Dark Awakening by Kendra Leigh Castle Read Free Book Online Page A

insignificant planet being pulled inexorably into the orbit of a powerful, and potentially deadly, star.
    Over the last couple of days, she’d almost managed to convince herself that she was making too much of the strangeness of their meeting. But now, confronted again with the way every cell in her body tingled at his nearness, her normally iron will already softening and threatening to desert her, she knew her initial instincts had been right.
    There was something very wrong about him. Something dangerous. And yet she found herself turning to where she knew he was, wanting desperately to see his face again.
    He stood at the edge of the deserted parking lot, just outside the bright glow of the lights that illuminated the few cars, looking as though he’d been conjured out of her darkest longings and made flesh. There was little shadow to be had anywhere near the lights’ fluorescent glow, and yet it seemed he’d managed to find some to stand in. Or, Lily thought as she drank him in, maybe men like Tynan simply created their own shadow. That was crazy—but no crazier than the rest of this.
    “Lily. You and I need to talk.”
    His voice was just as she remembered, deep and slightly ragged. And at its sound, it took every ounce ofher willpower to stay still. Every word he said seemed to translate to the same thing when it hit her ears:
come to me
. But this time, there was a difference. She’d had time to think about what he might be, what he might do to her before vanishing again into thin air. Things that would be worse than any nightmare.
    Mentally, she dug in her heels, envisioning her feet encased in cement right where she stood. Whatever he was trying to get her to do, it wasn’t going to happen, no matter how good he looked just standing there in his own little pool of darkness like some modern-day version of Dracula. She felt light-headed, almost a little drunk, and Lily dug in harder, pushed back.
    A quick flash of emotion crossed Tynan’s face as she concentrated, forcing the fog in her mind to lift a little. She saw both anger and bewilderment clear as day in the split second he let them show before schooling his expression into inscrutability.
    Her blood turned to ice, but her fear, unwelcome though it was, anchored her that much more firmly in reality.
    “Look,” he said slowly, holding her gaze with his own. “I’m sorry for the other night. I wasn’t trying to scare you, and I shouldn’t have run off so quickly. But I didn’t realize…” He trailed off, seemingly at a loss as to how to continue.
    Lily just watched him silently, while in her mind she began gauging how quickly she could get to her car, open the door, and lock herself in.
    He seemed to know.
    Tynan sighed, an irritated little hiss of air through his nose. “You’re not really hearing me at all, are you? It’s always fight or flight with your kind, never any room inbetween.” He closed his eyes for a moment, obviously grasping for whatever patience he had.
    “I’m not a bloody negotiator,” he muttered to himself.
    Well, you don’t look like one either
, she thought, watching him warily as she began to edge toward her car, which was tantalizingly close, though not quite close enough. Without his strange eyes locked on her own, she felt freer to move again, more in control of herself. Right at that moment, all she wanted was to go home and forget Tynan MacGillivray ever existed. Because even now, when she knew he had
stalker
written all over him, she couldn’t help but stare at him, appreciating the jagged, masculine beauty of him.
    Couldn’t help but want him.
    It terrified her that she could feel this kind of desire for someone who was probably going to kill her in very short order. But she couldn’t seem to turn it off any more than she had been able to banish the images of him from her mind since the night they’d met. Which meant only one thing for certain: she had to get out of here as quickly as she could and call