Into the Darkness (Darkness #1)(15)

I thought back to the night before. Then blinked in confusion. I couldn’t remember. Not last night, and not even the majority of yesterday. It was like huge pieces of my memory were wiped clean.

Sighing, struggling to remember what day it was, I stared at my calendar, and then checked my clock. Red numbers read 7:35.

Why couldn’t I remember yesterday? Did Jared drug me for kicks or something?

A memory fluttered at the edge of consciousness. I grasped at it, catching nothing but stale air. My eyes glanced over my room, finding my purse on the ground by the door.

I never put my purse on the ground. I always put it on a chair or counter top to keep the bottom clean. I’m anal like that.

After a few moments of staring at it like a hog looking at a wristwatch, I lay back down and closed my eyes. I would skip first period.

Chapter Six

“Hey, whaddya doing?” Charles stepped forward with Jonas toward the apartment complex, reaching a hand out to stop his brother-at-arms. “We’re just supposed to watch and make sure he doesn’t go wandering around. We’re not supposed to go in.”

“The Boss doesn’t care about this weasel. He only cares about the girl. Let’s have some fun.”

“Okay, but, the girl likes this guy, so the Boss wants this guy safe.”

“He’ll be plenty safe. I’ll take him to Third Three. He’ll be fine. Time of his life.” Jonas waited beside the door until a human, so unobservant it might as well have been blind, unlocked the apartment complex door and went through, completely missing their presence. Jonas stepped forward in a smooth, quick glide, catching the door before it clicked into its bed.

“This just isn’t a good idea,” Charles whined, following.

Jonas often pushed the envelope. His tastes generally bent toward pain, liking when his victims screamed and begged for their life. It wasn’t a perversion, per se, since being a hunter was in their genetic makeup, but it wasn’t exactly normal, either. The majority of their species leaned more toward wanton pleasure any way they could get it, with any one they could get it, pushed higher and harder with another willing participant. Oh sure, there were the dominance games, which could be fun, but all-in-all everyone was in it for a good time.

It was why Charles was supposed to keep an eye on Jonas—make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. Terrible idea, obviously. Jonas was one of the best they had, brutal without mercy and extremely effective. Charles was an up-and-comer with a lot of potential.

Which meant he’d get his ass kicked if he got in Jonas’s way.

They made it silently up two flights of stairs and down the hall without anyone noticing. As Jonas waited outside the human’s door, he snickered. “It’s almost too easy. These humans don’t notice nothing.”

“That’s because they don’t want to know what goes bump in the night when they’re safely behind their alarms and locks. That girl human does, though. She peeks right into the shadows and picks us out, remember? What’s with that? It creeps me out. We’re supposed to be the dominant species…”

“Shut up, I can hear him coming. I don’t want him to scream before I can Dose him. That’ll just get messy.”

Jonas knocked quietly. They heard three footsteps before the door swung open, a chubby male with a shock of orange hair holding a candy bar staring at them with round eyes. “Hello?”

“Who are you?” Jonas asked in a low voice, stepping into the small apartment. Charles followed quickly, scanning the corridor to make sure they weren’t seen.

“Whu—” The male’s face went slack.

“That worked fast,” Charles noticed, eyes dipping to this fellow’s stiffening dick. “He’s dim-witted, then? Is that why he succumbed so fast?”

Jonas stepped around the human male and walked to the back of the apartment in quick, smooth strides. “Some just have less defense against it. Doesn’t have much to do with their I.Q. Some of the dumb ones can really give you problems.”

“Oh.” Charles stepped away from the kid’s groping hands. “No thanks, bro, you’re not my type. Sorry. We didn’t know anyone else was home.”

Jonas stepped out from the bedroom at the back of a frumpy apartment. “He’s not in his room.”

“Human male,” Charles spoke to the kid, and then danced away from outstretched arms, “where’s your friend?”

“Roommate!” Jonas yelled, stepping beside the male.

The kid turned to Jonas with huge eyes, his hands falling to his side. He started to tremble.

“Now, Jonas, bro, this isn’t the time for screaming,” Charles lectured. “You know what the Boss said; we’re supposed to keep a low profile tonight.”

“You nag.” Jonas tugged down his zipper, letting his pheromones change back to lustful coaxing. “Suck it in, Carrot Top, I ain’t got all day.”

The door handle of the front door jiggled just as Charles was about to complain again. The knob turned, revealing the tall, thin Jared they’d met a couple days ago. He was okay-looking for a human male, with a great suction in the kisser. Given a choice, though, Charles would much rather have a lady. Which was why he thought this was more or less a wasted trip. If they were going to bend the rules, he’d much rather head on down to the human girl’s house. That Sasha got him in all the right ways. She was a riot, too. Pretty cool for one of her kind.