Page 85 of When Darkness Calls

“Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast. I hear you’re abusing your power as an assistant for the school, Mr. Cochrane. That isn’t so nice, is it?” I hiss and his eyes narrow. Darkness shadows them. It was instantaneous, almost the same as when Nick turns off every once in a while. This deadened expression looking back at you.

“A little birdy told me that you have been making some,” I pause, tilting my head down at him, “not so nice comments. Suggestions, propositions—” I push my hand harder against his mouth. “Threats.”

“What I want to know, Ethan,” I raise my hand, the streetlight shining off the darkened silver laced between my fingers, “is who gave you the goddamn right to think you can speak to a woman that way?”

He tries to speak again, and I shake my head at him. “I don’t really care what you say to me, man. You have my girl scared. A bad kind of scared. She doesn’t feel comfortable coming to school. I don’t like that. Not. One. Bit.” I inch closer with each word.

He doesn’t cower. He doesn’t try to hide. His eyes are still so empty. He looks…bored.

“I’m going to take my hand away. I just want to hear one little magic word, and we’ll forget this ever happened, okay?”

Slowly, my hand lifts from his face, and I can see it. The fucker is smirking at me like that cat that got the canary.

“What? Sorry? You’re shitting me, right?”

The corner of my vision begins to tint red. “No.” I growl.

“Hey, man. Sorry to tell you, but your girl was asking for it. Besides, you gotta remind me,” he pauses, a glint in his dark eyes, “which girl was yours again?”

My fist connects with the side of his face.

Ethan’s head snaps to the right, and he laughs, spitting to the side. “Anything else? I really wanna get home. There’s a Grims game tonight. Preseason if you didn’t know.”

“Listen, you little shit,” I start, my voice is rough, anger dripping from every word. My hands grip him by the throat, pushing him back against the brick wall.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re serious, I get it. Maybe you oughta talk to your girl about why she likes having another man’s hands all over her, hmm?”

My hands press further into his throat, his face is reddening, and I can feel the muscles in his neck moving frantically gasping for air, and yet his demeanor hasn’t changed.

“If you touch her, or even think about fucking touching her, I won’t kill you, Ethan.”

He rolls his eyes, and I punch him again, my hand fitting perfectly in the socket of his eye.

“Touch her, and you’ll wish you were fucking dead. Do you understand?”

I release him, and he laughs through body wrecking coughs.

“Crystal clear, bro. By the way, next time you should ask for a safe word.” He slaps a hand to my back, grinning, and walking off.

What the fuck?

I stare after him. As he rounds a corner, I pull out my phone, typing Alex’s number.

“My wittle Shadow. How can I help you this fine evening?”

“Ethan Cochrane. Lives on 4749 Pine Ave. We need to get everything we can on him. Soon.”

“Oookay. Gotcha. Whatever the fuck that means. Text me the address again, and I’ll tell Cay and get a file started. It’ll probably be a few days though. My contact is out of town.”

“Thanks, Alex.”

“Hey! What did I say about the goddamn code names?”

I roll my eyes and hang up.

twenty-six

Dani