Darkness Unmasked (Dark Angels 5)

“I cannot sense her presence in the room ahead,” Azriel said.

“Does that mean she’s escaped us? Or is it simply a matter of the shield continuing to block you?”

“It could be either.”

Meaning the only way we were going to find out was to enter that damn room. I flexed my fingers and opened the door. Nothing immediately jumped out at me, but the room was pitch-black and my reluctance to enter grew.

I reached to the left and brushed my hand down the wall, looking for the light switch. Something skittered across my fingertips, and I yelped and jumped backward—straight into Azriel. He grabbed my arms and steadied me.

“It was only a small spider,” he said.

I snorted. “I don’t care if it’s big or small; they’re all spiders and they all deserve to die.”

“Spiders are generally harmless creatures.”

He reached past me. A second later, I heard the light switch being flicked up and down. No light came on, so the bulb was obviously blown.

“Can I remind you that this is Australia? We have some of the deadliest spiders known to man.”

“That does not alter the fact that the one that touched you didn’t actually harm you.”

“That isn’t the point.” I stared at the darkness a moment longer, then drew Amaya and took a wary step. Lilac flame flared down her sides, providing enough light to view the immediate area. The room was small and furnished sparsely. There was a dressing table with an office chair in front of it, as well as a small sofa and a minibar fridge. I stepped farther inside and swung Amaya around. There was nothing and no one else in the room. Our musician had fled.

“Well, I guess that points to her—” Something dropped onto the back of my neck, and I swiped at it irritably. “What the hell?”

Something else dropped, but this time it raced under the collar of my shirt and down my spine. I yelped and flung myself backward at the wall, hoping to squash the hell out of whatever it was.

“Risa, I think we’d better get you out of here.”

I gulped, my heart in my mouth and fear twisting my stomach. “Why?”

But I knew why even as I asked the question. There were more than just a couple of spiders in this room. I raised Amaya and looked up.

The entire ceiling was alive and moving.

Chapter 7

I opened my mouth to scream, but before I could, the whole damn lot dropped down, covering both the floor and me in a mass of tiny black bodies.

Horror filled me, and for a moment I couldn’t move, frozen to the spot and praying like hell that this was nothing more than a nightmare. Then thousands of tiny fangs began to dig into my flesh, and I screamed and jumped and swung Amaya around wildly, swatting at the creatures I could barely even see.

Azriel pulled me into his arms, then swept us away. We reappeared in my bathroom, but it wasn’t enough. I could still feel the fangs. I raced under the shower, throwing off my clothes and stomping on the black bodies that fell like rain around me. Despite the heat of the water, I was shivering like crazy, and my skin crawled with the sensation of movement.

“Are there any left?” I asked, spinning around almost wildly, trying to spot the creepy little bastards.

“No.” Azriel caught my arm and made me stop. “They’re gone. It’s okay.”

I shuddered. “It still feels like they’re on me.”

“No.” He hesitated. “But we should go back—”

“There is no way in hell I’m going back into that room.”

“If you’d let me finish a sentence occasionally,” he said, voice a mix of amusement and annoyance, “I was going to suggest you talk to the manager while I investigate the room to see if the woman left anything behind in her haste to escape.”

“Oh.” I gulped down some air in an attempt to calm my still-racing pulse. “That I can do. Just wait until I get dressed.”

He handed me a towel. “I was not intending otherwise.”