Dark Wings (Never Dark Book 1) Read Free Page A

came back to bite me in the ass the night of my death. I agreed to let a man that I’d met in a club walk me home. When we got out of sight, things escalated and before I knew it, he had three other friends that wanted to ‘walk me home.’ Nervous, but convinced nothing bad was going to happen, I let them, and sadly, I never made it home. I was left abused and dying in an alley two blocks from my house.
    “Why me?” I ask, my voice barely audible.
    “Because ,” Lucas said, his eyes displaying an intensity I’d never seen in anyone before. “You’re a fighter…”
     
    ***
     
    Suddenly, I’m in the gym and Lucas is crouched down in front of me, ready to attack. I’m crouched, too, preparing to evade his attack. His lips twitch into a smile and a bead of sweat rolls down his gorgeous face.
    “Remember what I taught you, V. Here ’s your chance to make me proud.”
    Like a rhino that puts its head down and rushes full force towards its threat, Lucas sprints toward me, his shoulder down and angled to knock me on my ass as hard as he possibly can. I have to get into the right frame of mind. During this training session, Lucas is no longer my mentor, he’s my enemy. A few more steps and he’ll knock me off my feet, so I jump. Lucas is tall—so tall—he clocks in at six foot two and there’s no way my five foot nine frame can jump him entirely. I’m in the air, and as Lucas connects with my feet, I fall forward. To prevent myself from face planting, I use my hands to spring off his shoulders and I land with a slight stumble, but on both feet behind him. Before he can turn around, I kick him behind his knee and his legs buckle. I grab his shoulders and use all my strength to push him to the floor, only he’s better than me—stronger than me. That’s why I’m the student and he’s the mentor. He follows his knees and drops to the floor. With one backwards leg sweep, I’m lying flat on my back and Lucas is pinning me to the mat. Our breath is quick and deep, our sweat thick and slippery on our skin. Lucas and I have never been in this kind of predicament before. When we train, he usually shouts orders from the sideline with the occasional demonstration, but today we fought one on one, and although I didn’t win, I can still see the incredible amount of pride reflected in his perfect brown eyes.
    “Well done ,” he pants.
    I lick my lips to moisten them and nod my head slightly. “Thanks.”
    He doesn’t move off me, instead, he runs the back of his index finger through my red hair. Lucas and I have been training together for eight months. We flirt a lot, mostly in practice, never outside of the gym. Lucas doesn’t want to be seen fraternizing with his student—it wasn’t illegal or forbidden—Lucas merely felt he had a reputation to uphold… and so did I, but my god he was alluring. He lowers his face until his lips graze mine. His warm breath hits my face and my heartbeat speeds up and my breathing deepens. I want him.
    “Violet?” Lucas whispers.
    “Yes?”
    Lucas’s hands wrap around my throat and he squeezes—hard. “I hate you.”
    I wriggle under his grasp, but can’t break free. His face begins to contort and change. Soon, I am no longer looking into the face of my mentor—I’m looking into the face of a hideous demon.
    I was jerked out of my memories turned horrible nightmare by the sound of my phone ringing. I ran a hand over my face, attempting to wake myself up. Early morning sunlight filtered through the crack in my curtain. Normally, I’d answer my phone at this ungodly hour, but I knew the person on the other end would be my boss and he’d want to know why I didn’t hand in my report last night. The phone rang again. And again. And again. I reached an arm onto the bedside table and groped around. It wasn’t until I knocked my gun and my alarm clock onto the floor that I found my phone.
    “Yes?” I answered with a wide yawn, leaving my eyes shut.
    “Ashton. Why isn’t