Sacrifice Me: The Darkness (Episode 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

at home was five years old and well used. There was no
accidentally mistaking the two.
    So how were there windows in the basement?
    I stood and made my way to the window, a bright
light coming from outside. How long had I slept? It only felt like a
few hours, but the light pouring through the glass was as bright as
day.
    I must have taken my boots off at some point in
the night and the wood floor was cool against my bare feet. I
trembled as I watched snowflakes, not rain, pelt the window.
    I closed my eyes, thinking I must be stuck inside
a dream.
    I opened them again, wider this time, unable to
believe my own eyes. A winter wonderland stretched out before me for
miles. A cliff dropped off just a few feet from the edge of the house
and mountain peaks rose from the fog that stretched out across the
distance. Snow swirled everywhere.
    I brought my hand to my mouth. I could hardly
breathe.
    Toto, we are so not in Chicago anymore.
    I stepped back from the window. Where the hell was
I? How was it possible that we had stepped through a doorway in the
club in Chicago, come down a flight of stairs, and ended up on the
edge of a mountain in the middle of nowhere?
    It was summer in Chicago. This just wasn’t
possible.
    For a brief moment, I wondered if maybe I was
looking into some kind of TV screen. An illusion to make me believe
we weren’t underground.
    But it looked too real. What kind of trick was my
mind playing on me?
    I looked around the room for a coat. I needed to
see for myself. If it really was snowing outside, I couldn’t go
out in nothing but some dance leotard. I’d freeze to death.
    My eyes landed on a white dress shirt thrown
casually over the back of a large chair near the bed. I picked it up
and breathed in the scent of him, my insides warming just from the
thought of his kiss the night before.
    Okay, so the guy was strange and obviously not
like any man I’d ever met before in my life. But there was no
denying that the smallest thought of him turned me upside down.
    I slipped my arms inside the shirt. It was huge on
me, but I loved the way it felt against my skin. I pulled it around
me and headed for the bedroom door.
    I made my way down the hallway with just a
fleeting look back toward the small hidden staircase he’d
originally brought me down. I knew he had said to stay put, but I
needed to see what was really going on outside.
    The main hallway opened up into a large landing
with a wide wooden staircase. The banisters on either side were
hand-carved, with ornate patterns. Everything looked antique and
expensive and more beautiful than any house I’d ever stepped
foot inside.
    I raced down the stairs to the heavy front door,
taking in the marble-tiled entryway and the large chandelier that
hung above it.
    I pulled the door open and stepped into another
world.
    Freezing cold wind whipped around my face and bare
legs.
    My feet sank into the newly fallen snow. I don’t
know if it was shock or the leftovers of last night’s shot
running through my veins, but I hardly felt affected by the cold at
first.
    I stood with my arms stretched out, lifting my
face to the sky. Soft snowflakes landed on my cheeks and melted in an
instant, icy water sliding across my warm skin.
    I barely registered the sound of footsteps behind
me before strong arms circled around my waist.
    I jumped and struggled for an instant, afraid
Fallon had found me again. But it was Rend’s voice that rose
above the growing wind.
    “I told you not to leave the bedroom,”
he said.
    I couldn’t tell if he was angry or amused.
Or both.
    I flipped around to face him, glad when he didn’t
take his hands from my waist. “Did you really expect me to see
a winter wonderland outside your window and not investigate?”
    “That’s not the point,” he said,
his voice stern, but his dark eyes somehow lighter here in the snow.
    “How is this possible?” I asked,
looking up at the white sky. “Where are we?”
    He pulled me closer and suddenly the