Fading Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 2 (7 page)

I felt something on the side of my face but I didn't want to open my eyes, I was sure I'd only just
closed them.
“Ruby, I have to go back to work and you need to get up, you have classes this morning.”
I smiled at the sound of his deep husky voice snuggling further into the bed.
I wasn't sure how I'd got into his bed but I didn't care I just wanted to stay here forever. Senka's bed
felt ten times more comfier than my own.
“Hey you, don't ignore me. I know you can hear me.” Senka said as his hands slid down to my
waist.
“Not fair.” I said trying to push his hands away from tickling me. “You know I hate that.”
“What even when I do it?” he asked sticking his tongue out at me.
He looked freshly showered, his hair was damp and hung across his face.
“What time is it?” I asked rolling over.
“Nearly seven.”
“Can't you pull a sickie and stay here?” I stretched my arms width ways across the bed.
“Don't,” he said zipping up his hoodie. “I can't just take a sick day, as tempting as that is. But they
would know I'm lying.”
“What you don't get sick?” I asked sitting up and crossing my legs.
He smiled and looked over at his dresser. It was full of soda cans, different chocolate bars and a
variety of chips. All my favourite items of junk food I could never find downstairs.
“Don't go,” I whined.
“Stop that. You have classes soon and Kenzie will be around today. He should keep you busy for a
few hours.”
“What time are you coming back?” I asked.
“I don't know? But something tells me the sight of you in my bed won't be able to keep me away for
too long.”
He walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down next to me leaning over, putting his arm on the
other side of my leg. He leaned in closer, the fresh scent of coconut drifted to my nose. I knew it
was the shower gel he used, then I thought of Senka in the shower and I felt my cheeks burn.
“Where did you sleep last night?” I blurted out.
“I didn't.” he grinned.
“What you don't sleep either?”
“Not when there's such a beautiful creature sleeping in my bed.”
I really hoped he was joking, I had no idea what I did in my sleep I just hoped I didn't snore.
He was looking at me, more like watching me and it made me feel self concious. My hand shot up
to my head smoothing any loose wisps of hair down. Senka grabbed my hand in his and pulled it
away from my head.
“Don't do that.”
“Do what?” I asked.
“Panic about how you look.”
“Why you don't care about how I look?” I asked.
“No I don't.” he said casually, tilting his head looking at me from a different angle.
I felt a small stab at my feelings, if he didn't care it was because he only saw me as the fun girl from
downstairs and nothing more. But if he didn't like me why did he always find an excuse to put his
hands on me? If he didn't wand to lead me on he was sending all the wrong signals.
His hand came up to the side of my face and for the first time I wanted to move away, but I didn't.
“I don't care about how your hair looks because it wouldn't make a difference to me. You could dye
it green or shave it off either way I'd still be crazy about you.”
I looked at his face a little taken back with what he'd said. This was the first time he had opened up
about how he felt about me.
He leaned in closer and kissed me on the cheek like he normally did when we parted ways but today
he bought his hand up and placed it on the side of my face gentle rubbing his thumb over my cheek.
Then he kissed me again only this time it was on my lips. I didn't move, I couldn't, I didn't want to. I
just closed my eyes. He gently pushed his lips against mine, it only lasted a few seconds but a few
seconds was long enough. My whole body shivered under his touch and I felt the familiar butterfly
sensation inside me the one I always got when he touched me only it felt ten times more fluttery as
he was kissing me.
“I have to go.” he said kissing my cheek working his way back down to my lips for one final kiss.
I would be replaying this moment inside my head all day, no doubt about it.
He stood up and walked to the door, flipped his hood up and turned back to me.
“I'll be back tonight. Don't fall back asleep.” Then he left.
I flopped back against the pillow and closed my eyes remembering his lips on mine. I tried not to
fall asleep but it didn't last long and I soon drifted off again.

Knocking from outside the bedroom woke me up.
“Ruby, you in there?” Alex called, knocking at the door again.
I groaned and rolled over. “Yeah, what do you want?” I called back to him.
“Senk told me to wake you up if you hadn't got out of bed by nine and Grayson is downstairs
looking for you.”
“What's the time?” I said more to myself looking back at the nightstand, the clock flashed 9.10am in
red digits.
“Can't believe it's nine already.” I threw the covers back and hopped out.
“So are you getting up or do I have to come in there and drag you out of bed?”
“No Alex. As much as you'd love to drag me out of bed, I'm already out.”
I threw the bedroom door open, Alex stood in the way. He raised an eyebrow at me and moved to
the side holding his arm out to the corridor inviting me out of his way.
“Nice dress.” he said to the back of me as I hurried along the corridor.
I hadn't got far when one of the bedroom doors in front opened and a girl stepped out. I skidded to a
halt in front of her but she turned into me and we collided.
“Sorry!” she squealed as we stepped back from each other.
She had auburn reddy brown mid length curly hair, wearing gold hoop earrings and a very tight
short red dress. I looked down at her bare legs her skirt must have only been a few inches lower
than her underwear. She was barefoot with a black clutch purse under her arm.
I bent over and picked up her pair of black stilettos from the floor and held them out for her.
“Thanks.” she said flashing a beautiful smile full of pearly white teeth as she took her shoes from
me.
“It's okay.” I said politely trying not to stare at her very skimpy dress. I couldn't believe I had been
so worried about my own dress when she was wearing even less.
The bedroom door opened and one of the boys who I couldn't remember his name filled the
doorway. He was shirtless and just zipping up his jeans. “Hazel, you forgot your bra again.” he said
grinning, crossing his arms and leaning against the door frame.
“Oh shoot!” she said grabbing at her chest checking to see if she was wearing one or not. She ran
back into the room and I quickly turned away feeling awkward I had just witnessed that. It was
obvious what they had been doing.
I hurried back downstairs to my floor, Grayson came around the corner carrying a pile of books.
“Ah Ruby there you are,” he said. “Classes Ruby, get dressed and come down please.” he kept his
head down as he walked passed me.
I ran back to my room but not too quickly, I didn't want to run into anyone else again like last night.
Back in my room I pulled my nightdress over my head and ran into my closet looking for
something to wear. Narmi had hung up a dress for me, it was a red dress and I had worn it many
times before but it always reminded me of the colour of blood. I pulled it off the hanger and spent
about five minutes trying to squeeze myself into it. Narmi had been trying to get me to wear a
corset. Obviously I said no. I couldn't find my sandals, I wasn't about to run along the corridor in
heels and Grayson wouldn't approve of me attending class barefoot so I pulled on my riding boots. I
had only worn them once to ride one of the horses and I didn't like it that much.
My dress was long enough to cover the boots and trailed along the floor behind me. I quickly
brushed my teeth and went over to my nightstand and sat down on the edge of my bed. I picked up a
pile of different coloured beaded bracelets that were Kenzie's. I pushed them onto my wrist
wondering why my bed felt so hard. I bounced up and down lightly, there was something hard
under the covers. I lifted the covers back and found a book hidden under them. It wasn't just any
book, it was the book about dreams that I hadn't had time to look at last night.
I knew Kenzie had left it for me but I didn't have time to look through it now. I slid it under my
pillow and finished brushing my teeth and hurried back downstairs holding my dress off the floor so
I wouldn't trip over it, this dress seemed extra long compared to the others.
I knocked on the door to the study room which was ajar.
“Come in Ruby,” Grayson looked up at me. “I see you found your clothes.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked pulling a chair out at the table.
“It is not proper for a lady of your status to be running around the manor house in her underwear.”
“That wasn't underwear, it was my nightdress. I just made a few adjustments to it.”
“Hmm, does Cameron know?”
“Does Cameron know what?” I asked wondering where he was going with this conversation.
“That you fraternize with the men upstairs in your underwear,”
“I don't know but I'm sure you will tell him. Anyway I saw a girl up there this morning wearing a
lot less than me.”
“One of the maids was dressed inappropriately. Who was it, did you get her name?”
“What? No.” I laughed. “Definitely not one of the maids. Pretty girl with reddish brown curly hair,
tiny frame.”
“Temptress!”
“What?” I asked laughing at his choice of words.
“That's why you shouldn't go up there. It's not right the sordid things that go on upstairs. You would
do well to stay away from them.”
He pushed a book towards me, it was calculus this morning. I already wanted to run for the door.
“And Ruby, maybe a bath is in order after your studies. You smell like you've been smoking in a
brewery all night.”
I casually pulled my hair across my face to smell it, he was right I needed a wash. I brushed my hair
over my shoulder and got stuck into my work. But it didn't last long, after twenty minutes I found
myself touching my lip with my fingers right where Senka had kissed me. I realised Grayson was
watching me and dropped my hand to my lap and tried to remember what I was supposed to be
doing.
“Ruby you seem distracted. Is there something worrying you?”
I think I'm falling in love with the tall blue eyed boy from upstairs. Oh and I keep having these
weird dreams of this other boy called Mack who gets me just as worked up and all I want to do
when I see him in my dreams is crush my lips against his. Not to mention the part where I woke up
in his T-shirt covered in dirt and I'm beginning to think they're not just dreams after all.
Is what I
was thinking but off course I didn't say that. I wouldn't say that, not to Grayson anyway.
For a start he was a middle aged man that dressed like a wizard. Not someone I could ever imagine
telling my secrets to.
“Not really, I'm a little hungry. I skipped breakfast.” I replied.
“Maybe I can find you something,” he said standing up. “Finish section three and we will move
onto something else.”
He left the room and I scribbled a few answers down on the paper. I was about seventy percent sure
they were right. I sat on the window ledge looking out over the gardens. Emmett stood by a tree
eating a sandwich trying to push one of the dogs away. He didn't like Cam's dogs. There was a
knock on the door and Kenzie leaned against the door frame.
“Hey!” I said turning to look at him. He strolled across the room and sat opposite me pulling his
legs up onto the window ledge.
“What is he doing?” Kenzie asked laughing at Emmett, who was now trying to push three of the
dogs away without much success. “Here, I got this for you while I was out this morning.” He
handed me a bracelet with small wooden beads that had tiny black animals painted onto them, it
looked very unique.
“Wow, where'd you get it?”
“Just...err....from the market.” he said fiddling with his watch strap, he wore a different watch nearly
everyday.
“Thanks, it's really nice and thanks for the book.”
He looked over at me and spun his cap round to the front repositioning it.
“Any reason you were looking at that book?” he asked.
“I've been having these weird dreams,” he looked at me waiting for me to go on. I looked over at
the open door making sure Grayson wasn't there. “Do you think dreams mean anything?”
“Depends on the dream. Are we talking about your average dream here? You know eating dinner,
running from a monster, a walk on the beach, falling from up high or is it something a little darker?”
I wasn't sure how to explain what had happened. “Not dark,” I let out a breath. “It was more
realistic than your average dream.”
“Okay wait a minute are you talking about getting hot and heavy with some stranger. A naked and
horizontal type of dream?”
“No,” I laughed playfully smacking his knee. “I mean I think the dream followed me back home.”
Kenzie dropped his legs down and scooted closer.
“Explain,”
“I've been having these dreams. Always the same person, always the same place. In the last dream I
borrowed his T-shirt and then when I woke up I was still wearing it, I mean that's crazy right?”
I looked at Kenzie waiting for him to burst out laughing and tell me I was crazy but instead he
stayed quiet fiddling with a hole in his jeans.
“This person in your dream, are they from here?” he asked.
I wasn't sure what he meant by from here, I assumed he was talking about the manor.
“No I've never seen him here....Kenzie are dreams real?”
“Depends on the dream and it depends on the person. Dreams are different for everyone and
depending on how your mind works some are stronger than others,” his eyes flickered towards me
then back out the window. “Maybe you connected with someone else while you were asleep.”
“You're saying I found my way into someone else's dream or he found his way into mine?” I said
trying to figure it out. “How is that even possible?”
“Things aren't always black and white down here Cups.” The way he said '
down here'
didn't sit
well, he used the term down here a lot. I wasn't sure what he meant by it anymore.
“I think Cam is hiding things from me.” I said quietly.
“I think you're a smart girl and you'll figure it out. Just make sure you put that book back when he's
not around.”
A loud cough in the corridor interrupted us. Grayson walked in with a tray of tea, biscuits and
cakes. He set the tray on the table and pointed at my chair.
“Mr. Sanchez I don't appreciate you interrupting my lessons.” Grayson said sitting down.
“Sorry Gray.” Kenzie walked passed and stuck his tongue out at me, ruffling my hair as he went. I
retaliated and stuck out mine. I looked back at Grayson, who was shaking his head.
“A young lady does not stick her tongue out in childish behaviour.”
“Well whoever told you I was a lady misinformed you terribly,” I joked pulling the plate of biscuits
towards my side of the table. “Grayson, what's my surname?”
He stopped dead still and his tea cup hovered just below his bottom lip, he looked at me and put his
cup back down.
“You can't remember your surname?” he asked.
“No, I don't think Cam ever told me what it was after I woke up. I don't think I've ever asked
before?”
“What made you ask now?”
“You just called Kenzie, Mr. Sanchez. I'm assuming that's his surname. Which made me wonder
what mine was.”
Grayson rearranged his tea cup on the saucer and fiddled with his spoon, he was avoiding my
question that or he wasn't sure if he was allowed to answer it.
“I believe your surname is Summers.” I nodded and quickly realised there was a flaw to me having
a surname.
“I thought the guards found me as a baby, how did anyone know my name? Was there a note
attached to my blanket or something?” I laughed.
“I don't know. You'll have to ask Cameron. I think I was away the day you arrived.”
“You think. How can you not remember if you were here or not that day? It's not everyday the
guards find a baby outside the gates.”
He placed his teacup down a little harder than necessary on the saucer.
“I don't remember, it was a long time ago.” He stood up and pushed his chair in. “Now you'll have
to excuse me, I've just remembered there's something I have to take care of.”
He walked out and closed the door, I shut my book wondering what had just happened. I thought it
was strange Grayson couldn't remember the day I was bought into the manor, it made me think
maybe it was because I wasn't bought here when I was baby. I was starting to think there was more
to the story than Cam was telling me. What was Cam hiding? I picked up my books. Luckily for
me, Grayson was in such a hurry he'd forgotten to set me any homework.
I dropped my books off in my room, I wanted to look through the book Kenzie had left for me but I
wanted to spend time with Kenzie as it was his day off.
I walked downstairs and two guards by the front door were chatting to one another. They stopped
when they saw me and nodded their heads at me. Everyone including the servants seemed to relax
when Cam wasn't around it was a totally different atmosphere in the manor. Maids would be busy at
work chatting and laughing, the kitchens would be full of busy workers nattering but when Cam
was around a silence would fall over the manor. I think everyone was afraid of doing anything
wrong.
I followed the garden path and spotted Narmi hanging bed sheets on one of the washing lines.
“Hey,” I said moving a sheet out of the way to see her.
Narmi had a dark complexion with straight black hair which she kept in a braid to one side. She was
skinny and I'd never seen her out of her black knee length dress and white pinafore. She had
beautiful big brown eyes and full lips.
“You didn't sleep in your room last night?” she said not looking at me as she pegged the sheet up.
“No I was somewhere else last night.”
She nodded but didn't ask me where I was.
“I left fresh towels for you.”
“Yes, I saw. Thank you.”
She didn't say anything else and moved along the line pegging another sheet up. I looked around the
garden at nothing in particular and quickly spotted Alex on a bench outside the manor wall. He had
his boot up on the bench fiddling with it. He kept looking over in this direction. Narmi picked up
the laundry basket and ducked under the sheets.
“Have a good afternoon Miss Ruby.”
I walked back over to the path and looked back at Alex. After a moment of watching him I realised
he wasn't actually doing anything to his boot it was a distraction. He was watching the back of
Narmi as she walked back into the manor.
Hmm....interesting.
I started to make my way to Kenzie's
cottage and had just stepped onto the gravelled drive when Emmett appeared next to me out of
nowhere. He had a really bad habit of sneaking up on me like that.