“You ready?” Shanley took a hit of her vape, quickly stashing it in her pocket. She’d already changed: black jumper cinched at the waist; jacket draped over her shoulders; jowls replaced by high ivory cheekbones.
Booties hitting the ground, I smoothed out my navy slacks—a gift from her girlfriend, Mau. My whole outfit was, actually: the ribbed shirt, the bold lip, the bow in my hair, all of it styled by her. All of it too fashionable. Too itchy. But for tonight, I needed the armor.
Wolves trotted past me, speedy and silent. Several had shifted back to two legs. No one spared me a second glance.
Well, at least I blended in.
A lithe arm linked around Shanley’s. Mau effortlessly slid in beside her, looking radiant as ever in her human form. Red lips set in a thin line, she fidgeted with her tight knit dress. A slight tremor rocked her hands as she worked the fabric, then dragged a fingernail to sharpen the corner of her winged liner.
She was nervous. Shit.
Heat flared on the back of my neck.
Shanley ran her hand through her windswept hair. “Let’s go in. Opening remarks start in a few.”
The lump that’d formed in my throat kept me from answering.
“You got this, girlie,” Mau whispered, before she and Shanley disappeared.
I wished I had someone to link arms with. Someone to wholly lean on. Someone to fill the empty void in my heart.
I wished I had Javi. But he was still in a coma, recovering from the demon attack, and it was my secrets, my lies, my schemes that put him there.
If only I’d let him in on my life, as best friends do, he wouldn’t have snuck out after me.
If only I’d told him the honest truth, he wouldn’t have ended up atop the splintered wood and mangled metal as a pile of barely breathing, bloodied rags.
If only.
Willing my feet forward, I sucked in a breath and walked towards the open-air sanctum, alone. That feeling that someone was there, that someone was watching, never seeming to go away.
Chapter 2
I passed through the redwood trees, fingers skimming the bark. Colorful flashes of fur sprinted past me, furry tops of ears and the occasional wet snout brushing against my legs.
Shallow breaths clouding on the night, I waited for the last few werewolves to pass, Mau and Shanley becoming mirage-like slivers as they drew deeper into the heart of Crescent Rock.
It fell quiet, like the world was holding its breath. The swish of tails, the hushed pads of paws all lost beneath a sudden veil of silence.
Darkness pressed in. Sticks snapped behind me. Warm air brushed the back of my neck.
I turned, supernaturally fast, biting back a scream as my shoulder clipped a tree trunk. A lone wolf sprinted past.
That’s it. I panted, heart beating in my chest like a war drum. It was only my angel senses fine-tuning to pick up the smallest details, the softest sounds, the subtlest shifts in energy.
I inhaled on a ten count, trapping the breath until my pulse slowed.
Without the Voices, my brain and my body bounced back quicker now, or maybe I was just getting used to the sensation of magic. About damn time, after eighteen years.
Still, I could have used the Voices’ interjections to tell me whether or not I was dealing with a straggler or a monster. With them gone…every minor scuff of a heel, every shift of a branch had the very real possibility of being something more.
I was always on edge, always looking over my shoulder. And even though the Angel of Fire, Akosua, had severed our connection in support of Chthonia, an even more twisted version of hell…
I was always waiting for her and the others to return.
I rubbed my upper arm, the spot sore and tender from knocking into the tree. For sure another bruise. It’d go right above the one I got yesterday, when I stumbled over my swifter, stealthier feet racing down the stairs to the beach.
And the one next to that matching the fading welt on my temple, when I’d given a small tug on my surf leash just to have the board come flying at my face.
