Read Dark Company for Free Online

contaminated,” she said. “He seemed to be so worried about that.”
    “Nonsense,” the silver being clipped. “You’re just going to have to control your thoughts and movements and not let whatever it is that’s affecting you interfere. An essential degree of subtlety is required here. You don’t need so much power just to get about.”
    Meg frowned to keep from smiling. She liked having power.
    When the being saw the look on her face it misunderstood and reconsidered its approach. It assumed a gentler stance, softening its tone.
    “Think of yourself as … a leaf upon the water.”
    Meg concentrated again, imagining a lovely green leaf bobbling along on a sparkling blue river. To her delight, she began to glide forward with the most pleasant swishing sound.
    “Good,” the being congratulated her. “Now follow me—and try not to talk with your mouth open.”

ABDUCTION
    C addy crouched on the ground, a cornered animal. The man glared at her, his face shifting in the flickering candlelight. She wanted to memorize everything about him, to take what she could before he killed her. He was tall, dark-skinned—Native, maybe—dressed in jeans and a worn black suit jacket with a battered top hat pushed down over his dark mane of hair. Over his shoulder he wore a fringed tan leather satchel. His hands were the size of dinner plates. It was clear she couldn’t fight him off, though she would try. She didn’t want to die like this. She clutched her safe stone, gathering her courage.
    “Are you the One-Armed Bandit?”
    The man looked at her as though she was an idiot. “What did you come here for?” he asked.
    His question confused her. What did he plan to do? She needed to act quickly, to find something—anything she could use to defend herself. The room was empty except for the candle guttering on the floor. The only way out was the door behind him. She was trapped. And then she remembered her phone. Pulling it from her jacket, Caddy pressed the key for emergency speed-dial.
    The man reached her in one step, knocked the phone from her hand and shattered it with the heel of his boot.
    “No phones.”
    “Please, let me go,” Caddy begged.
    “Why did you come here?”
    She thought to lie but found herself telling the truth. “I was looking for my father.”
    “Your father isn’t here.”
    Caddy felt a sharp pain in her hands. She held them up in the candlelight, saw blood and started to cry. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what you want from me.”
    The man was unmoved. “We have to go.”
    Caddy broke down. “Please … I haven’t done anything. I just want to go home.”
    A scuffling sound outside the door set the man in action. He pushed her aside and brushed some dirt from the ground, uncovering a hatch. Grabbing the handle, he tugged it open. “Come on.”
    Caddy made a break for the door, fumbling with the hasp as she tried to unlock it. “Help!” she shouted, pounding on the door with her fists. “Someone help me, please!”
    The man picked her up and stuffed her through the hatch into a tunnel. He jumped in after her, pulling the lid shut.
    “Get away from me!” Caddy yelled, hitting his face and chest until he snatched her up and carried her on his hip again.
    She fought him the entire length of the passageway, the man cursing and muttering under his breath. At a bend in the tunnel, he dropped her to her feet. There was another hole. This one had a ladder leading down. The man pointed at the ladder.
    “Climb,” he said.
    Caddy started to object but he looked at her with such malice that she lowered herself onto the rungs. She clung to the ladder, peering between her feet at the water running along a massive concrete culvert below. Was he going to kill her down there? Sheglanced at him and he scowled, forcing her to move. The rungs were damp. Her sneakers slipped and squeaked as she went.
    The man descended after her, a menacing bear. At the bottom of the ladder, Caddy stopped. The