Tourists.
Tipsy pain-in-the-asses, but she could have hugged them right then.
Nia slipped out of her hiding place and into the middle of the inebriated partygoers.
A dark-haired guy slung his arm around her shoulders, and she didn’t protest as they shuffled off toward the bar. “It’s called the Cat’s Meow,” she told him.
“Thanks, beautiful.” He grinned, giving her a hug and blasting her with his alcoholic fumes.
Enduring the walking brewery was a small price to pay to escape Kas. Nia furtively scanned the street for any sign of him.
As they neared the nightspot, she ducked under the man’s arm with a quick, “Thanks, man.”
He blinked, owl-like, at her, and she hightailed it to the busy main street and into a fusion of neon lights—pinks, turquoise, and yellows coloring the road and buildings—frantically searching for a cab.
One slowed a short distance from her, its taillights glowing like red demonic eyes as it stopped. She raced toward it, crashing into a hard body.
Strong hands grasped her upper arms.
No!Dread strangled her. With a muffled cry, she yanked free and sprinted for the idling cab. A passenger got out, and Nia scurried inside, slamming the door shut.
“Whoa, lady, I’m off duty,” the driver growled. “I ain’t going anywhere.” His heavy eyebrows pulled together in a fierce glower in the rearview mirror.
“Please, please,” she begged. “I have to get out of here.”
People strolled past. No one stopped or looked into the cab, but it didn’t mean shit. He was out there.
She glanced over her shoulder through the back window, searching for Kas’ blond hair.
A dark figure stood statue-still amidst the moving masses of people. Taller than the general mob, he was impossible to miss. He watched the cab.
Nia sank deeper into the darkness of the taxi, her heart jammed in her throat. Shadows hid the stranger’s features, but the cold moonlight gleamed off his hair, a perilous blood-red halo.
Another of Kas’ supernatural sycophants?
“Please?” she begged the driver, and she gave Saia’s address since Kas would never follow her there.
The cabbie frowned at her, then looked out the window and grunted. “You should be careful of the company you keep, girl.”
“Believe me, it’s not company I keep any longer. Just a date who won’t take no for an answer.”
“That’s what I mean.” He eased the cab forward, and soon, they were off Bourbon Street. “Nothing is what it seems at first, is it?”
Nia exhaled in sheer gratitude, slumping low in her seat, his words ringing in her head. Wasn’t it just so?
She rubbed her ear, fingering the row of tiny studs.
Soon, they entered the quieter part of the French Quarter, where Saia and Riley lived and the only place she knew she’d be safe.
Nia paid the driver, gave him the last of her cash for a tip, and dashed to the gated property. She thrust open the wrought-irongates into the secluded, red-bricked courtyard for the adjoined colonial townhouses and sprinted to the door on her right.
Dark clouds hung low, but moonlight seeped free and silvered the branches of the tall, denuded shrubs that stretched out their skeletal boughs like ghostly limbs.
Her nape prickled, and ice slid down her spine.
Someone watched her.
“Saia, open up!” She pounded on her friend’s door, shooting another panicked look over her shoulder. “C’mon, c’mon,Sai!” She lifted her hand to hammer again.
