Edge of Darkness Box Set

by Margaret McHeyzer

  The front porch door swings open, and standing in the doorway is exactly the woman I expected. She’s tiny in frame and height, has bright pink shoulder-length hair and her arms are covered in two full sleeves of colorful tattoos.

  She casts a cautious eye over me, taking in my appearance before she smiles. “You’re right, Toby; she’s pretty.”

  “Nan!” he scolds her and ducks his face away from me.

  “I’ll smack you on the back of the head if you call me that again,” she chastises Tobias.

  I can’t help but smile at Clara. “Hello, ma’am,” I say as I approach the porch.

  She turns to look beside her, then returns her gaze to me. “It’s Clara, Ivy. Nothing else but Clara.” She holds her hand out to me. When I reach out, expecting a handshake, she grabs me and brings me in for a hug. “This is the way we do things here.” She hugs me quite tightly, and even if I wanted to get away from her, I couldn’t. She’s very strong.

  I burst into laughter. She’s squeezing me so tightly it makes me giggle. When she finally releases me, I step back with a huge smile. “It’s really a pleasure to meet you, Clara. Tobias has told me so much about you and Justine.”

  “Of course, he has. And I can guarantee every word is true. Tobias doesn’t lie. Come on inside.” She holds the screen door open and indicates for me to enter her home.

  The inside of the house is a reflection of the outside. It’s clean and neat, and everything is in its place. It’s small, smaller than my house, but it’s still clean and neat.

  “Would you like a drink?” Clara offers as she heads out of the family room.

  I don’t get a chance to answer. Instead she disappears. “Hey, you okay?” Tobias asks in a soft voice.

  “I’m a bit overwhelmed.” I look around the room as I sit on the sofa. Tobias stands in front of me, and looks around his home. He’s nervous too. He’s dropped that ‘bad-boy’ persona he has at school, and he looks uneasy. “Do you want me to leave?” I question.

  “It’s not that,” he responds as he looks back toward where Clara disappeared.

  “What is it then?”

  He visibly swallows and diverts his eyes to anywhere but me. “It’s just…” He takes a deep breath and looks away again.

  “What is it?” Curiosity has taken over and I really want to know what’s going through his head. There’s an innocence to him, a softness I haven’t seen before.

  “My family is super protective.”

  I stare at him, tilting my head to the side. “That’s really good, isn’t it?”

  “Super protective,” he stresses again.

  “I don’t quite get where you’re going with this, Tobias.”

  “They mean everything to me.” He points in the direction Clara departed. “Everything.”

  I’m not sure what’s happening, but I feel like he doesn’t really want me here. Standing to my feet, I grab my bag from the floor and swing it over my shoulder. “If you think I’m going to do something to offend your family, you should have said something instead of encouraging me to come. I don’t want to stay somewhere I’m not wanted. I’ll walk home.” I head toward the door, but Tobias grabs me by my upper arm and swings me around so I’m looking at him. “What?” I question, frustrated.

  “Don’t go, please.” A pained look flashes across his face. “I don’t want you to go, really. I want you to stay.”

  “Then why are you acting so damn weird?”

  Tobias steps back and runs his hand through his hair. Nervousness takes over as he paces back and forth. “You’re the first girl I’ve brought home.”

  Oh, um… okay. “You mean since you’ve moved here?”

  There’s a long drawn out pause. “Nope, I mean the first girl I’ve ever bought home.”

  What does this mean? “I don’t get it. What do you mean?”

  “I don’t bring random chicks home, Ivy. I want you to like them, and for them to like you. They’re incredibly important to me, and you are important to me too.”

  I used to think he just wanted to screw me and move on, but seeing him like this—something in the pit of my stomach tells me that’s not the case. I have to make a decision on what I want. More silence stretches between us.

  He’s standing a few feet away, staring at me.

  And I’m trying to decide if I should give him a chance, if he’s worth the risk of possibly discovering my secret. Stepping back, my legs find the sofa, and I sit on it.

  “Say something, please,” he begs.

  “Why?” I question. It’s a valid query. He’s turned weird from the moment I came into the house. This is confusing.

  He steps closer, and sits beside me on the sofa. I notice how he brings his hand up to delicately stroke his tattoo. Stay strong.

  Straightening his back and lifting his chin with an air of confidence, he looks at me. “Because our darkness belongs together.”

  Swallowing back the lump in my throat, I crinkle my brows. “Wh-what?” I ask in a small voice. Does he know? Can he see my scars? Does he cut too?

  “I don’t want us to be afraid anymore, Ivy. I want you to give me a chance to to prove I’ll never let you down.”

  Staring at Tobias, I feel naked. Completely exposed and entirely bare.

  Am I unprotected from the man who sits beside me? Is he more powerful than the demon who calls me to the blade?

  “Here you go, homemade lemonade,” Clara announces as she walks into the family room carrying a tray with three glasses and a pitcher full of lemonade. She stops and notices the tension in the room. Tobias stands and takes the tray out of her hands and places it on the side table beside the sofa. I’m staring at the glasses, still wordless from what Tobias said. “Everything okay in here?” her tone changes, it doesn’t sound as upbeat as it was a few seconds ago.

  “We’re great,” Tobias answers and looks to me giving a small nod.

  “We’re good.” I offer her a weak smile.

  But my head is buzzing with so many questions I’m bursting to ask Tobias.

  “Tell me about yourself, Ivy,” Clara asks. The moment I start talking I relax, pushing everything else to the side, for now. Tobias sits beside me, listening to what I’m saying. His hand inches closer to mine. Clara tells me all about her work as a forklift driver and the people she works with.

  “Is it difficult doing what seems to be a predominantly male-oriented job?” I ask and inch my own hand closer to Tobias’s.

  Ugh, what am I doing? My demon will wreak havoc if I try to commit to Tobias. I drag my hand back, not wanting to confuse him or me any more than I already am.

  “…pigs,” Clara says.

  Being lost in my own mind I didn’t hear what she said, except for ‘pigs.’ “Sorry?” I ask paying attention to her while fighting my stupid head.

  “I said, they’re mostly a bunch of pigs. Foul-mouthed, dirty and rude.” I crease my brows together. She chuckles at my reaction. “But each and every one of them accepts me as one of their own, and although they’re everything I said, I know if I got in trouble, any of them would drop what they’re doing to help me.” I smile, liking what I’m hearing about the people she works with. “They’re the type of people I want in Tobias’s life. They may look rough, but they’d do anything to protect their own.”

  “Almost like a club.”

  “More like a family,” she corrects me.

  “So why did you choose to move here?” I ask, trying to move the conversation forward.

  Both Tobias and Clara still, their shoulders tense, and look at each other for a moment. “One day, I might tell you,” Tobias says.

  “Tobias!” Clara warns.

  He grasps her hand and squeezes. Slightly shaking his head at the same time.

  Something tells me this entire family is hiding a secret, maybe one even more damaging than mine.

  It’s in this moment when my mind and body accepts them. I’m daring to push myself and let them into my life. I have a feeling they’
ve been through hell and back, and maybe… just maybe, they can help me fight my own demons.

  Chapter 5

  “Thank you for bringing me home,” I say to Tobias as I hand him back his helmet. Tobias kills the engine and climbs off the bike. “I like Clara; she’s really direct.” I smile, recalling the afternoon, and how she insisted I stay for dinner. She ordered pizza and started swearing when she noticed they had put a hot pepper on the slice she ate.

  “Sorry you didn’t get to meet my mom. I thought she’d be home, but as it turns out she had to work late.”

  “Next time.” He follows me up to my door and waits as I unlock it. I have a feeling he’s waiting for an invitation inside, but I don’t want him to come in. Not because I’m embarrassed or anything, but because I’m not ready for this next step. He leans into me, and for a split second I’m both terrified and excited that he’s going to kiss me. Holding my breath, I close my eyes and purse my lips together. “Do you want to sit with me in the back yard?” I ask before his lips touch mine.

  “Sure,” he mumbles low. His breath hints on my lips, igniting a yearning low in my stomach. Opening my eyes, I can’t help but be hypersensitive by his closeness. He’s right here. His body is only a hair’s breadth from mine. His dark eyes desperately holding onto his control. I stare into his dark eyes and he doesn’t try to look away. Beneath the darkness, I can see he has secrets hiding deep inside his soul.

  “I’ll um…” I lightly skim my mouth on his. Barely touching his lips. “I’ll meet you around the back.” I point to the side gate. Leaning into me, he skates his nose down my jawline and inhales deeply.

  Before I do something stupid, I step back and look down at my hands. My damn heart is fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings, while my body is filled with tension and excitement.

  I head inside, giving myself a few seconds of reprieve to compose my thoughts.

  Tobias is certainly a good-looking guy. He has this exhilarating effect on me, drawing me into his world and almost making me forget about my own.

  Leaning against the door, my ragged breath slows and becomes even. “Snap out of it, Ivy,” I coach myself. Hearing the side gate open, I’m drawn back to the present. He’s out there waiting for me, and I’m in here trying to get my head on straight.

  When my legs stop wobbling and are no longer made of Jello, I head into the kitchen and grab two bottles of water from the fridge. When I know my body is calm, I head out to the back yard where Tobias sits in a deck chair. “Here you go,” I hand him a bottle of water.

  Sitting beside him on the other deck chair, I lean back and look up at the sky. It’s losing the light. I know I wanted to be home by five, but considering I stayed for dinner, it’s now nearing seven. The sky will be dark within a few more minutes. For now I’m admiring the pretty hues of rich purples and dark blues. It looks almost magical.

  “Are you home by yourself a lot?” Tobias asks as he turns his head to look at me. I can see him out of my peripheral vision, but I choose not to stare at him.

  “Dad’s a shift worker, so that means there’s nights I’m on my own. I don’t mind, I like the quiet.”

  “Quiet is good, but what about the isolation?”

  Shrugging, I keep staring up at the sky. “I’m not really isolated. I have my phone so I can call Jared to come over, or Dad if I need him to come home. It’s self-inflicted isolation. I like being by myself.”

  “Don’t you get lonely?”

  I want to laugh at his question and tell him Azael doesn’t let me get lonely. I want to tell Tobias how he’s always around, and sometimes makes his presence known at the worst possible moments. “I welcome loneliness,” I whisper, hoping the monster inside me hears and takes the hint.

  “What about your mom?”

  The question feels like it’s come out of nowhere, but the logical part of my brain tells me this is a normal question to ask. He already knows she passed away when I was young, and now he’s asking questions so he can know me better. “She died before my fifth birthday.”

  “How?” He turns on his side, and stares at me.

  “A freak accident at the beach. She got caught in a riptide…” I gaze up at the first star starting to twinkle. I don’t remember Mom dying, just the night Dad placed me on his lap and burst into tears. “… Dad said she tried to swim back, but the sea was too powerful.” Tears well in my eyes, and I try my hardest to hold them back.

  I love Mom, but I’m crying for Dad. I’ve never really known her. Only what Dad’s told me about her and what I am able to glean from the photos he has proudly displayed in our home. I remember the day he told me Mom wasn’t going to come home.

  “Are you okay?” Tobias asks and stretches to gently squeeze my hand.

  “I was just thinking about the day Dad told me Mom wasn’t coming home. I was wearing a yellow ribbon in my hair, and a red dress.” Absentmindedly, I reach up and touch my hair. “Dad’s face was wet; his eyes were red. He smelled like Mom’s perfume.”

  A lump quickly rises and sits at the base of my throat. The tears escape and slowly roll down my cheeks. That day was the day everything changed for me. I had lost my Mom, and felt so alone.

  “He held me close to him and cried into my hair. All I could smell was Mom’s perfume, and the scent of Dad’s tears.” Crinkling my brows, I can almost smell the saltwater of his tears. But I can definitely recall the deep, soul-crushing sobs ripping through Dad’s chest as his arms tightened around me.

  “But it’s better now?” Tobias asks, breaking the heaviness of my mood.

  Blinking, I stare up at the darkened sky, amazed at how quickly night has enveloped us. “I was so young, I almost don’t remember her.”

  “Tell me what you do remember,” he encourages.

  “She was beautiful. Her hair always smelled like sunshine, and she always wore a perfume that smelled like fresh-cut roses.”

  “What’s your favorite memory of her?”

  I try hard to recall a memory that’s stuck with me. Shaking my head, I stare at Tobias. “I remember her smile. She was always smiling when she was around me.”

  “You must have her smile, because yours is beautiful.”

  Taking a deep breath, I bring both my hands up and place them like a pillow beneath my head. “Tell me about your family,” I ask Tobias, hoping to regain some of my composure. Feeling sad is something I’ve learned to hide, but I can’t afford to show that part of my true self to anyone. They’d never understand.

  “You’ve met Clara; she is one of those people who what you see is what you get.” Tobias smiles. “And Mom, well, she works hard, and will do anything for me and Clara.”

  “What about your dad?”

  Instantly, Tobias’s shoulders tighten, and his jaw clenches. His eyes narrow, and I catch a sudden sharp intake of breath. “He’s not around,” he says in a dead voice.

  “I’m sorry,” I reply carefully.

  “I wish he was dead.”

  Momentarily, I’m speechless and scramble to form a cohesive thought. Should I ask or should I leave it alone? I take the chance and ask, “Did he take off?”

  Tobias stands from the lounger and paces from one side of the deck to the other. He runs his hand through his hair then pinches the bridge of his nose. Stilling, he turns to look at me. “He doesn’t deserve the breath it’ll take to explain him to you.”

  Blackness enshrouds him, not from the lack of light but from the secret he’s hiding.

  “I won’t judge you,” I say, encouraging him to ease his tension. He lets out a humorless chuckle and turns his back to me. I get a feeling he doesn’t want me to see his face, so I don’t push it. “We all have secrets, Tobias. Sometimes it’s best to share and sometimes, it’s best not to.”

  “Trust me, Ivy. There’s no way I’d ever expose you to my nightmares.”

  The hairs on my arms raise, as I try to think what could be so bad he has this obvious reaction to it. The tightness in his voice tells me to let i
t go. The way his demeanor has changed tells me his secrets are something that might frighten me and awaken my demon.

  Standing, I make my way over to him and crouch down beside him, placing my palm on his back. He tenses, I feel the strain of his muscles beneath my touch. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “Whatever you don’t want to talk about, I didn’t mean for it to cause this reaction. I just wanted to…” I stop myself, and think about what I want to say. I’ve fought my reaction to him, but somehow, he’s crawled his way into my life, and now I want to get to know him. “… to understand you,” I finish.

  Turning his head, he looks into my eyes. He slowly lifts his hand and gently runs it down my cheek. Closing my eyes, I nuzzle into it. He’s warm and strong. Beautiful, yet tender and soft.

  “Tell me your secrets, Ivy,” he whispers.

  My eyes spring open and I stand, backing away. He won’t understand. “I don’t have any,” I say slowly, though my voice cracks at the lie.

  He nods and gives me a small smile. “One day, when the fog has lifted from our nightmares, we’ll tell each other exactly what we can’t say right now.”

  “One day…”

  “One day.”

  Chapter 6

  “So, you and Tobias?” Jared asks as he wiggles his brows at me.

  “Yeah, so what?” I retort. Jared sits on the bench next to me at lunch.

  “You two a couple now?”

  Picking at my salad, I look down and smirk. “Not yet.”

  “Well come on, sister. Spill,” he teases as he sips his soda.

  “We’ve been hanging out a bit.”

  “A bit?” Jared shrieks. “I see the way he looks at you. It’s more than ‘hanging out a bit.’ Come on, tell me.”

  Looking around the cafeteria I make sure there’s no one close enough to hear. Dropping my voice, I lean into Jared and say, “I went to his place yesterday to meet his mom and grandmother. But his mom wasn’t there, so we hung out with his grandmother.”

  “Ewww. Does she smell of mothballs?”