Dark Secrets (Dark Heritage #1)

by Samantha Hoffman

  Chapter Seven

  Finn closed the door behind us. When I turned around, I found myself in a thin, brightly lit hallway. Doors lined either side, and there were other people walking down the hall. Finn joined me with an unhappy scowl on his face, and he started walking. I had to walk fast to keep up with him, seeing as he was about ten inches taller with much longer legs and better stamina.

  Two beautiful women–one blonde and the other a natural redhead–passed by with sly smiles on their faces. “Hi, Finn,” they said, looking him up and down. The redhead winked as she walked by, and Finn smiled, but didn’t say anything. There was a little more arrogance to his walk, but they didn’t seem ruffled by his silence. The second we passed by, they started to giggle like two school girls with a secret experience.

  I glanced at Finn out of the corner of my eye, and saw him smirking at nothing in particular. Oh, gross. In my opinion, there was nothing more disgusting than a man that slept around with as many women as possible and, as another giggling girl gave him the look, I realized that was exactly what he did. A fourth girl walked by, but she turned up her nose at him when he checked her out.

  At least I know there’s one girl here with the sense to give him a wide berth. He’s hostile, a man-whore, and he apparently doesn’t like authority, seeing as he almost disobeyed the council members when they asked him to keep me company. Only a stupid girl would get involved with him!

  He turned us into a nearby open door, and closed it behind us. For a second, I panicked at the thought of being in a room alone with him, until I saw that there were some others close to our age waiting. One girl leaned against the wall, another sat on the small couch across from me, and a boy sat in an overly stuffed chair in the corner, away from everyone else.

  The first girl was barely five feet tall, with waist-length platinum blonde hair, straight bangs, and bright turquoise eyes that shined beneath luminescent, long blonde lashes that cast shadows over fine cheekbones. Most noticeable about her though were the twelve foot shimmering wings that spread out behind her, interlaced with veins and glitters of gold. They fluttered when she saw me, and she flashed me a dazzling smile.

  “Hi, I’m Tanya Beach,” she said happily. “You must be the necromancer everyone is talking about. I guess since you’re here you probably haven’t done anything wrong, so it’s alright to introduce myself.” She bounced forward and grabbed my hand, giving it a gentle shake. “I hope you weren’t too scared, being dragged out of your home like you were. I hope you understand the need for it; necromancers can be very dangerous people if they’re not on our side. The Council had to be sure you’re safe before letting you go.”

  She finally stopped to take a breath, and I just shrugged it off like I got kidnapped in the dead of night all the time, though inside I was still kind of freaking out. I didn’t know if I could trust these people or if they were going to torture and kill me the first chance they got. So I backed away a little bit, trying to even out my rapid breathing and calm my racing heart.

  Finn looked at her. “She hasn’t been entirely cleared by the Council; they’re still deliberating. But they asked me to show her around, so she can’t be too dangerous,” he said, looking down at me.

  The other girl looked me over with special interest, and strangely enough, I got the urge to cross my arms over my chest. There was something in her harsh, dark brown eyes that made me cringe inside, and even though she was my age and only two inches taller, she seemed much, much older, and much, much sadder.

  Her hair was long, curly, and a dark brown color and her eyebrows were thin and perfectly sculpted. She had a buxom build, flawless dark brown skin, and she might have been the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I wasn’t sure what it was about her that captivated me, because even though I got the feeling that she was dangerous, I wanted to ignore that feeling and just run to her.

  Finn put a hand on my shoulder, startling me. “Be careful. Holly is a vampire. A very old one, and she’ll have you in bed with your neck bared in a heartbeat. Male or female, supernatural or human, it doesn’t matter to Holly. Blood and sex is blood and sex to her.”

  “Have you had sex with her? It seems you’re pretty popular with the ladies around here,” I said, eying him. Part of me expected him to blush or shrug it off in an embarrassed way, but instead he gave me an arrogant smirk and raised his eyebrow.

  “No, I haven’t had the pleasure,” he said. “There are plenty of women here I haven’t been with, but as soon as word about how good I am in the sack travels to those I haven’t been with, I’ll be swamped by women wanting to have their worlds rocked.”

  “Ugh, that’s so disgusting!” I said, pulling away from him. “For the love of god, don’t touch me; I don’t know where your hands have been.” He threw back his head and laughed, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “You should take sex more seriously. There’ll be a day where you’ll regret being with so many women. Trust me.”

  He looked at me, more serious than he was just a few seconds ago. “That sounds like virgin talk.” He looked me up and down suggestively while I fought to keep myself from turning red. “I could change that attitude of yours. You’ll like sex with I’m through with you.”

  I snorted. “I’d rather have my face chewed off. It’d be much better than having my brain rot due to syphilis or gonorrhea.”

  Tanya laughed, and her shimmering blue wings fluttered happily. “Looks like you have your work cut out for you, Finn. She’s not going down without a fight.”

  Finn smiled. “That’s alright. There are several other girls that would love to keep me company tonight.” He ignored my eye roll, though I knew he saw it, and looked at Tanya. “Stay here with her for a bit, will ya? I’ve gotta check something out.” He didn’t wait for an answer, and closed the door behind him, leaving me alone in a room with three supernatural beings I’d never met and shouldn’t trust.

  Tanya walked back to the couch, moving past the boy who hadn’t spoke yet, and sat down. “Don’t worry,” Holly said. “We don’t bite.”

  She smiled at me, and from my spot near the door, I could see her pointed canines, and I wondered if they’d extend in the presence of blood.

  “You don’t know much about supernaturals, do you?” Tanya asked, patting a spot on the couch next to her. I slowly moved to the couch and sat down beside her, careful to keep my distance. “For someone who only learned about all of this a few hours ago, you’re taking this very well.”

  Only on the outside, I thought to myself. On the inside, I’m freaking out!

  I tried not to let her see how freaked out I was, and I forced myself to smile at her. It felt hollow and fake, but she didn’t seem to mind. “Well, I just got dragged out of bed and kidnapped, and then thrown before a strange council because they thought I was trying to raise an army of the undead. I guess I’ve had to learn things as I go. I’ll probably wind up hysterical the first time I’m left alone, and I’ll have a major breakdown.”

  “That’s ok,” Tanya said. “When Holly was first turned, she freaked out so badly she didn’t do anything but cry and scream for the first four or five days. After that though, you calm down enough to let others help you. If you need anything, tell Finn to bring you to me, and I’ll help in any way that I can. Supernaturals have to stick together, you know.”

  I nodded. “Thanks,” I said. “But I just wanna go home and pretend that none of this ever happened. I’d like to forget about waking up to find Finn in my room, searching through my things. I’d like to forget that I have the power to apparently raise the dead, and I’d like to forget that the Council thinks I’m the necromancer they’re looking for. I just wanna wake up tomorrow in my own bed and be a normal girl–or, at least as normal as I can be, seeing as I can talk to the dead.”

  “Sorry, Ronnie,” she said, startling me. I didn’t think I’d told them my name yet. “But you’ll never be normal again. The truth is, you can see and speak to the dead. You can raise the dead, and you can be a
valuable asset to our “community” of supernaturals. Or you could be a huge threat, especially if you’re not trained. You’ll be here for a while, and you’ll come to enjoy this way of life eventually, trust me.”

  “I doubt it,” I said. I didn’t want anything to do with this community and I definitely didn’t want anything to do with raising the dead. That one thing to me seemed like the worst part of all of this. The dead should always stay dead. They were dead for a reason.

  No exceptions.

  What about mom? If I could bring her back to life, would I do it?

  Finn came back inside the room and he looked at me. “I’m supposed to take you to a more secluded room. The Council’s under the impression that you might need some time to think about things. They think you’ve had a trying few hours.” The way he said it made me think he disagreed. “I think you should just suck it up.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Well, I guess I’m not an asshole like you.”

  Tanya laughed, and I stalked past an angry Finn. He slammed the door shut behind us a little harder than necessary, and he trudged alongside me. “That wasn’t funny.”

  “I thought it was.”

  He just shook his head and walked a little faster. Six doors down from the room where Tanya and Holly were staying was an empty room. It was pretty basic, with just four white walls, a small couch, coffee table, and a thick, plush rug. Finn nodded his head to the couch. “Make yourself at home, courtesy of the Council. Try not to fall asleep.”

  “Why?”

  He smirked. “I think I’d enjoy waking you up too much,” he said, leaving me alone in the room.

  The second the door closed, I collapsed against the couch, completely drained and exhausted. Now that I was alone, I had the opportunity to think about everything that had happened since I woke up to find Finn in my room, digging through my things. If I were a normal girl, he would have been arrested and thrown in jail, and I might have had a restraining order against him. But I wasn’t a normal girl, and I never would be for as long as I lived, which, according to Nancy, was a very long time.

  “Supernaturals don’t age much once they reach adulthood. Full-grown, you’ll look about thirty for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, having to watch everyone you know die is a horrible thing, and many supernaturals take their lives. That’s why marriage between supernaturals is encouraged.”

  Nancy was right. Before this all happened, my dreams for my future would have been graduation, then college to become a social worker so I could help children that grew up like me, then marriage and eventually children of my own. Now I’d never be able to have that.

  How can I have a meaningful career if I’m never going to age? It’s not like I can just pretend to be fifty when I only look thirty! I’ll cause suspicion everywhere I go. What if some day fifty years from now, someone I grew up with recognizes me. What’ll happen to that person?

  What am I supposed to do about love? I can either love a normal person and watch them die long before me, or I can love a supernatural. But from what I’ve seen so far of supernatural men my age, that’s not very promising. If all of them are like Finn, I’m screwed. I’ll never get married or be a mother.

  I’ll never have a career.

  I’ll never have a life…