“You need to come with me,” Charles said. “Now.”
If I had to choose between an unknown voice and the man standing before me, my choice was clear.
The air reeked of pine and rotted wood. I squinted into the forest’s darkness. A spider web created a lacy barrier between two claw-marked trees, remnants of an afternoon shower beading along the silk strands and glittering in the moonlight. A glowing fog shifted over the forest floor.
Charles grasped my hand and plowed forward. My arm stretched until my feet finally got the message to move, and I stumbled after. In a miserable attempt to keep my balance, I reached with my free hand for every tree I passed. Tree bark chafed my fingers, but the cold and confusion numbed the pain.
“Move,” he said over his shoulder.
I pointed to the strappy black heels. “You try walking in these. And for what? I don’t even know why I’m following you!”
My cell phone chimed in my purse. A new text message from Ivory.
Meet you two soon. Go to the Shell station.
One of my heels sunk into mud, and thanks to the firm grip Charles kept on my hand and the way he continued onward without consideration, I nearly fell over while trying to pull free.
“Where’s your car?” I asked.
“Not in the parking lot.”
Boy, that was helpful. “I asked where it is, not where it isn’t.”
He huffed sharply. “I don’t park in the lot. Sometimes they block people in. Now would you please—”
“Block people in? Why the hell would they do that? Is Ivory going to get stuck?”
He stopped, and I bumped into him. “They’ll be searching for you, not her. She’ll be fine.” He rubbed his forehead. “Can we hold off on the questions? We need to find the main road.”
“Don’t have to be so snappy,” I said. If anyone had the right to be annoyed, it was me. His words sunk in. “Wait. They’re searching for me?”
He kicked some forest underbrush out of our path. “Don’t play stupid. I don’t even know why I’m helping you.”
“Don’t get shitty with me. You’re the one who asked me to dance and then shoved me out the club two minutes later.”
He growled under his breath. “Walk faster and keep quiet.”
Maybe I should’ve gone back. I didn’t need help from some nut-job who thought he was doing me a favor. “Why are we going through the woods?”
He lowered his voice. “Listen.”
Branches cracked somewhere behind us. Adrenaline flushed the alcohol from my system. I felt as though a veil had been lifted from my eyes and cotton extracted from my ears.
My breathing quickened, and Charles jolted forward. “Run.”
His urgency propelled me, but I couldn’t keep his pace. I wasn’t even sure why we were running, though I feared stopping to find out. One of my heels snapped, and a few steps later, the strap on the other heel popped.
As I continued forward, my shoes tumbled off, and the ground scraped the soles of my feet. Small pebbles and dried pine needles entrenched inside the small wounds, and pain shot up my legs. Branches whipped against my shoulders and stomach. I inhaled one sharp breath of icy air after another, my chest aching with cold.
The path abruptly ended. A tangle of brush and entwined trees blocked our way.
“I thought you came in this way?”
“Thought this path would be faster,” he replied between efforts to rip the branches away.
I pulled him from the natural barrier. “Follow me.”
“We can’t run toward them, Sophia.”
“We can’t wait for them to corner us, either.” Whoever they were.
I gave him a final, measured look, then turned and ran. Hair clung to my face and neck. My legs burned nearly as much as my lungs.
Another trail, paved with mud and dead leaves, veered off our current path, and we followed the curve into a more densely wooded area. Footsteps thudded behind us, louder with each step.
At first, my heart pounded more from fear than exertion, but soon my whole body ached. Fear could propel me no further.
I leaned forward with hands on knees, sucking in huge gulps of air. “Have . . . to . . . stop.”
My heart was nearly bursting in my chest. Moonlight pierced through the forest canopy, revealing gashes and lacerations staunched with mud. My stomach lurched, and I blocked my mouth with the back of my wrist.
“Please, Sophia, we must continue.”
“I can’t.”
Charles bounced on his toes, looking in every direction. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
I took a couple steps toward where he had retreated into darkness. “Hey!” I hissed. “Where are you going?”
The noise of pursuit ripped through the forest. Trees blocked my vision. I leaned back against a tree until the bark dug into my flesh. I pressed my lips together so no sound would escape.
Why had I followed him? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
A twig snapped somewhere behind me. Footsteps shuffled closer. Maybe my pursuer couldn’t see me. I held my breath, fighting to stay silent, but I trembled, and my dress rustled against the tree.
“You’re far too pretty to hide.” My pursuer had a deep, masculine voice. A familiar voice.
Shit.
A short ways forward, trees parted to another path. I ran for it and squeezed through. The hem of my dress caught on something. I was stuck.
My pursuer stood on the other side of the natural barrier, his eyes aglow and his gaze fixed on me. Over a foot taller than me and three times my size in muscle mass, there was no way for him to squeeze through.
He pulled on one of the trees, and it uprooted slightly. What the—who the hell was strong enough for that?
One look at his face gave me my answer.
Cody.
As I yanked my dress, he reached through and grabbed at the black silk hem.
“There you are,” he said.
I shook my head, trying to free my dress from his firm grasp as he pulled me closer. My feet shuffled in an effort not to get too close, but another hard tug from him made me tumble forward. My forearms shot out to protect myself from being pulled back through space between the trees.
When he reached through with his other hand, I saw my chance to reach down and give my dress another hard yank. The fabric ripped, leaving behind the swatch he firmly clutched in his hand.
I backed away and turned to run. A protruding root tripped me. I crashed into another tree but remained upright. My feet throbbed with each step, stinging as more rocks and debris shredded my skin.
Cody stepped out from behind a tree in the path ahead. I screamed, stopping so fast that I nearly fell forward.
He took a few calculated steps, but I didn’t let his slow advance stop me from scanning for a way out. A guttural vibration rumbled in his chest as he stalked ever closer. I couldn’t make out his features beyond his shadowy eyes and twisted smile.
I stumbled back, and my arm scraped against a tree as I sunk to the ground. Blood trickled between my knuckles.
He flashed his teeth. His eyes were completely black, and two of his top teeth extended with a sharp snap. He ran his tongue across one of them, and I nearly choked as I gasped.
Frantic, I tried to see the ground through the fog, but it was useless. My hands fumbled until I grabbed a heavy branch. He lunged. I jumped to my feet and swung. He stopped the blow mid-swing and caught my wrist with his other hand. My wrist crushed in his grasp, and I cried out sharply as the bone cracked. Shattered. Shards stabbed like needles beneath my flesh, the pain darkening my vision.
He released me, and I collapsed. I couldn’t hold back the scream or the flood of tears. I shook violently and vomited. Wiped my mouth with the back of my uninjured wrist. My throat burned. Bitter, acidic fluid coated my tongue and teeth.
“Don’t do this.” The words choked out. “I won’t say anything . . . just let me go.”
An unnatural smile curled the corners of h
is mouth. He hovered over my crumpled form. “Doubt it, Blondie.”
A shuddering pain worked into my lungs. Then, suddenly, the man’s already pale flesh became translucent, all remnants of color draining from his face. A large bird—an eagle?—swooped down, and my attacker jumped back.
I hobbled to my feet and stared as the bird’s beak tore into his face. Something thudded at my feet. A burning scent stung my nostrils, and I nearly vomited again.
Without waiting to find out what was going on, I ran a straight line in no particular direction. The forest had to break eventually. I stumbled twice. On the second fall, I avoided landing on my wrist, but my head smacked into a rock. As I struggled with one arm to get up again, I fought off another wave of nausea. The forest was spinning. Which way had I been running?
I staggered forward. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t stop shaking and crying. Couldn’t breathe.
Light swept between the trees.
Headlights.
I bolted. Footsteps pounded behind me again. So close to where the forest walls broke. I pushed myself harder, but someone grabbed me tight around my arms and stomach. The excruciating pain in my wrist intensified, and I thrashed to break free.
“Shhh. You are safe.” The soft voice was masculine and deep.
An unexpected sense of security swept over me. My desire to escape drifted, replaced by a warming tingle in my mind and a soothing voice like a whisper: Relax.
I couldn’t escape the odd sense of peace that seemed to press into my skin and seep into my mind from the outside. Peace that was not my own.
The man lifted me. “Please do not draw any further attention.”
My breathing slowed. Sleepiness overpowered my senses. I blinked, fighting the drowse, taking in the man whose arms I lay limply across. Smooth, dark skin and kind, dark eyes.
Another figure walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder, face still shrouded by the shadows.
My eyelids drooped. Closed. My mind screamed, but my voice failed. The world tilted as the man laid me down, the persistent rumble of an engine beneath me. I struggled for wakefulness, but soon failed.
{six}
SOMETHING WET on my scalp. A droplet trickling into my ear.
I struggled with the weight of my eyelids. Through the fog, a figure with shoulder-length black hair dipped a rag in a nearby dish of water, then dabbed it near my temple. I blinked until my vision cleared.
“Ivory?” I rasped.
“Yeah, sweetie, it’s me.”
Across the room, an old dresser with shallow incising and grooved panels held a television airing an episode of some crime-investigation saga. As I eased my head to one side, pain pulsed through my body. Black lace curtains framed a bay window beside a red-oak bookshelf, full of familiar books. The Scarlet Letter, Don Quixote, and Oedipus the King.
Ivory’s bedroom? I didn’t remember falling asleep here.
I didn’t remember falling asleep at all.
Outside the window, the dark, cloudless sky and the breeze in the trees made the night air appear thin and cold, but the air in the room was almost too hot.
From the corner of my vision, I saw someone standing in the middle of the road, but when I looked over, they were gone.
Great. I’m hallucinating.
The door creaked open. Charles stepped in, his stone-washed, button-up jeans hugging his thighs and his black short-sleeve shirt tight against his chest. My gaze trailed up, taking in the soft glow of his bronzed skin and the way his toasted-almond hair fell in perfectly careless tousles to obstruct his enchanting teal eyes.
But as his gaze met mine, the events of the previous night rushed back—the attack, my pain. All his fault. Thankfully the pain wasn’t as bad as I would’ve expected for a broken wrist and a crack to the head.
Before I could speak, a man with dark skin and neatly-formed dreadlocks followed him into the room, dressed in black dress pants and a deep red shirt with a plum sheen. His hands clasped tightly in front of him and his suit jacket lay neatly folded over one arm.
He’d saved me.
The unfamiliar man clenched his jaw, hanging back by the door, balling his right hand into a fist and relaxing it over and again. Maybe he was angry with Charles. I wouldn’t blame him.
Pain pulled into my lungs as I breathed. “What happened?”
Ivory helped me sip a glass of water. “You’ve been in and out for a few hours. I hope you aren’t too groggy from the pain killers.”
“I’m sure that hit to my head didn’t help.”
Ivory gave me a worried smile.
I tried to sit up, but pain shot through my arm. I crumpled back to the bed and raised my wrist. It was swollen to twice the normal size and twisted at an odd angle.
I should’ve freaked out, but I’d never been one to panic when I should. Yes, a stubbed toe was like world war three for me, and maybe I was a little scared of the dark, but put me in the center of tragedy and I could be eerily calm.
Or maybe some part of my brain just shuts down when things are too much for me to handle.
“Charles left me,” I whispered.
Ivory nodded. “He went for help.”
A cold sensation pushed on my mind, followed by another warm tingle, and my thoughts returned to the same unnatural stillness I’d felt in the car and at Club Flesh. Something was happening with my curse. Some kind of shift. Whatever it was, I was certain last night was to blame.
“What’s going on? I should be in the hospital.”
Ivory edged away. “I’ll have the men leave,” she said gently. She grabbed Charles’ arm and pulled him toward the door. “You’re freaking her out.”
“She doesn’t seem freaked out to me,” Charles said coolly.
Ivory flicked her gaze toward the ceiling. “Well, I know her, and she’s freaked out, okay? Just take a hike. I told you I’d take care of this.”
“A few minutes is all I ask.” He lowered his voice. “Adrian’s the best person to help.”
Without waiting for Ivory’s response, Charles squeezed around the bed and settled into the window seat beside me. “I have some questions for you. Are you well enough to speak?”
I scowled. “What do you think?” I turned toward Ivory, interrupting her and the other man’s whispered conversation. “What about you, Ivory? Obviously you’re okay.”
“I’m fine.”
“Some guy tried to kill me.”
She walked over and slid onto the edge of the bed. “You had an unfortunate night.”
Charles scoffed. “Unfortunate? You shouldn’t have brought her there.”
“Oh, like you weren’t having the time of your life with her.”
“Only because I was trying to figure out who she was working for.”
Who I was working for?
“Shut it, Charles,” Ivory snapped.
I held back a growl. “Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on?”
Ivory and Charles exchanged a glance, then they both looked at me expectantly.
“What?” Did they think I was going to tell them what happened?
Charles tilted his head back and covered his face with his hands. “You sound genuinely unaware of what you’ve gotten yourself into, and I have given you the benefit of the doubt. But you must have been up to something if you garnered Marcus’ interest.”
“Are you freaking kidding?” I looked to Ivory, but her crystal-blue eyes just stared back without expression.
“Were you following me?” Charles asked.
Ivory lifted her hand. “I told him you weren’t.”
Charles glared at her before returning his attention to me. “Answer the question.”
“I thought you were following me, remember?”
His chest puffed out, and he scowled. “Why would someone be following you? Is there something you’re not telling us?”
“Why don’t you tell me why someone would be following you.”
“When we were dancing, you had guilt w
ritten all over your face.”
I’d felt guilty all right, but not because I was following him. “I wouldn’t have even been there if Ivory hadn’t invited me. I don’t see why I’m defending myself to you. You’re the one who left me stranded in the woods.”
“How do you know Marcus?” Charles pressed. “Did he hire you? I can’t help you if you aren’t completely honest with me.”
“Why are you interrogating me? I’m the one who was attacked!”
“Nothing,” he said, which wasn’t at all a response to my question. He shook his head, the scowl slowly slipping from his features. “She’s telling the truth,” he said to Ivory. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“I told you,” Ivory said.
“Can someone tell me?” I asked.
Ivory frowned. “It’s just . . . things like that don’t usually happen there.”
“Well, I fucking hope not.”
I could’ve strangled her. How could she be so cavalier? My world was crashing down, and I was stuck here in this stupid bed, no one giving me a direct answer, while some man I didn’t know stood to the side of the room, watching the whole thing as though he was about to self-combust.
I slanted my gaze back toward Ivory. “How do you know Charles?”
“We met at the club a while back,” Ivory said. “It’s always been safe for humans.”
“Safe for humans? As opposed to . . . ?”
Charles stood. “Take her to the hospital and keep an eye on her.”
“No,” Ivory said, giving him a hard stare. “You don’t get to make a bigger mess of things and then walk out as if nothing happened.”
“Not my problem.”
“I’ll make it your problem.”
Charles glowered, but her words stopped him in his tracks. “Did you not say you were taking care of this? If you care about your friend, you’ll leave it alone. It’s bad enough she got Marcus’ attention. Did you know she was . . . ?”
Ivory shook her head. “How could I?”
Just before a scream of irritation nearly burst out of me, the man in the corner interrupted our conversation.
“Tell her,” he said, his voice calm, even.
When Darkness Falls - Six Paranormal Novels in One Boxed Set Page 59
