Page 92 of Walking in Darkness

Held.

But I could feel her—could feel her rushing through my bloodstream on a plea.

“Yeah, we are,” I promised quietly as I crammed my other foot into my boot, tying them tight before I shouted, “Right,” when I was suddenly overcome by that sensation.

Swelling and rising.

We were getting close.

Dani gripped the steering wheel with both hands, jerking it hard as she took the turn far faster than was prudent. The tires screamed as we whipped around the corner. But she nailed it, the engine revving high as she blew down the road.

Not a soul was around. Businesses locked up tight, the neighborhoods quiet and dimmed.

Something about it felt different. Like we’d traveled beyond the limits of the city. Or maybe beyond the limits of this world.

The heavens too close.

The clouds, this tumultuous disturbance above. A bolt of lightning cracked through the sinister canopy that rolled in undulating waves above.

“What the fuck?” Timothy drew out on a whisper.

The energy shifted in the car as each of us became aware of the otherworldly.

“He’s here,” I said, gritting it out through the clench of my teeth.

A full-body tremble skated through Dani as she raced beneath it, the buildings becoming scarce, interspersed with open, rolling fields.

I thought she must have felt it, too—this connection with Aria—because she abruptly slammed on the brakes and jerked the wheel to the left when we came to a large open field.

The car pitched hard, and we hit the dirt at high speed. The front slammed against an embankment that sent us flying over the top. We caught the slightest bit of air before we bashed back onto the ground, the car jostling and lurching. The tires spun for a second; then we caught traction again and flew across the rough terrain.

The headlights were extra bright as the front of the car ate up the high grass we could barely see over, the sound of it grating beneath as it scraped on the underside.

When we crested a ridge, Dani smashed on the brakes as the scene came into view in the distance.

A pickup truck was parked out in the field, the headlights left on and illuminating a tree on a hill about a hundred yards away from it. A tree two men were dragging Aria toward, where three more men waited, each of them unable to sit still as they itched with bloodlust.

Ice sank down into the depths of me, freezing me in a vat of anguish.

“Oh God, what do we do?” Dani whimpered as she clutched the steering wheel and peered out the windshield.

“You two should stay in the car.” It tortured me to suggest it, but this shit was clearly not stacking in our favor. Something about what was going down was so much bigger than anything I’d faced before.

The men who’d been sent to stop Aria previously had been fully human.

Sure, twisted, deranged, fucked-in-the-heart humans who had no other concern but her utter destruction—but still, human.

Mortal.

But there was something about this that felt off. Like maybe we were being lured straight into a trap, one I couldn’t ask Dani and Timothy to step into.

Dani scoffed. “Don’t even try to pull that bullshit with me, Pax. You act like I haven’t fought in Faydor for longer than you. And yes, I know it’s different. I know here I’m fully human and have all the vulnerabilities that come with that, but this is Aria we’re talking about.”

She flung her hand in Aria’s direction.

“She’s our family, Pax,” Timothy rumbled from behind. “I know you want to protect us, but we’re not sitting on the sidelines—just like you didn’t when you believed Dani was in danger.”

Lightning streaked above. A frisson of energy crackled through the atmosphere, a slow slide of iniquity that lifted every hair on my body.