He shook his head, looked upward, and said, “Fuck.” It wasn’t long before his attention landed on me again. “You’re injured. You need to see a doctor.”
“No, I—”
“Before you argue, look at yourself.” He took a step forward and looked over the length of me.
I looked down too. How didn’t you after someone said something like that? My jeans, a pair I didn’t remember owning, hung in shreds below my knees. My hands and arms looked like I’d crawled my way out of a forest, and the fresh scabs made me think there’d been some barbed wire, too. I didn’t know what my face looked like, but my head was pounding and I didn’t think I would’ve been on my feet this long if it weren’t for the brick at my back.
“I can’t let you stumble away like this.”
In other words, I’d like you to come with me, nicely, but you’ll be coming with me one way or another. I looked about the place for my purse as he watched on. Then I felt my pockets. I didn’t even have a phone to call for help, not that I’d be able make the phone call if he didn’t want me to.
He was right, though. He hadn’t tried to force me to stay when I’d wanted to leave. And the doctor suggestion wasn’t so off the mark either. I didn’t know what had happened, but I was a mess.
I nodded. “Okay. Maybe that’s not a horrible idea.” I looked up and down the empty road. “Where are we?”
“A block from… We’re a block from my building.” He held out a hand.
I took it, knowing I was going to need a little help. A couple of wobbly steps later and his arm was around my waist. I wasn’t stupid enough to argue that one either.
Then the strangest thing occurred to me. “Why is it so warm?” It had been thirty degrees last night. Today I didn’t even need a jacket.
“Because it’s almost summer.”
Summer?
A woman in a white coat, who looked like a doctor, was listening to my heart. She had all the bells and whistles you’d expect of a doctor, and seemed to know what she was doing. She wasn’t what had made me suspicious.
I wouldn’t have doubted her credentials for a minute if I’d been at a doctor’s office. But I wasn’t at an office. I was sitting on the couch in somebody’s apartment above that weird Underground place.
Kane was standing across the room with the Thug Brothers, the ones who’d kidnapped me. Although I doubted the big redhead and his even larger blond buddy were actually connected by blood. More likely their only connection was their life of crime and past of abducting unsuspecting women, like myself.
A small woman, with frizzy yellow hair, and a very odd way of moving, as if gravity didn’t affect her the same way as the rest of us, was with them. They all whispered to each other as they took turns glancing my way.
Kane was watching the doctor run her fingers over my scalp as the big blond guy called Leon turned to Butch, the redhead, and said, “She’s been gone a week. Who knows what happened? The timing looks bad. Really fucking bad.”
Butch’s eyes swung to mine as he elbowed Leon in the ribs. Kane’s attention also turned to them. I couldn’t hear what he said, but Leon dropped his gaze.
I’d been gone a week, according to them, and I couldn’t remember anything that had happened in months. My last memory was walking through slush as I left here the first night I’d met Kane. And then poof, I’d shown up a block from here. I’d been mugged or something. Maybe my mugger had dumped me there? How else would it have happened?
The doctor finally stood and began packing her things into a leather bag. Kane walked over to get the verdict. He said the least, but he was definitely the one in charge. I would’ve known it even if I hadn’t remembered that.
The doctor spoke without any prompting. “She’s got a pretty bad bump on her head that looks to be fairly fresh. Other than that, and a lot of cuts and bruises, she looks fine.”
The small blonde was edging closer to Kane and the doctor, listening in on the verdict. I glanced over as Leon was shaking his head at Butch.
“There’s no way she didn’t have something to do with it,” Leon said.
All heads swiveled toward him.
“Leon,” Kane barked from across the room.
Leon immediately nodded and mumbled, “Sorry.” He put up his hands and glanced at me, not meeting my eyes.
“Had something to do with what?” I asked Kane, seeing how he had the ability to put a gag order on everyone else.
Kane turned his attention to me. “Nothing.” He turned back to the doctor before I could ask another question. “She’s not fine if she can’t remember anything.”
The doctor looked at me and then turned to him. “Her memory loss is probably the result of whatever caused her injuries. Nothing can be done about that but time and patience.”
Kane turned toward the little blonde.
I didn’t hear him say anything, but she nodded, and I had a feeling he’d just ordered her to keep an eye on me. Kane nodded to the doctor and walked her out.
One of the few things I did remember from that first night was that the monsters, or crawlers, as they were called, didn’t like Kane.
As soon as he left the room, I waited for them to come hover, but they didn’t. I could see them in the far-off corners of the large room, but they stayed away. Why were the monsters, the ones that seemed to become more invasive every day, all keeping their distance and giving me space?
I only had a moment to think it over before Kane came back and they disappeared altogether. They didn’t like him at all. That was clear, but why? I’d never seen anything like it in my life. What was the deal with him?
Kane stopped in between me and the others, as if he couldn’t decide what to do. I got the feeling this wasn’t something that happened to him a lot. The three other people in the room, staring at him, seemed to feel the same way.
I was waiting too, but mostly for everyone to stop noticing me so I could sneak out. I’d had about enough of this circus.
Leon nudged Butch after a minute and then nodded toward Kane. Butch gave him a shrug but then stepped forward.
“It’ll wear off,” Butch said as he stopped beside Kane.
“What if it’s a spell or something?” the little blonde asked. “Then it might not.”
“Flip, it’s not a spell,” Butch said. “We checked. That concoction would’ve turned black. It didn’t.”
Flip glanced at my arm. I looked at it too now. The big redhead had splashed some sort of funny-smelling liquid on me earlier then acted like he’d spilled it on me by accident. Should I be relieved my arm didn’t turn black and fall off?
My exit was becoming long overdue. The more I sat there, the crazier these people made me feel. I hadn’t started off in a good place to begin with, considering that I was being stalked by shadow monsters.
I looked about the place, locating exits. It was a nice setup, high-end without being flashy about it. The place screamed comfort and quality, not look at what I have. I didn’t care what the place said, though. All I wanted was out.
I didn’t have a set of keys to my apartment, but that didn’t matter. I’d get my superintendent to let me in. He was a bit on the slimy side but was always ready to help me. One of the few perks that came along with the looks he gave me that made me want to strip out of my skin.
Now the big question was, did I tell these people I wanted to leave or just stand and be assertive about it? Kane and the pixie-looking girl were back across the room talking to the Thug Brothers. Maybe they wouldn’t even notice me leaving?
I stood, ever so slowly, and not just because my head felt like a TV that still used an antenna with bad reception. Slow movements might not attract the crazies.
Kane’s head snapped toward me as soon as my butt left the seat.
“What are you doing?”
I knew instantly this wasn’t going to work out how I wanted, but I would persist anyway. “I appreciate all the help, but I’ve got work tomorrow, so I should really get going.�
�� I was fairly certain I’d been fired from my cashier job. I’d gone on a bit of an impromptu sabbatical. I hadn’t shown up since my world had imploded along with the explosion that killed my family.
Leon groaned loud enough that I could hear him across the room. I couldn’t imagine why my having to work would illicit that kind of response.
Kane, the dark-haired devil himself, walked back over to me.
I took a few steps away. He instantly faltered, and I heard a soft sigh come from Flip, as if I’d just made a grave faux pas. A few seconds of silence fell, as if he were trying to determine the right step forward. Indecision didn’t seem like something he was used to.
Finally, he seemed to resign himself, standing a good five feet away from me. “You haven’t been a cashier for months, and you are home.”
What? No, this wasn’t all me being crazy. This was them. They were trying to trick me. My life hadn’t changed that much, that quickly.
I nodded, more in placation than belief. “Like I said, I appreciate your help, but I really need to be going. This is not my home.” Or I’d started off with the idea of placation.
“Ollie, what is the last month you can remember?”
I paused. I wanted to say January, but I knew that couldn’t be right. It was more than Kane having said it was almost summer. I’d felt the heat of the day myself.
I sucked in my bottom lip, wondering if I should lie, and say May or June. But I remembered nothing and knew my answer wouldn’t hold up.
“January.” As soon as I said it, I saw the Thug Brothers give each other a look that didn’t appear to be flattering in nature.
“It’s the beginning of June.” Kane reached into the pocket of his pants and drew out a phone. He held it out to me.
I took it. His phone wasn’t locked and the date read June second. Maybe you could set the date of a phone to months ahead, but you couldn’t fast-forward the seasons. It had been too warm outside. I looked at my clothing. Even if I’d lost my jacket, I wouldn’t have been wearing a t-shirt.
Maybe there had been a warm spell? You never knew. It could happen. I opened his browser as he watched, not trying to stop me, and typed “Google.” I clicked the news tab and hit the first story that popped up, not bothering to look at the title. I didn’t care what it was about. I only wanted the date.
June 2nd.
I wobbled on my feet.
“Stay here and relax. You can worry about running out of here after you can stand again.” The dark devil was supporting me by my elbows and helping me back down onto the couch.
I glanced in the direction of the door. Considering that my legs had wobbled as if my bones had dissolved, it was a safe bet to say I wasn’t going anywhere at the moment.
“I can’t stay long. I really need to get home.”
Kane’s expression was blank, as if he were purposefully hiding whatever he was thinking. I turned to the others, looking for a possible ally or at least a clue. All eyes were fixed on me like I was a car crash on the highway they’d slowed down to see.
“I need the room,” Kane said.
The place cleared as if the car that crashed was about to explode. Kane had moved a few feet back, as if allowing me space that he didn’t really want to give. He took a walk to the other side of the room, where he stood looking away from me, arms crossed.
If I’d had leg bones right then, I might’ve had a chance to run. Except that the onlookers were probably waiting outside the door.
“Fuck,” Kane said, under his breath but loud enough I could hear him anyway. He turned, seeming to have made some decision.
When he walked back, resolve was on his face, and remorse, as if he’d helped cause this crash somehow. He walked closer but stopped four feet shy of the couch I was sitting on.
“A lot has happened since January. There are things you can’t afford to forget, not for a week or a day or however long this lasts.”
“Like what?” He didn’t have the look of a man about to tell me I’d won the lottery and forgotten.
“The creatures you see, they’re called crawlers. You’re a Shadow Walker; you can walk in the Shadowlands and get spells—”
“I remember that part.” It was only last night—or felt that way.
“You also have a trove of spells stored in your mind from when a crawler bit you. That’s called being shadow-kissed. It hasn’t happened in a long time, so we don’t know the full ramifications.”
He shifted to the other arm of the sofa, settling in, as if this was going to take a while.
Once he continued, the details kept coming. And coming.
He told me how I collected spells in the Shadowlands and the leprechauns had kidnapped me. I’d teamed up with a werewolf but gotten stuck in the Shadowlands. I’d lived with a crawler masquerading as a man called Asher, but then killed this same creature I’d tried to protect. And that hadn’t been my first kill, either. I’d stabbed a vampire in the middle of a mall.
It was the murdering parts that put me into overload.
“Please, stop.” I held up a hand. I didn’t want to hear any more. I couldn’t. It was too much. How could this all be true? I’d cared for a monster enough to try and shield it, and then I’d killed him after he kidnapped me. Was this some sort of strange game? Maybe this man had drugged me and hit me over the head? These couldn’t all be accurate. Could they?
I got to my feet, adrenaline feeding strength back into my legs, even as my head felt like it was spinning so fast it was about to break the light barrier. Kane rose as well.
And then the couch I’d been sitting on snapped in half behind me with a loud cracking noise. I jumped away from it, inadvertently moving closer to Kane. Then I jumped the other way.
“How did you do that?” I demanded, pointing at the broken furniture, while making sure to keep a buffer between us. It was telling enough that the crawlers hid from him. If he could break things with his mind, who knew what else he was capable of?
He stared at the couch, a frown marring his brow, as if maybe he regretted he’d broken it now.
He ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t do that. You did.”
I wrapped my arms around myself, unsure whether to believe what he’d just said. Had I done that? What kind of monster had I become?
“The bedroom is over there.” He pointed to a room off to the side. “No one will bother you. Maybe you should rest for a little while and we’ll see how you feel after.” He was looking at the door as if he were the one who needed a moment.
He was standing in between me and the exit to leave, so I did as he said and made my way to the bedroom.
I would’ve gone and sat in the bathroom to be alone for a second.
“Ollie.”
I turned, my hand on the doorknob, so close to being alone.
He hesitated a moment before speaking, as if uncomfortable with the words he was about to utter. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m going to fix this. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.”
“Sorry you didn’t listen?” What was he talking about?
“You thought something bad was going to happen. I thought I could handle whatever it was. I should’ve been more careful.”
It was a bucket of cold water on already chilled skin. “I warned you?”
He nodded.
I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing. I turned and shut the door. I couldn’t handle one more piece of information.
Chapter Three
I didn’t know how I’d managed to sleep all the way to the next morning, but I had. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I’d been out. Before my eyes opened all the way, I tried to remember the gap of time that was missing, only to find it still gone. I don’t know why I’d thought maybe it would magically come back after I slept, but that wasn’t the case.
As I sat up in bed and waited for the barrage of crawlers, I realized they were still keeping their distance. Other than them, it seemed as if I were alone.
I let my
gaze roam the bedroom, and a flash of color caught my attention. Yellow Post-its were stuck to the closet doors, telling me there were clothes within. I guessed it made sense, since Kane said I lived here. This place didn’t look like mine. Maybe I had stayed here for a bit, but it was time for me to go back to my apartment now.
My head was still a little fuzzy when I stood, but it felt as if a lot of the cobwebs had been wiped away by sleep. I desperately wanted a shower, but the idea of being naked and vulnerable overruled any desire to be clean. I’d have to settle for a quick wet towel in the bathroom as I got dressed, not wanting to tempt fate. A shower would wait until I was behind the row of deadbolts at my apartment.
I grabbed the first t-shirt and pair of jeans I found, which, luckily, were my size. Since I’d supposedly lived here, that at least made some sense.
I tore off the dirty shirt I’d slept in and gasped at the sight of my skin in the mirror. There were faded bruises all over me. I looked as if I might’ve jumped out of a car while it was speeding down the highway. Maybe that was where I got the bump on my head? Had I been trying to escape someone? But who, and were these people still after me? Or was I already back with them?
Only thing I knew for sure was that I had to get out of here right now before someone showed up and tried to stop me. If I could. Odds were, the exits were probably being watched. I’d find a way out. Even without a phone or a dollar to my name, I was getting out of here.
I heard footsteps approaching as soon I swung open the door that exited the apartment. My steps faltered for a second before I walked out confidently.
The redheaded half of the Thug Brothers was headed my way. “Ollie,” he said, smile about as wide as it could stretch.
“Hi…” What was his name again?
His smiled drooped. “Butch.”
“Butch.” I nodded like I’d been on the verge of spewing forth his name. “Nice to see you. I’m in a bit of a rush right now, so I can’t really chat.” I smiled and headed toward the elevator, not caring if every little monster, or crawler, as Kane called them, climbed in with me. I’d bear it to get out of here quicker, as I prayed Butch would let me.
Kissed by the Dark Page 2
