Chapter Six
Later that night, I sat on the edge of my bed with Two Socks in my lap, and I stroked his head absently. I’d done nothing but think since leaving Nancy’s house a few hours earlier, and I realized that there was still a lot I didn’t know about what I was, and what the others were. I should have stayed longer, and I should have asked her about the cats. I bet they’re unique to necromancers somehow.
Two Socks chirped and I looked down at him. “You knew that guy was weird like me, didn’t you? You were trying to warn me about him.” He nuzzled my hand and I smiled. “You are just too adorable, you know that?” I lifted him up and touched my nose to his, and he sneezed in my face. “Thank you. I really appreciated that,” I said, wiping my face with my sleeve.
“I’m sure you did.”
I jumped, and Two Socks hopped to the floor with a growl. His back arched and he spat at the strange man perched on the oak tree limb just beneath my window. I jumped to my feet and whirled to face him. “What do you want with me?” He climbed through the window and I automatically took a step back when he turned his glowing pale blue eyes on me. “Haven’t you terrorized me enough today?”
He raised his hands. “I’m sorry if I scared you earlier. I may have gotten a little bit carried away. I was angry that I’d wasted my time, and I overreacted. I’m sorry,” he said again, though it sounded like it pained him to admit it.
“You may have gotten carried away?” I hissed venomously. “You broke into my room and searched through my things while I was asleep! Then you showed up at my school, you cornered me, and you terrified me. I should call the police, right now.”
“That would be a waste of your time,” he said irritably. “You don’t know my name, you don’t know where I live, and you don’t know why I was doing what I did. Even if the police do manage to track me down, which is highly unlikely, they won’t be able to charge me with anything. We have friends in high places, you know. People that would understand that I was just doing what has to be done.”
“Why did breaking into my room and going through my clothes and drawers need to be done?” I asked, stepping closer. My hands clenched into fists that were most likely non-lethal, since I’d never actually hit someone before, and he smiled when he saw them. “Answer me.”
He chuckled. “I know you talked to Nancy Puckett, so you have to know by now that I’m a werewolf. Just for the record, threatening a werewolf is never a smart thing to do. I could crush someone’s windpipe without breaking a sweat.”
Oh, god, he’s going to kill me.
“Not that I would do that to you!” he hurriedly assured me, putting his hands back up. “I’m just saying, for future reference, don’t threaten me. I don’t like it,” he said, sliding quickly back into creepy murderer mode.
“Who the hell are you and why are you here?” I asked.
He lifted an eyebrow. “My name isn’t important. But I need you to come with me.”
That startled a laugh out of me. “You’re joking, right?” Hell no I’m not coming with you! Are you crazy? You’ve broken into my room, intimidated me, and now here you are, in my room again, acting all dark and mysterious. Why the hell would I go anywhere with a creep like you?”
“You’re either gonna come with me peacefully, or I’m gonna drag you out of here. There are people that need to talk to you, and they need to do it now. They’re not as convinced as I am that you’re not the necromancer they’re looking for. And if you don’t come with me to see them, they’ll come here to see you. And trust me, you don’t want that.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re impatient, angry people, and they need to figure this out. Now.”
“Figure what out?”
He made an exasperated noise. “Come with me, and you’ll find out.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” This guy was crazy if he thought I was actually leaving my house at ten o’clock at night to go talk to strange people I didn’t even know. The phone was sitting on the coffee table in the living room, and I could probably get to it in about thirty seconds. But can I get to it before he gets to me?
He frowned. “You don’t have a choice. You’re gonna make it a lot easier on yourself if you just come with me now. If you knew how important this was–”
“Then tell me!” I snapped. “Tell me who you are and why you want me.”
He took a deep breath and I could tell he was fighting to stay calm. “Fine. If it will get you to trust me–”
“It won’t.”
He ignored me. “Then I’ll tell you who I am. My name is Finn Hale, and right now I’m currently working with a council of supernatural beings, such as us, that monitor supernatural activity. Somewhere out there is a necromancer that is raising the dead to form an army, and we need to find out who it is.”
“And they think that necromancer is me,” I asked. “I’m not exactly the world domination type.”
“You’ll have to prove it to them. If you don’t come with me right now, they’ll find you, and they’ll drag you in for questioning. Trust me. If you come with me now, it’ll go a lot easier on you than if you wait.”
I weighed y options and made a quick decision. “No,” I said. “I’m not going with you. You’re going to leave my room and never come back, or I’ll report you. Do you understand me?”
He shrugged. “If that’s what you want. But I think you’ll end up regretting that decision.” He turned and ducked out the window, climbing onto the thick oak tree branch, before dropping silently to the ground. I ran over to the window and slammed it shut, catching a glimpse of him running down the street in the dark.
It took me a while to calm down enough to get ready for bed and, before I hid beneath the covers, I double checked to make sure my window was shut and locked. Two Socks was still waiting for me on the bed, and I crawled in beside him. I was more than a little freaked out about everything Finn had told me, but part of me thought it was just an empty threat. I mean, it’s not like there’s an actual Supernatural Council that goes around punishing people, right?
The more I thought about it as I drifted off, the more I realized I’d probably just done something incredibly stupid. And that thought was reinforced when a hand clamped down over my mouth just after two o’clock in the morning, and I was gagged and dragged out of my bed. Two Socks fought and scratched, but someone kicked him in the side, and they dragged me through the silent, dark house. I tried to scream and kick something over to wake up Alan and Susan, but he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.
When we got outside, he threw me into the trunk of a car, and everything went black.
Dark Secrets (Dark Heritage #1) Page 7