Read Online The Darkening by Robin T. Popp - Free Book Online

essence. If he's here, the others could be here as well."
    Amadja clenched his hands into fists, clearly not pleased. "Impossible. We stopped that spell."
    Tain looked nonplussed. "Obviously not."
    Amadja heaved a sigh. "We'll have to step up our plans, unless..." He turned to Daphne. "Did you say you left Darius sleeping in one of the back rooms at the club?"
    She nodded.
    "Take us to him." He turned to Tain. "Maybe we can take care of him here and now."
    Confused, but unwilling to ask for explanations, Daphne led the men back down the tunnels and to the room where she had left Darius.
    "He was here," she exclaimed when she found the room empty. "There's no way he could have slept it off that quickly."
    "He could if he was an Immortal," Tain said. He didn't seem surprised that his brother was gone.
    Amadja sighed. "It doesn't matter. If he suspects we're here, he'll be back, and we'll deal with him then." He glanced at Daphne. "Do you think you can handle that, pet?"
    She gave Amadja her most seductive smile. "You know I can."
    Amadja's soft chuckle filled the room as he came to her and pulled her into his arms. "Tain, leave us," he ordered, his attention fixed on Daphne's face.
    Daphne felt Tain's glare like a knife in her back, but she was too engrossed with Amadja's tongue thrusting between her lips to care.
    Lexi was in a dark mood the next morning when she arrived at work.
    "Good morning," Marge greeted her cheerfully.
    Lexi growled something in return.
    "My, we're grumpy. I would have thought after beat
    ing up yesterday's skip, you'd be in a great mood." Marge's blue eyes sparkled with amusement. "Well, I
    don't know if this will make things better or worse, but you've got a visitor."
    Curious, Lexi stepped over to the archway that
    opened into their waiting room and saw Darius sitting there.
    Definitely worse, she thought, walking up to him.
    "What are you doing here?" she asked, not bothering to be polite. "Aren't you supposed to be on your way to Seattle?"
    Some emotion flickered across his eyes as he looked up at her. "Do you know me?"
    CHAPTER FOUR
    Lexi rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm not in the mood for games, so if that's why you're here, you can leave."
    She turned and started to walk off, but Darius jumped to his feet and, grabbing her arm, pulled her to a stop. She glared at the offending hand before looking into his face. "You might be immortal," she hissed, "but unless you can regenerate limbs, I suggest you let go of me
    This time she recognized the emotion that crossed his face as a combination of surprise and amusement. He let go of her arm and held up his hands to show he meant no harm. Then he slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out her business card. "Did you give this to me?"
    She narrowed her eyes. "You know I did. What's going on, Darius?"
    "My name's Darius?" He seemed to test the sound of the word in his head a couple of times. Then he blinked, and his attention was back on her. "I woke up
    this morning in a strange room with nothing but these clothes, that card and one hell of a problem."
    Lexi studied him closely as it occurred to her that he might not be playing a game. "What kind of problem?"
    "I have absolutely no idea who I am."
    She stared at him as she let his words sink in. The look in his eyes told her he was telling the truth. "You don't remember anything?"
    He shook his head.
    "Do you remember me?"
    He gave her an apologetic look, and she didn't understand why his forgetting her should upset her. The man couldn't remember his own name, she silently admonished herself. Why would he remember her?
    "I know I was at the Crypt last night," he told her, "but that's only because I woke up there this morning."
    "Come with me." She looked over at Marge, who had been listening to the entire exchange. "We'll be in my office."
    "I'll make sure you aren't disturbed," the older woman said, giving a wink that Lexi pointedly ignored.
    "Actually, could you bring us some coffee?" she asked as she