House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)(13)

“No freaking way,” I whispered as the cars came into sight. Well, at least one good thing might come from being at this school. I was finally going to discover who lived across the road from me. There were just two of their cars: the purple Aston and white Range Rover, following each other into the lot, both of them pulling into spaces near the front.

“You know how you were asking me about the chosen ones … the elite. Well, here's the main group of assholes that run this school,” Cara said quickly under her breath, almost like she was worried they could hear us all the way over here. “The Darken boys.”

I was about to answer her when the doors to the purple beast opened and two males emerged. A third joined them right after.

What in all holy hell?

“Are they real?” I finally said, wrenching my eyes from the view and turning to Cara.

She wore a knowing smirk. “I’ve touched them once or twice, accidentally on purpose. They’re definitely real.”

I had to turn back. I had to see them one more time just to make sure they hadn’t been figments of my imagination. “They’re so freakin’ tall,” I finally stuttered out. They weren’t just unnaturally tall, but they also had this intense, dark, dangerous vibe going on. Their hair and aura matched their name.

Cara chuckled, apparently enjoying my astonishment. I just couldn’t believe these were the guys I had been spying on for days – I hadn’t expected them to be teenagers like me. It made me feel uneasy, and kinda intrigued at the same time.

She leaned in closer. “I don’t know much about them. No one does. All I’ve gotten from the rumor mill is that they’re all the same age. They’re family but not triplets. Top guess is that they’re cousins or adopted. Either way, they all have the Darken name. The one in the middle is Lexen. He doesn’t talk much, and…” She shuddered. “He might be sexy, but he is dead-set scary as shit. His reputation…” She swallowed hard. “Just stay out of his way as much as you can. He’s their muscle. If anyone causes shit, he steps in and sorts it out. He frankly scares the hell out of everyone here, and I would never want to find myself in a dark alley with him.”

I let my eyes linger on him. He was bigger than his brothers both in height and breadth. His muscles were defined under the dress shirt molded deliciously to his body, and I found myself breathing deeper as I ran my eyes across him. His hair was black as night, messily styled on one side, shaved shorter on the other, and it almost looked like there were symbols etched into the shaved side. His eyes appeared to be very dark from here, but I was too far away to really tell. His features were broad and well-honed, with a roman brow, sexy lips, and chiseled jaw. He was distractingly gorgeous, in a rugged way. His brother – cousins – whatever – fell somewhere between rugged and almost pretty for a dude.

“The other two are Marsil and Jero,” Cara said. “I can’t tell them apart most of the time, even though they aren’t twins. All I know about them is that they like the ladies. Jero, at least, has probably gone through half the school. Or so the rumors say. I’ve never hung with the elite group, so I have no actual empirical evidence of this.”

Marsil and his “twin” shifted then; in a single movement the pair turned and looked directly at Cara and me. My new friend let out a low shriek and quickly yanked me into the stream of students entering the building.

“Holy crap, that was close,” she huffed. I saw her glance back. “That’s not the first time they seemed to hear me from an impossible distance.”

I wanted to look back too. One of the “twins” had locked me in his gaze, and I was curious to see if he was still staring at me. We might have been a fair distance apart, but his eyes were such a striking crystalline blue that I had still noticed the color.

“Which one of them has the really blue eyes?” I finally asked Cara.

She grinned, shaking her head, some of her nerves fading and her humor returning as we put more distance between us and them. “Jero. He’s the huge flirt. I’ve seen his charm but never been the recipient, thank God. I would probably pee myself if he talked to me.”

I joined her in laughing then, quieting as she continued: “Marsil has dark brown eyes, which are almost as beautiful. Lexen, though, has the most amazing eyes I’ve ever seen. They’re such a dark brown they almost look black, but I swear I’ve seen these tiny twinkling little lights that seem to illuminate them.”

She shook her head. I was starting to think that for someone who’d expressed such fear and unease she certainly paid a lot of attention to these elites. We made it to the main entrance and cold air engulfed me as we stepped inside. Forcing my mind from the Darkens, I focused on the school. Time to deal with being the new kid.

Inside was as shiny and fancy as the outside, looking a lot like I thought a space station would, lots of steel and metal, high ceilings, large banks of windows and natural light – not to mention it was filled with tons of crazy technology that I had no name for – drones buzzing above our heads; security cameras following students; automated doors that welcomed each person as they entered. As we passed some banks of lockers, I wasn’t surprised to see that they used thumbprint recognition for entry. It fit with the rest of the character of the building.

Classrooms spanned off this corridor. Cara led me past all of those, toward the huge center building. “This is the office,” she said as automatic double doors swished open and let us in. There was a half-circle desk inside, and behind it were three women, impeccably dressed, typing away.