Read Online Darkness Fades (Darkness Falls Series, Book 3) by Jessica Sorensen - Free Book Online Page B

Higher? I’m not sure what
you mean. There are no Highers here.”
    Anger consumes me. I ball my hands into
fists. “I saw him before I was injected and knocked
unconscious.”
    She shakes her head and opens her mouth,
ready to speak, but we’re interrupted when the door creaks open and
a man walks in. His hair is white like the outer part of ash, he
has creases in his skin and his clothes looks old. He carries a
stick that he leans on, as he hobbles as if it’s hard for him to
walk, yet his pale eyes make me wonder if it’s all a trick.
    I’ve lost all my trust, and in a flash, I
lunge forward, snatching the knife from Nichelle’s hand and quickly
skittering around her. Then, I dive for the Higher, grab his arm,
and twist it behind him as I move around him, putting the blade to
his throat.
    He drops his stick in a panic. “Oh, no.”
    “Kayla, no!” Nichelle shouts with her hands
out in front of her. “Don’t hurt him.”
    The Higher tips his head back and looks up
at me and I’m surprised by his fearless expression. “Well done,
Kayla. Monarch has turned you into exactly what he had hoped
for.”
    I press the knife closer to his throat, but
he still keeps calm. “Then you know that I’m not afraid to use this
to finish you off.”
    “I’m sure you aren’t, but I’m not a Higher,”
he says evenly. “I’m just an old man that was bitten a long time
ago.”
    I don’t want to believe him, yet my little
gift lets me know that he is telling the truth, even though it’s
confusing the shit out of me—everything is. “What are you then? You
have the eyes of a Higher.”
    Nichelle inches closer to us, her hands
still out in front of her, her movements calculated and cautious.
“Kayla, please put the knife down. This is Mathew and he’s here to
help you.”
    Mathew motions his hands at Nichelle,
ushering her back. “It is okay, Nichelle. Kayla has a good reason
to not trust us. We didn’t exactly give her and her friends the
best welcome, did we?”
    A trickle of blood runs down his throat from
where the blade is pressing. With reluctance, I remove the knife
from his neck and back away, letting him go. I have my answer; if
he really were a Higher, he would not be bleeding, he would heal. I
shove him over next to Nichelle and she catches him in her
arms.
    “Both of you better explain where my friends
are and what is going on,” I demand.
    Nichelle shoots me a glare as she examines
Mathew’s neck while he fights to get his footing. “Are you okay?”
she asks him and he nods.
    Nichelle still checks the wound then pulls
out a cloth from her pocket and hands it to him. Mathew takes the
cloth as he picks up the stick and puts his weight against it. Then
he presses cloth over the wound to stop it from bleeding.
    As I watch them, I can tell that there is a
bond between the two of them, almost like Nichelle treats Mathew as
if he is her father.
    “You are good at what you do,” he says to
me. “And I’ll explain everything I know. But first, how about I
take you to the rest of your friends? I’m sure that they’re just as
anxious to see you as you are to see them.”
    Again, I know he speaks the truth, but for
some reason, I feel wary. Still, having no other choice, I nod and
follow him out the door with the knife clutched in my hand, not
ready to fully trust them just yet.

Chapter 12

    They take me down a hallway and into a large
room, keeping close to me like they think I’m going to run or
something. Inside the room sits a wooden table with chairs down
both sides of it. There are no windows and the only light comes
from the candles placed sporadically about, the flames flickering
and dancing.
    Leaning his weight on his stick, Mathew
limps to the end of the table and takes a seat. He motions for me
to take a seat next to him as he sets the stick down on the ground.
“Please, have a seat.”
    I waver, looking around at the empty room
while hovering near the door. “I thought you said we were going