The Key of Darkness (The Bradbury Institute Book 1) Page 12

  Another sound welled up from her, something between a purr and a moan. He picked her up and swing her around, bracing her against the nearest tree. She wrapped her legs around him, her knees high at his sides. He took her mouth the way he wanted to take her body - hard, controlling, unapologetic. At first she gave as good as she got, tangling her tongue with his, nipping his lips with her teeth. But Pete had a merciless side, something he’d learned the hard way but nevertheless was a part of him now. He kept her pinned roughly against the tree, grinding his need into the softest, sweetest part of her.

  He felt her surrender the instant she began to melt into him. Dark magic roared to life in his veins, riding alongside lust. Hot and wild and dangerous. It came from a place so deep inside even he didn’t fully understand how to access it. He knew what to do with lust, though. No matter how long it had been, not matter how many lonely nights, lust was a type of magic he knew how to work.

  He kissed a line from the corner of her mouth down to her neck. A bite to her collar bone elicited a delicious moan. Deftly, he made quick work of the buttons of her sweater, finding a tank top underneath. He toyed with the hard bead of one nipple through the thin material and she breathed out his name like an invocation.

  Something snapped deep in his psyche. Memories crashed through the haze of passion, bringing burning cold and stabbing pain. He cried out, rubbing his temple with the palm of his hand. A voice echoed in his head, calling out the wrong name and laughing as screams bounced around the walls of a past best kept locked up tight.

  His screams.

  Slowly, Pete came back to awareness. Eve sat at his feet, leaning against the tree and looking up at him. He couldn’t read her expression. The booze in his system, the flashback still reverberating in his head, the proximity to the Sideways gate-it all conspired to leave him nearly defenseless.

  None of it hit him as hard as his desire for the green-eyed woman at his feet. He wanted nothing more than to lose himself in her, lose the past and let it be washed away. The fact that it even felt possible threatened to bring tears to his eyes. Eve raised a slim, pale hand, beckoning him to join her on the forest floor.

  He wanted to, more than anything. But that spike of dark magic and the memories that came on its heels forbade it. There was simply too much risk. He hadn’t lied to her moments ago when he’d told her he was bad. So he put that wild, reckless, delicious feeling away, packed it up in a box and left it in that increasingly full corner of things best forgotten.

  “Let’s get you home,” he said. He took her hand and pulled her up.

  She stepped away. “Okay.”

  The distance between them hurt, but it was for the best.

  Pete walked her home, then returned to his own apartment. He picked out a movie then settled on the couch, hoping he’d be able to sleep at some point. The movie barely dented his awareness. All he could think about was Eve.

  That would not do. That would not do at all.

  Chapter 24

  Rain lashed against the window, turning the streetlights below into neon watercolors. Agnar Drake stood with one hand on the windowsill, the other at his side clutching a tattered photograph. His thoughts deep in the past, Stern’s entrance barely registered until she cleared her throat in a bid for his attention.

  “What?”

  “Crantz is recovering from the, er, disciplinary session. He’ll be on his feet by the end of the week.”

  He said dully, “What makes you think I care?”

  She paused. “He deeply regrets losing the Key.”

  “Stop kissing my ass on his behalf. He can do his own groveling.”

  “Yes, sir. We are of course working on another plan to acquire the Key.”

  As if it even mattered now. Oh, he still wanted it, of course. He had great plans for using the Key of Darkness. Tonight there were far more important things on his mind. He glanced at the two smiling young men in the photograph. Oh so very young and still so innocent. Agnar looked much the same, his features perhaps more defined now, a bit more muscle on his long frame. The younger man was really a boy then, a few inches shorter, skinny, with an open face and easy grin. Both with blond hair but different shades, Agnar’s lighter, the boy’s more of a dark honey-gold spreading back from a widow’s peak. Both with blue eyes but again different shades following the same pattern, Agnar’s eyes an ice blue, the other’s closer to twilight. They’d been so close once, until they were separated by a nightmare and then finally death.

  Stern interrupted his reverie. “I have the file you wanted, sir.”

  Still gazing at the photo, Agnar said, “What’s his name?”

  “Peter Cadkin. It appears he works in some sort of security capacity for Bradbury. His file is flagged as top secret, my source can’t get to it. Doing my own background check I can state unequivocally that the man didn’t exist until three years ago.” She handed him the folder, a surveillance photo paper-clipped to the front.

  “You may go.” He dismissed her without a glance. She left quietly. Agnar forgot about her and the Key and everything else, staring at the photo of Cadkin.

  He placed the two photos side by side on a table. “Cadkin” may have been older, far more muscular and with a sadly guarded expression, but he was the same person as the boy in the other photo. But of course Agnar knew that already. He’d known since that night in Frankfurt when he’d reached through the enchantments of Crantz’s ring, only to be stopped by magic so familiar he recognized it immediately.

  But why? It made no sense.

  He traced his fingers over the photos. “Leoben,” he whispered. “Why have you hidden yourself from me, my brother?”

  Agnar Drake would have the Key of Darkness if he had to march into the Bradbury Institute himself to get it. But first he and little brother Leoben would have a family reunion.

  Thank You!

  Thank you for reading The Key of Darkness! This is the first volume of a series called The Bradbury Institute, which I initially started as an online serial for fun between writing full-length novels. Keeping up with regular posting proved difficult, especially since I now have a busy toddler to raise. Bradbury is no longer a weekly serial, but I am going to continue the exploits of Pete, Eve, Chet, and the rest in a series of novellas. Stay tuned for volume two, Long Night Moon.

  You can find out more about my other titles at my website, www.sonyaclark.net. If you’d like to keep up with future releases, you can subscribe to my announcements list at http://eepurl.com/bT3NL.

  Copyright Information

  Copyright © 2014 by Sonya Clark.

  Cover design by Sonya Clark using images from Dreamstime.com.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.