Witchlock Read Free Page A

then either this guy was just another park visitor or this group didn’t have a lick of spidey sense. As long as the coalition did its job, these people would continue to go on about their lives, content in their ignorance of anything unnatural in their world.    
    Keeping pace with her target but far back enough to be unobtrusive, Evalle searched ahead. The only obvious destination in his direct path was the park’s Summit Skyride, where high-speed cable cars zoomed visitors from ground level to the top of the mountain and back.  
    Thankfully, that attraction had been shut down for the night.  
    She’d heard VIPER agents rave about the view, but she’d pass. She got nauseated fifteen feet off the ground.  
    Strangely, she had no fear of heights when she shifted into her gryphon form and flew, but she wasn’t allowed to do that in the human world, even if no humans were around.  
    The guy slowed when he encountered one of the park’s uniformed personnel near the entrance to the skyride structure.  
    Evalle held up. The minute that security guard sent her suspect back toward the festivities, she’d return, too.  
    But that didn’t happen.  
    Khaki Guy said something to the guard, then continued walking until he stepped up on the platform that led to the parked cable cars.  
    Evalle picked up her pace, sliding from shadow to shadow so no one would see her using unnatural speed. When she reached the security guard, he stood perfectly still, staring straight ahead. She waved a hand in front of his face. He was breathing, but locked in time like a living statue.  
    She had all the confirmation she needed that Khaki Man was not what he seemed.  
    She sent a text to Adrianna that she definitely followed something nonhuman, but she had yet to determine what it was exactly, so stand by for an update.  
    Evalle shoved the phone in her back pocket and closed the distance.  
    Demon, troll or other , he was not disappearing again.  
     
    Chapter 2  
     
    When Evalle reached the platform, Khaki Guy was trying to open the doors on the parked cable car. They were probably powered by hydraulics.  
    No human could break those apart.  
    Khaki Guy held his hands back-to-back and pushed his palms out, inching the doors open. The mechanism controlling the gears cried in protest.  
    Just great.  
    Now she’d have to call in Sen, the VIPER liaison and a roaring pain in her backside, to fix that before she left. Sen could thaw out the security guard and purge the man’s memory while he was at it.  
    She called out, “You can’t ride without a ticket.”  
    Ignoring her, the guy leaned forward, growled in strain, and shoved the doors open with a bang before he turned around. He still looked just like Joe Suburbia, but then he opened his mouth.  
    Guttural demon voice came out. “Who are you ?”  
    She respected any being’s strength, but she had to clue this creature in before he decided to go toe-to-toe with her. Sometimes clearing up any misconception saved getting her favorite clothes bloody. “My name’s Evalle. If you’ll come quietly with me, I won’t hurt you.”  
    “I don’t have to do what you say.”  
    “That’s where you’re wrong. She pulled off her dark sunglasses so he could experience the full effect of her glowing green Alterant eyes, a mark of being half Belador and half Medb. Don’t even get her started on that issue. The fact that she was an Alterant had played havoc with her life for as long as she could remember. “I’m with VIPER and I have authorization to take you in.”  
    He stared at her, or more like through her, not blinking, which was creepy on a human face. Then he asked, “We’ll go together?”  
    Did he think she worked on the honor system?  
    Sure, I’ll give you an address for the hidden VIPER headquarters in the North Georgia Mountains and you’ll turn yourself in while I go home and take a long hot bath.  
    If only. “Yes, we’ll go together.”