Darklight (Darklight #1)

by Bella Forrest

“Appreciated the straps Jim’s guys put on our chairs.”

Had to be strong straps. Nearly indestructible.

Kreya's head lay on Rhome's shoulder, and he held her close with a deep look of contentment. Some of the other soldiers had paired up too. I saw tall, burly Hank swaying a bit awkwardly with Lily. Their size difference was almost alarming. And off on their own stood Zach and Gina, forehead to forehead, barely moving with the music, having some quiet conversation meant only for each other. I’d always thought they would end up like our parents—insanely dedicated to their work, but also to one another.

Aww! All the happy endings.

“Lyra. Let’s dance.”

Ugh... Let's not.

“Hey, I've gone through a lot more training for team leadership than I have for… this,”

At least this is all true to her character.

"This goes here," I instructed, placing his hand on my hip.

Of course, now she's a dance instructor.

"We're sitting on a rock in the desert," he said, his voice completely deadpan,

YES! =D lol

You've been in a coma for three days,"

That's what happens when you sit on rocks with vampires.

had our roles been reversed.

You just said that in the last sentence.

That was when I hurt myself, but it was necessary. I had to stop Dorian from…" "Relax, honey," my father said, his voice gentle. “You don’t have to strain yourself explaining.” Which was good, because as I said it, I realized I couldn’t finish that sentence in front of them.

What couldn't you tell them? Zach already told them.

"But it was supposed to be a surprise," I murmured, cracking a small smile.

Lol! Gotta love what people say when they're on drugs.

The doctor went over my charts with me and explained my medication schedule. I tucked my prescription into the pocket of the hospital-issued sweatpants.

Usually a pharmacist brings your drugs and a nurse releases you after billing has had their way.

After all, Zach would be there, and the facility had its own twenty-four-hour medical wing that could be instructed to keep a close eye on me.

Abandoned facility, 24-hour medical. Nothing strange about that.

"I think it's communal PMS," the other guard said, grinning.

Really?

There are no friends here. This is a business transaction." "What the hell?" was all I could manage.

Meh. Go listen to some Dashboard Confessional, cry a bit, and get over it. Ugh. Couldn't you come up with your own plot twist without copying Twilight? At least you credited Twilight on the cover, but this is pathetic.

But maybe that was wishful thinking.

Probably. Go spend a night bundled up with Chris Carrabba.

This isn’t logical.

Never is. Just keep walking.

And after we floated past each other, my anger dissipated back into the massive hole inside me.

Super Massive Black Hole. More Twilight references.

I began to despise it all: every minute, daily detail about the facility.

Is that minute or minute? Oh yeah, you don't care to edit this garbage, so it really doesn't matter. I'll go with minute. Seems fitting.

which made me want to slap her.

Do it! I want to see how that plays out! Please?

Late the next morning, I roamed the halls searching for a captain to give me a task.

Show some initiative. Find something to do yourself. You make more work for them making them find work for you. Grow up!

and Dorian’s eyes on my hips—from

His eyes or hands? This is beyond dumb now.

I grabbed one completed residence blueprint and compared it to several others, my eyes picking out more incongruous details.

Sure it was your eyes and not your spleen?

I was next to Uncle Alan’s meeting.

Of course you were. Random floor, randomly admitted by security, random conference room...

a woman said banally.

Oh! She must be the author of this book!

The next moment, when the guard’s back turned as he paced, I tore past him, opened the stairwell door and pounded down toward the ground floor.

Well that's beyond stupid. Now they know you're up to something.

"Please, Captain. We have less than an hour,"

You have 4 months, you idiot. They just voted on it.

Then he looked over his shoulder at the jet he’d just been admiring, and back to the three of us.

Oh right! Let's steal the new plane, too.

Bryce sat in the pilot’s chair, and the rest of us took the back.

Of course he knows how to fly it!

I could tell this model was much faster than our typical transport.

Of course it is! Ugh...

Bryce cursed from the cockpit, and I felt more force as the plane accelerated faster.

Please crash and end this story. The fate of the educated world could depend on it.

It’s my duty to protect them, not fall in line with something like this.”

"This" would be called genocide. Get an education. And don't try to say your middle school readers won't know what it means, you used "banally" a few pages ago.

As our jet descended on the facility, I craned my neck to look out the window.

No control tower? No air traffic control for the whole flight?

I glanced down at the waists of my bare-bones team. Everyone had their handguns. Thank God. The other soldiers closed their fingers on the triggers of automatic rifles.

Good, let's immediately start shooting! Everybody dies. Story ends.

"Final warning, sir!"

see next comment...

Bryce turned toward the lead soldier, his voice hard. "It's Captain."

Yes, and a Captain is a sir! What are you, enlisted Marines or Army?

Vampires washed over them like a tsunami—fangs flashed and soldiers toppled, their guns flying from their hands.

Are teeth really the fastest way to deal with this threat?

I spotted Dorian crouched over a limp body, drinking deeply as blood flooded from the soldier's neck. Couldn’t he move faster? But from the desperate way he gulped, threw his head back, and went back to drinking with blood streaming down his chin, I could see that he’d gone to another, darker place, controlled by his instincts.

Please! One or two of these soldiers might know they're doing evil. The vast majority probably aren't evil and are just following orders with no knowledge of what's going to happen. In fact, with The Board knowing the vampires can sense evil, they probably wouldn't send anyone who knew what was going on.

spit flying from his mouth.

I think it'd be blood at this point.

Three soldiers rushed us, and we dodged the crosshairs of their guns.

I guess they thought they were in a knife fight. They have guns. Why are they rushing you?

I realized there were still more soldiers than we could handle if the vampires kept slowing down to feed. Another dozen had spilled out of the facility.

Who do you think we'll lose by the end of this? Thoth seems expendable. And one of the parents, just for the extra pull on your heartstrings.

“Vampires, keep fighting!” I cried again, before putting a bullet in the back of a soldier’s leg.

You think they'll call in the redbills?

Zach clutched his thigh, Gina pulling his other arm over her shoulder. My heart stopped in my chest. I hadn’t seen him get hurt.

Well at least you're not the only idiots trained to shoot for the legs when your life is on the line.

Harlowe grabbed the three children whose names I didn’t know and thrust them up onto her redbill.

How do you still not know all of them!?

birds carried us for miles through the dark. I had no way of telling our location after we entered the clouds.

How do you know it was miles? Maybe you're flying in circles.

I had no idea where we were.

You're back at their caves. Duh! They have to go get everyone else.

My training told me that because the bullet had scored the fatty tissue of his outer thigh, he’d be okay. We just had to keep it wrapped and clean.

Of course you can see that in the dark.

"So, Dorian,” he continued, his voice dark and mocking, “I’m assuming that you sensed what I did in those soldiers back on the tarmac. I guess I should be grateful that those four showed up,” he tossed a hand in my direction, “to confirm what I suspected. Was this how you envisioned your grand, harmonious plan? We all join hands, work together to make humans happy, and then get murdered as the finale?"

Oh yes! Let's finally have this fight. Especially when none of this was Dorian's fault and none of those soldiers should have known what was going on anyway. Ugh... this is dumb!

With vampire hearing, it was possible that he could still hear his daughter, even if I couldn’t.

Oh! Here's that vampire hearing that didn't exist in the cell block earlier when Lyra was sneaking around, eavesdropping on Dorian and Laini.

Rhome’s shoulders jerked, as though he’d been shot, and he fell to his knees, gasping for air.

It's the vampire love connection... broken.

“But we’re going to find a way. We still have to tell the group we left in hiding. Some of them will support us.

Well why would they support Kane? He left without them.