The Dark Need Read Online Free

fastened to its stern. A little ice was forming around it, but the ice was thin and he could use one of the oars to break it free. Matt glanced at the houses across the water, where the last potential victims before the mountains were to be found. The other fork of the gravel road took the long way around the lake, but he was tired of arriving late to the scene. Maybe there was a faster way across. Grimly, he tossed his ax in, then leapt downinto the boat himself, felt it rock beneath him, the ice cracking as it did. He felt the woman’s gaze on him. Glanced up, saw her head silhouetted against the starlight, the sheen of her eyes.
    “Isn’t that stealing, Samaritan?”
    “Borrowing,” he said. “I’ll bring it back tomorrow. And quit calling me that.” He stowed his ax beneath the bench and took up one of the oars, began attacking the thin sheet of ice around him. The exertion felt good—or maybe it just felt good to be smashing something. “It’s going to get a lot colder. Why don’t you get back to your car. Drive back to Darrington. I saw a motel just off the county road.” He struck the ice carefully free of the motor. Very carefully. Just in case. His breath a fog before his face.
    “You’re not leaving me here, Samaritan. No way.”
    A thump behind him, and the boat shuddered. He turned to face her.
    “No,” he said.
    “Cold killed my engine. And I never turn down a free ride.” Her breath soft in the dark.
    “I’m not taking you.” Matt glanced up at the dock. Five feet. He could lift her back up there. If she was cooperative.
    He met her gaze, the hard glint in her eyes.
    Cooperative. Not likely.
    He nodded down at her sheathed knife. “You’re quick with that,” he said.
    He could see the protest in her eyes, the words she wanted to say—
I know how to use it, I’m good with this knife, I won’t freeze up if there’s trouble
—all those words. Saw her holding them back.
    But his objection wasn’t that she couldn’t fight.
    “Ever killed anyone?” he said.
    Her breath a fog from her lips. “No,” she said finally.
    “Now’s not the time to start.”
    “It is cold,” she said. “And it’s a long walk around. So it looks like you have a passenger.” Her right hand rested on her thigh. Very near her knife.
    Matt tried to stare her down another moment. Then he laughed quietly and sat down on the bench. So be it. It was rare that he was giving someone else a ride. Maybe karma was collecting. He reached wearily for the oars. “Better sit down.”
    She did, on the short bench at the stern. Watching him.
    “You demanded a ride,” he said, sliding one oar into its oarlock, then the other. “I didn’t offer you one. So stop looking at me like I’m going to lure you out into the middle of the lake and attack you.”
    “Are you?”
    He glanced at her. She was serious.
    “No,” he said.
    She nodded, as if she’d just confirmed a guess. But her hand didn’t leave the knife at her hip.
    He took up the oars, pulled vigorously. The boat leapt beneath him, a surge of motion over that cold, sluggish water. It was an oddly powerful feeling, moving the boat out, powered only by his strength and his will.
    Crucifix Girl watched him. “There’s a motor.”
    It was the first time he’d heard amusement in her voice.
    “Yeah,” he said, “and we’d be lucky if the gas hasn’t frozen solid. And if I was able to start it up, we could announce we’re coming to whatever’s across this lake.” He spoke in aloud whisper, not wanting his voice to carry over the water. In this cold, his voice would carry far. He supposed he’d made enough noise breaking the ice free. And the woman’s scream must have carried. Still, no need to add to it.
    “Don’t you mean whoever? Thought you didn’t believe in vampires.”
    “Neither do you.” Matt heaved at the oars, rowing as silently and quickly as he could. “How did you know to come here? As far as I can tell, the cops haven’t figured it