The End of Darkness (3 page)

“Wait,” she whispered, holding her bra to her breasts and backing up toward the door. She hit the light switch, plunging them into darkness. 

“Why'd you do that? I can't see a bloody thing. And I want to see you.”

“I don't feel comfortable with the lights on.”

Silence as he perhaps pondered that. “Is it some kind of hang up? I can help you get over that. Because what I saw was beautiful.”

He might even mean it. He sounded sincere, anyway. She moved back into his embrace, letting her bra fall away. “I don't want to get over it. I just want it dark.” She unzipped her pants and shoved both them and her panties to the floor, then groped for his hand and pulled him down to the bed.

“Are you self-conscious—”

“It's not that.” The words had come out tersely. 

He started to back away. “If you're uncomfortable—”

“No.” She reached out, feeling the expanse of his chest, and then went lower and wrapped her fingers around his penis. “I'm very comfortable. In the dark. Please humor me.” She didn't usually say 'please.' Usually she let them leave if they balked.

He released a breath, but she couldn't tell whether it was out of frustration or in reaction to her hand on him. Either way, he relented, lying down beside her. She kissed him, wanting to feel his mouth on hers again. He ran his hands down her body, over her stomach, nestling in her pubic hair. His fingers rubbed provocatively back and forth as he moved from her mouth to her jaw and down her neck. 

Desire swirled through her, different from anything she'd ever felt. She felt the urge to let go, to flow down that lazy river. But letting go meant losing control, so she pulled herself back.

“You alright?” he asked, running the words together.

Had she stiffened? He was eerily perceptive. “Fine. Wonderful. But you don't have to do all this…kissing and touching. I know guys want to get to it. I'm fine with that.”

She thought he lifted his head because she no longer felt his mouth on her collarbone. 

“Is that what blokes want? To shag and be done with it?”

“Yes. And it's okay, really.”

“Erica, I don't know what kind of blokes you've been with, but I like to take my time. And I like to make sure the woman I'm with gets as much out of it as I do. I want to hear you screaming and panting before I'm done.”

Those words shivered through her. Except screaming would mean losing control, something she never, ever did. 

“No, please, just…shag me. I want you so much I can't wait for anything else.” She wondered if he could hear the lie in her breathless words. 

“You don't want me to go down on you?” He sounded baffled. “Women tell me that's the only way they can get off. And there's nothing like the sound a woman makes when my tongue—”

“No, I don't want that.”

“You're sure you want any of this? I mean, I'm up for it, but you seem conflicted.”

“I do want this, and I'm not conflicted.” She did want it. Her body ached for it, and something else, something deeper. Why was he questioning her? He was getting easy sex. Isn't that what most men wanted? “I want you, Magnus. I want you inside me. Now.”

She pushed him flat on the bed, then climbed on top of him. She took him in hand and fumbled with the drawer where she'd thrown a condom. Even though she'd promised herself she wouldn't do this again. 

He was no doubt the biggest guy she'd ever been with. Blindly, she smoothed the condom down over him. Easing in took longer than usual, stretching her, but he filled her in a way she'd never felt before. His hands came up to her waist as he guided her motions. But he wasn't trying to speed her up. No, he was taking his time. She set a fast pace, expecting him to finish in a minute or two. Then he could leave, and she could torment herself for giving in again. This was something her body wanted, but her soul always resisted. 

Instead, Magnus rolled her onto her back and kissed her. She started to move her head away. She didn't like kissing, but something inside her responded to his mouth on hers, coaxing her to open to him. She did, and his tongue traced lazy circles around hers. Before she could think about it, she was matching his movements, joining the kiss.

“Can we turn on the light now?” he said between kisses.

“No. I like the dark.”

His hand skimmed down her arm. “If it's the scars you're worried about, I don't care. You feel beautiful.”

She squeezed her eyes shut at those words. Was this guy for real? She could only shake her head, afraid her voice would give away how that made her feel.

“Next time,” he whispered against her cheek. He caressed her breast and then rubbed his thumb over her nipple. “Next time I will see you.”

She shivered at the declaration, unable to tell him that there wouldn't be another time. There was never more than one encounter.

He positioned her legs on either side of his waist, gripping her hips and entering her again. The angle allowed him to drive into the deepest part of her, sending crazy sensations shooting through her. He drew one hand to her nub, where he stroked as he thrust. She had never had an orgasm, but she felt 
something
 as they moved together. Pressure building inside her, a throbbing where he touched her. She had never been with anyone like Magnus, a man who wanted her to experience pleasure. Who insisted on it. 
 

He took his time, varying the rhythm. Several minutes had gone by, ten, maybe twenty. She'd lost track of time, forgetting to hope this finished fast. Hearing his breathing come in shallow pants, his low groan of pleasure, stirred her. Her breaths were coming faster, too, and her body was moving of its own volition, shifting for a better angle, speeding the pace. 

Losing control. Enjoying him too much.

Mentally she pulled back. 

His body jerked, his grip tightened, and she felt him throb inside her. He called out, “Jessie!” 

Now she physically pulled away, stumbling off the bed.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I didn't mean to—”

“Call me by another woman's name.” She gained her footing. “Look, it's no big deal. We hardly know each other.” But she heard the anger and hurt in her voice, which didn't make any sense because they did hardly know each other.

With a 
click
, the light snapped on, filling the room with glaring light. He wasn't going to hide from his blunder. In fact, he met her gaze head on. “It's not what you think.”
 

She snatched up the sheet and covered herself. “Sounded to me like you were thinking about another woman.” 

He looked thrown off, shaking his head. “It wasn't like that.” He went into the bathroom while she pulled on her clothes.

When he came out, she asked, “Who's Jessie?” The question came out in that terse voice again.

“She's my brother's girl.”

“You were imagining your 
brother's girl
 while you were doing me?” The words fairly screamed out of her mouth. “That's despicable on two levels.”
 

He rubbed his hand over his face. “I wanted the lights on. I wanted to see 
you
, but you've obviously got some kind of hang up.” He shook his head, pulling on his jeans and then grabbing his shirt and shrugging into it. “For some reason, coming threw me into this nightmare I've been having every night. I…” He looked as though he were in agony. “I can't explain it without sounding crazy.” 
 

“So you'd rather me think you an asshole than crazy?”

He blinked at her harsh words. “It's probably better that way. You're right, I'm an arsehole. I was hoping being with you would drive Jessie out of my cells because I felt a similar 
something
 with you that I did with her.”
 

Felt what?
 she wanted to ask but held the question back. “So you were using me to get some girl out of your system?”
 

“Like you were using me to get release. At least that’s all I thought you wanted. Then you let down all your walls for a few minutes, and I realized you need more than that.”

“I do not! Please leave now.”

He met her eyes, his filled with a pain she didn't understand. “It's better this way, you despising me. I'm messed up beyond what you could ever understand.” 

He left, not slamming the door as she'd expect but closing it softly behind him.

Beyond what she could understand? Holy hell, he 
was
 the killer. 
 

He's a psychic killer.
 Because she swore he could read her mind. The Janis Joplin song, what her soul needed that her mind refused to acknowledge, all too eerie.
 

Okay, maybe that was going too far. Right now she was only concerned about one thing: finding proof that he was the Heart Ripper and killing him. Erica stepped out of her room the moment his headlights slashed across her door. She was going to follow him.

CHAPTER 3

The beast clawed at him. Magnus felt the slice across his throat, the warm blood pouring down his skin and the pain. He saw Jessie's horror-struck expression as he fell to the ground. 
Can't help her. She'll die
.
 

“Jessie!”

He woke as he did every morning, that one word filled with his terror at the fact that he couldn't help her. He bowed his head, scrubbing his face.
 She's alive and fine. Why do I keep having the nightmare?
 

And why had it popped to mind when he'd been with Erica? What an arse he'd been, though not intentionally. If she'd left the lights on, maybe he'd have been looking at 
her
 and not gotten caught up in the memory. Bloody hell, he hoped having an orgasm wouldn't trigger the flashback. Erica was the first woman he'd been with since being infected with Darkness.
 

He got dressed and checked out of the motel room he'd booked just down the street from the one Erica was staying. He felt disoriented, out of sorts. Nothing new, really, since he'd been afflicted with Darkness. What 
was
 new was being drawn here to Strasford. Yesterday he left the house first thing in the morning for what he thought was a road trip. He followed a strong pull to this town that seemed ordinary on the surface. But something was different about this place. Not only the tremors and the foul attitude of the locals. Something pulsed here, an energy that thrummed inside him. 
 

Today he was going out to the desert. He wanted to run, let his beast free, and find out more. The energy grew stronger on the northern edge of town. He walked into the chilly morning air to check out. 

A skinny guy paced outside the office door, one hand holding a cell phone to his ear. “I'm telling you, there's no logical reason for the tremors. I've studied the charts, the plates, and the seismologic data. I've got a call into the NEIC. Their seismometers don't detect anything. Not a blip. The disruption is completely localized. And I can't find a single reason for it. I need a few more days because this is driving me crazy.”

The guy was just hanging up when Magnus emerged from the office. He paused, then decided, what the hell? “You're a seismologist?” 

“Yes.” The guy raked long, knobby fingers through his thick hair. “A frustrated one, as you can tell.”

“Let me ask you this: do you feel a dense energy in the area?” Magnus wasn't sure how to even describe it. He flattened his hand on his chest. “Like a vibration you can feel inside?”

The guy looked up, as though to tune in. After a few seconds, he shook his head. “No, I don't feel anything like that.”

Magnus shrugged. “Maybe it's just me. Have a good one, mate.”

Maybe it's just me.
 It was him, he realized. Darkness. Whatever pulled him here connected to that foreign energy inside him. Drew it, and thus, him. The closer he'd gotten to Strasford, the stronger the vibration. Add the tremors, the eruptions of tempers in the last few weeks, and something was very wrong here.
 

Once in his car, he headed north. A glance in the rearview mirror had him thinking about Erica again. The woman in the car a few lengths back reminded him of her, though she was wearing sunglasses. 

Erica had hang ups, no doubt. He'd never been with a woman who wanted sex but didn't want pleasure. He'd picked up snatches of her thoughts, first her need for the connection of sex and her attraction to him. She'd put up the boundaries: the light being off, wanting to get right down to it. But he knew she wanted more than the physical release, so he'd pushed past those boundaries by giving her the pleasure she needed on a deeper level. It had surprised her…and scared her. He felt her close up, and then he'd been hit by the flashback. 

He'd sensed her relief at being able to send him away with good reason. That's what she obviously did, reached out and then pushed back. It was that need, that hint of fragility, that made him realize he just needed to go instead of try to make things right. The last thing she needed, even temporarily, was someone like him in her life.

He pulled into a small parking area for a trailhead. 
WANDERING HILLS PARK
, the sign read. The trail, packed smooth dirt, did wander up into the hills covered in scrub and evergreens. He stepped out into the bright sunny morning, seeing his breath fog in the cold air. The energy thrummed even stronger here. He needed to find out what it was. 
 

The closer he got to the source, the stronger his urge to Become. He knew when Darkness was coming but hadn’t mastered control over it yet. The mountain lion was the animal he'd chosen to focus his energy into Becoming. His lion pushed against him, wanting to burst out. Jessie's dad had warned Magnus about that, but it usually happened as a result of some strong emotion. Magnus had dulled everything inside him. Or rather, the hopelessness of his situation had. Why was the drive to Become so overwhelming? 

He jogged past a blond man with his backpack and walking stick.

The man waved. “Morning! Beautiful out here, isn't it?” He was way too friggin' cheery.