Night Falls on the Wicked - By Sharie Kohler Page 0,75
of his feet. He exited the park and whipped through the city, guided by his nose and instinct. Guided by his heart. Something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Something he didn’t think he’d ever felt.
Before Darby.
DARBY WOKE GROGGILY, HER head heavy and aching as if she were hung over from a night of binge drinking. She’d had a few of those nights in the past. When she’d first left home and everything—everyone—she ever knew, she took solace in a bottle once or twice. Until mornings like this convinced her to stop feeling sorry for herself and put an end to that.
The cold greeted her stiff body. With a wince, she lifted her face, peeling it off a grimy surface. The entire side of her body that pressed against the floor ached. Tears pricked her eyes as blood flowed back into those numb parts of her body. With the flow of blood came pain.
She contemplated her situation as she blinked her burning eyes. The demon must have grown tired of the struggle—with her and the bitter cold. She carefully prodded around inside herself, poking about to see if he was somewhere in there, just dormant. Did demons even sleep? She didn’t sense him at all. Not inside her or anywhere else.
Faint memories of the night before filtered through her mind. She concentrated, pulling them forth like elusive dreams from the dark.
It had been a constant battle throughout the night between her and the demon. Back and forth they went. One moment she would wrest control when the demon slipped away, too plagued by the cold.
In those moments of freedom, she would walk as quickly as she could, practically running from the bus station where he’d been trying to lead her. And she didn’t need an explanation as to why he was taking her there. He was trying to get her on a bus headed south, where it wasn’t so cold. If he succeeded in that, she would forever be at his mercy. Her face felt tight and itchy with the weight of this very real fear.
Slowly and with a hiss of discomfort, she rose into a sitting position, taking a moment to assess her surroundings. She didn’t know where she was. In a building of some sort, on the floor of a dingy room where the overriding color was gray. Faint sunlight trickled in from the boarded-up windows, motes of dust dancing on the beams.
In the distance a car alarm blared over the cacophony of a relentless power drill. She pushed the tangle of red hair from her face and inspected her room more fully. Newspaper littered the floor. It dawned on her that this was an abandoned house that transients probably used. She had somehow found her way here during the night.
Standing, she stretched out her sore muscles and rubbed filthy hands on the thighs of her jeans. God, she felt gross. It felt necessary. She needed to find a bathroom and get washed up. She doubted she could even get on a bus looking the way she did.
But she needed to hurry. Her demon could come back at any moment. Her demon. Her stomach rolled, rebelling against the sour thought. That her life had fallen to such lows, that she had fallen to such depths rocked her to her core.
For Aimee… for Niklas, a voice whispered across her mind. That made it worth it. Aimee was safe now. And Niklas would have peace at last. They’d forget her and move on with their lives.
Strange that this had all happened just when she’d opened herself up for the first time in her life. Just when she had decided to embrace people back into her life. Love—when she had thought to try to find love for herself again. That maybe she deserved it like everyone else. That she needed it to live through this life.
Her newly woken legs shook as she strode to one of the boarded windows. A big crack gaped between the nailed-up boards. She wanted to get a glimpse of the world waiting for her.
She peered outside. The face of a brownstone apartment building stared back at her from across the street. A construction site was in full swing next door to it. Several men with hard hats walked in and out of the structure, carrying boards, wiring and other materials. Maybe she could ask one of them for directions to the bus station—where she would buy a ticket for the first bus headed north.