Page 4 of After Darkness Falls

Then, she realized it had nothing to do with her at all.Hewas doing something, making her feel a certain way.

What was he?

“Not without gloves,” thethingadded. “We don't want your prints at the scene.”

The conversation was too real, too casual. Chloe would have liked to pretend that she’d passed out and was just dreaming the whole thing, but his matter-of-fact tone robbed her of that illusion. She wouldn’t have imagined a man who looked like him and then made him talk about fingerprints.

He pulled an unexpected object out of his pocket: a phone. His hands would have been better suited to holding a dagger, or at least a gun.

"It's me,” he said into the receiver. “Rose's Coven, on the hill. Send a clean-up team and call the humans on your leash. It doesn't look good, but I can't stay to investigate." After a beat, the stranger added, "Keep me updated," and hung up.

Chloe’s eyes were locked on him during the whole exchange, because it beat looking at corpses. Now she glanced back toward the house.

Oh God. Until now, she’d held her breath, but now she’d made the mistake of inhaling.

She was going to throw up. Thatsmell. What was that smell?Again, she wanted to simultaneously step forward and run away as fast as her feet could carry her.

"It's lucky you weren't here."

The stranger's smooth voice pulled her out of her funk. Chloe suddenly realized that shecouldhave been here.Shouldhave been. Had she not decided to take a couple of days in London, she really would have.

What was she supposed to do now? She felt incredibly selfish for thinking about herself while towering over three corpses, but there didn’t seem to be anyone left alive here, and those witches were supposed to take her to the Institute. She didn't know its location; her letter hadn't provided it. Chloe knew the school was well hidden—one of the reasons why it was the perfect place for her.

She crouched down and hugged her knees, keeping her head low, and breathed in and out, trying to calm herself. Although it was still incredibly freezing outside, cold sweat gathered on her forehead. The last thing she needed right now was a panic attack. She wasn’t the one in trouble. She could just call Chelle or Charles. They'd tell her where to go.

"Are you all right?"

No.

"Yes," she said. She had all her limbs, and her blood wasn't marring the marble, so, yes, compared to some, she was just peachy.

"Good. Come on, Chloe."

Her head snapped to the beautiful creature. How did he know her name?

Her heart, already thundering, beat even faster.

"Fuck! You're here to kill me,” she gleaned, wondering why her instincts hadn’t screamed at her, demanded her to run. “Did you kill these people to get to me?"

The beautiful man laughed low.

"Darling, by now I could have destroyed you a thousand times, in so many different ways, if I'd wanted to."

Oh.

He had a point. She didn't doubt it. There was something soverydangerous about him.

"What are you?" she asked him.

The man tilted his head. "You've seen my kind before, if I'm not mistaken."

His kind…

Chloe watched him closely again, focusing on his dark eyes in detail. They had a strange glint, and seemed almost blue in a certain light. And there was his skin, which glowed, too clear and perfect. Airbrushed like he'd stepped out of a magazine. And his…

Teeth. His teeth, poking out under his lip. Elongated canines that hadn’t been there a minute ago caught her attention.

He was a vampire.

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