Shadows Rising (Darkness Falls Book 2)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I don't know why I felt the need to do this now. In hindsight, it was a really stupid thing to do. We'd just established that Rachel was a formidable opponent, and somewhere in this shadow-shrouded town she was plotting my demise. Going out after dark seemed like inviting trouble. But Rachel had already made one move tonight and I really didn't think she would make another. That didn't seem to be her style. She melted out of the shadows, struck, then faded away before we could catch her.

Even without her threat hanging over our heads, heading out now was foolish considering how emotionally and physically exhausted I was. But I couldn't help it, nor could I explain it. There was an urge inside me, the desperate need to share something with Luke before it was snatched away from me. Maybe it was the hope it represented, my determination that Luke and I would have a future beyond people hating us and trying to kill us.

"What are we doing here?" Luke asked.

I gazed up at the faded canary-yellow house sitting at the end of Sedgewood Avenue. If I thought that leaving it behind earlier would have lessened the weird certainty that this was supposed to my house, I was wrong. If anything the certainty intensified.

The clan's house was home to me now, but it would always belong to Samuel and Elena. This house was the one that could be my home.

Even though Ethan had broken the lock, I'd hung it back in place after we left. Weirdly, the thought of anyone sneaking into this house already made me feel like they were intruding on my property. I pulled the lock off the door, hiding it in a clump of overgrown grass. As I did so, I spotted a battered For Sale sign lying on its side where it must have been blown down by strong winds. No one had put it back up. No one seemed to care about this house. No one wanted it. Except me.

"Kiara, I don't understand," Luke said, eyeing the house.

I pushed open the front door and held out my hand. "Just come with me."

And he did because he trusted me.

I led him into the foyer and closed the door behind us. The house almost seemed to welcome me back, some ridiculous, sentimental notion I harboured that it wanted me here as much I wanted to be here. Immediately I felt foolish. It was just a house. It wasn't alive, it wasn't glad to see me, it was just a brick-and-cement construct, and it would never be mine.

Still, that didn't stop a girl from dreaming. And I could use a good dream right now.

"Just look at it," I said, turning in a slow circle.

"I'm looking." He wasn't really. Luke gave the foyer a cursory glance, then looked back at me, his expression bemused. "Kiara, I don't get it. What are we doing in an empty house in the middle of the night?"

My arms dropped to my sides. "I just...wanted to show it to you."

It had made sense half an hour ago. Now I just felt like an idiot for dragging him all the way out here. What had I expected, that he would gush over this grubby, empty shell of a house?

Luke closed the gap between us and put his arms around me. "What's this really about? And don't say nothing." He planted a small kiss on the end of my nose. "I know you too well for that."

I buried my face in his chest, tucking my head under his chin. "I don't know how to explain it."

His hands stroked up and down my spine. "Try. You know you can tell me anything, right?"

Of course I knew that. Luke was the other half of me – I couldn't keep secrets from him even if I wanted to. Finally I tipped back my head so I could meet his eyes. "There's just...something about this house."