Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1)(48)

Falling. It was like falling. Wind in your hair, freefalling into perfection plus. In that moment, I really understood the fuss people made about love. The look in Mom’s eyes when she talked about Dad. The sappy grin I saw girls wearing as they gossiped about their first dates. I got it. And for the first time, I thought maybe, just maybe, I could have it, too.

After a few moments, he pulled away, and even in the dark, I could see his face flushing.

“I apologize. That was highly inappropriate.”

I almost giggled. I wondered what he’d think of HBO or Showtime if he thought that had been inappropriate. “I’ve got a news flash for you—that’s not as inappropriate as it was in your time.”

“Such things are kept between husbands and wives among honorable society. But you—”

“Me?”

“You do strange things to my control.” He sucked in a deep breath. “One minute, your simple presence is enough to pull me back from the brink—I would have killed your friend in the forest had it not been for you—and the next… The next, you make me forget myself entirely.”

I clucked my tongue. “So much to learn, young Jedi. So much to learn.”

“Jedi?”

“Shh,” I whispered. Taking his face in my hands, I said, “Did you want to do that again?”





Chapter Nineteen




2 days left…

When I woke up, Lukas had gone—but I wasn’t alone.

And for some reason, I wasn’t in bed.

“Mom?”

She was sitting in the armchair across my room, coffee in hand. Bleh. Hazelnut. I could smell it. “Can I ask why you’re sleeping on the floor in the corner—and what that thing drooling on your foot is?”

I looked down to see none other than Mr. Winkie, head resting on my foot and snoring softly. A trail of green, slimy drool leaked down my sock and pooled on the floor beneath my ankle. Good thing my room wasn’t carpeted. The stain would never come out. “For crap’s sake…”

“Something you’d like to tell me?”

I shook off the demon and climbed to my feet. The possessed corgi stretched and gave a lazy yawn. With a single yip and several swishes of the tail, he disappeared in a thick cloud of stinky black smoke.

I waved it away and readied myself for a lecture. “Apparently, work followed me home from that pet possession the other day.” Arching my back, I stretched toward the ceiling to release a crick in my neck, muscles protesting as though I’d been down there all night. “And as for the floor, you can ask, but I can’t answer.”

She let it go. “We need to talk.”

Normally, a statement like that from Mom wouldn’t worry me. But lately, I’d broken so many rules—and with what happened with Garrett—I was nervous. I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I might never be ready.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

Bad news sucked, but I breathed a sigh of relief. Any morning that didn’t start with a lecture was a win in my book.

She hesitated, then set her coffee down on the floor beside the chair. “Jessie, I know you’re a smart girl, but I’m feeling the need to remind you Lukas isn’t human.”

I rolled my eyes. “He used to be.” This couldn’t be a result of him being in my room last night because she would have railed me for that right off the bat. Wanting me to get out and date aside, she’d be fuming if she knew I was sucking serious face with a guy on my bed in the middle of the night. Probably more so if said guy was one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

“Yes, he was. But we can’t help him.”

The air chilled. “Why would you say that? What about our other options? You said—”

“I’ve exhausted all my leads. I talked to everyone I could think of yesterday, and then some. There’s no way to keep Lukas out without transferring Wrath to someone else. And even if I was willing to do it, the Wells family is gone. Cassidy called this morning. She said they dropped off the grid in the mid-nineteen-hundreds. I have to focus on collecting the Sins—and finding the box. If time runs out and the Sins are recalled on their own, the six innocent people whose bodies they’ve stolen will go with them. They’ll die, Jessie. I cannot let that happen.”

I had to fight to keep my voice steady. “I know.”

“Finding this particular witch will only help one person. I raised you to be practical, Jessie. We can’t sacrifice six people for one—no matter how unfair his situation is. It’s a hard decision, but it’s the right one. You understand that, right?”

I only nodded. I didn’t trust myself to speak anymore.

“Unless a miracle happens, Lukas will end up going back into the box with the others.”

“I know.” My voice cracked a little.

“Do you? Because you seem to be getting attached.”

Deep breath. She was right. I was raised with both feet firmly planted in reality, and my head clear of the clouds. Last night with Lukas made me lose sight of that. I did have feelings for him, and to make things even more complicated, he felt the same way. But regardless, it didn’t change anything. We had no way to keep him here. The needs of the many trumped the needs of the few. She was right. It was hard, but it was reality. One I’d been acquainted with at a very early age.