Jonas (Darkness #7) Read Online Free PDF

didn’t speak?”
    Tension tightened up Emmy’s body. She glanced at the door; she should go. She was breaking the rules of a torturer. She’d given him power, and now she was letting down her guard. Letting him into her life.
    Slippery slope, Emmy. You are walking a very slippery slope with this one.
    She glanced at the door again.
    “I’ll take that as a yes,” the man said in a low growl. “Did you fight back?”
    Without meaning to, and unable to help the defensiveness, she answered, “Do you fight back when your boss punishes you? Your leader?”
    “No. Because usually I fucked up and knew it was coming.”
    “I see. And if you didn’t mess up? If you didn’t know it was coming?”
    His jaw clenched and unclenched. “I’ve never had violence pushed on me from a superior without due cause. If I did, I would fight back.”
    “And you would probably be killed.”
    “Probably.”
    “I would be killed. Without question. Or subjected to something worse. I’d rather take the punishment.” Emmy snapped her mouth shut when she’d realized what she’d said. How much she’d said.
    “Anyway,” she said in a brusque tone. “You’ll see more of me, now. Things need to progress. I will no longer stop when you’ve had your epiphany. I’ll continue on until you can’t hold your head up. We’ll see if prolonged pain will loosen your lips.”
    “It won’t.” His gaze was on her again. “I’m not afraid of pain. I’m used to it. What questions do you need answers to?”
    Emmy’s eyebrows furled. In response, he smirked and said, “I don’t have any great secrets. I’m sure Sasha, my mage, is trying to find me right now. She’s probably getting with her white mage teacher and coming up with some nasty spells that will tear this place apart. All they have to do is find this place. And she will, eventually. Or the Boss will. Or those mongrels will. Or all those strange humans will. It’s only a matter of time. As long as you have me, dead or alive, they’ll come for me. You’re on the wrong side, sweet cheeks. You sound American, mostly, and you almost look human with your stature—you don’t need to be hanging around with no group of Europeans. They haven’t gotten with the times.”
    “Sasha is the human?” Emmy asked with a firm voice. “She’s allowed to be mage?”
    The man’s eyes burned into hers. “They don’t treat you great here, huh? You’re human, then?”
    She raised her chin, not quite sure how he could read her so easily. “Half. My father. I was mostly raised in America. That’s why I have this accent.”
    “We just got a halvsie. More useful, straddling that line. Didn’t much like him at first, and I used to hate humans. But they grow on you when you get to know ‘em. Kind of a gentler species until they get riled up. Humans, that is. Not the halvsie. He’s a nut.”
    Emmy couldn’t stop herself from smiling. She turned away to hide it. “What’s your name?”
    “Jonas. I guard the mage. Don’t bother asking me any questions about her. I won’t answer. But you can know whatever you like about me.”
    “All on your terms, huh?” she asked, facing him again once her features were schooled.
    He shrugged his large shoulders. “You’re trying. This is out of your hands. Like I said—I’m used to pain. I’ll take it right to the grave. Almost have many times. And you’re great with that whip. Too bad you’re so stuck up or I—“
    His mouth snapped shut before he finished his thought. His gaze once again hit that back wall.
    Unable to help her curiosity, she said, “Finish.”
    He smirked. “That’s just it. I’d like to finish. With you. But that shit makes you uncomfortable.”
    Anxiety rolled through Emmy’s insides. Before she’d made the conscious thought, she was walking toward the door. Before she’d left, she heard, “See?”
    He was right. It did. Her only experience had been years and years of being forced. There’d been nothing she could