Dark Secrets (Dark Heritage #1)

by Samantha Hoffman

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tanya found me later, with my head buried in my pillow, sobbing hysterically. She sat on the edge of my bed and patted me on the back. “Ronnie, I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time with this. I can’t even begin to imagine what you must be going through. When I first started to learn how to use my powers, I accidentally set fire to the building I was in, but my teacher was there and was able to put it out, and nobody got hurt. Your teacher is there to do the same thing for you. We’re all beginners at one point in time, even the Council leaders. You have to remember that. It’ll get better with time, trust me.”

  I raised my head just enough to look at her. “Can you raise an army of the undead?”

  “Well, no.”

  “Then your advice doesn’t really do much for me, does it? Yeah, you set fire to a building, but I can force poor souls back into their rotting corpses, Tanya. I’m a monster, and I can do terrible things without even trying. All I had to do was raise one little dove, and instead I brought back the entire morgue again. I just lost my concentration for one second, and all hell broke loose. I’m hopeless!”

  “It was your second lesson, Ronnie. Give it some time.”

  Sighing, I rolled over to look at her worried face. “Has the Council said anything about my slipups yet? Am I doomed to stay here forever, locked away like an uncontrollable beast, never being allowed to live my own life?”

  She shook her head. “The Council won’t keep you here forever, because you’ll get this. Now, come have lunch with me, Holly, and Ezra. Holly’s promised to be on her best behavior this time, so there won’t be any talk about eating people.”

  That startled a laugh out of me, and she smiled. “Wow. You know, last week, I never would have thought I’d hear something like that. This place is just so weird sometimes. Well, all the time,” I said, thinking about all the things that had happened in the last couple of days.

  Tanya forced me down to the cafeteria, where Holly, Ezra, and Finn were sitting at the table, already eating. Finn eyed me with distrust when I sat down across from him, but he didn’t say anything and he didn’t stop eating. Holly just slurped away at her bottle of blood, and Ezra offered me a smile.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked when I sat down.

  I forced myself to shrug nonchalantly. “I’m alright. It was only my second lesson, like Tanya said. I’ll get better with time. Until then, I’ll just have to be careful to only use my powers when Annie’s around to reverse whatever it is I’m doing wrong. Hopefully I can tame my powers and get out of here soon, because I don’t know how much of this place I can take.”

  “Ronnie, don’t worry about it too much,” Ezra said. “This place really isn’t all that bad. We were all forced to stay here at one point in time or another. I’ve only been here for about two months, and at first, I couldn’t stand this place, but now I can’t imagine leaving.” His gaze shifted briefly to Tanya’s face, before darting down to his plate of food.

  Tanya looked down to hide her blush, and I smiled to myself. Even if I couldn’t get the hang of my powers, I could at least enjoy the time spent with Tanya and Ezra. They seemed like nice people, and when they spoke or smiled at me, I could almost forget that they weren’t normal people, and neither was I. they were supernatural beings, just like me.

  I was just about done with my lunch when the alarms started blaring from the speakers in the walls. Everyone in the room tensed, unsure of what was going on, until a nearby door burst open. Eight masked figures tumbled into the room, almost like ninjas, each brandishing long, dangerous knives, and their eyes locked onto our table.

  They darted forward, intent on reaching us. Ezra threw himself at Tanya, shielding her with his body as a masked man attacked, and Finn and Holly took angry stances. When the next masked man reached our table, Finn rushed forward and slammed into him, sending him flying back at least thirty feet! The masked man hit the wall with a loud crack, before slumping to the floor.

  I could crush someone’s windpipe without breaking a sweat…That was what Finn said to me the night he snuck into my room again, and I kind of doubted him, but it looked like I was wrong. He was a beast, and he wasn’t afraid to show it.

  A hand clamped down on my shoulder, and a masked man spun me around. “I’ve got her!” he shouted. His hand creeped up to my throat and he began to squeeze. I kicked and hit and scratched, but his hold was unwavering, and I couldn’t dislodge him. Trying to free myself was like trying to move a building: impossible. He didn’t even budge, and I could feel my vision begin to fade around the edges as he slowly choked the life from me.

  Finn wrapped a heavily muscled arm around the stranger’s throat, and he ripped the man away from me. Air flooded into my burning lungs, and I slumped to the floor, gasping as my vision began to return. When I looked up, I saw Finn boxing with the masked stranger, and it quickly became obvious that the stranger was losing. When Finn hit him squarely in the jaw, I heard a loud crack, and the man spun away from him, collapsing to the ground in an unmoving heap.

  Finn leapt over him, intent on finding the next person to fight, and his eyes landed on the closest masked man, who was trying to cut a girl with a long knife. Finn jumped and kicked. His foot connected solidly with the masked man’s back, and it snapped as he pitched forward, sliding along the floor on his stomach. The knife flew from his hand, having been mere inches from the girl’s throat.

  She was sobbing, and she tried to hug Finn, but he pushed her away, searching for his next victim. A hand wrapped around my waist, dragging me kicking and screaming to my feet, and another masked man dragged me away from the table. The blade of his knife pressed against my throat and he hissed in my ear, “Don’t move bitch, or I’ll bleed you dry!”

  A small whimper escaped my locked lips, and the blade slid softly across part of my neck. A thin trickle of blood dripped down into my shirt, and I tried to slow my breathing and calm down. I wasn’t going to get out of this by acting like a hysterical fool; I’d survive by doing what he said, when he said it.

  He dragged me slowly toward the nearest door, and I when I saw his two remaining masked fighters waiting, I began to panic again. I had a feeling deep in my gut that if I went with them, I’d die, or I’d wish I was dead, and I couldn’t let either of those things happen. So I brought my foot down hard on his, crunching the bone in his left foot under my boot, and he cured, but loosened his hold enough so I could slip out.

  He reached for me, grabbing a fistful of my short hair, and he yanked me back. Yelping, I brought my elbow back, driving the point directly into his hard stomach. He bent over, coughing and gasping for air, and Finn yanked me roughly behind him. He took a protective, dangerous stance in front of me, staring down the remaining masked fighters.

  The alarms were still blaring, but Finn didn’t seem to notice. He bent down into a defensive crouch, and he growled from deep in his chest. I was glad that he was there to protect me, not fight me, because with his savage qualities, Finn could be truly savage to anyone. Right now, he was baring his sharp canines in a menacing way, and I almost felt sorry for the man that held the knife to my throat just seconds ago.

  Raised voices reached my ears, and I looked over my shoulder just as several other very large men entered the room. They immediately saw Finn staring down the masked men, and they rushed over to our side. Their eyes all burned the same way as Finn’s–though they were different colors–and they took up defensive stances next to him. Now that the masked men were outnumbered, they quickly retreated. The one that threatened me with the knife limped on his broken foot and he spared me one last cold look.

  All of the large men in the room rushed after them, but Finn stayed behind while the rest of the cafeteria began to breathe again. I looked over at the table I was calmly eating at moments ago, and saw Ezra comforting a shaken Tanya. His hands were rubbing her arms gently, and he was peering into her eyes, checking to make sure she was alright. She nodded several times before she see
med to realize that she wasn’t allowed to be in such an intimate position with him, and she backed away.

  She was just in time, too, because the double doors opened again, and Marcel Trent and the other Council members swept impressively into the room, flanked by Annie and more of the large, muscular men. Marcel took in the damage with a well-trained eye, surveying the damage done to the room and the people in it. His gaze rested on Finn, whose arms were crossed over his chest, and he nodded once.

  “Finnley, what happened here?”

  “Eight masked men attacked through the door you just came from. They began attacking several of the people in the cafeteria, and they tried to drag her away,” he said, looking at me.

  Marcel turned and stared at me. His eyes found the thin line of blood on my neck, and I quickly wiped it away. The pain flared up for a second, before dying away. It wasn’t bad and wouldn’t leave a scar; it was more scary than it was painful.

  “Did they say anything to you?”

  “When he grabbed me, he shouted, ‘I’ve got her’. He pressed the knife against my throat and then he said, ‘Don’t move bitch, or I’ll bleed you dry’. He cut me when I struggled, and then he tried to drag me out the door. Finn stopped him from taking me though,” I said, looking at him. “Thank you.”

  He grunted once and looked away from me.

  “Well, it seems like you were the one they wanted, Miss Parker. Our information tells us that someone is trying to raise an army of the undead. We’ve even found some of the reanimated corpses that, when prove to be useless to their cause, were left to wander aimlessly for eternity. This person must not be powerful enough to raise the number of zombies they require, and are planning to use you to accomplish this.”

  “What makes them think I can do it when they can’t? I’ve only been practicing with my powers for like two days, and I’m terrible at it.” I looked at Marcel and frowned. “I’m not that powerful. If I was, I’d be able to control what happens, but I can’t. If this person thinks they need me to accomplish their plans, they’re in for disappointment.”

  “Maybe they plan to coach you through what needs to be done,” Annie said, stepping forward. “Ronnie, a teacher can be an invaluable resource. I can teach you to control your powers; you just have to learn to trust me. I’m not going to hurt you, or use your power for my own needs. I just want you to be safe enough to leave this place and live your own life.”

  “But I can’t do it! I can’t control myself.”

  “With my help, you can,” she promised. “Let me help you, Ronnie.”

  I nodded. “Alright. If you think you can help me, I’ll try to trust you.”

  “Good. Now, let’s go back to the freezer room, and we’ll try your lessons again. This time, I want you to listen to me, and trust me. If anyone here can help you, it’s me.”

  Tanya gave me a thumbs up as I walked by, silently wishing me good luck, and I followed Annie back to the dreaded morgue.