Page 5 of Inescapable Darkness

Shifting the gun to the left, she fired right next to my head and down into the mattress instead.

A man’s voice came from down the hall. “Dead.”

It was followed by another man’s voice. “Dead.”

The girl kept her stormy eyes locked on mine as she called, “Dead.”

Her eyes stayed on mine as she backed across the room, the gun still pointed in my direction. She paused for two seconds when she reached the door.

And then she was gone.

That was the night that everything changed. The night that a group of unknown people assassinated my parents. People that, even after six years, we still haven’t been able to track down.

Until now.

She might not have betrayed any surprise at seeing me yesterday, but I know what I saw. I remember those eyes.

It makes no sense that she would be here. Since she was a part of the group who broke into our very secure house and killed my parents, she was already an incredibly skilled assassin when she was just a teenager. So there would be absolutely no reason for her to enroll at Blackwater. Not to mention that this is my state.Ourstate. It should be the last place she would want to be.

But I know that it’s her. I know it is.

Pushing away the tangled sheets, I run a hand over the back of my neck as I sit up. I tap my phone. The screen lights up and informs me that it’s only four-thirty.

If Eli had been here, I could’ve gone to him because he would’ve already been awake. Or maybe not anymore, since he actually sleeps through the night when he has Raina in his arms.

But Eli graduated this summer, so now I have become the de facto leader of the Hunter brothers and have to be the one to keep the degenerates Kaden and Jace from killing each other and everyone else.

With a sigh, I rake my fingers through my hair and then pick up my phone. Yesterday, after I snapped out of my stupor, I went straight to the admin office and requested all the information that they have about the mystery girl I bumped into. Which they complied with for the same reason that I can get away with practically anything at this university.

I don’t expect them to have sent it over already, but I still check my email.

My heart lurches as I do in fact find an email from the admin office. With my pulse fluttering, I pull up the documents they have attached and read through them.

Isabella Johnson. She’s twenty-two years old, like me, which means that she should have been a third-year and not a freshman. It’s not the norm, but it’s hardly rare either, so I can’t nail her on that alone.

I scan the rest of the document.

She’s from an average-sized Midwestern town where she went to an average high school that she graduated from with average grades. Then she worked as a cashier at a supermarket for two years before coming here. Her family is an average middle class family that has relocated to Canada for the next year due to her father’s work.

No criminal record. No unexplained details. Nothing that stands out.

Everything about Isabella Johnson is just… average.

Except, I know that it’s a lie.

It has to be.

Tossing my phone down on the bed, I stalk over to my closet and yank it open. After getting dressed, I grab my phone again and walk out the door. Kaden and Jace are both asleep, the doors to their rooms closed, so I simply walk down the stairs and right out the front door.

At this time of night, the air is pleasantly cool. I draw in a deep breath. My lungs expand, filling with air that tastes of summer mist and pine trees.

While I start down the street, I check Isabella’s file again. She doesn’t live in one of the freestanding houses, like we do, but she doesn’t live in a dorm room either. Instead, she rents one of the apartments in the middle of the residential area.

Once again, average.

Most of the houses I pass are still dark. Only a few windows shine with yellow light, signaling that there are at least some other people apart from me who can’t sleep. Or maybe they’re training. I have never really cared enough about the other people on this campus to ask.

Once I reach the building that houses Isabella’s apartment, I stop. Since it’s technically still the middle of the night, the outer door is locked. There’s a keypad next to it. I could get the code from the admin office, but none of them are at work yet. I blow out a breath.