Into the Darkness (Darkness #1)(35)

Chapter Sixteen

I screeched to a halt in front of Jared’s apartment complex. It took me three seconds to register that unnatural cold. One or more of those beasts were here, and judging by the freezing marrow in my bones, it was probably leaning towards more.

I sprinted up the walkway and through the door balancing precariously on one hinge. The light in the entryway of the apartment complex flickered, a telltale sign that something was horrifically amiss. At least, that was always the case in horror movies. Then again, the rent here was cheap, and the landlord never got around to fixing anything. It might have been normal.

Still, the door was broken. Something was amiss.

I sprinted up the stairs, my sanity having been left in my apartment. On Jared’s floor I heard screaming. Loud, high-pitched, unnatural screaming, like a rabbit that felt the first pinch of the wolf’s jaws.

A burst of speed had me standing in the doorway of Jared’s apartment, staring at two…things. One looked like a four legged spider, equipped with red manacles and grisly brown fur. Maybe human once, maybe all creation, this thing was so unnatural my stomach started to twist. Beside it stood an alien—oval head, long limbs and bulbous kind of fingers.

I blinked a few times, not believing my eyes. Somehow, the weird spider thing made sense. I’d seen some pretty gross monsters lately. The alien-looking thing, though, seemed a bit…childish somehow. Like the conjurer was telling some sort of joke.

Or it really was an alien…

Clearing my mind of the panicked fog, I zeroed in on what could only be the remnants of a human. Red head lulled, eyes staring, face slack. His body bent unnaturally, his heels able to touch his head, like his back had been broken.

I stared, horror creeping into my awareness eradicating every other feeling. Rubber limbs fell to the floor, the body splayed unnaturally, dead.

At the back of the apartment another scream erupted. My gaze drifted that direction, my body numb. A giant held Jared by the hair, my boyfriend crying and screaming, scratching at the hand carrying him by his scalp.

This wasn’t a monster.

Hazel eyes flashed to mine, connecting us in a moment. Power pulsed inside of me, registering the danger. My forehead beaded with sweat. That’s when the monsters turned toward me slowly. They honed in on me, sensing the magic I knew called to them like a turkey leg to a starving man.

The man’s eyebrows dipped in confusion, his head tilted. He slowed.

“What is this?” A voice of masculine honey poured across the apartment floor, crawling up my legs and covering me with slime.

Something wasn’t right with this man, besides the fact that he carried my boyfriend by his hair.

“Come to rescue your love? I heard him calling someone—you? Why not the police, I wonder. And why…” The monsters stepped toward me. My chest throbbed. The man’s eyes turned calculating. “Bring her with us.”

Power pulsed through the room—from me or them, I had no idea. Sweat dribbled down my forehead. The man kept coming, Jared screaming and crying in his grip.

I tried to push them back, like I’d done before. I stuck out my palms, desperately trying to destroy them somehow, but I didn’t know what had caused it. Maybe fear deterred me. Maybe my near-death experience had me holding back. Whatever it was, nothing came!

“Shit.” I grabbed a baseball bat, ready to go down fighting.

It didn’t glow. Maybe that was reserved for metal?

No matter. I played softball once.

As the first creature reached me, I swung with all my might. Then staggered sideways and forward, the bat going clean through the creation.

A cartoon-like hand reached for me, fire erupting on my shoulder where it touched. Blisters formed, the pain consuming me, when suddenly I was flying.

I fell to the left, barreling into a cheap bookcase that splintered under my weight. A leather clad man stood in my wake, burnished gold sword flashing, bare arms swirling with the same burnished gold light, his tattoos glowing and crawling around his skin.

I felt a strange stirring in my core, like I lay in the middle of a feather storm. Burnished gold materialized around me, forming a cage. A churning, vibrating cage, keeping me imprisoned.

What a dick! Did he want me dead?

Jared’s body went airborne, the scream wrenching my insides. He hit the wall with head and right shoulder, the scream cutting off.

“Jared!” I surged forward, only to realize this cage held an intense electric shock that knocked me on my ass.

Stunned, I followed Stefan with my eyes, his sword slicing through the air, his arms glowing in moving designs.

“Alas, we meet again,” the hazel eyed man drawled, drawing a sword. His voice was like honey, but his movements resembled a badger. “How did you know I’d be here?”

“You reek of human death. You’ve gone too far, Andris, and for what results? I’m still better.”

The two circled each other, their swords held loose. Both their steps were nimble and elegant, the more deadly for it.

“Tell me,” the man said conversationally, “why waste power on that human female? Or did I go after the wrong human?”

“You? Make a mistake?”

“It is rare, yes, but when concerning humans, I’m sure you’ll—“

Pale gold blade of the smooth talking man whipped out, aimed for Stefan’s head. Stefan dodged, graceful like a dancer, joints moving as if oiled, then countering immediately.