Welcome to the Darkness (Darkness Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page A

will never make it past the front door. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just here to give you your first assignment.”
    “Oh, right . . . okay,” I said, sinking back into my seat a little bit, not really relaxing. “Assignment?”
    Dominic broke into a grin, apparently finding me somewhat amusing. I hoped this wasn’t a bad sign because the last vampire that had smiled at me had then proceeded to cut off my finger. Dominic’s smile reached his eyes though, so I was hopeful.
    “Th is should be a simple, straightforward assignment,” he said while unzipping the duffle bag. He reached inside and pulled out a map, spreading it on the table between us. “You’re to take the city bus to this location marked here,” he said, pointing to a red dot that was drawn in. “We’ll provide you with bus fare of course. The building you’re going to is at this address,” he said. He placed a photograph of a building in front of me. The address was written at the bottom of the photo. It looked like a plain old apartment complex, nothing out of the ordinary.
    “You’re going to change into the uniform we’ve provi ded inside this bag when you get there. Then you’ll find apartment 2B and knock to see if the occupant is home. If not, you’ll proceed inside using this key,” he said, dangling a key in front of me before dropping it back into the bag. “If the occupant is home, you’ll tell them you’re there to install an upgrade to the ventilation system, which is being installed in every unit inside the apartment building, and it will only take three or four minutes.”
    Next, he pulled out a floor plan and placed it in front of me. “There’s a ventilation grate located here,” he said, ta pping the small X marked on the plan. “You’ll remove the grate, and install this device like so,” he continued, pulling a small gadget from the bag. He used a screwdriver from the bag to unscrew a grate from the wall of the room to demonstrate.
    After Dominic finished his demonstration, he placed everything back into the bag, including the device, which he’d removed after he’d ‘installed’ it. It looked like he’d just hung it off the back of the grate.
    I wondered if there was anything else. “So . . . do I get to ask what the device is?”
    “ No, you don’t need that information,” he replied, zipping up the bag. “Do you have any other questions?”
    It seemed like a straightforward job all right. Almost too straightforward. I had the sinking suspicion the ‘device’ was some sort of bomb, but I knew absolutely zilch about explosives. “Who lives in the unit where I’m supposed to install this thing?”
    “Just a cop, but that doesn’t really matter. As soon as the sun comes up, you can leave,” he said and moved to open the door.
    Just a cop? Great. After I’d stepped foot out of this hell hole, forget the stupid assignment. I was going to hightail it as far away from here as possible!
    “Oh, and one more thing, Reed,” Dominic said, turning to me. “If you don’t return, we will hunt you down, and N athaniel will be seriously ill-treated until we retrieve you, at which point you will be punished most thoroughly. And best to make it back here before nightfall, otherwise you may be killed by another vampire because that is standard procedure when newlings are encountered without a chaperone.”
    Damn. I wondered how he could say that kind of thing as calmly as though he was telling me the weather forecast. Did I even care if they hurt Nathan iel? I hated that guy! Or did I? Damn, again. I guess that’s what Nathaniel meant when he said they would use people against you, and it’s not like they could use my family against me now. I realized with a start I’d been so distracted by all the drama from the last several hours I hadn’t even thought of my family until just this moment. My brain felt like it was going to explode.

Sarah
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    W here was that damn hair