I’d spent twenty-nine years learning a very simple truth: men pretty much suck. And I was done with it. All of it. Dating. Romance. Relationships. Waiting for the other shoe to inevitably drop. I was done with the whole thing. No more.
I let out a low noise of frustration when I realized I’d nursed my cigarette for far too long. The cherry had gone out. With trembling hands, I fished my lighter out of my pants pocket and tried to relight it. But the moment I flicked the little black Bic, Icould’ve sworn I saw a flash of something in the branches of the massive tree overlooking our backyard.
Two pale pinpoints glinted back at me from the darkness. Inhuman. Reflecting the lighter’s tiny flame.
My heart stopped in my chest. Then it lurched into a gallop. Adrenaline surged through me. Some primal part of my brain that only understood predator and prey seized control.
I wasn’t alone.
And then there was movement. A blur of pale skin shot past my field of vision—too fast to follow.
I dropped both the cigarette and the lighter onto the porch steps. Then, without having to consciously decide, I whirled around, practically tore the back door off its hinges, slammed it shut, and locked it behind me, throwing the deadbolt into place.
I wheeled backward, the edge of my hip hitting the wall behind me. I stared at the back door for a long moment, expecting to hear—what?
A thud? Knocking? Scratching? The wailing moans of the damned?
Something.
But nothing happened. Dead silence.
I lurched forward, braced both my hands on the kitchen table, and sucked in huge gasps of air, trying to calm my racing heart.
I had imagined it.
I must have. It was the only explanation. Animals didn’t possess that kind of speed. And people certainly didn’t either. Nothing living could move that fast.
That thought tore a thread of nervous laughter from my lips. Maybe I really was losing it. Seeing things that weren’t there. That couldn’t be there. That would be ironic—all this time spent worried about what was going to happen to Sam, when I was the one on the fast track to losing my grasp on reality.
My phone chimed, and I jumped a half-foot at the sudden noise.
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath, straightening up. It was probably the hospital, wanting me to come in on my night off. Again. Given that I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t relax, and was apparently dead set on scaring myself shitless, the idea was tempting. Even if I was monumentally sleep-deprived.
But when I checked my phone, I saw it was a text message from an unknown number:
I know UR back in town. Still living at home?
My blood turned to ice in my veins for a whole new reason as I read the message. It was Eric. It had to be Eric. I had blocked his number the night before, when he’d texted to wish me a happy birthday. And now he was… what? Using a new number? One that hadn’t been blocked?
My phone chimed again. Another message:
I miss U so much. I’ll do whatever it takes 2 get back with U. I promise.
Then, only an instant later, a third message appeared:
See U soon, baby.
CHAPTER FIVE || COLE
He saw me. Even though I had been concealed in the darkness, motionless, he had still seen me.
I stopped running when I’d made it halfway down the block, cutting through an alley between two houses lined with trash cans and parked cars. It was late enough that I wasn’t worried about anyone glancing out a window and seeing me. Besides, what could a witness possibly tell someone else? That they’d seen a man running down the street with inhuman speed, so fast he was merely a blur?
I had far more important things to be concerned about.
First, I had attempted to hypnotize the young man back at the club—and it had failed. That had never happened before.
Second, the young man was… familiar. But I had never seen him before. Apart from the occasional vampire from my past who resurfaced to make my life irritating every now and again—for instance, my deeply misguided brother, who had attempted to kill me when we last crossed paths—cameos from previous centuries weren’t things I needed to concern myself with.
