House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)

Cara winked at me. “Don’t stress, I’ll show you the ropes. I’m not at the popular table or anything – none of us mortals are – but there are some nice people who go there. One or two.”

That wasn’t exactly promising. Cara pulled out a cell then, the case all shiny and pink; the screen lit up. “What’s your number? We should hang out over the next few days, when I’m not working, that is.”

Right, cell phone. Something most teenagers had. “I actually don’t have a phone. And since we literally just moved here last night, there’s no house phone either. If you write your number down, I’ll text as soon as I can.”

Maybe Sara and Michael had some money in the budget for a cheap cell. Wouldn’t hurt to ask. Or it might even be time for me to search out a part-time job. Cara’s eyes widened, as if she couldn’t even understand what I was saying.

“Girl, how do you possibly survive without a phone? I live on the ‘Gram and Snapchat. Every moment is a photo-op, you know?”

I nodded, but I really didn’t know. What the heck was a Snapchat? The bus was nearing my stop, so I started to shift forward in my seat, scrambling around to find a piece of paper. “Do you have a pen?” I said, pulling out a receipt from my pocket. My key and card came out too. Just as I was about to shove them back in, Cara reached across and plucked the security card from my hand.

“Where did you get this?” she said, sounding absolutely astonished. “Do you know how much trouble you can get into for stealing one of the elite’s cards? A Daelight card?”

I blinked a few times before reaching out and taking my card back and shoving it into my pocket. “It’s my card. I didn’t steal anything. I live on Daelight Crescent. That’s my security pass.”

She was staring at me really weirdly now, eyes narrowed, lips pursed. I wasn’t sure what she was thinking, if she believed me or not, but there was no time to find out. My stop was next, so I pulled the cord and the bus slowed just before the large security gates.

Cara still seemed to be in shock; definitely no condition to be exchanging numbers, so I just gave her a rueful smile and hopped off. So much for making a friend. Clearly the fact that I lived on Daelight Crescent had freaked the blond girl out. Another odd thing to add to my experience in Astoria.

Stepping up to the gates, I squished down my unease. I’d forgotten how imposing the barriers were until I was standing before them. Like seriously, I was pretty sure Buckingham Palace had smaller fences around it. Ace was no longer manning the security booth. Another hulking man had taken his place, one with a mess of dark curls that hung over his ears, and steely blue eyes. He gave me the creeps as he took an exceptionally long time looking over my card, and then staring at my face.

I already checked, buddy. My face is not on there.

Eventually, after scanning me in through the computer, he let me enter. The entire time he was staring at me, he did not speak one word. For a security guard, he did not make me feel even remotely secure.

My heartbeat remained elevated as I stepped onto the street. I couldn’t tell if it was from the security guard, or if there was some other threat nearby. Why did I keep feeling like Daelight Crescent was bad news?

I forced myself not to run, but my steps were rapid as I dashed along the street. Half my concentration was on the world around me, the other half on trying to figure out exactly which house was my new home. A lot of these old cottages looked the same, falling-down porches and all, but I knew mine was across from the European-looking mansion, so as its gates came into view I paid closer attention to the older shoebox homes.

I had just found number fourteen when the deep purr of an engine thundered through the afternoon, and I turned to find the sleek purple vehicle driving toward me. I moved back off the road – even though I was clearly on my side. My brain kept telling me to walk, to get into the house and don’t draw attention, but my eyes remained locked on the car, which slowed to almost a crawl when it drew even with me. I sensed I was being watched, but again the tint was way too dark to make out anything more than shadows.

The window cracked slightly and I froze, waiting to see what the occupants would do next. The window stopped, leaving only a few inches open at the top. I could still see nothing inside. Finally, when I’d had enough of the weirdness, I turned tail and ran as fast as I could. Screw looking cool and calm, I was terrified and wanted to get my butt out of there.

Something was wrong with Daelight Crescent. I knew it now, and it felt almost like it was too late to truly escape. The Finnegans were lured here, and now we were trapped.





3





After my scare, the next few days passed quite peacefully. Sara and Michael disappeared on one of their supernatural hunting trips, leaving me home to read and indulge in my other favorite hobby. Knitting. Yep, I was an eighty-year-old in an almost eighteen-year-old’s body. Reading and knitting were my fun times and I would go crazy grandma on anyone’s ass who tried to stop me. Thankfully I had found a decent wool site online, getting bulk lots really cheap.

Daelight was still creeping me out, but I couldn’t deny how peaceful a street it was. Unlike the usual areas we lived in, I didn’t have to deal with domestic violence, gangs, or the randoms who wanted to fight it out in front of my house. The only thing dulling my happiness were the occasional stabs of loneliness, but I was used to the Finnegans disappearing for days on end.

My parents had been a bit on the helicopter parenting side. Michael and Sara were the complete opposite. They believed in freedom, making your own mistakes and learning from them. Plus they seemed to trust me completely. I had no curfew. No rules at all, really. Just make good choices, as they always said to me. When they took off, they had promised to be back in time to drive me to school on Monday, but since it was Sunday evening and there was still no sign of them, I wasn’t holding out hope. I would be okay, though. I always was.

Except for the food situation. It was running low, and I wasn’t sure I was up to braving the town on my own again. I had one bowl of cereal left for dinner or breakfast. I needed to make a choice now. My stomach rumbled at me – loudly – and no amount of shooshing or filling it with water was helping. Caving, I ditched my knitting needles in the basket of wool and got up to eat my Fruit Loops. Just as I was finishing, lights shone through the open blinds, and out of habit I pressed myself against the wall and crept to the window. Peering around the corner, I wasn’t surprised to see a car going back into the royal abode, as I called it now. I mean, their hedges were pruned into shapes. Who else but royalty did that?

As weirded out as I had been the other day, I also found myself strangely obsessed with spying on the rich side of Daelight Crescent. And since the royal abode was the only one I could easily see from the front window, it got most of my attention. After some careful and selective stalking, I had learned some interesting things. First, definitely more than one person lived there. Multiple cars emerged, often at the same time. So far there was a white Range Rover, a black Porsche, and the sleek fancy purple one – which looked a lot like an Aston Martin. Despite his general academic ways, my father had been a secret car buff. He’d even had an old Ford Mustang in the garage that he tinkered with on weekends. So I knew a little about make and model of cars from him. Enough to know that all of the vehicles that went in and out were expensive – like feed a small country for the cost of their tires expensive.