Tasting Darkness
Tempting Darkness Chapter 14: Kalen POV

Darius pushes off the ground, looking down at her, horrified. Guilt smashed into me, not his, but my own. They hated him for what he did, but they didn’t know what it was like for him when he was like that. He wasn’t human, man, or Fae in those moments.

He was demonic possession, dark energy that knew no limits, no boundaries. I felt guilty because I couldn’t get them to see that. The look of revulsion and pure disgust on their faces as he tried to pick her up upset me, and embarrassment washed through the bond. He was ashamed of himself. Tobias shoves him away when he reaches for her, but it is Lycus who gets up and growls ferociously. None of them knew.

I kept the act itself from them, just like I kept their secrets and how I kept Darius’s. This was our secret. They didn’t need to know. If Tobias just left as I asked, this wouldn’t be an issue right now. Lycus always left, or I was always able to make him, convince his mind into thinking I was simply tainting Darius’s aura..

Tobias being Vampiric, I couldn’t compel his mind; I wasn’t strong enough. The joys of being a dark – Fae, and empathic Fae. I hated it but also loved it.

There was nothing they could hide from me, not even their darkest secrets they refused to share. I knew it all. Every dirty sin, every desire, and every secret. Despite the darkest parts of them, I loved them. I loved Darius and knew he would never hurt me, his possessive demonic side would, but I knew that was a separate entity to him. So for that, I couldn’t hate him.

Tobias grabs her off Lycus, cradling her to his chest and Darius looks wounded as he stares at her. Lycus, however, rises to his feet before punching Darius. Darius doesn’t even fight back. He wants them to hurt him for what he did to me. He hated himself.

Darius landed on the ground on his back before Lycus pounced on him. Burning rage bled through the bond, and Tobias simply opened a portal and stepped through, abandoning Darius. Turning his back on him.

He didn’t care if Lycus hurt him, however; I did. Darius was our mate, and I wouldn’t let them harm him even if he wanted them to. Therefore, I yanked my pants up before rushing around the desk and slamming against Lycus. I tumbled on top of him.

His beast raged within him, and his eyes glowed, canines protruding from his l!ps as he snarled. He shoved me to the side and growled. Lycus wanted to rip him to pieces and destroy him like he thinks Darius did to me.

Darius sat up, and I threw myself in his l_ap as Lycus’s fist went toward my face. I closed my eyes a second before his eyes widened at the realization he was going to hit me. His breathing rasped, and he whimpered, making my eyes open to see Darius‘ hand encasing his fist just off my face.

Lycus jerks his hand back instantly, breathing heavily, and looks at me, his eyes returning to normal, no longer the glowing obsidian of his beast, he stares at me in shock that I would defend Darius against him.

I suck in a shuddering breath when – Lycus cups my face in his hands, and I can feel the warmth of Darius’s b***d dripping on me, his face bleeding profusely…. ”Come, Kalen. I will get you out of here. Let’s get you cleaned up,” Lycus purrs. The sound usually soothes me, but not today.

I wasn’t leaving Darius right now. His emotions were implosive, and I worried he would harm himself. Our secret was out. He always hated himself for what he did, but today was worse because he had their added hate amplifying it through the bond. I shake my head.

”Go. I am fine, ” I tell him, but his eyes move over my shoulder to Darius behind me, his eyes flicker, but I grab Lycus‘ face, turning his gaze back to me. ”Go,” I whisper.

”How can you even be near him after what he did ?!” Lycus demanded, his voice coming out in a growl. He wanted to kill him. Lycus didn’t care that Darius was our mate. He only cared that he hurt Aleera and me.

”Because he didn’t do it,” I tell him, and Lycus snarls, not believing me, but I didn’t care. I knew Darius better than they did, and understood him and the monster that lurked beneath his skin.

They didn’t need to understand it, they needed to accept that I forgive even this side of him, and they should, too. ”How can you say that? He is bad as the priests at the orphanage,” he spat at me. I shake my head and press closer to Darius.

”No! They are monsters. Darius is our mate,” I answered. ”Mates don’t rape each other!” Lycus sneered, gripping my wrist to jerk me to my feet, but I pulled my hand away. ”Kalen now!” Lycus growls. ”Leave. I will be up soon, with OUR mate,” I tell him, and I feel Darius move as he shakes his head behind me. ”Lycus is right. You should go with him,” Darius whispers behind me.

”I’m not leaving you,” I tell him, not taking my eyes from Lycus, who still looked like he was going to rip me away from him. He flashes his canines at Darius before his eyes move back to mine.

”Fine. But keep him away from me, or I will f*cking kill him!” Lycus snarls before opening a portal and stepping through it. I let out a breath when it closes, leaving me alone with Darius. ”He’s gone now,” I whisper to Darius as his arms encircle my waist, and he buries his face into the back of my neck. His body shakes as he squeezes me. His tears ran down my skin as he cried.

Only I ever saw this side of him, saw how broken he truly was. ”I’m sorry,” he kept whispering on repeat, pulling me closer like he was afraid to lose me, and he was. He feared nothing more than everyone abandoning him. They always did. His mother left him after he accidentally killed his sister.

She became comatose, and Darius cared for her, living with the guilt of the secret his mother kept saving him from his father. Even if it wasn’t intentional, his father would have killed him for it. His father left him to raise himself. His father was too consumed with replaceing a cure.

A cure for the plague he helped create that destroyed his family. Darius was a boy, and it was an innocent mistake, yet he blamed himself for her death, for his mother’s. Just like he blamed himself for being the one that ended the world as it used to be.

He blamed himself for the plague. Nothing I said convinced him otherwise, just like he blamed himself for Tobias’s twin’s death. Twisting in his grip, I straddle his l_ap, his sadness, guilt, and pain seeping into me hotter than any emotion I felt toward him. He k!sses my chest and neck before resting his forehead against my collarbone.

His breath was hot against my skin. ”You should hate me. And I wished you did,” Darius murmurs. ”I couldn’t hate you even if I wanted to. But I will let you make it up to me,” I tell him, and he pulls away and looks at me desperately. He would do whatever I asked. I knew Darius needed to make up for his sins, as he saw them, and needed to un–taint what he tainted.

”Anything you want,” he says, and I cup his face in my hands. His stubble was rough against my palms, his black eyes searching mine. I could ask the man anything and knew he would oblige.

Darius would kill for me and have no one have b***d on their hands like Darius Wraith. But he always had his reasons. He wasn’t a cold-blooded killer like the world perceived him as. They saw a monster while I saw him. He was cruel and cold by nature, but inside, he loved fiercely and was protective.

He wore the perception everyone gave him like armor and refused to let others in, knowing that was how everyone could also destroy him. ”Anything?” I asked him, and he nodded, clutching me tighter and dragging me against him. His l!ps pressed to the center of my chest. He could never deny me, but I also never asked for anything either. But this time I would.