Nocte (The Nocte Trilogy 1) - Page 46

“You are twenty-one, right?” he asks as Dare takes a swig of his beer. “I don’t want to contribute to the delinquency of a minor.” He says it jokingly, but he means it. Dare smiles.

“I’m twenty-one exactly.”

I knew it. He’s definitely more of a man than a boy. Even more so than the calendar says. His eyes are even older than twenty-one. He’s seen a lot. I can tell. Just how much though, is the question.

As we eat, I watch him easily maneuver the crab legs and eat without making a mess. He eats four in the time it takes me to eat two.

“Do you like lobster, too?” I ask him after a few minutes. “You seem to like crab.”

Dare smiles a blindingly white smile. “I love lobster. Pretty much any shellfish, really.”

“Me too,” I tell him.

We continue eating with the sounds of cracking and dipping and chewing.

Finally, I glance at my father. “Is Finn all right?”

My father nods slowly. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

Suddenly, the quietness of this house, which is actually a mausoleum, my father’s tension, Finn’s strange absence…all of it smothers me and I suck in a deep breath.

Dare glances at me, his eyes so freaking dark. “You ok?”

I nod. “Yeah. I just…I’m restless. You know how you didn’t believe that I know someplace creepier than here?”

He nods slowly, interested, his eyes gleaming. “Yeah.”

I smile. “Want to see it tonight?”

My dad coughs a little. “Calla, I’m not sure that tonight is the best night for that. It’s dark, you could get hurt.”

I roll my eyes. “Dad, Finn and I have been there a hundred times over the years. It’s fine.”

I look at Dare. “You up for it?”

He grins. “I never say no to an adventure.”

14

QUATUORDECIM

Finn

From my window, I watch them go and the darkness from outside seems to bleed into my room, into my heart, into my blood.

LetHerGoLetHerGoLetHerGo.

I swallow back the hateful words as I watch my sister get into our car with him. Bile rises in my throat because my sister is mine and distancing myself is the last thing I want to do, but at the same time, it’s the only thing I can do.

DoWhatIsRight.

That’s my voice. Finally. Breaking through the crazy, through the voices, through the words.

I’ve got to do what is right.

What is right.

What is right.

Tags: Courtney Cole The Nocte Trilogy Romance
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