Darkest Hour by Rob Cornell Read Free Book Online Page B

cell buzzed in his pocket, saving them from an awkward silence. “Set up the meeting,” he said to Adam, then turned his back on the ogre and answered his phone.
    “It’s Gentz,” the voice on the line said.
    It took Lockman a second, then Lockman put a face to the voice and name—a gnome that worked in the farmhouse.
    “Go ahead.”
    “It’s Jessie, sir. She’s awake and asking for you.”
    Lockman’s heart skipped a beat. “I’m on my way.”

Chapter Eight
    “Step back from the door. I’m coming in.”
    Lockman waited a handful of seconds, then opened the door to the basement. Only a bit of sunlight filtered through the back entry to the farmhouse, but they didn’t take chances. No point getting burned if she could avoid it.
    He expected to find her still on the stairs, though. Instead he stared down at an empty staircase that disappeared into the dark about three quarters of the way to the bottom landing. She had lights down there. He didn’t know why she wasn’t using them.
    “Jess?”
    The blackness seemed to swallow his voice.
    He called to her again.
    “Come on down,” she said finally. “And don’t forget to close the door behind you.”
    “I can’t see a thing. Turn on a light.”
    “Hurts my eyes. That thing you zapped me with really messed me up.”
    He didn’t know what to say about that. He could apologize, but she wouldn’t buy it. And he couldn’t sell it. The moment he had learned how much influence Gabriel had on her, the professional in him had taken over. With that amount of power she had displayed, they couldn’t take any chances.
    “Will you please come down?”
    Lockman pulled his smart phone from his pocket and used the illumination from the screen to guide him down the stairs without tripping and breaking his neck. When he reached the landing, he swiped the basement with the bluish light emanating from the phone. He stopped on Jessie, whom he found crouched in the far corner by the furnace.
    She ducked her head down against her knees and moaned. “Dad, the light.”
    “This little bit bothers you?” he asked and pointed his screen at his feet.
    “Yes. Please turn it off.”
    “The light barely reaches you.”
    “It hurts my eyes, damnit. Don’t you even care?”
    He turned the light off and the basement dropped into total darkness. Without his sight, other senses ramped up to compensate. He smelled something like cold meat, though he didn’t know what that could be. When they had first acquired the farmhouse, the basement looked like what you imagined it would in a hundred year-old house. Cobwebs, dust, and the musty smell of old things. But they had scoured the room when they prepared it for Jessie’s use. The basement had probably never been as clean but for the day the house was built. If then. When they got done with it, the basement had smelled mostly like bleach.
    Something made him wonder if this new meat locker smell belonged to Jessie—the equivalent of vampire BO.
    “How long have you been up?” he asked.
    “A while, I guess. But my head hurt too much to get out of bed right away.”
    “Why don’t you lay back down?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “I had dreams in that bed last night.” Her voice shook. “Terrible dreams.”
    Again, Lockman found himself without an adequate response. Any comfort he tried to offer would sound frivolous or disingenuous.
    “You know I can see you? In the dark.”
    “Yeah.” He was familiar with vamp night vision.
    “Do you hate me?”
    Lockman winced. He felt a pinch in his gut. “No. I don’t hate you.”
    “But I disgust you.”
    “Why are you saying these things?”
    “Are you afraid of me?”
    “Jess, stop. Have I ever treated you like I thought any of those things?”
    “I saw the way you looked at me last night.” Something shuffled along the floor in the dark. “And you tazed me in the head. Not really something you do to someone you like.”
    He caught himself grinding his teeth. He had to