Darker Days Read Online Free PDF

basis, I’d put us into a position that the jobs she’d normally take as public charity —the epic kind that prevented massive body counts and uber-bloodshed—were a thing of the past.
    Lukas looked shocked. I guess no one had ever told him nothing in life was free. “I—I have no money…”
    Mom shook her head. “Ignore my daughter, please. Payment won’t be necessary. This is not something we can ignore.”
    Seven Sins.
    Six innocent people.
    Five days.
    Piece of cake…

Chapter Four
    My commute from the office to home was a tough one—through the back door and up a set of narrow stairs to our apartment. The carpet was worn to the wood in the middle of each step, and the fourth, fifth, and seventh stairs creaked. I’d lived here all my life, same as Mom. The building had been in our family for generations. Once an old barn, the bottom was long ago converted into a makeshift office, and the upstairs, a living area.
    The apartment was small—I guessed none of the Darkers before us had exceptionally large families—two bedrooms, one bath, and an eat-in kitchen. It was fine. Big enough for me and Mom, and as far as I was concerned, comfy. More space meant more to clean, and neither one of us could be considered domestic goddesses. We didn’t even own a vacuum.
    Having nowhere else to go, Lukas convinced Mom to let him sleep in the office. Honestly, I was pretty shocked when she agreed. She had a strict no personal involvement with clients policy. Yet another thing that had come from her relationship with Dad. That was, until I realized she probably wanted to keep an eye on Lukas. Setting Wrath loose on the town would make her twitchy. I knew how her brain worked. She’d made sure I went up to bed long before she did. If I had to guess, she’d put multiple wards in place that would alert her to any funky business.
    Despite having what was, for all intents and purposes, an ancient evil cooling his heels on our office couch, I fell asleep fast. I was in the middle of a pretty awesome dream involving me, some chocolate covered popcorn, and a nice quiet corner of a deserted island when a loud crash jarred me awake.
    Throwing aside the covers, I jumped out of bed and sprinted into the hall. I skidded to a stop in front of Mom’s door and pushed it open a crack. She was safe and curled under the covers, sleeping peacefully. It was kind of irritating. The woman could sleep through an alien invasion complete with a marching band to announce their presence. Me? A fly farted downtown and I was up.
    Another bang.
    I took off down the hall, sock-clad feet sliding on the scuffed hardwood as I rounded the corner. The noise had come from downstairs.
    From the office.
    Lukas.
    Taking the stairs two at a time, I burst through the door. I don’t know what I expected to find. Catch him doing something evil? Making the neighborhood pets go rogue? Maybe inviting all his Sin buddies in for a late night raid on the fridge…
    What I found was him standing in the middle of the room frowning at the floor. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dark, but when they did, I saw his right hand was bleeding onto a broken glass at his feet.
    He looked up. “I didn’t mean to—”
    I walked around him and went to the hall closet to grab the broom and dustpan. While I was at it, I made a pit stop in the bathroom and pulled out the first aid kit and a roll of paper towels.
    Once the broken glass was cleaned up, I nodded to the pooling blood. “Trying to refinish the floor with your guts?”
    “I cut myself.”
    “Ya think?” I motioned for him to move closer. When he didn’t budge, I grabbed his hand and pulled him forward. He was surprisingly warm. Not sure why, but I’d expected something cold. In my experience, most evil things were cold.
    The glass had sliced open the entire center of his hand, and I was thankful blood didn’t eek me out. My best friend Kendra would have passed out by now. “What happened?”
    He didn’t