Page 28 of Alluring Darkness
Cold steel kisses my skin as Kaden positions the knife underneath my chin.
“Understood?” he demands, his eyes so cold that I almost get frostbite just holding his gaze.
I try to move both his and my hand away again, but when it doesn’t work, I force myself to press out, “Yes.”
He doesn’t release my wrist. Just continues staring me down.
“The same goes for you,” Eli suddenly says. “If you stain my seats with her blood, I will make you clean it up by hand.”
Jace chuckles.
It breaks the dangerous tension in a flash. Kaden releases my wrist and plucks his knife from my grip before sliding it back in its sheath. Then he draws a hand through his straight black hair and flashes me a smug smile.
Blowing out a long breath, I shake my head and then settle back into my seat.
The rest of the car ride passes without any more death threats.
A slight frown creases my brows as Eli drives us to a residential area. Fancy houses and immaculate gardens line both sides of the wide street. I watch them as Eli begins to slow down.
“Pick a house,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“Just point to any house.”
Since I have no idea where he’s going with this, I just point to a random house halfway down the street. Eli pulls up next to it. It’s white, with trimmed hedges around the small lawn and a white stone path leading up to the pale wooden door.
Eli rolls down the window next to Kaden a fraction, and then he turns to me. “Stay in the car.”
“And do what?” I ask, befuddled.
“Watch. Listen. And I’ll show you exactly what kind of power our family possesses.”
Before I can answer, the four of them get out of the car and close the doors behind them. I scoot across the backseat until I’m sitting next to the window Eli cracked open.
My pulse flutters.
I half expect them to stalk up to the house and kill the people inside, but they don’t. In fact, they don’t really do anything. I watch with furrowed brows as the four of them position themselves by the side of the car.
Eli and Rico, who are in the middle, just casually lean back against the car while crossing their arms. On either side of them, Kaden and Jace do the same, except Kaden is nonchalantly twirling a knife in his hand and Jace is resting the bat against his shoulder.
For about a minute, nothing happens.
Sunset is close now, turning the sky dark red and purple at the horizon. The lights are on in the house, which means that someone must be home.
The confusion inside me grows as they just stand there, watching the white house.
Then the front door is cracked open. I lean closer to the window as a couple in their mid-thirties cross the threshold and move out onto the patch of white stone in front of the house. They leave the door open behind them, and yellow light from the hallway spills out onto the stones.
Fear pulses on their faces as both the man and the woman stop a few steps from the door. Then they drop to their knees. Eli and his brothers just remain standing by the car, doing nothing.
“Please,” the man calls. “There must be some kind of mistake.”
None of them reply.
The man motions towards their still open front door. “Take whatever you want. We won’t fight back. So just… please don’t hurt us.”
The Hunters just keep watching them in silence.