Darkness Descending Read Online Free PDF

throat. She swallowed past it. “Yeah.”
    Maddox poured the pears into a bowl, then pushed it over toward her. “So tell me,” he began in a conversational tone. “Who are you, really, and where did you come from?” His question carried enormous tension, and repercussions.
    Jesse froze. Damn it! Why did people always have to pry? She was in no mood to answer any questions.
    Suddenly feeling boxed in, she rubbed her hands across her face. It had been a mistake to accompany him. “What if I don’t want to say?”
    “Then you won’t be staying here long.” Turning away from the table, Maddox walked over to retrieve the bottle of whiskey. He unscrewed the cap. “I haven’t got time for little girls with secrets.” He tipped the bottle to his mouth, drinking deeply.
    Appetite gone, Jesse put the food aside. She wasn’t hungry now. Her stomach was tied into painful knots. If she took another bite, she was sure she would puke.
    What if he found out what she was? Infected, a beast—just like the thing he’d destroyed in the cemetery.
    Struggling for calm, she decided to bluff it out. It would have to do until she could figure out how to get out of this place. Staying would probably get her killed. “So maybe I don’t have a story to tell. Maybe I’m just nobody, from nowhere.”
    Maddox’s expression remained frozen. He was keeping a wary distance, feeling her out. “I don’t think that’s true.” He lowered the bottle to the table. “If I can’t trust you, you might as well leave now.”
     
    By the look on her face, Maddox knew he’d hit a vulnerable spot with the young urchin.
    Jesse grunted and pushed away from the table. Her face paled as she stood, but she forced herself to remain standing. “Trust is something I lost a long time ago.”
    “Yet you came with me,” he pointed out.
    She pulled a face. “I told you I’m good at making bad decisions. Besides, you had a gun.”
    “I didn’t threaten you.”
    Ignoring him, Jesse stubbornly limped toward the door. “That was awfully generous of you, too,” she shot over one shoulder. “As for leaving, I was just thinking of doing that.”
    Maddox took another drink. The whiskey burned its way down his throat. Maybe it would be best to let her go. If he’d misjudged her, he’d put his own kind in jeopardy. The resistance he led was a small one, outnumbered by the growing minions of the Telave vampires, the demonic undead spreading their disease throughout New Orleans. The cult was alive and well—and prospering.
    It was time to speak up. “I brought you here because you obviously know something about the Telave. How, I don’t know.” Though poorly armed and woefully ignorant, she’d seemed determined to kick some undead ass. She could be taught—trained.
    The word was unfamiliar to her. Something in her gaze flared as she turned around to face him. “Is that what they’re called?”
    He lifted the bottle but didn’t drink. Instead, he swirled the amber liquid around. “Yes.”
    She frowned. “Too bad that doesn’t tell me what the fuck is inside me.”
    Her statement chilled his blood. Capping the bottle, Maddox set it aside. “What do you mean, inside you?”
    The bravado she’d been hiding behind abruptly collapsed like a suddenly pricked balloon. Suddenly she wasn’t a tough veteran of the streets, but a scared young woman.
    A long silence stretched between them.
    “Like the girl in the cemetery,” she mumbled, finally breaking the pause. “They got us, took us.”
    His brows rose. “Us?”
    She barely managed a nod. “Amanda and I were infected. She was my twin. I made it out alive, but she . . . died.” Her words came in bits and pieces, as though each was too painful for her to speak.
    Surprise caught Maddox short. “When?”
    She frowned. “About a year ago, right before Katrina.”
    He took an instinctive step back. “You can’t be infected. Nobody stays alive that long.”
    Jesse grimaced, as if trying to keep her