Dark One: One for Sorrow... (The Khiara Banning Series Book 1) (13 page)

I shake my head reluctantly, “I guess so…” but I’m not letting him off that easily. Picking up the basket, I sigh. I have to jog to catch up with his fast pace as he begins to walk towards the bridge, and once I do catch up, he grabs onto my hand and starts to run, me awkwardly tripping behind him as we make our way to the gate. As soon as we get close enough to see it, my heart speeds up; it’s closed. Cael makes a sound between a sigh and a growl, and I turn to him, still out of breath from running, and whisper, “It’s probably not locked. It’s not past park hours yet.”

He shakes his head, “No, it is. I can see the lock.” Sure enough, when I squint, there it is.
Well crap. This is weird.

“We’re going to have to climb it,” I say, resigned. I have climbed a few gates in my lifetime, all thanks to Cara, but this one looks a little harder than the ones I’m used to. Usually, the gates are at least a couple of feet smaller, and are generally just gates to somebodies backyard or the school gate. Cara loves to go to school after hours for some reason.

With a look of surprise, as if he hadn`t thought of it, Cael sizes me up, and nods once, “Right. We’ll climb it then. But hurry, we don’t want to get stuck here do we?”

No, we don’t…
I think to myself, and Cael looks up like he heard what I said, but quickly looks back at the gate as if to dismiss having heard anything. “I’ll go first,” he says, but the way he looks at me is like he’s asking my permission, so I say, “Yeah, sure.” He begins to climb, and oh what an amazing climber he is! He’s better than drunken Cara any day of the week.

As soon as he’s at the top, Cael reaches his arm out. “Start climbing, Khiara. Hurry up, we don’t have much time.” When I get close enough to hold onto his hand, he hauls me up effortlessly, and we jump to the ground together, hands entwined. He takes off running, pulling me with him, and doesn’t slow down until we’re halfway across the bridge leading to the car. I’m so out of breath, the world has no idea how out of freaking breath I am, but Cael seems to be breathing laboriously for some other, unnamed reason.

“What were we running from,” I ask between pants for air, my hands on my knees and head down.

Cael stiffens and forces out a quick laugh, “What do you mean?”

“The park isn’t supposed to be closed for another hour, and even then, they hardly ever lock the gate.” I place my hand on his arm and squeeze. “You made us run like bats out of hell,” he scoffs at that, “and, okay, I’ll admit- I was getting this terrible watched feeling. I’ve been writing it off as nothing for far too long; it happens too much for it not to be real.”

Cael’s head whips around at this, and he says “Watched feeling?”

I feel my cheeks burn crimson. “Yeah. I’ve been getting it a lot lately, though I’ve noticed it for most of my life. I feel like somebody is watching me, and their intent is not at all…good. I felt that just before things got weird back there.”

Cael’s eyes are hard, but they soften as he looks into mine. “Do you feel it now?”

My voice is just a thin whisper as the hair on my neck stands up and my palms grow sweaty, but I manage to get out something that resembles a “yes” before he nods his head and takes my hand. “We need to get going,” he says gently, “I promise I’ll explain everything later. Okay?”

~*~

Cael walks me to my door. “Some first date eh?” He says sarcastically, as he rubs his arms. I realize that I’m wearing his jacket, and move to take it off, but he smiles and shakes his head, “No, you keep it for now.”

“What happened, Cael?” I ask, my voice trembling slightly.

He shakes his head, “It’s complicated. I don’t really know where to begin.”

“You’re not, like, a vampire are you?” I blurt.

His eyes become amused and he smirks, “Decidedly, no I am not. I’d rather not sparkle. If anything, I’d love to radiate a really cool glow or something that could overpower evil just by looking at it, I mean how cool would that be? It’s simple but effective.”

I duck my head, “Sorry about the stupid question. I just needed something to…”

“Fill the awkward silence?” He supplies.

“Yeah,” I whisper. He brings his hands up to cup my face and his expression is unreadable, “I am involved in some really heavy things, Khiara, and with some pretty dangerous… individuals. I’m worried that it might get in the way of…”

“Any chance for there to be anything between us,” knowing what’s coming next. He’s going to tell me why we’re not going to work out in excruciating detail, and I’m going to have to buy a pint of ice cream and call Cara to come over and comfort me.

That’s not what he says. “But I want to give us a chance anyway. I want to get to know you, and I want you to get to know me. But my life…it isn’t an easy one. I have a lot of secrets.”

“There’s something about you,” I say. “It’s…”

“I’m not a vampire, Khiara,” he chuckles.

“But you’re something.”

He looks me right in the eyes and whispers, “I’m me. And that is all I will ever be.”

I remember the day we met, him telling me it wasn’t safe for him to stay with me, that he wasn’t supposed to be talking to me. He’d quickly covered it up by saying it was because he wasn’t invited, but now that I think about it, half the people there probably weren’t invited and they didn’t seem to give a damn about that.

“I feel safe with you,” I whisper. “I don’t know why, but I do. I can’t explain it.”

His mouth quirks into a half smile, “Well, Khiara, I’ll do everything possible to keep you safe; if you let me.”

“I will,” I whisper and he kisses me on the cheek, ever so softly.

“Good night, Khiara. I’ll see you tomorrow at work.”

Ten

The screaming won’t stop! I’m in a hall of mirrors, and a choice is needed to be made- which way do I take? I can’t concentrate with all of the screaming going on, and for some reason I feel like whichever way I take will kill me in the end. My death is inevitable.
“You must choose,”
a strange female voice booms. I look left, and the screaming that’s coming from all around me intensifies. I look the other way, and it gets even louder.
“There is only one way
,” the voice purrs.

“Death is inevitable.”
The mirror closest to me starts to shake, the glass looking as if it were made of water, and then a dark form steps from it- a man. He seems to be completely made of shadow, and he is absolutely terrifying. I seem to be stuck in place, unable to move as he takes hold of my arm and his somewhat familiar voice drifts to my ears, a terrifying whisper of pure evil,
“Your time is up…”

I wake up feeling like I’ve been doused with a big bucket of cold water. My heart is beating erratically in my chest, and my eyes can’t help but dart around the room, looking for the dark things that have plagued me in my dreams. Actually, I feel around and notice that in fact I do happen to be wet; slick with a cold sweat that must’ve occurred during the bizarre nightmare I’ve just awakened from.

Sighing, I reach over to my bedside table to turn on my lamp and gasp at the time; it’s three in the morning. I turn the light on, and make my way to my door and stop dead in my tracks when I hear a noise coming from the direction of my window. Turning around slowly, I scrunch my eyes shut and resolve not to freak out when I open them. It’s probably a tree branch I think to myself. When I open my eyes, my heart stops at the sight before me; Damien is staring at me very intently through my window. I feel his stare like it’s a cold, ugly hand, tracing its way all over my body- defiling me. He smiles, and in the blink of an eye, disappears from sight. That’s when everything goes black and I feel myself crumpling to the cold, hard floor.

~*~

When I wake up, the only thing that runs through my mind is,
my head hurts a lot. Holy crap my head hurts. Why does my head hurt?

“How did you get on the floor?” Asks Cara, who’s standing in the doorway to my room eating an apple and staring at me in confusion.

I yawn tiredly and shake my head. “I don’t know. More importantly,” I groan as I sit up, rubbing my head, “who let you in and what are you doing up at this ungodly hour?”

Cara snorts indignantly. “We have this thing to go to, you know, school.”
Oops…

“Right,” I mutter. I stand up, stretching my arms out and cracking all the good spots in my shoulders and back, and yawn again. “Thanks.” She smiles, and taps her wrist, “We don’t want to be late. Hop in the shower, I’ll make breakfast. Both your parents left for work, but your dad said that he wasn’t working late tonight, so he’ll be home when you get back from your first day on the job to grill you for details.”

~*~

Try not to make eye contact, try not to make eye contact- “
Welcome to the Sweet Treat Café, what would you like today?” So far, my first day on the job has been pretty slow, and of course Cara and Tristan are standing right at the counter, looking at me like proud parents. Would that make Tristan my step dad? I chuckle at the thought.

“Can I get a butt-latté?” asks Cara, with the most serious look on her face I have ever seen. Our eyes meet and she bursts out laughing, while Tristan says “God damn it, Cara! I told you not to do that to the poor girl, it’s her first day.” I just smile, trying to hold in my laughter.

“Sorry,” she says, her face turning red from laughter, “I couldn’t resist,” and I roll my eyes because her mascara is running down her cheeks her eyes are watering so much.

“Tristan, believe me, it’s okay. I’ll just spit in her drink,” I say, and Cara instantly sobers as I say, “Now, what’ll you be having, so I can hawk a giant one
right
in it.”

“You wouldn’t,” she says, grabbing a napkin from the counter to wipe her eyes, just as Cael walks up to the counter with a fresh strawberry cheesecake, for me to put on display. He smiles at Cara and asks; “She wouldn’t what?” then turns and winks at me, like he knows what we were talking about.

“Nothing!” Both Cara and I say, at the same time as Tristan says, “Spit in her coffee.” Cara smacks her boyfriend on the shoulder, and I glare at him. Cael just laughs, hands me the cake, and says, “Well, don’t provoke her then.” I place the cake inside the cake rack under the counter, and sigh. When I come up, Cael’s smirking at Cara.

Cara gets a wicked glint in her eye, “Ooh! He’s a keeper, Ki-Ki. Boy’s got a sense of humour. We could definitely use him in our little group.” Cael laughs and says, “That’s good to know.”

I look over at him, “Are you sure you can handle her? She’s pretty wild.” Cara frowns and sticks her tongue out at me and says, “Get me my latte, woman. I’m thirsty. You know how I like ‘em.”

I nod my head and roll my eyes at her and turn to Tristan, “And what would you like today?”

“Just a regular coffee would be great, thanks,” he says, smiling, “I don’t want to make your life any more complicated than it is.”

“I
should
charge you fifty dollars, but that’ll be eight dollars and fifty cents instead, please,” I say, holding out my hand. Tristan hands me ten dollars and says, “Keep the change, because you deserve the good tip for
exemplary
service.” I roll my eyes.