Read In the Dark for Free Online

felt.”
    “What does
that mean?”
    “It means
he probably had troubles he did not wish to share with you.”
    “So you
think he kept secrets from me.” I bit my lip. I thought so too.
Just not like this.
    Sebastian’s
face didn’t change. “I think you cannot tell me who this
might be.”
    My heart sank.
“So you can’t help me?”
    “I can.
You’re still a witness. You can still point me in the right
direction.” He sat back a bit, away from me. I didn’t
notice I had tensed up until he moved away from me and I relaxed.
    “So you
want a description?”
    “That
would be an appropriate beginning, yes.”
    “I saw a
woman,” I said. “Right before I found the puddle. She had
silver eyes, and long blond hair. My height, I think, kinda skinny.”
The picture in my head made me shiver. I could still see her –
and that poisonous grin.
    “That
doesn’t give me much. You saw her, though?”
    I nodded.
    “How well
did you see her? Would you recognize her if you saw her again?”
    “I’d
know her in a heartbeat.”
    Sebastian did
that smiling-without-smiling thing again, where his eyes just
glinted.
    “That
might be a problem, as we have no heartbeats,” he told me,
voice flat. I thought he meant it as a joke. I didn’t laugh.
    “Thank
you,” he said, and stood.
    “That’s
it?”
    His eyebrows
flicked up in a kind of nod. “As I said, it would be safest for
you to remain here for the time being. Whoever killed Kent may come
after you. Perhaps not, but I would not take that chance.”
    “What are
you going to do about all this?” I asked in a thick voice.
    “Stop her.
I thought we had established that.”
    “How are
you going to stop her? Throw her in jail?”
    He met my eyes
with an icy stare I did not like. He’d made me nervous up until
now. Now he scared me.
    “I will
find this woman,” he said, “and I will kill her. By
committing murder against one of our kind she has forfeited her
life.”
    It would have
had the same effect if he’d slapped me. I stared at him, mouth
falling open. He watched me, waiting for my next question.
    I didn’t
want to know more. Not the details. Not how he thought he would do
this. I had a feeling he’d tell me, if I asked.
    And still he
waited . . . not for me to ask anything, I realized with a chill.
Waiting for me to decide. He wouldn’t go through with anything
if I didn’t want him to.
    I opened my
mouth to say no, to tell Sebastian to back off. No sound came out. I
tried to say it again, but I found myself closing my mouth. I
couldn’t tell him I didn’t want his help.
    “You may
leave,” he said off-handedly. “This matter does not
involve me unless you wish it to.”
    Telling me I
could still change my mind. I didn’t answer. He scared me. And
I still wouldn’t open my mouth and tell him to back out.
    I must have
pulled in tighter on myself, because he looked at me again. Cocked an
eyebrow. I shifted in the chair, trying to be small. He kept looking
at me with that blank face, thinking at me, thinking –
    He thinks I’m
smart to be afraid of him.
    A cold shiver
went up my spine. I didn’t know that, how could I? It was only
a guess. But it felt like such a good guess.
    He looked away.
“Make yourself comfortable if you like. If not, the elevator
will take you to the first floor.”
    And he walked
out, his boots thunking away down a hall. I heard a door open and
shut. Then nothing. He’d left me all alone. I couldn’t
even hear Seattle from this side of the thick windows.
    How could all
this happen in a few hours?
    What am I
going to do?
    Nobody answered.

B EDROOM
    D espite
her fear, she did not leave. She was smart enough to fear him and
smart enough to know she had little choice if she wanted help.
Sebastian had been nothing but honest with her: he intended only to
help her because her situation interested him. She, however, had no
way of knowing that. He could tell it bothered her.
    Sebastian sat
cross-legged on his bed, in the