Darkness Brutal (The Dark Cycle Book 1)

by Rachel A. Marks

  I stand in the hall for a long time beside her door. There’s something going on with her, but she’s not willing to talk about it. I could push her, but I’d probably just end up pushing her away. And I’m tired. The closer I get to answers, the more questions rise to the surface. And now another door just slammed in my face.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  I’m sitting in my room while everyone else eats, staring at the new brown swirls and lines on my forearm, wondering how Kara and I are connecting, wondering why Sid told me to press Kara, and dumbfounded as to why Kara refuses to talk about it. That’s when I hear my name being called from downstairs.

  I go out and look over the railing. “What?”

  Jax yells up to me, “Your other girlfriend is here! The sexy ginger.”

  If I were close enough, I’d kick him in the balls.

  I hurry downstairs and find Rebecca in the entry, an overnight bag on her shoulder. She looks nervous as she studies her surroundings.

  “Hey,” I say.

  She spots me, and a bit of her worry disappears. Before she can say anything, Jax comes up behind me. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?” he asks.

  “Nope.” I move to take Rebecca’s bag, saying to her, “Just smack him if he gets in your face.”

  “Very funny,” Jax says.

  “Hello!” comes a small voice from beside us.

  Ava’s standing next to Rebecca, blinking up at her.

  Rebecca looks down, a little startled. “Hello.”

  “You’re Rebecca,” Ava says, rocking back and forth on her feet, toe to heel.

  Rebecca nods.

  “This is my sister, Ava,” I say, an uneasy churn in my stomach seeing them side by side.

  “Nice to meet you, Ava,” Rebecca says.

  Ava grins at her.

  “Okay, well . . .” I give my sister a look, and she giggles, dancing back to plop down next to Finger.

  I take Rebecca upstairs, but pause in the hallway, not sure where to go.

  “Everything okay?” she asks, her voice a little shaky.

  “Yeah.” I take her into my room, leaving the door open in case anyone gets the wrong idea again. “Listen, we’ll find you a bed, but can you sit here for a second while I figure things out?”

  “Okay,” she says, setting her bag on the floor. She’s even more pale than usual. Her freckles are copper dots across her cheeks and nose, and her hair’s pulled back in a haphazard way, half up, half down. She’s wearing the hamsa charm I gave her—it’s hanging from a thin silver chain. She picks it up and fiddles with it.

  “You’re safe here,” I say.

  She nods.

  “I’ll be back in a sec.” I head for Holly’s room. I knock on the door, and there’s quiet for a few seconds until I hear “Enter.”

  I open the door but stay in the doorway. “Hey, can I ask a favor?”

  “I knew it was you.” She’s at her desk, school books fanned across the surface. “You’re the only one who would’ve knocked like such a gentleman. Qué pasa?”

  “My friend needs a place to crash for the night, and I don’t know where to put her. She can’t sleep in my room—”

  She slaps her pencil down. “Wait. You brought a girl here?”

  “No, she—I mean, she’s just staying for one night. Maybe two. Sid said it was okay.”

  “You sure are a chick magnet, aren’t you?” She looks me up and down. “Hmm, I don’t know . . . I just don’t see it. I mean you have all the usual qualities girls find appealing: thick, wavy hair, glittering eyes, nice muscles, and your butt’s not bad.” She taps her chin with a finger like she’s thinking. “But you don’t seem mean or dangerous enough to be such a BFD. Girls are into bad boys. Nice is predictable, ya know.”

  “Yes, well, thank you for that lovely analysis. Where can my friend sleep?”

  “I have a spot free.” She points at the stripped bed in the corner by the window.

  “Oh, I thought you didn’t like people—”

  She raises her eyebrows high.

  “I mean,” I continue, “I was under the impression that you weren’t big on sharing—”

  She leans back in her chair and folds her arms across her chest.

  “I thought you didn’t want anyone in your room,” I finally finish.

  “You’re getting more attractive by the second. And you’re wrong. I share just fine.”

  “Then why aren’t Kara and you roommates?” Seems a bit sexist for the girls to be the only ones to get their own rooms.

  “Well, it might have something to do with her trying to kill me.”

  “What?” I figure she’s exaggerating, but I can tell she’s not lying completely. “Kill, as in murder?”

  Holly sighs, like I’m keeping her from her homework and it’s all so annoying. “Well, you’re still new to the SWK—the sleeping-with-Kara thing—so let me clue you in. Sharing a room with Kara is like sharing a room with a sleeping shark. She has nightmares sometimes, and they get majorly freaky. One time—the night in question—I woke up to her crying and thrashing, so I went to wake her up. She grabbed my arm, pulled a knife from under her pillow, and put the thing to my throat. NK, not kewl, ya know.”

  “But she stopped once she saw it was you.”

  “You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” She goes back to studying the book in front of her. “Your friend can sleep in here. Tell her I’ll help her make the bed once I finish trig.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “No worries, lover boy.”

  I try to ignore my confusion about Kara as I go back to Rebecca. “Okay, it’s all set,” I say, walking into my room.

  Rebecca’s on the bed, reading her phone.

  “Everything all right?” I ask, wondering if she’s looking at the text her brother sent her—or, I should say, the text the demon sent her.

  She nods. “Yeah, I’m just texting Samantha.”

  “I hope you’re not telling her where you are.”

  “Um, I was going to.”

  “Don’t. This place is off the grid, and it needs to stay that way.”

  “This place is in the middle of LA. It’s nowhere near off the grid.”

  “I just mean it’s supposed to stay hidden.”

  She shakes her head, obviously thinking I’m ridiculous. “Fine. I’ll just tell her I’ve gone to my aunt’s house—even though she’ll never believe me.”

  “Why?”

  “’Cause my aunt lives in Florida and I haven’t seen the woman in six years.”

  “Oh.” I pick her overnight bag off the floor. “Well, let’s get you settled, and then we’ll talk.”

  She stands, slipping her phone into her back pocket, and follows me into Holly’s room.

  The girls greet each other, and Holly seems pleased to have another female there. She smiles and even closes her book to talk to Rebecca about which bathroom habits of the boys to look out for, using several acronyms that seem more like alphabet soup to me. But she gets Rebecca smiling, so I decide to let them bond.

  “Are you okay for a minute?” I ask. “I need to get cleaned up.”

  Rebecca nods.

  Holly goes to help her with some sheets she found. “She’ll be fine, LB.”

  I roll my eyes and head to gather some clothes before taking a shower. I’m guessing Rebecca’s about to get grilled by Holly, asked a million and one questions about how we know each other . . . not to mention the earful of gossip she’ll get about me since I’ve been here—and about Kara, too, probably. God, help me.

  It’s for the best, though. The less Rebecca thinks of me in that way, the better. She’s obviously forming an attachment, and that’s really not good. If she thinks Kara and I are a thing, then maybe she’ll pull back.

  I should be relieved by the idea. But I�
�m not.

  Someone bangs on the door five times while I’m taking a two-minute shower—probably Jax. I get dressed again, come out of the bathroom with a billow of steam, and yell downstairs, “Whoever’s been freaking out can have their turn on the can!”

  I turn around. Kara is walking down the hall toward me. I want to talk to her more, but I don’t know what to say.

  She brushes past me, and I follow. “Kara, I’m sorry if—”

  “Shut up.” She heads for the stairs. “You are amazingly transparent.”

  I grab her wrist. “What the hell, Kara? We need to figure this out together.”

  “Let go of me.”

  She tries to head down the stairs, but I grip her tighter. “We can’t ignore it.”

  “Let it go, Aidan. Trust me, you don’t want to dig any deeper into this.”

  I should release her, give her time, but I can’t. The truth is I can’t wait. I have to figure this out now. I can’t have anything getting in the way of protecting Ava. I need to know why this is happening to me.

  “Kara, you don’t understand—”

  “Aidan?” Rebecca is standing below us, about halfway up the stairs. She’s looking at me, at Kara, at my hand on her. “Is everything . . . ?”

  Kara snatches her wrist back and glares at me. “Nice,” she says. “Now you can kiss her instead. It’s perfect, really.” Then she walks down the stairs. “He’s all yours,” she says as she passes Rebecca. “Enjoy.”

  Rebecca follows me into my room.

  I sit on my bed, exhausted and more confused than ever.

  “Is everything all right?” She glances back at the door, like Kara might return.

  “Fine.”

  “That’s the girl from the party, isn’t it? She has a bruise on her cheek.”

  I sigh. “Yeah, she’s okay, though.”

  “Are you and her—?”

  “No!” I say, a little too forcefully. “I have no idea what’s going on with her. Or me, for that matter.”

  “I see . . .” And I wonder if she does. She’s studying me like she’s trying to figure me out. She crawls onto the bed beside me, curling her legs under her. The tropical smell of her fills my head. “I really appreciate you letting me come here. I hope it won’t cause any trouble.”

  She’s close, and I’m way too weak and exhausted right now. I should move over, but I stay perfectly still. The door’s open. I won’t do anything stupid if the door’s open. “It’s no trouble.”

  She tilts her head, and another strand of her copper hair falls to her lightly freckled shoulder. “It’s nice not to be alone.”

  “Yeah,” I say absently. My head’s warring between how this girl makes me feel and my need to go find Kara and figure out what the hell’s really going on.

  Rebecca leans on the wall. “I feel safe now. With you. Less sad.”

  I nod, feeling like I can barely focus on what she’s saying.

  “Has anyone that you love died?” she asks quietly.

  That gets my attention. I hesitate but then just say it. “My mom.”

  “When?”

  “I was nine.”

  She leans closer. “You were so small. And your sister . . .”

  “She was three. It was her birthday.”

  “How did it happen?”

  I look into her eyes, so green they put spring to shame. I’ve never told anyone what I saw that night; I’ve never said the words. It’s my memory, my secret. Not even Ava knows.

  “I don’t know. She’s just gone.”

  She nods her head like she’s saying a silent I’m sorry, I understand. Words don’t mean anything when death comes close anyway.

  She touches my wrist, her fingers moving slowly over my mark. Then she takes my hand in hers and brings it to her lips. A tear slips down her cheek and runs across my knuckles. She kisses each fingertip and then presses my palm against her cheek.

  Everything in me has to focus on not reacting, not pulling her closer.

  “Rebecca . . .” I say, my voice rough.

  “I know,” she whispers, her breath warm on my skin.

  She’s close enough that I could lean over an inch and kiss her. I’d heal with this girl. I know I would.

  “Whoa, nice,” comes a voice from the doorway.

  Rebecca and I spring apart.

  Jax stands there grinning at us. “With the door open and everything. Balls of steel.”

  Waves crash against the rocks as the ocean rages behind us, spraying salty diamonds of water onto our skin.

  I want to ask why we came back after lunch—the second time we’ve stood in this spot today, Mom’s birthday. But she’s not looking at me. Her gaze is stuck on the cliff wall, on the opening of the cave twenty yards away.

  She twists her hair in a spiral around her finger, and a tear slips down her cheek. It could be just the sea on her face, but her eyes are sad. They’re always sad when we come here.

  She never lets the words emerge, the words of why or how or who or what makes her sadness so big.

  I watch her profile and realize she doesn’t have to say the words. I can hear it, singing from her with each beat of her heart. The ache of missing my dad is always there, just beneath the surface. But when we come here, the sadness feels like something that might swallow us whole. It moves toward us, crashing against us like the waves beating the rocks.

  I take her hand in mine.

  We watch the cave opening, waiting for something that we both know will never come.

  TWENTY-SIX

  The next morning is all work and no play, so I have very little time to think about my stupidity.

  Just enough to realize what a jackass I am. I almost kissed Rebecca. I have no right to get mixed up with a girl I’m trying to help, who feels indebted to me. Especially with everything that’s going on between Kara and me. Dick move. And it won’t be happening again.

  Lester and I spend most of the morning in the office. He’s got me hooked up to listen to EVPs, or electronic voice phenomena, from some previous jobs. His instructions are to make a note of any moments that sound suspect. I mostly just hear Jax or Kara or Connor asking questions to nobody. “Would you like to talk to us?” or “If you’re here, give us a sign.” That kind of thing. Then I find one sound file labeled Roosevelt—rm 928 that has a man’s voice on it after Connor asks, “Were you a movie star?” but I can’t tell what the man answers. I make a note of the file and the time of the man’s response in the notebook Lester gave me.

  He rolls his chair over to me. “You got one?”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’ll have Jax listen to it later. He’s got a great ear.”

  “So you and Jax get along sometimes?” I ask.

  He blows air through his lips. “I guess. He hasn’t killed me yet. I think he’s just jealous.”

  “Of your good looks?”

  He laughs. “Most definitely.” He touches his dark hair dramatically. “No, I think it’s ’cause of my thing—my ability to channel.”

  “Is he thinking his thing is lame?”

  “Maybe. But I’d rather have his thing of reading clouds than mine, really. Mine is no picnic.”

  “Channeling can be dangerous,” I say, wanting to tread lightly. I don’t think me spouting off on everything I know about the horrors of channeling would sit well, and he’s probably very familiar with them. He definitely looks freaked about his gift. How could he not be? Something crawling in your skin and not being sure you can get it out has to feel more like a curse.

  “Yeah, you have to be careful, but nothing can get in here without my permission.” He taps on his temple. “So I just can’t be a dumbass. It’s partially why I hang more with the technology than the ghosts.”

  “You seem pretty good at all this.” I motion to the equipment. �
��How long have you been a part of it?”

  He sets his headset down. “Um, a year, maybe.”

  “And you’re cool with Sid? He seems on the up-and-up?”

  “Ha. Well, he’s good at what he does. And he takes care of us. I can’t complain.”

  I nod, watching him, trying to figure out what he’s not saying.

  “Look,” he adds, leaning closer, “whatever Sid does, he cares. He’s not in it for the money. He feeds us and keeps LA Paranormal in the black. He’s one of the good guys.”

  Can I really worry so much about Sid being a little less than truthful with his clients? He’s promised to try and help me find out more about my family, more about myself, and I know he didn’t lie about that. There’s more at stake here than fraud. And if Sid has a spell that can get rid of the time slip, it doesn’t matter if they call it a ghost or not, I guess. He’s going to give the clients peace, keep their beliefs intact, and that’s something.

  Jax pokes his head around the doorway and points at me. “Time to jam, newb. Another job.” And he disappears again.

  “He grows on you,” Lester says, and he rolls back to his spot, fitting his headphones onto his ears. “Like a fungus.”

  I make my way to the back door, but as I enter the hallway, I hear Rebecca’s voice in the kitchen. I stop just on the other side of the archway, suddenly unsure if I want to see her today. When I peek around the wall, she’s got her back to me, standing at the counter beside Holly and Ava. The three of them are laughing about something in the magazine in front of them. Holly is as bright as ever in striped tights and a white polka-dot shirt; Ava is in a long grey sweatshirt that’s too big for her.

  Rebecca reaches over and touches Ava’s hair like a sister would, giving advice on how to wear it. Ava smiles her brightest smile at Rebecca and then says something to Holly, who laughs. I wonder at the way they’re all so easy together so quickly. Must be a girl thing.

  “Is it the hair?” The quiet voice comes from behind me.

  I start and turn to see Kara watching me watch Rebecca.

  “Or is it the body?”

  I move back, out of sight of the girls in the kitchen. My heart pulses in my skin from being caught. But I’m not sure why I should feel embarrassed. “Shit, you scared me.”