Darkness Brutal (The Dark Cycle Book 1)

by Rachel A. Marks

  Like take another razor to her wrists.

  I reach down and pull the chain and amulet over my head, tossing the thing to the grass.

  The demon blinks, doing a double take.

  I step closer, still holding Kara behind me. “Pick on someone your own size, asshole.”

  “No, Aidan,” she breathes, gripping my shoulder. “Put it back on!”

  I put every ounce of determination I have into my words. “She. Is. Mine.” I growl. “You want her; you’ll have to come through me.”

  It looks me over, bulbous eyes lingering on the marks on my arm. Then it returns its gaze to Kara, studying her as if seeing her for the first time, searching for weakness. It snarls and gurgles, then moves forward and back.

  “Just try it,” I say. The thing could tear me to shreds with those teeth, but I remember what happened at Griffith Park, and something tells me I’d give this beast a run for its money. I feel it, a vibration in my hands, behind my eyes: there’s something in me wanting this bastard to lunge.

  But after a few thundering heartbeats, it lifts its crooked chin and releases a low keen of annoyance.

  It’s cowed. Somehow.

  More strange noises continue to emerge from its chest, and I feel genuine disappointment as the demon crawls away, back to the spot on the small rise where the cluster of orbs are. Then it hunches back over and starts clawing at the ground again. Like we were never there.

  I snatch my amulet up off the grass. Kara slips her shivering hand in mine, and we put more and more space between us and the demon, first walking quickly along the graves and then running.

  We jump into the Camaro. It takes several tries for Kara to get the keys in the ignition because her hands are shaking so hard. The engine is the most beautiful sound in the world as it roars to life, and we speed off, heading back into the city.

  We’re near Griffith Park when she pulls off the road. The gravel crunches under the tires as we park beneath a pine tree at a deserted vista point.

  Kara sits for a second, taking in large breaths. Then suddenly she swings the car door open and runs to the brush at the edge of the cliff.

  She heaves, her body convulsing.

  I slip out of the car and walk over to her. I want to touch her, to reassure her, but I’m not sure how.

  After a few minutes, she stands up straight again and wipes her forehead with her hand. “You shouldn’t have taken the amulet off. What were you thinking?”

  I move a little closer. “Kara, we’re okay.”

  She shakes her head violently. “You don’t try to save me, Aidan. You just don’t. Not you.”

  I nod, not sure I understand, but not willing to argue with her right now. “We’re okay,” I say again.

  She just breathes and stares at the ground.

  I wait, letting her take her time. We are okay. The amulet worked. And for some reason, claiming her stopped the demon.

  She must be thinking the same thing, because she says, “You said I belonged to you.”

  I nod again.

  “And it stopped, didn’t it?”

  “Somehow.”

  She says under her breath, “I may know how.”

  I give her a questioning look.

  She nods at my arm. “It’s your mark.” Then she motions to her side. “And mine.”

  My hand flexes almost involuntarily. “What is it?”

  She swallows. The smell of her fear shifts to a childlike sense of fright. “It’s why it had to be me. To do that, make it grow.” She points at my mark. “It’s waking up your power—your core energy.”

  “Sid says that once it reaches my heart, it’s complete.”

  “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you. Every time we . . . connect . . . that’s what makes it grow stronger.”

  “But why would that change how the demon saw us?”

  “Because.” She turns slightly away. “I do belong to you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When Sid marked me, when he turned my curse upside down, there was only one way to lock it in. It had to become a key to something—someone—else. To reverse the curse, the spell had to have a purpose. You.”

  My pulse speeds up. “How does that mean you belong to me?”

  “The spell made me into the second half of a whole. The other half of you. Like the legend of Adam and Eve: they were one person, but God separated them so they wouldn’t be alone anymore.”

  “The woman came out of a man’s rib,” I recite. “Not from his feet to be walked on. Not from his head to be superior, but from the side to be equal. Under the arm to be protected and next to the heart to be loved.”

  She looks at me, wide-eyed. “What’s that from?”

  “The Talmud.” Things begin clicking into place in my mind. “So that’s why our markings match.”

  “They do?”

  “You can’t see it because it’s on your soul, not your skin, but your tattoo is overlaid with three symbols. The first one means Intimacy, or Knowing, and the second means Awaken Power. It makes sense now. Awaken my power—with, you know, intimacy. My mark seems to have only one symbol that I see, and it’s also on yours. It says: Demon. Seer. Complete Death.” I kneel down and draw it in the dirt with my finger to show her. “Like this.”

  “That’s the symbol of your power,” she says, kneeling beside me. “Sid showed it to me when he was explaining what I might see when we touched.”

  “What else did he tell you would happen?”

  She glances at me, her body close. “He told me that your energy might feel warm, like sunlight on my insides. And that I’d be drawn to you. And when we kissed in the club, I felt a piece of it.” She pauses and says more softly, “I was so sure it was you.”

  I stand, and she stands up with me. “So once I came to the house, you were supposed to keep me busy? I still don’t see how that makes you my other half.”

  “Finding you was only part of it—the next step was waking up your power.”

  “By kissing me.”

  “No.” She chews on her lip for a second. “You had to kiss me. Then the spell would start to work. And eventually we’d . . .” She makes a motion with her head that tells me I should be able to complete the puzzle on my own.

  “I’m supposed to have sex with you.”

  Instead of looking away, her eyes burn into mine. “Yeah.”

  I nod, my mind ticking through it all. And I remember—

  “But you stopped me.” I know I wouldn’t have stopped on my own that night after the party. “Why?”

  She comes forward a little, like she wants to touch me. But she doesn’t. “It felt wrong, Aidan. I know you now—I saw into you when we kissed. I realized I couldn’t trap you like that. You have a right to choose this power if you want it, but it’s not right for someone to force it on you—to force anything on you.”

  I know she’s not just talking about me. Having sex with me because she was supposed to would have been like what happened with those men her father handed her to. How could Sid trap her like that?

  “You’re not going to follow through with this now, Kara. It’s okay. Sid can forget about using you as his pawn.”

  She studies me. Her hair wisps across her mouth; a strand brushes my sleeve. “It’s not that I didn’t want to. Whatever this is—this link when we connect—it makes me nuts inside. Like all I am is hunger, and you’re—” She swallows, but then finishes. “You’re the only thing that’ll satisfy me.”

  “It’s just the curse.” I feel my insides stir as she holds my gaze. “We’re not slaves to anything. Even our own desire.” But in the same breath, I reach out to brush her hair from her eyes, and my thumb grazes her jaw.

  A buzz races up my arm.

  I’m suddenly mesmerized by the way her eyelashes brush at her cheeks as she bl
inks. Her lips part, just a little, and something hooks me in, pulling me closer. My head clouds with all the memories of kissing her, the feel of her in my arms, in my hands. I want that feeling again. The sense of urgency and rightness. The sensation of a million sparks bursting under my skin.

  I graze her neck with my fingers, and she leans into the touch.

  I need this connection with someone. We don’t have to follow it to its end. Just one . . . small . . .

  . . . kiss.

  Our lips touch, delicate and effortless.

  Like we’re merging clouds.

  Folding over each other.

  Becoming one.

  Two halves of one whole.

  At the thought, the sensation in my hand goes from a slight buzz to engulfing flames, searing and sharp.

  I hiss in pain, stepping back as it travels up my arm, past the elbow, arching over my shoulder, pushing me to my knees.

  Kara collapses with me. “Oh, God. Aidan!”

  I suck air in and out of my lungs, trying to see past the raging energy that’s suddenly made it impossible to think. The fire dims a little as I focus. And after another few seconds it’s down to a dull throb.

  “I’m so sorry,” Kara says, sounding tormented.

  “I’m okay,” I manage to get out.

  “We barely touched that time.”

  “Must be getting stronger.” Everything is.

  “Wonderful.” She sighs and helps me to my feet. “We should go back to the house.”

  I release an exhausted laugh. “Where we can’t accidentally have sex, you mean?”

  “Exactly.”

  As we’re walking to the car, something dawns on me. The thing she said to the demon, telling it to go back to her dad. “Where the demon was in the graveyard—that’s where your dad’s buried, isn’t it?”

  She doesn’t respond, but I know the answer.

  “I’m sorry, Kara.”

  She shrugs and says, “The man doesn’t deserve any better. Wish I’d thought to put the bastard there myself.”

  THIRTY-FIVE

  Ava’s on the couch snuggled next to Finger when Kara and I come through the door.

  I walk to the archway and give her a pointed look. “You said you were sorry before. Are you sorry again?” I hold up the amulet to make a point.

  She hugs Finger’s arm tighter. “It was just the grocery store, Aidan.”

  “Nothing is just anything right now, Ava,” I say quietly. “You know that.” I can’t say more with other people in earshot. And I shouldn’t have to. Ava knows what’s at stake.

  Jax yells from the upstairs landing, “The lovers are back. Guess I lost the bet, Holly. Chick flick night is on, people. Dammit.”

  Rebecca emerges from Holly’s room and gazes down at me and Kara. Her expression is confused. And maybe a little hurt.

  Holly’s behind her. “Oh, good. We won’t have to watch Die Hard again.”

  “I like Die Hard,” Ava pipes in.

  “It’s Pitch Perfect, bitches!” Holly yells, looking giddy as she skips back into her room, hair ribbons and ponytail swaying. “Aca-mazing!”

  Connor watches us from the kitchen. Kara gives him a nod, as if she’s trying to tell him everything’s okay, but he still shoots me a look full of brotherly warning. I give him a thumbs-up just to mess with him.

  I trail behind Kara as we walk up the stairs. Jax punches me in the arm as I pass. “Bitches are in heat.”

  I lean closer to him and say casually under my breath, “You talk to me like that about them again and I’ll break that crooked nose on your smug face.”

  Rebecca’s gaze feels glued to my back as I walk away. I need to talk to her, but at this point I have no idea what I’d say. All I know is I’m tired as hell. And hungry.

  Movie night and junk food might be all I can handle right now.

  Sid finds me in my room after I take a shower. I tell him I’m not ready to talk to him again. Not until I digest what he already told me.

  “I just want you to know I didn’t bind the amulet to you,” he says. “I wouldn’t do something like that against your will.”

  I walk past him into the hall and hang my damp towel over the banister. “I know it wasn’t you.”

  “I gave it to your sister, hoping you’d change your mind.”

  He appears to be waiting for a response, so I say, “That’s so helpful.”

  “She obviously did the spell to bind it to you.” He pauses. “I didn’t know she had that ability, Aidan.”

  I glare at him and move in closer, hoping he feels what I’m about to say in his bones. “You talk to me about her or try to get in her business, you’re not going to like how I react.”

  He studies my face. “I merely wonder why you’ve kept her talents a secret.”

  “Because she’s none of your goddamn business.”

  “Very well.” He starts to leave and then turns back to say, “I know you’re angry with the secrets we’ve kept from you, but you have to see it was for a good reason.”

  My jaw tightens. “All I see right now is a liar.”

  The whole house smells like burnt popcorn, and there’s a bunch of chicks singing pop music in blue blazers on the TV. We’re piled in the living room—even Finger; he’s still got his Xbox controller in his hand even though the others took over his domain. Jax keeps sticking Jujubes up his nose and snorting them at Holly. She’s snuggled on the love seat with Rebecca and Ava. Jax and Lester are on the floor with me. Kara, Finger, and Connor are on the couch behind us. Apparently it’s required that everyone take part in family night.

  But thankfully “Uncle Sid” isn’t joining us, or I wouldn’t be sitting here at all.

  There are a million unsaid things in the air. Rebecca keeps glancing across the room at me, and I wonder what the hell I’m planning on telling her. She deserves an answer. It’s not helping that I’m leaning against the couch with Kara’s leg an inch from my shoulder. She brushes up against me once, and I nearly jump across the room.

  “You okay, dude?” Jax asks, holding out a Jujube.

  I take it and pop it in my mouth. “Peachy.”

  Nothing about the movie really registers, even as it wraps up in a big dance number and the boy gets the girl. If only reality could be like a musical.

  The last few days are swirling around in my head like a tornado. I’m going back and forth from the conversation at the Devil’s Gate with Sid, to the kiss with Kara after her revelation, and back to what Ava’s been doing when I’m not looking. What is she hiding? Why can’t my sister just let me protect her?

  I’m so wrapped up in my thoughts, I don’t notice Sid come in.

  He leans on the archway. “Let’s have a meeting in the morning before everyone starts their daily tasks, folks. There’s a job in Anaheim we’re working on that we need to make a plan of attack for, so to speak. And a decision about our biannual YouTube special needs to be made: Griffith or the mental hospital. But for now, it’s clean up and off to bed.” He looks so normal—well, not normal, but definitely not some ancient Babylonian magician. I can’t begin to imagine how freaked the others would be if they knew. Because who assumes there are people who travel through time? Or that they hang out in LA and become ghost-busting con artists?

  Lester turns off the TV, and everybody gets up, cleaning candy and popcorn off the floor. Sid disappears out the back door—heading to his dark shed, no doubt. Just the thought of that place makes me nauseous.

  Trying not to think about it, I pick up and arrange pillows and then stand on the arm of the couch to pull a gummy bear from the ceiling.

  “Hey, that’s from two weeks ago when we watched Footloose,” Jax says, pointing at the red bear pinched between my fingers.

  “Sick,” Lester says.

  “I double-dog-dare you to eat
it,” Holly says to me with a wicked grin.

  Everyone says oooohhhhh in unison like we’re ten years old and she just dared me to kiss someone.

  So I play along, jumping down from the couch and popping it in my mouth.

  The whole room bursts into surprised laughter.

  I wait a second, letting them all relax. Then I spit the juicy red glob at Jax.

  It hits him in the cheek, sticking for a beat before plopping to the carpet.

  Silence fills the room until Jax reacts, flinging his whole box of Jujubes, pelting me with a dozen hard jellies.

  Then chaos erupts. Kara throws a fistful of popcorn at Finger, Holly smashes the remnants of a Ho Ho into Lester’s nose, Jax shakes a soda and sprays it onto the girls, yelling, “Wet T-shirt contest!”

  Everyone’s throwing candy and pillows and Xbox remotes. Finger panics at that point and gathers all these into his arms and runs from the room. Ava’s even caught up in it all, giggling harder than I’ve ever heard. I let myself fall into the fray, whacking Rebecca with a pillow as she lunges for Lester with a blanket, trying to throw it over his head. She swats back at me and bursts out with a squeal, and then I’m laughing, falling to the floor with Ava, trying to wrestle the remote from her hand as she yells, “Make them watch it again! Turn it to the kissing scene!”

  Movie night is officially my favorite idea ever.

  We’re still recovering an hour later as Rebecca, Ava, and I make our way upstairs. The others have already gone to bed, except for Connor and Kara, who’re finishing cleaning up in the kitchen. I would’ve offered to help, but it was clear that Kara wanted some time alone with him. And it gives me a second to talk to Rebecca.

  Ava heads to our room, giving me a thumbs-up as I walk Rebecca to her door.

  “Thanks for convincing me to come here, Aidan,” she says, leaning on the frame and hugging a notebook to her chest—a sketchbook, I think. “Being here’s really helped. You know, with everything.”

  “How did things go today?” I ask. “Is the protection working?” I haven’t seen the Boss Demon around at all, but I’m not taking anything on faith with that guy.