Crossed Read Free Page A

insist.” He smiled and began to open an umbrella. “Tut, tut,” he quoted, like a grown-up Christopher Robin gone horribly wrong, “it looks like rain,” and suddenly, it did.
    Phillip’s clouds, black and rain-filled, rolled in so fast I scarcely made it out of the church in time to catch the last rays of vanishing sunlight and set myself on fire. Charbroiled and still sizzling, there was no way I’d have even a whiff of Rachel clinging to me. Not a drop of rain had fallen yet, but the werewolves were soaking wet, completely doused in water so holy I could smell the altar boys. They must have soaked themselves before the fight.
Lovely.
    The rain arrived right on cue, extinguishing my flaming carcass, and I laughed out of habit as the water washed over me, leaving me just as wet as the werewolves.
    Werewolves usually look silly to me, but, even soaked to the skin, these guys were something special. Intricate patterns had been shaved into their fur like Celtic knotwork or henna tattoos. The flesh beneath had been inked in solid colors:black, blue, green, and red. I could tell which was the Alpha. I’d tangled with an Alpha werewolf not long before, the first truly impressive lycanthrope I’d ever seen, and the leader of these guys gave off the same vibe he had. I can take on normal werewolves in groups, but I’d never actually had to fight an Alpha, since the local Alpha, William, and I had worked out our differences at gunpoint. First time for everything.
    Most of these wolves had crosses etched or painted on their claws. The Alpha smiled at me with a mouth full of fangs that showed the same kind of detailing. His fur was black as midnight and he stared at me through angry eyes, one blue and one brown. I was still happy he’d showed up.

    2    

    RACHEL:

    LITTLE SISTER

    Tabitha didn’t even leave her dressing room, the stupid cow. Standing in her white dress, she peered eagerly past me into the hall, but made no move to go help her husband-to-be.
    “What’s going on?” Tabitha whined.
    “Sorry, I’ve been ordered to wash up,” I snarked. “No vapid bimbo chat time left.”
    I slid the frilly pink dress off over my head while waiting for Tabitha to react. Instead, she peeked out the door into the hallway, trying to get a glimpse of the excitement out front. Mom’s imagined voice chattered inside my head, “Don’t tease your sister, Rae, this is her special day.” I slipped out of the light blue thong I’d been wearing and, as a second thought, wiped my crotch with it before following my master’s instructions to wash up.
    Cold water ran out of the tap and echoing raindrops spattered against the clouded glass of the restroom’s single exterior window.
    “Too bad Mom couldn’t be here,” I called into the other room. “She probably thinks you’re still alive.”
    “I know,” Tabitha answered.
    “Want me to call her?” I teased. Mom had seen me buried. Before that, she’d watched the leukemia take its toll and break me until I was nothing more than a shell of myself, a pain-ridden harpy hurting everyone I’d ever loved because they got to live and I was a sick seventeen-year-old who was going to barely make it to eighteen and even that only if I was lucky. Tabitha could have saved me from the grave, from the sickness, from all of it. She’d been dating a vampire—Eric—even then, but as it was, I’d had to save myself, find my own way back to life.
    You don’t want to know what they do to little witch wannabes in hell. If you’re strong enough, and willing, devious, and smart enough to play your cards right, you can work a deal to come back. First, though, you have to impress them. God, do you have to impress them.
    “No!” Tabitha touched my back. “Don’t you dare!”
    “I think Mom and Lord Phillip would hit it off. With all the work she’s had done, she still looks pretty fuckable.”
    I pulled several brown paper towels free of the wall dispenser and smirked,