Free Welcome to the Darkness (Darkness Trilogy) by L. M. Justus Page A

the dark. “I’ll be right behind you. I have to get Nathaniel.”
    He couldn’t believe Reed was going out of his way to save him. Relief flooded over him as Reed crashed through the rubble. Strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him to safety.
    They scrambled up the stairs, bursting through the door into what was left of the Queen’s chamber. Nathaniel jerked to a stop as soon as he entered the ruins, pushing himself against the back wall in fear. Sunlight streamed through a gaping hole in the chamber’s roof.
    Reed skidded to a stop and turned back. “C’mon! We have to get–” he began, then tilted his head toward the light, realizing why Nathaniel had stopped. “Oh, Jesus . . . hang on a sec, I’ll be right back.”
    Nathaniel cringed back into the shadows, his eyes burning from the residual sunlight. A sound to his right caught his attention, and he turned, gaping in surprise. The Queen, crouched behind the throne. Her eyes glittered with anger, and they stared at each other, not saying a word.
    Reed zipped back into the room, carrying what looked like an area rug from the main floor. He threw the rug flat on the ground next to Nathaniel, and shoved him down on top of it. Frozen by fear, he did not resist Reed’s efforts to save him. It had been so long since he had glimpsed the sun.
    Reed rolled him up inside the rug and hoisted it off the floor. Terror gripped Nathaniel while he flopped about and Reed ran up the stairs and exited the house. Nathaniel had not come this close to being outside in the sun in over two hundred years, and he shook in horror at the thought of sunlight mere inches from his skin.
    He was crammed into a small space, doors slammed shut, and tires screeched when they pulled away.
    Nathaniel felt grateful that he wasn’t claustrophobic. He was extremely uncomfortable however, squashed into his current position. He wasn’t sure whether to be more afraid of being out during the daytime, or of the Queen’s wrath and retaliation if he managed to survive to see nigh tfall. He knew without a doubt that the destruction had not been caused by an earthquake, but by some kind of explosion.

Reed
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    S arah stole yet another glance behind us. “Reed. Earth to Reed. Hello? Where are you taking us? Pull over and let me drive. It’s my car.”
    “No,” I said.
    “Reed! Where the hell are you going? Stop the car right now.”
    “I can’t. There’s something I need to do. Can you trust me? We’ll make a quick stop in King City, and then we can figure out what to do after that.”
    “King City?” she spluttered. “That’s the first place they’ll look for you.”
    I blinked, trying not to roll my eyes. “No they won’t. No one’s looking for us. The vampires are all dead. Even if some of them survived, they can’t come outside during the day.”
    Sarah shook her head, but didn’t say anything else.
    I glanced at my watch only to discover it had been smashed during the explosion at the vampire lair. I ripped it off my wrist and chucked it in the back seat. The clock on the car’s dash was working though, so now I knew I was going to be a touch late. At least I wouldn’t miss the whole thing. I needed to be there, even if a big part of me dreaded it.
    Sarah bit her lower lip. “I figured out where you’re headed.” She tapped her forehead.
    Great. She’d read my mind again. I’d remembered the details about my family’s funeral from the newspaper article Sarah had shown me in her apartment.
    “I understand,” she said. “Of course you want to go.”
    I snorted. “But?”
    “But . . . is it a good idea? Think about it. What are you going to tell people about where you’ve been for the last few days? Or about what happened?”
    I bit back a surge of anger and thought about what she’d said. How could I not go? We’d escaped from the Queen’s lair just in time for me to get to the funeral, like it was fate.
    “I have to go,” I