Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels Read Free

her revelations to others, they always sounded so obvious that she felt like an idiot for not understanding them before. She wondered if she had stunted emotional growth or something. Maybe everyone else had figured this out when they were ten years old.
    Dana tucked her hair behind her ears and smiled at Cole shyly. “You want to look together? I’m really nervous too.”
    “Okay.” He grinned back. They started over to the door. “What instrument do you play?”
    “Saxophone.”
    “Should have figured.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    He looked embarrassed. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have...” He stopped walking, and she did too, finding that she was interested in what he had to say. “It’s only that I guess you seem sort of like a... I don’t know, a type of person?”
    She studied her shoes. “You can say it. I know I’m a prep.”
    He put his hands in his pockets again. “Yeah, maybe. But I just sort of had this realization... It’s going to sound stupid, but I realized that I was stereotyping you, even though I don’t know anything about you, and you seem cool, you know, so maybe I shouldn’t do that.”
    Dana’s jaw dropped. “Oh my God, seriously?”
    He nodded.
    “Because, no lie, I was thinking pretty much the same thing a minute ago, when we shook hands. And I even thought it would sound stupid.”
    He was smiling again. “Right? Because it’s totally obvious. Everyone knows that.”
    “Yeah,” she said. “But just because you know it doesn’t mean you do it.”
    “Exactly.”
    She was smiling too. “I hope we both made it. Into the band, I mean. We can hang out next year.”
    “Me too.” He shifted on his feet. “I guess we should look, right?”
    They turned together and walked up to the door. At first, Dana couldn’t make out any of the names, but as they got closer, she could see the headings. Saxophones. Trombones. Clarinets. She gulped.
    And then she was close enough, and she was scanning the list of names...
    Until she found hers.
    She let out a little whoop. “I’m in!”
    Cole had his hands in his pockets again. “I’m not.”
    Disappointment coursed through her. She looked back at the list, read the name under bass guitar. “David English? He doesn’t even know how to play bass. He’s a drummer.”
    Cole shrugged. “It was a long shot anyway. I know that people like me don’t usually get to be in school bands and stuff.”
    “I’m so sorry,” said Dana.
    He was already backing away. “It’s no big deal. Congratulations, though.”
    She bit her lip. “Maybe we can hang out next year anyway?” “Sure,” he said. He grinned again. And then he turned away to jog back down the stairs.
    But they didn’t hang out. She didn’t speak to Cole Randall again until they were both trying to get out of a locked gymnasium, running from werewolves that were attacking everyone inside.
    * * *
    Dana paused with her hand on the exit door of the bar. “I think it’s a murder.”
    Avery spread his hands. “This just come to you?”
    “You know who else locked people inside while they slaughtered them? Chase Klebold and Adam White.”
    Avery pushed the door open. “You’re jumpy. This is your first case back. It’s a little on the weird side. But not everything is connected to Cole Randall and your past.”
    Dana took a deep breath before following him outside. Logically, he had to be right. Not everything could be connected to Cole. The locked door was a coincidence, not something meant to awaken within her memories of the day in which both she and Cole had been turned to werewolves at the hands of their crazed classmates. But she felt so damned connected to Cole now. All the time. The bastard had wormed his way inside her, curled up, and made himself at home. Chantal said that eventually she’d break free of his influence. Dana wanted to so badly. That’s why she was back at work.
    There was a ring of police officers and paramedics