif scoffed and slammed his hand on Zoran’s shoulder, leaving a blue handprint that Zoran glared at. “Mate, I’ve just realised that you would’ve never experienced porn. Oh, this is going to be so much fun. Yes, that’s our next bro night planned.”
“Porn?” Zoran frowned. “And what does that entail? You’re not going to make me do those miniature drinks again?”
I chuckled behind my beer as Leif slammed his hands over his face and threw his head back in joyous disbelief. Whatever had happened between them on their night out had bonded them and Zoran seemed more comfortable around Leif than anyone else in the family. Leif really had broken down Zoran’s steel walls, and even though they refused to discuss the events of the night, I could tell Zoran had made his first friend for life. And they couldn’t have been more polar opposites if they tried. It was rather amusing.
“Imagine a brothel but you’re only there to watch. But instead of watching in person, you’re watching on a screen.” I explained in the only way I knew Zoran would remotely understand.
His eyes narrowed and that confused frown was back on his face in an instant. “That sounds unpleasant. What the fuck is fun about that?”
“It’s not but it has a purpose,” Lorcan added. “Though the real thing is much better.”
“Well, I’m only thinking of your own needs, especially after—” Zoran’s huge hand slammed over Leif’s mouth, knocking him backwards off his chair. Leif quickly stood up, laughing his fucking head off as I looked between the pair of them with suspicion.
“Especially after what?” I questioned and Zoran’s fierce gaze snapped to me before he lowered it to his beer bottle.
“Nothing.”
Leif sat back down and shook his head, refusing to say anything more about it as well. Weird. I let it go and leaned back in my chair. The tension in my shoulders was tight and I tried rolling my neck to release the ache of my muscles, but it didn’t help.
We’d spent the entire day searching for our father’s bones at Belladonna and Mitchell’s house, and even the surrounding woods of the Knowlton manor. Ilaria’s family had helped, some of them using magic to locate them, others using their wolf’s sensitivity to smell, but we’d still had no luck. Zoran had suggested that the three of us go back to Serbia tomorrow to look there. To the cottage or whatever was left of it. The idea was the best we had but it still caused a bubble of anxiety and dread to poison my veins. I hadn’t been back there since Mama made me go to search for his bones a few days after the attack. It had been hard enough then. The pain was still so raw, and I knew it was going to be a tough day.
As though he could read my body language because it matched his own, Zoran glanced up at me and said in his deep drawl, “We’ll fly in demon form tomorrow. Transport ourselves most of the way.”
I nodded in silence, taking another swig of my beer. Leif only added to the tension by reaching for a brown envelope that was sitting on top of his suitcase. He placed it on the table in front of Zoran. We all eyed it cautiously until Leif spoke again.
“A farewell present. It worked.” My eyes darted between my brother and Leif. Zoran’s head whipped around to stare at Leif with disbelief as the warlock gave him a cheeky smirk. “Go on. Tell me how much you love me.”
Zoran grabbed the envelope, his hands trembling slightly, but stopped himself at the last moment from ripping it open.
“You found the witch?” I asked, slamming my beer down on the table, which gained the attention of everyone in the room. They all huddled over in shock as Leif casually shrugged his shoulders.
“You doubted me? Of course I did. Well, I found her location. I was able to extract the essence of her magic from Zoran’s blood and, using a newly invented spell by yours truly, I could create a chasm of her energy in a crystal. The next time she used her magic, the crystal would vibrate and I would be able to smash the stone to pieces on a map and they would gravitate to the location of her magic. Neat, huh?”
No one spoke. I stared at Zoran. He stared at the unopened envelope. Leif frowned, clearly not happy that no one was celebrating his brilliance.
“Okay, I was expecting a round of applause but a simple thank you will do. So, I don’t have her name. Or her picture but her location is the next best thing, right?”
Zoran swallowed harshly, his throat moving with the motion, and then he looked at Leif. “Thank you. It’s more than enough.”
“You’re welcome.”
“So… where is she?” Hana asked nervously, her wide green eyes darting across the table between Zoran and me.
“That’s the craziest thing!” Leif was animated while we were all sitting in silent shock. “She’s right here! In England.”
Zoran suddenly ripped open the envelope aggressively and scanned the map. Leif had circled a red ring around an area. My brother flipped through the next few pages as Leif continued to explain for the rest of us what Zoran was looking at.
“She’s living in a very remote area in the south of England. It’s rural, near the coast and from a quick internet search, it’s a small village with a population of 1,679. There is no coven located there so my guess is a lone witch hiding among humans. But she should be easy enough to find in a place so small.”
Ruby stood behind Leif and placed her hands on his shoulders, squeezing him. “Well done, Leif. That’s amazing. Perhaps I can go down there and see if I can draw her out? She might be willing to come for questioning? If not, we can force her.”
Zoran’s jaw ticked and he stood up abruptly. I stared at him in warning and I was relieved when he held his rage back enough to say thank you for the offer but he was doing this alone. Ruby opened her mouth to argue but then seemed to think better of it and just nodded in agreement.
Leif lifted his hand and Zoran grabbed it in a silent gesture of thanks before he turned and stormed out of the room with the envelope. I stood up, bent down to kiss Ilaria and said, “Do you mind if I give tonight a miss? I feel like I need to be with him right now.”
“It’s fine. Go. We do this every week.” She waved me off and I kissed her once more before following him out. I zoomed up to the guest room he was staying in and opened his door to find him sitting at the end of his bed with his head in his hands.
Sitting down beside him, I exhaled deeply and placed my hand on his shoulder. He was shaking. My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to understand whether it was from shock, relief or something else. He stood up suddenly and started pacing the room, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. His eyes were as black as a starless sky and I realised he was shaking with anger.
“Z.” I stood up carefully, lifting my hands up to try to calm him. “Take a breath. Talk to me.”
“I need to go. Right now. I need to see her with my own eyes before I can believe it’s true.”
“And you will. But not like this. Not while you’re so close to losing control. You need to get answers. You need to figure out who she is and why she did this before you go charging into her life to destroy it.” I tried to make him see reason over his fury because I couldn’t let go of the niggling feeling that there was something about this witch that wasn’t adding up. And I didn’t want him to do anything in a rage that he would come to regret.
He growled through his fangs, the veins in his neck protruding as his whole body strained to fight back his demon. “I want her dead, Lukas. What’s stopping me from flying there tonight and ripping her fucking heart out of her chest? It’s what she deserves.”
“Maybe,” I said calmly, watching him like a hawk because if he was about to catapult himself out the castle window, I would have to restrain him. “Or maybe not.”
He paused. His black eyes slammed into mine with vengeance. His hand wrapped around my neck as he dragged me into his body. “What did you say?”
I remained calm, knowing this was the only chance I had to bring him back to logic. To make him consider it might not be what it seemed. “Why would she save you, Zoran?”
His hellish eyes that blazed with cold, hard conviction glared into my soul. “She didn’t save me. She cursed me!”
I nodded and I felt his grip on my throat ease a little. “She cursed you. Yes. But in doing so, she saved your life. Why would she do that?”
I was hoping he’d come to the same realisation that I had. That she could be his soulmate but clearly, he wasn’t ready to hear that. He glared at me, snarling through his fangs before he let me go and started pacing again. His hands raked through his long red hair and he grabbed a fistful painfully.
“Because she is sick. Twisted. I don’t know.”
“Don’t you want to keep her alive long enough to find out?”
He closed his eyes and after a few moments of deep breathing; he opened them again, his natural green irises showing that he had calmed himself enough to listen.
“Look. You have her location. You know where she is. You’re going to find her. But you need a plan. You need to at least be able to control your demon if she’s living in a human village. You need to be subtle and inconspicuous. You’ve already said that you’ve come close to finding her before but she runs. She can’t see you coming and in order to keep your identity hidden, you need to think rationally and clearly.”
‘Tell him to stalk her! ’ Heathen shouted with excitement. ‘It’s so much fun and will scare the shit out of her. Win, win.’
‘No. It will make her run.’
‘That’s what Ambroz wants. The chase. Trust me on this. It will keep Ambroz calmer.’
Zoran slapped his hands against his face, physically hitting himself out of his fury and nodded. “You’re right. I can’t be impulsive. I’ve waited too long to fuck this up now.”
Against my better judgment, I listened to Heathen. “Perhaps you should go there and lie low for a little while. Watch her. Figure her out from the shadows.”
Zoran seemed to consider it, sitting back down at the end of the bed. “If she senses me, she’ll run again.”
“And you’ll let Ambroz hunt her. Once you have her scent, he’ll easily track her,” I offered.
‘And once he sees her, he’ll know if she is his soulmate or not,’ Heathen added.
Zoran nodded, his shoulders slouching a little as the tension crept out of them. “I’ll go tomorrow night and scope the area. After we’ve been home.”
Home. He still considered that little cottage, scorched and demolished, in a rural part of Serbia, our home. My chest hurt as I stared at my brother. In some ways, he was more broken than me. He was stuck in the past, unable to move on. My past may haunt me but he was still living in his. I placed my hand on his shoulder and agreed.