Free Where Dark Collides: Part 1 (Shades of Dark) by Claire Robyns

 
    MY LIMBS FROZE AT the tinkling vibration; crystal raindrops in a thunderstorm. The air in my lungs, the blood in my veins, the motor messages carried from my brain, time itself, all hung in suspended stasis. The only movement—the only sound—the glass molecules shivering violently, rattling the timber frame.
    A breath later the freeze shattered and I was moving, the casserole dish sliding from my hands and crashing to the hardwood floor as I spun toward the wall. Sheltering my face, I dropped into a curled ball just as the dining room window exploded. The next second lasted an hour, my heart thudding against my chest and glass shards raining down on my personal nightmare.
    “Raine! What in hades is—”
    “Stay back!” I snapped around in my huddled ball, breathing hard, fear knocking against the back of my eyes.
    My vision cleared to see Kial come to an abrupt halt in the arched inter-leading doorway. I put a finger to my lips and flapped my other hand at him, waving him back into the kitchen.
    Kial didn’t move. His ice blue gaze swept from my splattered Chicken au’ Cotte to what was left of the window, then beyond to the deep shadows that stretched across the street into Clayburn Park.
    “What happened?” he demanded, his voice low and urgent. “Did you see anyone?”
    With a shake of my head, I crawled across the room toward him, using the bulky oak table for cover. My heart seemed to have worked its way up my throat. Each breath was a fight. I wasn’t a coward. I was not weak. And this wasn’t an explosion, not really, but close enough.
    Kial fell back when I reached the archway on my hands and knees. His brows pulled tight, his narrowed eyes silently questioning me.
    I wasn’t in the mood to answer. No doubt he thought I’d brought this down on myself. No doubt he was right. I didn’t care. My pulse steadied beneath the weight of murderous vengeance and my heart slipped stoically into its proper place.
    I sprang to my feet and bolted straight out the kitchen door into the back garden.
    “Great,” Kial muttered, hot on my heels. “Just how I’d hoped to spend my night.”
    I raced around the back of the house, only slowing to unlatch the side-gate. Adrenaline rushed my blood, dissolving any residual strains of panic and paralysis.
    The night was dark and chilly, roiling clouds blanketing what should be a full moon. A torrential downpour had been threatening since early afternoon, but so far all we’d had was relentless drizzle. I hadn’t stopped to grab my coat and the icy drops nettled my bare arms like a million angry pin pricks.
    Kial was still at my back, and he was still muttering. “Absolutely bloody marvellous.”
    “Shhhh,” I hissed.
    The air was damp and thick, the kind of thick that muted sound and swallowed movement. They could be anywhere. They could be nowhere. I crept along the side of the house, stealing as few breaths as possible, afraid I’d miss a vital clue between the last one and the next, until I ran out of wall.
    I stilled, opening my senses to any dangers. But it was useless. All I had was your bog standard set of senses and danger couldn’t be smelled, felt or tasted. Not unless you were a ninja, I guess, which I wasn’t.
    Kial’s hand landed softly on my shoulder.
    “Circle around the front?” he suggested, his voice a whisper at my ear. “Slide behind the rose bushes beneath the bay window and wait for them to show themselves.”
    My fingers clawed into fists at my sides.
    If I’d wanted to hide, I would have stayed indoors. If I’d wanted to wait, and risk them slinking off into the night, I would have stayed indoors, cowering behind the furniture.
    This opportunity was golden, too tempting to resist.
    “Stay here,” I said quietly. “I mean it Kial. I’ll shout if I need back-up.”
    I shrugged his hand off and strode from the shadows into the open. A low hedge split my driveway from next door, but I didn’t hunker alongside it.
    They shouldn’t