From the Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) Read Free Page B

said, if you ever feel like letting it all out, just say the word and my ear is yours to talk off, okay?”
    She looked at her watch then. “Oh, I better get back inside before JayReese burns the place down.”
    I looked up at her as she stood and thanked her again. Realizing as she walked away that I actually felt a little b etter knowing someone who didn’t know me from Eve was willing to listen to my sorry-ass tale of woe, my appetite suddenly returned. I wolfed down the rest of the pretzel and then practically chugged the frappé through the straw. I gave myself a brain freeze for my efforts, which made me feel like laughing.
     
    ***
     
    As the day wound down and the end of my shift neared, I looked forward to going home to my room at the hotel, where I would change into some sweats and go for a jog. Given the emotional rollercoaster I’d ridden, I felt the need to exert myself. A part of me wanted very much to shift into my animal form—I’d not done so since the Day of Hell, and as if the Siberian Husky I turned into had a mind of her own, the dog within me wanted to run free. I had to admit that I kinda missed her, but I didn’t know any place in Cleveland where I could go and just be my canine self. I decided then and there to look for a dog park near where I lived so that I could let my girl loose.
    After saying goodbye to all my co-workers and receiving a meaningful glance from Karen, I clocked out and headed for the bus stop. After catching and riding the number eight to the stop closest to the Motel 6 I had been staying in, I hopped off and started the four-block trek. As I was approaching the alley separating the first and second block, a scent on the air had me freezing in my tracks.
    Vampire.
    Shit! I thought immediately, looking around to see if I could find the leech. Two weeks I had been living here, and not once had I smelled that awful identifying stench of theirs. For that matter, I’d not met a single werewolf or shapeshifter, and I was fairly certain that a city the size of Cleveland had a few of each supernatural species. I knew two full vampires and one half-vampire personally, and the one I’d just detected didn’t smell like one of them. I’d suspected since this morning that Lochlan was in town spying on me, but if he was he hadn’t shown his face yet, and I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that now would have been a good time.
    People on the sidewalk, though there were few, were beginning to look at me funny so I forced my feet to keep moving, wondering as I did so why this particular vampire had decided to venture out in the daytime. I kne w from my association with Saphrona that despite the fact that vampires didn’t actually burn in sunlight, few ventured out in the daytime because of what could happen—they could up and fall asleep in an instant as if they were narcoleptic (which, I suppose, they really were given how much melatonin they produced during daytime hours). Falling into that coma-like sleep made a vampire extremely vulnerable, and they abhorred vulnerability. Stemming from the persecution they had faced centuries ago, most vampires had found it easier to accept and embrace their nocturnal physiology and they stuck to living the night life (the real reason, of course, being that it was simply safer). Usually only “pretenders”—those that chose to work amongst humans—would go out in the daytime, and even then most of them preferred to work night jobs.
    I very nearly passed the alley between the two blocks, but as I was stepping into the road to cross to the next one, it dawned on me that the smell was actually coming from down the alley itself. I backed up and flattened myself against the building, utilizing my sensitive hearing to listen for tell-tale sounds.
    “Where the fuck have you been, boy?” I heard a gruff male voice say.
    “Look, Merrick, I’ve already told you—I’m done. I’m not going to help you guys anymore,” said another male.
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