Read Where Dark Collides: Part 1 (Shades of Dark) for Free Online Page B

“And seriously, where do you learn this stuff?”
    These weren’t the mocking, rhetorical questions of Beth’s variety. This wasn’t the first time Kial had mentioned the Graces. I had my suspicions, but they were watery vague. Normally, I didn’t press Kial when he let the occasional oddball comment drop. But today was different. If my world was going to upend, I needed a freshly minted map.
    He cocked a brow at my demand for him to show and tell. The smirk grazing in his expression told me, ‘Not today, perhaps tomorrow, probably never.’
    The doorbell chimed, limiting my come-back options to, “That’d better be the window company.”
    “I’ll get it.” Kial pushed away from the counter, knuckling the underneath of my chin as he passed me on the way out. “ That face will only chase them away.”
    I cleared my scowl. Yeah, he’s totally smitten with me. I twisted my head to get another look at Beth’s arm. “Are you feeling okay?”
    “Besides my insides shrivelling at the thought of bits of Demor crawling inside me…?” She brought her gaze back from the doorway, and Kial’s departing back, as she spoke. “I’m fine, really.”
    “Beth, I’m sorry, if you hadn’t been with me—”
    “Don’t you dare make this your fight.” Her eyes glittered with stubbornness (as physically weak as Beth was, she was no coward). “Demors are shape shifting again and that has nothing to do with your vendetta.”
    Yeah, I didn’t buy that. “I’m the one who’s been poking them, stirring up the hornet’s nest.”
    She reached out, her hand folding over mine on top of the table. “Don’t take offence, sweetie, but that panther faded in and out lightening quick. To use Kial’s words, if he’d wanted you dead, you’d be dead. This one was after me.”
    I still wasn’t convinced. But this was my guilt to bear, and I wouldn’t offload it onto Beth. I thought of my parents, of their mangled bodies, and my throat closed tight.
    “He can’t have you,” I said, my voice gruff, hitching. I leaned in, our foreheads almost touching. “I won’t allow it.”
    She met the determined, resolute look in my eyes, and gave a slow nod. “I know.”
    Beth was good that way. She knew when an argument would make things worse rather than better.
    The muted sounds of soft-soled footfalls on hardwood drew my head back.
    Beth’s gaze flashed over my shoulder. A second later, an, “Oh,” rolled off her lips.
    “Raine,” came Kial’s curt announcement, “you have a visitor.”
    I swung around as I pushed to my feet, expecting trouble. It had been that kind of day. What I got was Roman La Mar, standing in my kitchen.
    If he’d shaved, it was not evident. A shadow darkened his jaw and stretched into the hollows. Dark grey, designer-cut trousers shaped sleek, muscled thigh. The cotton-thin, navy sweater he wore as a shirt crept up a chest carved in rippled stone to end in a high V at his throat.
    “I’m interrupting,” he said in that deep, honey blended rumble, jade eyes boring into me without a hint of apology.
    “No, not at— We were just—” Why had he…? I couldn’t complete a sentence, could scarcely complete a thought. What was he doing here? I was guessing it wasn’t for the coffee he’d run out on this morning.
    Instead of helping me out, a grin cracked that granite jaw.
    Kial put his shoulder to the wall, legs crossed loosely at the ankle, his thumbs hooked into the belt of his jeans. “I tried to tell him now wasn’t convenient for a social call,” he drawled, ice flowing over a hot stream. “Apparently I was too nice about it.”
    I couldn’t decide whom to be more irritated with. Roman for being here, Kial for his rudeness, or myself for seriously still managing to be surprised at the random crap this day kept spitting out.
    Beth, clearly not suffering from any of my indecisions, inserted herself between us with a high-wattage smile.
    “Please forgive my friends. This one—” She aimed