Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
As he turned toward the house, a loud caw cut across the lawn. He spun around, searching the darkness until a crow dove from a tree to land on the sidewalk. He tilted his head and cawed at Luke.
“Dante from campus, right? You gave me the room-for-rent notice. Thanks for that. But it’s late. Go get some sleep. I’ll have more nuts for you tomorrow.”
Was it weird that he named the birds he built up a rapport with? No. Particularly crows. They were good at remembering people—the good ones and the bad ones. Dante had helped him get a place to live. Maybe tomorrow he’d get not only some nice nuts for Dante and his friends, but some grapes, too. The bird definitely deserved it.
Spider gone. Time for bed.
Luke locked the door and shuffle-stumbled to the stairs. As he bent to pick up his bag, his eyes caught on the spider’s family, his extended family, his next-door neighbors, and a whole mess of second cousins. Spiders blanketed the stairs. Lots of fucking spiders.
He was going to need a bigger bowl.
Fuck, he couldn’t scoop all the spiders. That would take forever, and he’d get no sleep ahead of class tomorrow. It wasn’t like he could stomp on all of them. That would make a mess of the pretty, thick red carpet that covered the stairs. He’d never get it clean on his own. He’d have to go rent a carpet cleaner to get rid of all their tiny corpses.
Luke groaned and placed his hand on his face. He just wanted to fucking sleep. Why the hell was the house overrun with spiders? Better yet, why the fuck were these spiders trying to keep him from sleeping? That was mean.
Well, he could be mean, too.
Luke’s shuffle became a stomp as he crossed the hall to the front doors. He threw both of them open and rushed across the porch. He clicked his tongue several times and searched the trees.
“Dante? You still around? Dante?”
He had to wait a few moments before the sleek black crow he’d seen earlier flew from its branch to the sidewalk. It hopped toward him, seeming happy to have Luke’s attention again.
“Are you hungry?” What was he saying? Crows were bottomless pits when it came to food. “How about some nice crunchy spiders for a late-night snack?” He waved his hands to the open doors, beckoning the bird to check out the crawling buffet. Dante tipped his head to one side and then the other, as if he thought Luke had lost his mind. But after a long moment, he turned his attention to the inside of the house. Luke was sure he must have spotted the spiders crawling through the hall and away from the stairs, because he let out several loud, excited caws. He flapped his wings and dove through the open doors.
The cries must have roused his companions, because several other crows poured from the trees in the yard and flew into the house.
Luke giggled to himself as he followed them in. Six crows feasted on the spiders, who were now in desperate retreat. There was no sound other than the flutter of feathers, the click of beaks, and the occasional scrabble of claws.
“What? What? I…I…”
Luke’s head snapped up at the unfamiliar voice to find a tall man with long dark hair and pale skin stumble down the hall as if he’d come from the living room or possibly the kitchen.
“I’m sorry. I thought I was the only one awake,” Luke said. “You’re…”
“Mullmag,” the man answered, though he didn’t lift his eyes from the murder scene in front of him. “The…spiders…”
“Oh, yeah. There were a lot of them. Az didn’t mention that you might have a bug problem. When there were too many for me to take care of without making an enormous mess, I invited Dante and his friends in for a feast.”
“Dante?”
Luke winced. He didn’t sound his sanest, but he was exhausted to his very core, and he just wanted to climb into bed. Unfortunately, these spiders needed to be taken care of first. “Dante is the crow. That one.” He pointed to the largest of the sextet. As if realizing they were talking about him, Dante the crow popped his head up and cawed once at Luke before returning his attention to the spiders.
“Ah, but…but aren’t you afraid of spiders? Didn’t so many spiders coming down the stairs frighten you terribly?”
“Oh. Umm…” Actually, now that Mullmag put it that way, he should have been scared to death. It was just that he was so very tired, and he didn’t have the energy to be afraid. All he knew was that the spiders stood between him and his waiting bed. “Not really, I guess. I’ve lived in a lot of places that had spiders and other annoying bugs. You get rid of them and go on about your day. Is it normal to have this many spiders in the house?”