Into Death's Arms Read Free Page A

hat wasn’t good. He wa s always abrupt , but usually I got some kind of explanation. No explanation was bad, real bad.
          I went to Laurna who was dancing with some kid; all the rings in his face made me want to laugh not because I have a problem with facial peircings some guys were seriously hot but because this guy couldn’t be one hundred and forty pounds soaking wet and at least a pound of that was stuck in his face . He might have been over twenty-one as he was not sporting the minor bracelet like I was but he l ooked like he was maybe fourteen slim in a prepubescent kind of way . He was glaring at the world in general. He did have nice eyes blue lined with black eyeliner. Thick black eyelashes women paid for. But that look ruined the effect y ou kno w one of those people who wants to think he’s tougher than everybody else. I wondered what he’d do if he knew that at t hat moment in time a very large, very hungry looking Vamp ire was watching him very closely. I leaned in to whisper to her.   “Hey babe . ” She paused looking quizzical. She didn’t mind me interruptin g, g ood because what I was going say next was going piss her off. “We gotta go. Somethin’s got my dad all wound.” I shrugged that was about all I could do ask I didn’t know what had him wound.  
         She s hook her head no, her big blue eyes begging me to let her stay. Crap, again! Usually she listened when I said something was up, not tonight . “Laurna , ” I whined plaintively. I knew my dad wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t dangerous but how do you explain that to a girl who doesn’t know about the monsters , answer was you didn’t.
        She turned and glared at me. “No, it’s my birthday. For once your dad’s issues are gonna come second.” She stomped her foot . If only she knew just why my dad had the issues, he had. She thought it wa s all about my mom’s death and an unreasonable fear of losing me too. Thing is she wasn’t too far off the mark but it wasn’t all that unreasonable. The monsters had gotten to mom in our home. They could get to us just about anywhere and I wasn’t ready to fight them off, not just yet anyway.
       The pierced guy smiled in triumph at me. Little did he know she was going to be moving on to someone else before long. I was angry and contemplated wiping that smirk off his face , with my fist . I couldn’t take on the monsters yet but I sure as hell could kick this scrawny bastard’s ass. Laurna gave me a warning look. She knows my temperament, well. I smiled at her , it wasn’t really a smile more of a warning that my temper was fraying rapidly.
        She blew a raspberry at me. I rolled my eyes and threw up both my hands in surrender. “I’ll call him back.” I went to corner and dialed home. It was loud and hard to hear good thing my hearing was a little better than the norm.
          “Why are you calling? Are you on your way?” He sounded scared. Shit, he was never scared , paranoid yes , but there is a difference. When you hunt and kill monsters for a living scared wasn’t something you did often. I t meant he was really worried about me.
        I took a deep br eath, “No, Laurna wants to stay. It’s her birth….”
        “Do you want to die tonight, ” he interrupted me . H is voice very harsh , t he hair on the back of my neck stood up, l ike he’d just kicked some preternatural warning system into gear. Um n o , I thought. Questions like that are always easy.
          “Tell me what this is about. If you’re going to call and prophesize death you have to give m e some info…” he didn’t have to answer after all.
        A voice like rough silk came over the loud speakers. It was Dayton Tamero n owner and proprietor, he owned Tamcorp, which really owned like half of the known world. I shuddered the man scared me something fierce , course , I could see through his human su it and it wasn’t pretty. He was one frighteningly powerful Vamp