Page 32 of Alluring Darkness
Moving right up to the bed, I lean forward and read two words written in Kaden’s neat script.
Have fun.
15
RAINA
The street around me is dark and silent. Sitting on the bench at the bus stop, I wait for the next one to arrive so that I can get back into the city and then get a cab from there back to Blackwater. I drum my fingers against the worn wood. This took longer than I expected.
Missing three days of classes would’ve been terrible for everyone else on campus, but since I’m not going to become a real assassin anyway, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I have left Eli alone for three days. What if he has used that time to start messing with Connor again?
A pair of headlights appear at the end of the street. I’m about to stand up, thinking that it’s the bus, when I realize that it’s only a car. Remaining on the bench, I slide my gaze back to the buildings ahead instead.
Suspicion creeps over me when the car doesn’t speed past. I snap my gaze to it as it instead stops right in front of me. My heart does a double beat. It’s a black Range Rover.
Before I can get that realization through my brain, the passenger’s side door is opened and Kaden steps out. Jace appears from the backseat a second later.
“Hello, Raina,” Kaden says.
His eyes glint in the light from the streetlamp, and a shiver rolls down my spine. There is insanity in Eli’s eyes, but it’s a familiar kind of madness. The cold calculation that glitters like shards of ice in Kaden’s dark eyes is something else. Something crueler.
“Boys,” I reply.
For a few seconds, we just watch each other. I glance past Kaden to see Rico sitting in the driver’s seat. A strange sense of disappointment settles in my stomach when I realize that Eli is not with them.
“Get in the car,” Kaden orders.
I was on my way back to Blackwater anyway, and this will be much faster than taking the bus, so I just shrug and stand up. “Alright.”
Surprise blows across their features, as if they had expected me to refuse. With the two of them still watching me with wide eyes, I stroll past them and climb into the backseat. Since there are only four of us this time, I claim the other window seat.
Two thuds sound as Kaden and Jace get in and throw the doors shut behind them. Then Rico starts the car. After turning it around, he drives back down the street.
“Eli is not happy with you,” Rico comments from the driver’s seat.
“Aww, did he miss me?” I taunt, but I’m secretly kind of pleased to hear that my absence didn’t go unnoticed.
“You’d better have one hell of an explanation.”
“Why would I need to explain myself to him?”
“I would also suggest getting ready to grovel,” Kaden adds as if I hadn’t spoken. “Thoroughly.”
I snort and arch an eyebrow at him. “Do I really look like someone who grovels?”
From the seat next to me, Jace flashes me a wicked grin. “Everyone grovels in the end.”
Shaking my head, I roll my eyes and scoff.
Streetlights and houses turn into dark fields and forests as Rico drives us back to the area where all of Blackwater’s students live. I sit up straighter as we reach the first section, where all the dorm rooms are located. But Rico just drives right past it.
“Uhm, I live over there,” I say, turning in my seat and pointing towards the buildings we are quickly leaving behind.
None of them answer.
Since I’m not desperate enough to throw myself out of a moving car, I just turn back around again and shake my head at the three of them in annoyed silence.
Rico pulls up to a massive two-story building made of dark wood.