Into the Darkness (Darkness #1)(42)

Charles groaned in the corner.

“You will live here. End of story.” Stefan’s jaw clenched again, as did his fists. The pupils in those dark eyes, barely definable, got larger.

I wanted to get up and walk to him. Drape myself across him. Feel his arms tighten around me and make everything okay. Destiny!

“Boss, I might need to step outside…” Charles groaned through tight vocal chords.

Stefan looked like he was wrestling with something. Probably the memory of that stupid, although gorgeous, woman that had a claim on him. He shook his head in two jerks. “We’re almost done.”

His eyes honed in on me. “You leave here, you die. Even if you manage to fight back with magic, the fever that follows will kill you if someone powerful isn’t around to…help you…” Lust flashed before a scowl reformed. “You will die. Which means you stay. You stay, you learn to use your power, and you advance. If you can reach the end of the lessons without killing yourself, you are free to go. That good?”

“Well…let me think….” I was poking the bear in the nose with a stick, yes, but defiance was my go-to defense mechanism. Besides, I didn’t feel in control of my life anymore. It was worrying. “I’ve survived this long. I’ll take my chances a little longer. So, thank you, but still no.”

“Or, you will go home, find a few monsters, as you call them, and get captured. Trek has no shortage of creations to send your way.”

“I’ll keep her here, Boss,” Charles said with bravado.

He so wouldn’t.

Stefan’s eyes still delved into mine as he said, “You will be attending school with her. You will eat and breathe each other—“

He cut off. His eyes closed, as if pain lanced his body. He sucked in a deep breath. A moment later he relaxed. “You two will go to school together, live here together, and come out better for it.”

“But, I’ve already been to school,” Charles whined.

“You have learning to do, and I have a feeling Sasha will push you to greater heights.”

By the shake in Charles’ head, he didn’t have the same ideas.

Stefan got up to leave. I wanted to stop him. I wanted to talk to him about these feelings—even though it was a little awkward with Charles in the room. Before he left, though, he said, “Oh, and Sasha, your apartment had a forced entry. A fire started shortly thereafter. Jared is leaving, so you say. Where will you go, if not here?”

All the thoughts fell out of my head. The click of the latch as he left was surprisingly loud.

My gaze slowly traveled the walls, taking my time in disbelief, landing on a cringing Charles. “You forced entry. What is this about a fire?”

Charles tried to sink into himself, an impossible feat for a muscular man over six-and-a-half feet tall. “I may have, accidentally, left a candle burning.”

“When we left there were no candles lit…”

“I may have lit one so I could see.”

“I have electricity, Charles. Why would you need to light a candle?”

“Lights are so bright!”

I started to hyperventilate. Everything I owned was in that apartment. All my memories, all my knick-knacks, all the things I had collected throughout my life, sat on my shelves or in my cubbies. I didn’t have a whole lot, but now I had nothing.

“How much of the apartment burned?” I asked quietly.

Charles slouched lower. “About three-fourths.”

Three-fourths of my whole life, gone. Just like that.

It wasn’t the happy-go-lucky Destiny at all, at least not in this. Destiny’s cousin, the mean and often brutal, Fate had left me no way out.

All my life I’d seen the shadow men roaming the darkness. I’d seen human shaped silhouettes where everyone else had seen nothing at all. I’d always wondered, about them and about my sanity. And when it came right down to it, I knew I belonged here like I’d never belonged anywhere else before. I knew that my secret box would be largely understood within this new fold of people. I wouldn’t have to hide, anymore. I wouldn’t have to worry about people locking me up.

I sighed and looked around at my new life. Clean surfaces and empty shelves stared back. It was bare bones, like I was brand new. Basically, I was starting from scratch.

But at least I had something to work from. Stefan saw something in me. He would’ve given his life to protect me. That had to be something. His faith didn’t seem easily bestowed. If I truly did have magic, then I could truly fit in. Right now I was a freak human, sure; but if I could prove myself an asset, I could be a cool foreigner. Maybe I could finally be good at something. I could finally let myself trust and form real friendships, or meet a guy I didn’t have to hide half myself from.

My mind flashed to Stefan—to the dream of him. I felt him moving away from me, leaving the area and going about his business. I still had no idea how.

Glass barely half full, I lay down, my head starting to pound.

“Can you make me forget?” I asked Charles quietly.

“That doesn’t work on you.”

“It works long enough to help me go to sleep.”

“I’ll try. Usually you have to be strung out and not anticipating me. But I’ll try.”

I closed my eyes and let blackness consume me, closing the chapter on my old life. I’d found my shadow men, and they’d changed me forever.