The End of Darkness (10 page)

Nester slammed against the bars, his fingers curling around them. If it weren't for the crazy light in his eyes, Erica might have thought him ordinary, a goofy guy with a too-large mouth and bushy eyebrows. She knew better.

“You put them in my cage. How nice.” He ran his tongue up the bar. “I want her. I'm going to take her, and while she climaxes I'll rip out her heart. Doesn't that sound romantic?” That he directed to Erica, and fear washed through her at the thought of either one. Nester leered at Lanna. “Do they do that in those books you read?”

She sounded so droll when she said, “No, generally both parties are alive after the climax. It's more fun that way.”

Nester didn't seem to care about the conventions of erotic romance. His brown eyes pierced Erica's. “You shot me. You're one of us.”

“Not exactly,” Lanna said, stepping up beside him. “They both carry Callorian essence. As Torus found out recently, some of our people did the naughty with the humans here and produced offspring. I believe these two are the result of that.”

Nester took them in, his hand flexing. “Two of them. Interesting.”

“
He's
 mine.” 
 

“Yours? Does Copeland know about this?” 

“Hands off. I'm sure you can have her, but wait until he returns.”

Magnus stiffened at those words even more than at Lanna's earlier assertion. He 
was
 protective, probably an innate thing. 
 

Nester chuckled. “Maybe you do understand needing the intoxicating energy of something. For you, it's lust.”

A door closed upstairs. Lanna snapped to attention, and for a moment Erica actually felt sorry for her. She was obviously dominated and abused by her husband.

“Nester found our guests!” Lanna called up the stairs. “We're down in the basement.”

There was some shuffling, and Erica hoped they didn't realize how clearly sounds traveled through the vent. Hadn't Nester noticed when he was kept down here or was he too mad with Darkness?

Suddenly the whole place shook, sending her stumbling and making the cuff pull tight against her wrist. Lanna and Nester grabbed onto the bars to keep from falling. Magnus pushed against the wall, his hands flat to steady him. The shaking went on for twenty seconds.

“They're getting worse,” Lanna said as Copeland came down the stairs. “Lasting longer. The Darkness here is growing worse. Isn't it?”

“Torus said the instruments are showing that it's growing at a faster pace. They're having a meeting tonight.”

Lanna asked, “Could you feel the difference in town?”

“Yes, Darkness is definitely getting stronger.” Copeland gave her a sterile smile. “However, it worked perfectly today. Everyone did exactly as I told them. But people are getting more volatile and, thus, more apt to break free from my control. I don't think we'll get many more robberies in before they start killing each other.”

Erica traded looks with Magnus. Explosions, tremors, Darkness getting worse, and people breaking free. What in the hell was going on here? He was taking all this in with terrified curiosity too, if his expression was any indicator. All she knew was that people were going to die, and she couldn't do a thing about it. Taking out killers had given her purpose, a sense of control over a world with damned little of it. Now she was back to square one.

Lanna's expression grew panicked. “Will Yurek come here?” 

“If he does, we have to get rid of these two before he arrives. Their presence would raise questions about how they came to be here that we don't want to answer.” Copeland shot Nester an irritated look. “If I call you, take them into the tunnel and shoot them. Do it near the second escape hatch so you can stash their bodies in the storage cabinet. While I don't plan for Yurek to come down into the basement, I'd rather only have to come up with an explanation for the cage and not why the walls are splattered with blood. So no heart rending.”

Lanna took Copeland's hand, giving him a coy smile. “I have a proposition for you. I've been a good girl, you have to admit. 
I 
haven't gone off the edge.” She shot Nester a look before reviving her sweet smile for her husband. “I have done everything you've asked, while you have done nothing that I've requested. But if you give me this one little thing, I promise I won't bother you for a year.”
 

“The human male is not a little thing.”

“No, he's not.” Lanna bit her lip. “It's only for the next seven days, and then we'll be out of here, and they'll be dust.”

Nester's laugh had a cackling quality to it. “Everything will be dust!” 

Lanna rolled her eyes but kept her attention on Copeland. “I won't break your touching rule, because I'm going to …” She whispered the rest in his ear. 

Copeland considered. “All right, have your fun. But you cannot release him.” He looked at Nester. “No killing the woman yet.”

Erica's heart jumped. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. 

“Whaaa?” Nester's face scrunched up. “She gets to play with them and I don't?”

“You've been a bad boy, Nester. You will accompany me into town and you will behave.”

And like a little boy, Nester stomped up the stairs, his shoulders hunched. Lanna clasped her hands together and kissed Copeland's cheek. He shrank away from her, as though repulsed by the act.

Lanna seemed used to the rebuff. “Thank you.” Hands still together, she turned to Erica and Magnus with a huge smile.

CHAPTER 10

Pope returned from the restroom where he'd tried to 'port to Magnus. He could not, and the block he encountered was disturbing. Nor could he reach him via phone. He returned to the table just as the server delivered their food. 

“Real meat,” Suza said as she eyed the burger in its sesame-seed covered bun.

He was uncomfortable about her being involved, but he was familiar with this particular combination of stubbornness and drive to protect someone. Those in the grip of it would not be swayed. All he could do was keep her out of danger until she realized she was in over her head. Which would be soon.

Society in Surfacia was highly ordered. People obeyed. Here, they followed their emotions. Feelings were new to him. Picking up Petra's and Cheveyo's feelings had woken his own. That he had never experienced them made each one unnerving. And some, tantalizing.

“Tell me about Pope.” Suza picked at her cheeseburger with mayo, lettuce, pickles, and other messy things that dripped down her fingers as she ate, requiring her to run her tongue down those fingers and…

He blinked, completely thrown by the sensation in the pit of his stomach and an area that's function was, well, merely functional.

She stared at him in a way that made him think he had a bug crawling down his nose. “I'm not asking you to spill any secrets,” she added, clearly perplexed by him.

A good reminder that she would look at him that way many times if he tried to have a relationship with her. 

“Pope is…eccentric. No sense of humor, none at all.” 

“Are you kidding? He's hilarious. I haven't had a man crack me up like that in years. Granted, he doesn't mean to be funny, but he seems to enjoy making me laugh and he never takes it personally.” She let out a soft sigh. “I love that about him.”

Her smile was so warm and radiant, he got caught up in it for a moment. He shook his head. “And he is quite naïve when it comes to relationships.”

She waved that off, then stuck her pointer finger in her mouth to suck off the mayonnaise. “I got that. It's cute. The guys I've dated, well, they're all plenty experienced and they think they're God's gifts to women, know what I mean? Like I should be 
grateful
 that they're paying attention to little ole me.” She shook her head, making her bangs swish across her forehead.
 

“But you are beautiful and personable. They should be grateful for 
your
 attention.”
 

“Bless you.” She tilted her head. “See, that’s the kind of thing Pope does, throws out these compliments without meaning to, which means he means them.” She rolled her blue eyes. “He gets me all tangled up.”

He had heard plenty about how she had suffered the consequences of not trusting her psychic feelings warning that her boyfriends were loathsome pigs. He could listen to Suza's stories in person forever, watching her animated face, the deep pink lips she pursed frequently, the pert little nose she wrinkled. All he could do was drink everything in before he had to leave her again. For good, he was afraid. Maintaining their connection was difficult for both of them. Petra teased him, saying that he was in love with her, that he pined for her. He was not sure how one could feel a tree for someone, but he did know that he felt deeply cut whenever he hung up. Felt it now at the thought of ending their friendship.

“Cassius?”

He realized she'd been saying his phony name for some time now. 

“I was saying, tell Pope he makes me feel good in a way that is so genuine, so real, it breaks my heart not to see him again. But if he can't be in my life, it's probably best not to continue our conversations.”

Pope couldn't breathe for a moment. Finally he said, “That is a wise ultimatum. My brother is not a good man for you, Suza. Trust me on this.”

She set the remainder of her sandwich down. “Give me one good reason.”

A smacking noise drew their attention to a table nearby. The man and woman seated across from each other were bracing their hands on plates of food to keep their balance as they kissed ravenously. 

Two men were arguing at a corner table over who paid the bill last time. 

“This town has gone crazy,” Suza whispered.

Suddenly the whole place started shaking. Glasses slid off tables, silverware clattered, and anyone who was standing grabbed for something to steady them. It lasted a full thirty seconds before abating.

“They're getting longer,” someone said in an agitated voice. “This whole town's going to crack apart.”

Pope glanced at his watch. “I must go.”

“We must go.” Suza reached for her purse, but he waved it back and put a large bill on the table. 

He did not want her involved with these people. He knew them; they disdained humans and had no issues terminating them. It struck him that he was now in that same category. Making it all the more dangerous for her to be with him. 

They headed down the sidewalk, which was still quite busy with what Petra called lookee loos and journalists getting interviews for their stories. He headed to the place where Copeland had spoken to Torus. Pope would have to be very careful to keep his distance so neither sensed his vibration. 

He was keeping his eye on the scene when he picked up on that very vibration. Subtly he turned to find…Yurek. The shock of seeing the man assigned to terminate him was bad enough; that he was walking right toward them was inconceivable. The man's gray eyes were always bland and emotionless, so Pope couldn't tell if he'd recognized his vibration. 

Pope didn't think; he acted. He grabbed Suza and pushed her into a store's alcove as though he could not wait another moment to plant his mouth on hers. His arms went around her, snug around her waist. The feel of their mouths mashed together knocked all sense from him. She made a squeaking sound, her hands slapping against his chest but remaining there. Her fingers tightened on his shirt, and her lips softened for a moment before she pushed him back.

“Cassius!”

Pope had to pull his thoughts together enough to surreptitiously glance in Yurek's direction. He'd continued on, but that didn't guarantee he hadn't picked up on something. Agents of the government in particular maintained a calm façade at all times. Which was why Pope was having a hard time reconciling the way his heart was pounding.

“I apologize,” he said, trying to remember the reason for his rash behavior. 

“W-what was 
that
?” She put her fingers to her mouth.
 

“It was rash behavior.”

“Well, yeah, I got that. I like your brother, you know.” She narrowed her eyes at him in a speculative way that made him nervous. “You don't look much like him, but you feel like him. Like you have a good heart, but that doesn't make sense, because a man with a good heart wouldn't kiss the woman his brother's been flirting with on the phone.”

“There is something about you, too, that makes a logical man act in illogical ways.” He glanced in Yurek's direction, spotting him meeting up with Copeland. “But I did have a tactical reason for kissing you. The man over there might also recognize me. I needed to hide my face in a manner that wouldn't raise his suspicions.” 

The two men walked around the corner and out of sight. 

She tugged her shirt down. “Well, I'm glad to hear that. I'd hate to think I misread you.”

She had read him too well. 

“You stay here. I'll go around back.”

Pope wished he could hear them. He wished Suza would stay put. Neither was going to happen. 

She followed right behind him. “Should I wander over again?” she whispered.

“No, it's too risky for you to do that again. But since you insist on accompanying me, you must help me appear inconspicuous. As we have already been spotted in a lip-lock, it would not be unusual for us to have ducked into the alley to continue our mad passions.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “If this weren't so serious I'd swear you were just trying to make out with me.”

“I am not, and we should not engage in the actual act of kissing. It's distracting, and I must try to listen to their conversation. We will merely—I think the correct term would be cozy up—over there, against the wall.”

“All right.” She shook her finger at him. “But it's only an act.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist. She laced her arms over his shoulders, which pulled her flush against his body. He willed his penis not to react, focusing instead on the two men who would kill him instantly if they knew he was there.

He buried his face in the crook of her shoulder, inhaling the faint scent of her perfume. Her fingers tightened on him, and she let out a soft gasp when he moved up the side of her neck. Her silver feather earring tickled his nose.