Turn to Darkness (Offspring 5.6) (8 page)

Finally he pulled her on top of him as he rolled onto his back.
Oh, boy. Still driving.

She found she liked being in control, loved that he’d give it to her, but now performance anxiety settled in.

She took him in hand, felt the girth and wondered how the hell he was going to fit inside her. Another reason for letting her drive, she realized; she could ease in at her leisure. She did, feeling a pinch, a stretching, and then all of him filling all of her. It hurt and felt good at the same time. The good was worth the pain.

They moved together, his hands gripping her hips, kneading her butt, and she found herself falling into a rhythm. A feeling of satisfaction like she’d never felt before washed over her. She could easily get lost in the sensations, but she wanted to be present, to focus on everything she felt in her body.

He never stopped touching her, sliding one hand up her stomach, caressing her breasts, and taking his time getting to his own satisfaction. When she felt him pulse and jerk, he squeezed her tight and arched his body. He let out those deep, low groans and somewhere in there whispered her name.

Hers.

He slowly came back to himself, surprised to find her watching him. She grinned. “I like watching you come.”

He didn’t even look embarrassed, grinning back. “Ditto.”

She, however, was embarrassed at that. She lay down on his chest, sliding her hands up over his shoulders. “You’re too good.”

“ ‘Too’ good? Because I’ve had experience? None of that matters. You were great.”

“No, not that. It has nothing to do with lovemaking skills.”

He tried to sit up, to meet her gaze, but she remained there, keeping him from doing so. Instead he fluffed his fingers through her hair. “What are you talking about?”

She traced circles around his nipple. “You’re good, Greer. A good person.”

“So are you.”

“I have all this baggage. And I always seem to mess things up. The position I put myself in six years ago. Look how I overreacted over the whole you-walking-in-on-me thing. I stupidly put myself into Darius’s space, triggering some crazy reaction in him that’s gotten you two into altercations. I moved out, losing my home. I know I’ll mess this up, too, or you’ll see that I’m too damaged to deal with long term. And I’ll understand, you know, when that happens. For God’s sake, don’t stick around when you want to leave.”

He rolled her over this time, keeping her close enough so they were still intimately connected. “Are you trying to tell me that I’m too good . . . for you?”

“Well, yes. Look what you are, and what I am.”

“You have a successful business that you started all by yourself.”

“You guys helped in the beginning.”

He pressed his finger against her collarbone. “You did it, Shea. We helped you figure out some stuff, hauled some plants in the beginning, but this is your baby.”

“And you save lives. You saved that toddler a few months ago. You’re a hero.”

“It doesn’t matter what we’ve done, good or bad.” He drew his finger down to her heart. “It only matters what we feel for each other. And you matter too much for me to let you turn away under the guise of you being damaged or that you might screw this up. You’re not as damaged as you think. You just made love to me, let me touch you everywhere. You didn’t cringe or flinch away.”

“Because of you. You made it all right.”

“You made it all right. I only helped. Just like with your business. And if you screw up and, what, piss me off, what will I do? Just up and leave? You think that would do it?”

“I don’t know. You might up and realize I’m not what you want.”

He gripped her face, leaning close to hers. “I won’t, Shea. I’ve known you too long to fall in and out of love with you like that. The thing is, I never fell in love with any of those women. Infatuated, sure. But I did fall for you.” He took her hand, which was fisted in her agony, and pressed it against his heart. “You’re here. The only thing that would mess that up is if you screw around on me. Then I’d have to kill the guy, and I really don’t want to do that. But you don’t strike me as the fooling around type.”

She started to shake her head, but a thump against the wall jerked their attention in the direction of Darius’s room. Big
thumps
, like a body slam.

“Hell,” Greer said, pulling away from her to grab his pants. “Either he’s gone batshit crazy or . . .”

“Frost found us.”

Chapter Nine

T
HEY THREW ON
clothes, and Greer ran to the room next door, Shea right behind him. He tried the door, banged on it, but heard only growls and thumps coming from inside. Two different kinds of growls.

“Frost,” they both said in unison.

Fat chance anyone was going to let him in.

With a quick glance at Shea, he morphed to smoke and slid beneath the door just as Darius had earlier. The room was dark, with paneled walls and curtains drawn. In Darkness, he could see well enough: a broken lamp, nightstand on its side, one man-thing and . . . a bear. Frost was a friggin’ bear. Both turned to him when he materialized as panther in the room.

Darius said, “I’ve got this.”

The bear turned to him, his own gray eyes—minus the brown ring—boring into him. Frost tried to ram him, but Greer stepped out of the way with a second to spare. The bear slammed into the wall. Darius jumped on Frost then, taking advantage of his momentary disorientation. Greer saw him wrap creepy long arms and legs, in the misty form he’d assumed, around the bear.

Frost turned and took a chunk out of Darius’s arm. He fell back, his dark mist trying to repair itself. Greer as panther launched himself at the bear then, tearing at his back. He sank his claws into the cool, dense energy that was Darkness. The bear howled, spinning fast and throwing him off his back. He was slammed into Darius, who was making yowling noises as he repaired his wound, and they both fell to the floor. When Greer jumped up, Frost was slipping beneath the door.

Shea!

He followed, his chest so tight he couldn’t breathe. As bear again, Frost had her by the throat. She scratched and flailed at his thick arms. Frost looked up, his eyes widening as Greer flew at him. He dropped Shea and ran.

“You okay?” Greer asked her.

She nodded, her hands at her throat. “Fine. Go.”

Greer shot after the bear. In the wee hours, if someone spotted them, they’d think them wild animals. They crossed a highway and an expanse of dirt. Far from civilization, though he could see lights in the near distance. He remembered seeing it from the road, a large piece of land with a lake in the middle. It had caught his eye because it was odd to see a lake in this area.

Footsteps pounded behind him. It was instinct to check, which he did, though he figured it was Darius, who he saw barreling toward him as fast as a long-distance runner. Greer turned back toward Frost, who was now out of sight. He saw reeds move and ran toward them.

“I’ll handle this,” Darius whispered fiercely.

“That’s what this guy wants, you idiot. One on one. We outnumber him. Let’s pound him and finish this.”

With a grunt, Darius launched himself into the reeds. The sound of two bodies colliding followed, then a splash. Greer rolled his eyes. What the hell was his problem? Why take on a guy by yourself when you’ve got help?

He threw himself in, his feet sinking into the muddy water. The two of them were struggling a short distance out, big bear and weird-shaped man. Too caught up in their fight to notice him. Darius kept tearing at the bear’s throat, sending bits of Darkness flying. They knew shredding Darkness faster than the enemy could repair it could kill.

Like water and oil, Darkness and water didn’t blend well either. It was harder to hold the form while submerged. Greer remained mostly out of the water, feeling the slipperiness in his lower legs as he crept up behind the bear. He tore at his thick leg, sending the bear falling sideways.

Greer moved out of the way in time to avoid having the beast fall on him. Darius rode the bear down, sinking his fangs into its neck. God, he reminded Greer of a vampire, claws extending from his fingers, bloodlust in his eyes. That those eyes were focused on him sent a shiver down his body.

The bear’s paws flailed, trying to push Darius off. “They’ll only send more of us,” Frost growled. “If I disappear, too, they’ll send more. They know about you and the girl.”

He was talking to Darius. They knew only about the two they’d seen at the house, was that what he was saying?

Finally the bear sagged fully into the water, morphing back to man. Which meant he didn’t have the strength to mend himself. Greer had gone into Darkness to heal himself when he’d gotten burned in a fire once. Tuck had pulled Darkness into himself to heal when he’d taken a tumble down a cliff. But the man in the water, sinking now, not struggling . . . he was dead.

Except Darius kept at him.

“Stop. He’s gone,” Greer said, uncomfortable with his bloodlust. He morphed back to human.

Darius eyed Greer with bedeviled eyes and kept at it. Greer stepped out of the water, his jeans heavy and wet. Thankfully, he didn’t see Shea anywhere. At least she knew better than to throw herself into the fray. Without Darkness, she had no chance. He turned back to Darius, who was walking out of the water now.

“I told you I had it,” he said on a growl.

“You’re welcome for the help. Look, that’s what we do, back each other up. Work as a team.”

“Is that what you were doing in Shea’s room.” Darius’s upper lip lifted in a wolflike snarl.
“Were we working as a team?”

Greer’s body prickled with wariness at the snide, angry tone in his voice. “What Shea and I do is none of your business.”

Darius launched at him. “I’m not going to let you break her heart.”

Greer Became the moment before he hit the ground. He felt Darius’s fangs sink into his arm as his claws tore at Darius’s shoulder. “I’m not going to break her heart, you son of a bitch. I love her.” The words slipped out.

“You don’t love her,” Darius said, twisting his body around, trying to get at his neck. “Maybe you
want
her, because she’s a challenge. Poor Greer, the one girl who won’t fall into his bed.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You have plenty of women. Why pick Shea? Why the one I want?”

“I’ve known her for five years,” Greer said through gritted teeth, trying to reason with someone who, he realized, couldn’t be reasoned with. Darius had definitely gone off the rails. Over Shea. He’d had too much taste for bloodshed lately, and because he’d saved her from her stalker, felt he owned her.

And Darius was trying to kill him to get him out of the way. To save Shea from the threat that Darius’s warped mind had decided he was.

Hell.

Greer lowered his head and butted Darius as his head came down to bite him. Darius staggered back, and Greer landed on him. “Enough.” Darius bucked, but Greer held him down. “You think Shea will want you if you kill me? You think she likes that kind of violence?”

“You have her under a spell. She’ll be free of you when you die.”

Good God, the guy was delusional, too.

He tried to pin him down, even as Darius struggled. “I don’t have her under a spell. We care about each other. What you saw between us was our relationship changing from friendship to something more. Yes, uncomfortable for her because she doesn’t want to be in a romantic relationship. Let her choose who she wants to be with. I’ll step aside if she chooses you.”

He knew she wouldn’t.

“Not with your spell on her. You’re using Darkness somehow to spell her.” Surprisingly, Darius morphed to man. He was breathing as heavily as Greer was. Something had changed in his expression, and Greer didn’t like it one bit.

He got off him, though, and morphed to man, too. “Darius, listen to yourself. I can’t use Darkness like that.”

Darius used his arms to push himself to a sitting position. He scrubbed his fingers through his mussed hair. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m just a little crazy.”

Greer didn’t believe for a second that he’d come to his senses, but he played along. “Glad to hear that.”

Darius held out his hand, looking at it as though he’d never seen it before. “I want to try out something I saw my biological father use. He dropped Tuck and me to the floor.” He stared hard at his hand, and his palm began to glow.

Greer had heard about the Force, but before he could think to even move, it hit him like a wave of solid rock. He fell to the ground, feeling gravel biting into his back. His first instinct was to Become, but he couldn’t. Tuck had said that it prevented him from Becoming. He was right; as hard as Greer tried, he couldn’t turn to panther.

Darius laughed. “It works! If I hold you long enough, your cells will explode.”

It felt like they already were, the pain excruciating. He tried to drag himself over to Darius.

“You’ll never make it, buddy. You’re fading fast. Getting weaker and weaker. How does it feel to have to drag yourself on the ground? Humiliating? Now you know how I’ve felt, time and again around you people.”

Black spots danced before Greer’s eyes. He grabbed hold of Darius’s ankle and focused on his own ability. Heat surged in his hand, burning the flesh at Darius’s ankle.

But Darius was paralyzed. Hell, he couldn’t feel a thing, probably didn’t even know what he was doing. Darius was trying to shake him off but wasn’t reacting to the burn.

Have to get higher.

He dragged himself closer, but the pain weakened him, blackened his vision.

“Die, you jerk, and free Shea.”

As Greer’s head dropped to the ground, his grip loosened on Darius’s ankle. His hand fell to the dirt. Blood trickled from his nose, tickling across his upper lip as gravity took it down.

“She’s mine now. You hear me. She’s all mine now.”

Those were the horrifying words Greer took into the dark.

Chapter Ten

S
HEA STOOD AT
the front edge of the parking lot, looking out into the night where Greer had run. She was cold, so cold, and the breeze was picking up. She’d had to assure one of the fellow guests that the sounds they’d heard were only a spat.

Smoke trailed along the ground, sliding up to her ankle and then going into Darius’s room. She kept searching the dark expanse of highway and beyond for Greer.

“Shea,” Darius whispered. “Come in here.”

Fear clutched her chest. She backed up to the door, still looking. He grabbed her and yanked her into the room, closing the door.

“Where’s Greer?” she asked, pulling away from him.

He was still in Darkness, much taller than she and scary as hell. “He’s dead.”

Her knees buckled and she caught herself from falling by turning and sitting on the edge of the bed. “No.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Frost got him. He held his hand out and emitted this deadly force—”

“Like what Tuck described his father doing?”

“Yeah, exactly like that. Greer just dropped. Blood came out of his ear, and you know that’s not a good thing. He was unresponsive . . .”

She headed to the door, her legs still weak, not hearing the rest of what he was saying. “We have to go to him.”

“No, Shea, it’s too late. He’s dead. I checked. He had no pulse. You can heal but you can’t bring back the dead. Least I don’t think you can. In the movies when they do that, they become undead. Zombies.”

“What if he’s not dead. I have to—”

Again he pulled her back, his strong hands clamped on her shoulders. “It’s too late.”

She shivered but didn’t pull away this time. “I want to see him anyway.”

“Don’t you believe me?”

“Of course.” She cleared the tremble from her voice. “Why wouldn’t I?”

He spun her around to face him. “Then why would you want to see a dead body. That’s all he is, you know. He’s gone, floated up to heaven.” He waggled his fingers in an upward motion. His voice held no sorrow. “On the bright side, so is the asshole who’s been hunting us. But right before he died, he said they’d be sending more to find us.”

This couldn’t be happening. Greer, dead? Still being hunted?

“Please turn back to human,” she whispered.

“Do I scare you?” He leaned even closer, so near she could feel the coolness of him.

She pushed him back. “Don’t get in my face.”

He chuckled and sat back in his chair before becoming human again.

“You think it’s
funny
? How can you laugh?”

“I try to find humor in life.” Something she’d never seen in Darius. “You’re going to have to get used to me. Shea, we have to get out of here. We don’t know if Frost told anyone we were here. We should go together. I can protect you.”

“We have to tell Tuck—”

“We will, honey, we will. But right now we have to get out of here.” He rolled his chair closer. “I know you’re in shock, broken up about Greer. I feel terrible. I wish I could have helped him.” He pulled her hands so that she had to stumble down to his level, and then dragged her into his arms. He rubbed his hand over her back to soothe her.

She stiffened. Something wasn’t right. Of course, Greer being gone—she stifled a sob—that was so wrong. She backed away and glanced down. Gasped. “Your ankle!”

The bottom of his pant leg was burnt, and the skin she could see was an angry red. He pulled his pants material up to see the skin on his leg. “Hell.”

“We have to put something on it.”

“Later. I don’t feel it.”

“But it’ll get infected.”

“It’ll be fine for another hour or two, long enough for us to get out of here.”

She couldn’t take her eyes from it. Something about it . . . “How did that happen?”

“Greer got his hot-hand ability from his father, of course. Frost managed to get me before I killed him.”

A man’s desperate attempt to stop his killer. Frost. Why was her heart a frozen block of ice?

Darius rolled to the door. “Remember, sweetheart, that I’m the one who killed them. I protected you.”

“Them?”

He stopped for a moment, as though replaying what he’d said. “Them, Callahan and Frost, of course.”

His momentary hesitation tripped her heartbeat. If he’d meant them, and only them, he wouldn’t have had to think about it. The man who could emit the deadly force, he wasn’t only Tuck’s father; he was Darius’s father, too.

“I’ll kill the other two guys,” he said. “Give me their names. I’ll take care of anyone who causes you distress.”

“How did you get away from him?” she asked, meeting Darius’s eyes, gauging him. “How did you escape this superweapon?”

“I turned to smoke. Greer wasn’t that fast. He wasn’t as good at fighting as I am. None of them are, which should bring you great comfort that you’re with me.”

Greer
was
very good at it; she’d seen him. She also knew that the Force rendered them unable to Become.

Which meant Darius was lying. Which most likely meant . . . he’d killed Greer. That burn was Greer’s attempt to stop
Darius
. She choked on a gasp.

“I know it’s hard to take,” Darius said in a soft, completely sane voice. A voice that, despite everything he’d told her, held no emotion. “I will comfort you, my dear, but we have to leave now.”

She flexed her fingers, wanting to scream and cry and tear out his eyes. Why had he started calling her by all these endearments?

A knock on the door startled both of them. Darius yanked it open, finding the desk clerk on the other side. “You have to leave,” the clerk said. “The guests are complaining about fighting.” His gaze went to the room, which was a wreck. “I’m calling the police.” He spun and started walking away.

Darius’s long arms, black as night, slipped past her, grabbed the man and snapped his neck. Just like that, his body fell to the concrete. Darius dragged him back into the room, dumping him unceremoniously on the floor.

The edges of her vision closed in. She grabbed onto the side of the dresser to hold herself up, fighting to stay lucid. This wasn’t real. Suddenly Darius’s hands were on her shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“You killed him.”

“I had to. He was going to call the police. Now do you see why we have to go?”

She
had to go. She only nodded. He’d catch her if she tried to run from him now. Her gaze went to the man’s body as Darius packed his bag. He’d kill her, too.

“I’m going to pack,” she said, her voice hollow.

“I’ll meet you in your room in a couple of minutes.”

She stepped outside, staring into the darkness where Greer had run, and took off. Barefoot, her feet took a pounding, but they were quiet as she padded across the asphalt and the road. She had no way to find Greer out there in the dark. Moonlight glittered on the lake’s surface but threw everything into a weird bas relief.

She was still in her long nightshirt, and the cold air gripped her like an icy hand. Her muscles burned, though, creating heat. Rocks dug into her feet, but the sand was softer. She saw the reeds surrounding the lake in the near distance and ran toward them, the only cover on this side. On the far side of the lake a small hill of dirt rose up. Her lungs ached as she reached the edge of the reeds, all the while searching for any sign of Greer.

“Shea!”

She sucked in a gasp, seeing Darius’s dark figure streaking across the street toward her. Of course, he would have guessed she’d come here to find Greer. She also knew he’d go right to Greer’s location on the off chance that she’d found him. She crouched low in the reeds, trying to calm her breathing. Darius slowed as he reached the midway point between the road and the lake. She’d gotten used to seeing the others in their animal forms, but Darius’s subhuman form gave her the creeps. Now she knew he was just as deadly.

“Dammit, Shea, we don’t have time for this!” he screamed, a dangerous edge in his voice. “I told you, he’s dead. You can’t do anything for him.”

She watched him stalk across the ground, away from her. And followed. She stepped on something sharp, swallowing her grunt of pain. She remained near the line of reeds in case he looked back. In his form, along with the dark, she couldn’t tell if he turned his head or not.

“Shea, come on. I know you’re freaked out about Greer dying. Or maybe it’s those people who are after us. We’ll get through this together, all right? But you have to trust me.”

Like hell.

Her heart shattered at the sight of a human lying on the ground up ahead. It was all she could do to stop herself from running to him. Darius stood near the body for a moment, spinning around to search for her.

It could be Frost’s body. Don’t panic.

Darius mumbled something and took several steps toward the lake. That’s when she noticed a pair of legs sticking out from the water’s edge. Which meant the man’s head was in the water.
Okay, let that be Frost.
Darius kept going, calling for her, blending into the night. She crept closer, her chest so tight she could hardly breathe. Her toe hit something, sending it across the sand. The pain didn’t compare to her fright that Darius had heard the slight sound. She hesitated, then heard him call her name a short distance away.

The man on the ground wore only jeans, like Greer. Another step closer and she recognized his dark hair, the lines of his face. She held in her gasp of agony and dropped down next to him. Her hands touched his face. So cold.

No! Please, don’t be dead.

She ran her fingers down his neck to feel for a pulse. Where was the pulse point? Her fingers were like rubber things out of her control. Not finding one there, she ran her hand down his arm and searched for his wrist point. Wait. His skin was stippled with goose bumps. Which meant he was alive!

The line of blood from his ear down his cheek shot fear into her. The Force exploded cells. Was Greer still in there mentally? She didn’t care, she had to save him.

She held her hands over his body and directed her healing powers. They would drain her, but Greer wouldn’t hold out long enough for her to wait any longer. She wasn’t even sure what a hospital could do for him.

Leaning close to his ear, she whispered, “Greer, it’s me. Please, please don’t die. I need you. I mean, I
need
you. When we made love, I felt whole. Complete. Free. I’ve never connected to someone like that before, body and soul. It was scary, yes, but not runaway scary. I’m not going to run away from you ever again.” She felt her heart open, and with it, her healing ability grew stronger.

The prickle of pain quickly grew to a pounding agony that wracked her body. This was what he’d experienced. Only a few seconds in, a cell phone rang nearby.

No.
She turned, seeing the telltale light in the vicinity of the thing she’d stubbed her toe on. No, no, no! In the distance she saw Darius’s black form careening toward her. She had to finish healing Greer, and she knew Darius wouldn’t let her.

“Please be quiet,” she whispered to Greer before scampering toward the nearby reeds.

“Shea,” Darius said. He approached the phone, picked it up, then dropped it again. He searched, or seemed to, remaining in the same spot.

Her body shook, the pain still arcing through her. The fatigue hadn’t set in, which meant she hadn’t healed Greer enough.

Finally, Darius began to walk back in the direction from which he’d come, to continue his search. “Shea! Come out. We don’t have time for your hysterics.” He wasn’t coaxing her now.

Greer groaned, a soft sound but loud enough for her to hear. Could Darius hear it, too? He paused, then turned and came back.

If he thought Greer was still alive, he’d finish him off. And if he used the Force, she’d feel it, too. Tuck and Del had described it as overwhelming. Their only defense had been hiding behind a concrete wall. Nothing like that out here. She’d probably give away her location as she writhed in pain.

Darius morphed to human, the form he needed to use the Force. He sat on the ground now, holding himself up with one arm, reaching out with his other. She focused on Frost’s body, lifting his arm and letting it splash down in the water. Darius jerked to his feet, in Darkness within those moments. She pushed Frost’s body, drawing from her deepest strength. In the dark, it looked like Frost was trying to swim out to the middle of the lake.

Darius sloshed through the water toward him. “Son of a bitch, you can’t be alive, too.”

Her whole body moved with the effort to get Frost farther out. Darius finally reached him, waist-high in the water, and grabbed for Frost’s body. What now?

Tuck had once told her they couldn’t hold Darkness as well when they were in the water. She darted out and with a huge push shoved Darius into the water face first. He gasped just before plunging down. She threw herself on top of him then, to add her physical strength and weight to her psychic strength. His slick body turned back to normal, his shirt clutched beneath her fingers now. Paralyzed from the waist down, Darius had only his upper arm strength. Which was a lot.

He thrashed in the water, but she managed to keep him down. Not much; his back crested out of the water but his face was still several inches below the surface. If he lifted his head, he’d be able to take a breath. She pushed down harder on the back of his head, using her psychic ability.

He reached his hand back, to try to grab her, and managed to knock her to the side, but she kept her focus on holding him down. The water wasn’t deep, but it was deep enough. She gained her footing and pushed down on him again. His palm thrust out toward her. He was probably holding himself up with his other hand.

She knew she had to keep him from sending out that pulse in her direction. Tuck had said that, describing how they’d taken down the man from whom they’d inherited their abilities. She felt the edge of the pulse now. Though it wasn’t blasting her directly, it hurt anyway, searing across her skin, throbbing in her head.

She grabbed for his wrist, pushing it away, but he still fought her. She was using all of her psychic ability to hold his body down. She’d have to depend on her physical strength to push his hand away. Darius managed to lift his head a few inches, gasping, sucking in air. She shoved him back down, but he’d gained a bit of strength.