The Dark Places Read Online Free Page B

blinding, wind-driven snowstorm on Dearleth.
    Matt rose from the balcony wall,
drawing me with him. He guided me from the noisy crowd to a less brightly lit,
unoccupied balcony area. He studied me with unsettling intensity before he
stepped close and covered my quivering lips with his.
    Was
there urgent need in his kiss? In mine? With the
numbing cold enveloping me, I couldn’t tell.
    He moved back, searching my eyes.
“Are you afraid of me, Kailiri?” he whispered.
    I wasn’t certain if I nodded or
shook my head because the tremors had intensified and rocked my body.
    He gently grasped my chin,
effectively capturing my fear-distracted attention. “You should be,” he said
softly. “You have been imprinted upon my awareness. I cannot let you go now. If
only I had more time to gently woo you… but I don’t. And now I can only trust
that your feelings are true enough to bind you to me.”
    I tore away from his touch and
stumbled back. “What are you saying?” My voice quavered. I wanted to shout the
words, but my heart felt like it had lodged within my throat and blocked my
outcry. Why can’t I stop trembling?
    “Come with me,” Matt said in a
soft, urgent tone and held out a hand. When I didn’t move, he came close and
grasped my cold hands. “If your lips haven’t lied to me, Kailiri, you have
nothing to fear,” he said quietly, “but if your heart is false, your life—and
mine—shall be full of pain.”
    What
is he talking about? I didn’t want to know. I wanted this to still be a normal
evening on a restaurant balcony. He
kissed me and everything changed . My soul screamed dire warnings while the
world suddenly turned mysterious and menacing. And why is it so cold? I
stared in bewilderment at Matt. He had a green haze shimmering in his eyes. I
hadn’t imagined that occurrence the first time it had happened, I assured
myself.
    “Who are— what are you?” I whispered through stiff lips.
    “Come, Kailiri.”
    I numbly followed, his firm hand about my waist. He led me at a casual stroll past the chatting
diners, and soon we were down the spiral staircase and out the restaurant’s
door. He caught the attention of taxi flitter driver, and we sped along uptown
Marnu’s streets. Matt held me in the backseat, my body powerless to move away.
Some of the tremors subsided, but a numb, cold void filled me.
    Our taxi flitter stopped in front
of Marnu’s City Records building complex. No emotions flickered within me as
Matt paid the driver. I followed him without resistance past two uninterested
guards on duty and then down an echoing, deserted corridor. We walked through
large glass doors into the all-hours Records complex. Escalators carried us
down several stair flights into the complex’s deep, underground sections and
delivered us before another department entrance. I forced my brain to
concentrate on the large black official script plastered upon the wide glass
doors before they slid apart.
    Department of Marriage Records, it
proclaimed in Alliance Basic, and New Basic, as well as T-bar Syntaxico, a
unified coded language for species that didn’t use Basic.
    My quaking returned. “Matt, why are
we here?” I tried to keep my voice steady, but it quavered.
    “You have been imprinted upon me,
Kailiri,” he said, as if that explained it all.
    “I don’t understand.”
    The chills prickling my bones felt
like a vicious viral infection from frigid Dearleth had me in its grip. I
opened my mouth to protest and ask for more about that imprinting matter, but
Matt spoke again.
    “I never expected to find you now,
at this time in my life,” he whispered and drew me into his warmth. His
persuasive mouth and tongue silenced me, melting my objections.
    You’re
inside the Marriage Records Department! My benumbed brain reactivated and
sent up a faint warning.
    I should have pulled away and
demanded further explanations, but instead my hands clung tight to Matt when he
lifted his lips from mine. To my further