Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1)(45)

I exhaled. Some of the pressure in my chest disappeared and the tension in my muscles started to melt away. The blood still rushed like a freighter in my ears, but my heartbeat was slowing down. “It’s okay. I’m—”

“I’ve got this heavy lump in my chest,” he continued, ignoring me. “This blackness that’s poisoning things.” His hands flew to his temples and he closed his eyes for a moment. “I can’t think straight.”

“It’s not you. Something happ—”

But Garrett wasn’t coming up for air. Eyes open again, he said, “I won’t get angry again. I promise. We need to be together. It’s destiny.”

My throat was dry. “I choose my own destiny, and I’m sorry, I don’t choose you.”

He trailed his finger from my shoulder, all the way down to my wrist. It left sick goose bumps in its wake. “You will.”

His fingers lingered there for a moment before moving to the button of my jeans.

“I know you’re scared, but I’ll be careful.”

I could hardly hear him. My heart started up again, hammering against my ribs. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t happen. “Garrett, please—”

He slipped the button through the hole. When his fingers went for the zipper, I started to scream.

Thrashing. Kicking. Clawing. Anything to keep from remaining still. I was screaming incoherently—no words—just sound. Awful, ear-damaging sound. Anything that might attract attention. It bounced off the trees and echoed though the forest. My muscles were on fire, straining and pulling to get free.

But it was useless. Like a bimbo from a bad horror flick, I’d run us into the woods. Away from his house. Away from people. We were secluded.

Idiot. I was an idiot.

I continued to thrash, pinned down by strong hands wrapped securely around my neck to keep me in place. Through my hair, I could see his eyes. The icy, almost inhuman sound of his voice was nothing compared to the spark of madness I saw gleaming there. This person wore his face—had his body on like a cheap suit—but it wasn’t Garrett.

The zipper slipped a few teeth and I stilled.

“You’ll see,” he whispered in my ear. Funny how at that moment, I thought about Lukas and the way I’d felt when he’d whispered in my ear. Amazing how the same thing, done under such different circumstances, could have such a vastly different effect.

I tried to push him away again, but my energy was gone. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Instead of the wild thrashing, I should have conserved.

“We’ll be so good together,” Garrett continued. “We were meant to be.”

And then he was gone.

The pressure of his body lifted and the space where he’d been was nothing more than chilly, empty air.

“Where I come from,” a dark voice snarled. “You treat a woman with respect.”

Garrett crashed through the trees and landed somewhere to my right. It was too dark to see, but I knew that voice. Lukas.

“You never raise your voice,” Lukas hissed, his dark silhouette advancing. “You never use foul language.”

He grabbed Garrett by the shirt front and spun him around. Slamming him up against the nearest tree, he said, “And you never lay hands on her.”

For a moment, all I could do was watch. Watch and think. About running myself into the middle of nowhere. About what had almost happened. About what Lukas might be capable of doing to Garrett… Everything felt watery and surreal, but I still knew right from wrong. Regardless of how twisted my insides felt, this hadn’t been Garrett’s fault.

Hip throbbing and wrist on fire, I staggered to my feet just in time to stop him. Garrett was limp in his arms, head lolling awkwardly to the side. His eyes were closed and, even in the dark, I could see the trail of red leaking from his nose and the right corner of his lip.

“Lukas—Stop…” I grabbed his arm as he was about to strike again. My heart hammered so hard that I was sure it would explode from my chest, and I could barely breathe, but I managed to say, “Vida. It was Vida. She touched him in the cafeteria yesterday, remember? He wasn’t thinking straight. He was infected.”

The muscles in his arm twitched, but he didn’t lower his fist.

“Nothing happened. I’m okay.”

He turned to me, eyes wide and mouth agape. For a second, he actually looked angry. Not at Garrett, but at me. “Nothing happened?”

“He knocked me to the ground. That’s all. You got here before it could go any further.” I tugged on his arm again, this time harder, hoping to God he couldn’t hear the terror I felt. “You got here in time.”

Lukas took a deep breath and held it. Slowly, he blew out through pressed lips and lowered his hand. I grabbed it and squeezed, afraid he’d lash out again.

His fingers wrapped tight around mine. He was squeezing so hard, I thought my fingers might pop off. “You’re all right?”

I nodded. “I’m all right.” Truthfully, I was numb, but telling Lukas that would only make things worse.

With my free hand, I tugged the cuff of his shirt. “Let’s get him back to the office. Mom will know what to do with him ’til this wears off.”





Chapter Eighteen




Garrett screamed for almost an hour after we got him back to the office. It got so bad that Mom had to gag him so the neighbors wouldn’t call the cops. Most of it was incoherent. Rage-fed growls and a string of inventive curses, but once in awhile, he’d scream my name.