Darkness Falls by A.C. Warneke Read Free Book Online

tears leaked from her eyes, Malorie wondered if her pregnancy hormones were the cause of all of this madness. She hadn’t been this emotional when she was pregnant with Toby but then they were two extremely different situations; she hadn’t had the time to be emotional with Toby. Whatever was plaguing her, she was going to have to figure it out soon because Feryn wasn’t going to be patient forever. Eventually he was going to grow bored or realize how screwed up she was and no mating mark was going to keep him by her side.
    Drifting in and out of consciousness, she thought she heard the front door but when she didn't hear anything more, she figured she was probably dreaming. Jiro would have used the Netherworld corridors and simply appeared, much like how Feryn disappeared so quickly. There was no one else in the neighborhood and Feryn had placed anti-vamp wards everywhere so she and Toby were perfectly safe. Her thoughts trailed off as she sniffed and tried to go back to sleep.
    “Don’t cry,” a soft, male voice whispered, his strong fingers brushing her tangled hair out of her face. His voice was achingly familiar so it took her a moment to realize it wasn’t Feryn. How did she know him? “It’ll be all right, Mal, I’m here now. It’ll be all right.”
    Her eyes shot open as soon as she recognized the voice. Rolling over, she collided with the hard body of her dead husband who was gazing at her with affection. “Jack!”

Chapter 2

    ~ Jack ~
     
    The week before….
     
    The world swam in darkness and for the longest time he couldn’t remember who he was, where he was. Lying in the ditch, naked as the day he was born, he struggled to put the shattered pieces of his life back together, not able to comprehend the images that were coming together in his head. It was as if he was two different people, a man and a monster, and he wasn’t sure which one was really him.
    But he remembered Malorie, the only girl he had ever loved, both as a man and as a monster, and guilt and desire burned in his belly.
    He remembered the first time he ever saw her. It was after the monsters invaded his peaceful world and stole everything from him. The memories were hazy but he could still smell the blood and hear the screams as his family was slaughtered in front of him. He remembered how he had fought back in savage desperation.
    Then she appeared, coming out of the mist like a miniature angel, her honey brown hair cropped close to her head, her lithe body clothed in black. At first he had thought she was another vampire come to finish the job and he had attacked her. But with grace and surprising strength, she had spun around and slammed him against one of the remaining walls and hissed in his ear, “ I’m not a vampire, you fucking moron .”
    Relief that was painful in its intensity grabbed ahold of him and so he had grabbed onto her, the only real thing in the world. As she comforted him, he realized that she was a girl and when he looked at her, he realized that she was a pretty girl. At least, she was pretty beneath the shorn hair and the dirty face. Her gray eyes were steady as she looked at him and in that moment he had fallen in love.
    He remembered training with her father to hone the skills that had let him take out two vampires without any formal training. But in his heart he knew that he practiced diligently so he could impress Malorie, who at fifteen already possessed amazing grace and impressive talents. She was so serious all of the time and he lived for the moments that he could get her to smile, feeling like a freaking hero every time her lips curved upwards.
    When she finally laughed he felt like a fucking god.
    She was his world. He would have done anything for her, even as she dreamed about a fucking vampire. Hearing her moans as she slept had both infuriated him and made him hard as nails. For two years he endured the torment of listening to her nocturnal ecstasies until he finally made love to her on her