Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
“No, you’re looking for an excuse to get killed.” Marcia got her keys out and started striding away while she talked over her shoulder. “Call an Uber and go home. Woman like you, out on the street this late? Nothing good comes of it. Don’t you get the news on your phone? Jesus Christ…”
One block down, the lights on an Audi flashed.
Lyric waited where she was in the cold wind as Marcia got into the SUV, started the car, and took off down Market, a lone set of red taillights disappearing around a skyscraper.
“Annnnd that’s all she wrote.” She looked down at the little canister. “Oh, bear repellent.”
In case you didn’t pick the man, evidently.
Wonder what MAR-see-ah would’ve thought if she knew she’d given the stuff to a vampire—
The unsettled wind whipped around her, like it was looking to have another crack at taking her out with a projectile, and she had a sudden foreboding that made her want to be home already.
Running her hands up the coarse fabric, she took a deep breath. The scent of the man was still on the material, and as it registered in her nose, she stepped off the curb like her name had been called. With choppy strides, she crossed the slushy lanes and thought of Rhamp. She could only imagine what her brother would say about her new security blanket—she’d never hear the end of it. One more reason to give the thing back to its rightful owner—
Lyric slipped and pulled some bad dance moves to keep on her feet. As she recovered her balance, she stopped, even though she wasn’t anywhere near the mile-high snowbank she’d been gunning for.
“Well… crap.”
The worksite appeared to be shut down. There were still bright lights shining around the exterior, and the equipment and debris were in the same chaotic disarray. No men, though. Maybe they were inside? She doubted it. Unlike before, the interior of the building was dark and there were no sounds of work, no machines grinding on, no hammering or banging. No voices.
And her keen hearing would have picked up on all of that in spite of the wind.
Continuing onward, she arrived at the mini-mountain created by the city plows, and picked her way up and over the summit, using the predetermined footholds countless pedestrians had turned into steps.
On the other side, she stared up the flank of the building—
The sense that she was being watched leveled her head and twisted her around. Bathe’s light-show entry had been turned off, and in spite of the familiar streetscape and all the lampposts, she suddenly felt like she was in the middle of nowhere.
Alone.
The reality of her isolation blew through her, an arctic gust from a different compass point, and it was as she shivered that she saw the shadow lurking in the alley by the club’s emergency exit. If she’d had human eyes, she wouldn’t have seen whoever it was, but her vampire retinas were especially good at night.
A big, hulking shape. A male? A man?
She was upwind, so there was no scent, and surely if it was someone she knew, they would have called out. Heart pounding, she took a step back—
Binnng… binnng… binnnng…
As the radar-like noise registered, she looked down. That the peculiar sound was coming from her left ovary was a shocker for so many reasons—at least until she shoved her hand into the pocket of the construction jacket and took out a cell phone.
While the binging continued, she glanced over at the alley again. The figure was gone and she scented the air. The wind was still coming at her back, so no information there, but given the tingle of warning at her nape, she knew she had to get out of—
“So there’s my phone.”
Lyric jerked around. “Oh! It’s you.”
Her savior had come out of nowhere for a second time, and he’d had a shower and changed since she’d seen him last. Now sporting a SUNY Caldwell hoodie, a black parka, and hair that was wet, she focused on his face—and the fact that she didn’t recognize it made her really worry about the way her brain worked.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Ah, here, sorry.” She held his cell out. “And I want to give you back your jacket—”
He took the phone. “I told you to keep it. Did you come over here just to return that old thing?”
“And your phone.” Even though she hadn’t known it was in the pocket. “Everyone needs their phone. I was returning the phone.”
Shut up, she told her mouth as she rechecked the alley.
His brows lowered and he glanced around. “And you’re going home now, right.”
“Yes.”
“Good. This city is dangerous at night.”
“For sure.” Her eyes returned to the club again. “You never know what can fall on a person. Billboards. Maybe a piano or two. Cars…”