Into the Darkness (Darkness #1)(11)

God, I was stupid. But I had to know.

Some part of me thought only these shadow men would know why I was different. They might be able to shed a glimmer of light on why I noticed them and others didn’t. Why my memory was returned to me, and not Jared, who was still a clueless, humping mess.

I stepped out into the night, a strange new world now that I suspected what the darkness harvested. I peered into each shadow I passed, and even scanned under my car for hidden villains. I imagined the headlights of my old, dilapidated Firebird scurrying strange critters out of my way.

“I should go home.” My voice echoed in the quiet car. “I should turn around, right now, and go home.”

A second later I was walking at a fast pace toward last’s night’s episode with my hood over my head and my hands in my pockets. I’d have to work on self-control another time. A man to my right took a blanket from his shopping cart, his smell churning my stomach as I hurried past. Another man, ten feet down the sidewalk, was lighting a cigarette, the flame flickering light across his focused brow. Eyes the color and cloudiness of smoke peered upwards, noticing me.

I hurried on, now approaching the alley where I knew we’d stood. I recognized the shamble of a broken chair and the sparse remnants of a car window sprinkled over the curb. The alleyway was empty.

Damn!

“Hey pretty lady.”

A man in a tattered coat stood behind me at an awkward lean. His pants were baggy and tied to his waist with a frayed rope.

“What you lookin’ for way over here? You needin’ a good time?” The man stepped closer, his face obscured by a matted brown beard.

Fear stabbed my chest. This was one of the many reasons why I shouldn’t have come.

I cleared my throat and raised my chin, fingering the whistle in my pocket.

Yes, that was the only weapon I could procure. A stinkin’ rape whistle. I wasn’t batting a thousand in the preparedness department.

“I was just leaving.” I turned quickly and headed back the way I’d come, only to realize I’d been followed.

Two men blocked the sidewalk, dressed similar to the man stepping to my back.

This was very bad news.

Before I could run, or even get my whistle to my mouth, rough hands took hold of my shoulders and jostled me, my body crashing against the stone wall. He was on me a moment later, his smell making me retch, his hands fumbling at my br**sts.

I screamed, fighting him, trying to bat his hands away and get my knee in a position to crush his balls. His hand came up, poised, ready to strike my face. I had one second to feel an all-consuming terror, a crawling sensation dominating my panic-stricken thoughts, before suddenly his whole body was ripped away, thrown to the side like he was made of rags.

The man’s head thunked against the side of the alley before his body slid to the ground.

I looked up with wild eyes.

In front of me was the stranger. The Boss. Six-and-a-half feet of lethal muscle, poised over me possessively. He turned his broad shoulders toward the two men cornering me. Everyone scattered.

Literally.

As if an invisible shock wave of fear washed over the street, everybody in sight fled. Some men hobbling, some moving in jerky thrusts of knees, some with the speed only PCP could lend, they all took off. One man didn’t even bother to buckle his britches. His lady love in tow, street weathered and down-trodden, wiping her mouth as she galloped after him.

I turned back to the giant in front of me, eyes wide, fear still pinging through my body.

“You aren’t real bright, even for a human.”

I saw him more clearly now than I ever had. He had a chiseled face with high cheek bones and a straight nose. His strong jaw lent him a heavy dose of masculinity, but his long lashes and dark eyebrows softened him into something out of a magazine. The effect was stunning.

My whole body bowed in a huge sigh of relief. Safety. “Thank God you showed up.”

“Why are you here?”

I held up my palm and shook my head. “Wait. Just… wait.” I took a few steps away. “I thought I was going to get raped. God, that was stupid!” With hands on hips, I took a few big, lung-filling breaths. When the bursts of fear completely subsided, I strolled back to my previous position, looking up at the holder of, hopefully, many answers.

As I met his black eyes, his puzzled expression deepened. “You’re human…”

“We established that, yes. What I want to know is, if I am human, what does that make you? And why do I notice you when others usually don’t?”

His head cocked to the side. His easy balance, his lethal edge; he was like a blade resting on billowing silk. “Very few humans are able to withstand our pheromones. Fewer still to break a Kolma once it has been placed. You’ve not been trained, that’s obvious; so how is this possible when you’re definitely human? Do you possess the blood of another species?”

I could barely think past the pounding ache of my body, begging to touch him. I needed to get a grip! He was revealing some very interesting factoids I needed to jot down in my mental notebook.

His nostrils flared. “Charles was right; your arousal is a unique scent. Like a spicy, warm drink on a mid-winter’s night. It rises above other smells, entrancing the mind.”

“Umm,” charged with questions, determination, anger, and demands, I thrust forward, “Listen, what did you mean about withstanding the…pher-thing? Or breaking the other thing? How can you trap someone’s head with pleasure? Because I’m pretty sure—not positive, but pretty sure—that Jared is straight. And also, I really think we should circle back to what the hell you are, and why nobody knows that you exist? Because this whole people scattering thing is not normal, and I think an explanation is probably in order.”