A blue car passed me and slowed to a stop a few yards ahead of me. Alarm made my fingers clench the handle of the plastic bag, and it took me a moment to recognize the Mustang Sara’s friends had been driving the night they came to the apartment. I let out a breath and kept walking.
“Emma,” called a voice from inside the car.
I slowed and looked over to see Roland sitting behind the wheel of the Mustang with a pretty blonde girl in the passenger seat. Her window was down, and Roland was waving me over.
I stayed where I was. “Hi.”
“Hey, you need a lift home?”
I gave him a polite smile. “No, thanks. I like to walk.”
His brows drew together. “You sure? It’s going to rain any minute.”
I glanced up at the heavy clouds that looked ready to burst open. The idea of getting drenched didn’t appeal to me, but neither did being in an enclosed space with a werewolf, no matter how nice he seemed.
“I’m good. Thanks for stopping.”
He didn’t leave, and his girlfriend was starting to look annoyed. I waved at them and continued on my way. The car passed me a moment later and turned right at the next intersection.
I let out the breath I was holding. Sara believed her friends wouldn’t care that I used to be a vampire. But her heart was so big she sometimes forgot not everyone was as kind and forgiving as she was. I didn’t want to take the chance of proving her wrong.
I almost made it to the waterfront before the first raindrops hit me. A few seconds later, the sky opened up and dumped its contents on my head. I ran for home, but within a minute, my waitress uniform was drenched and my shoes were sloshing through large puddles. I knew I must have looked like a drowned rat when I scurried past the people sitting in the coffee shop.
Even though I couldn’t possibly get any wetter, I raced up the stairs to the apartment and let myself in. Standing in the hallway with water running off me to pool on the floor, I felt a sudden urge to laugh. There was a long mirror near the door, and I stepped in front of it to survey the damage. Half my hair had come loose from my ponytail and was stuck to my cheeks. My light blue uniform was so wet I could see my bra through it, and the hem was splattered with dirt. I shook my head at the image in the mirror. Definitely not my best look.
The laughter that had threatened a minute ago spilled from my lips. I felt strangely buoyant as I stripped off my wet clothes and carried them to the laundry room. I toweled my hair dry, changed into clean clothes, and went to reheat my food in the microwave.
Sitting at the small table, eating my dinner and watching rain run down the kitchen window, I had a glimpse of the normalcy I’d come here looking for. This was what regular people did. They came home from work, did laundry, and ate their dinner. Some people might call that boring, but after the things I’d seen and done, it was bliss.
Chapter 4
Roland
“Roland,” someone yelled over the noisy forklift working nearby.
I put down the two-by-four I was stacking and looked over my shoulder at Pete, who pointed at his wrist to let me know it was time for lunch.
I stretched my back muscles, which ached from a morning of sorting and stacking lumber. Working at the yard might pay good money, but it was monotonous physical labor. I didn’t mind hard work. I just wanted something to occupy my mind more.
Pulling off my work gloves, I walked to the employee building next to the main office. After stuffing my gloves and my hard hat in the little cubby I used for my things, I grabbed my car keys and phone.
Pete put his stuff away and turned to me with a questioning look.
“What?” I asked gruffly.
“That’s what I’d like to know. You’ve been grumpy all morning. I expected you to be all smiles after your date with Angela last night. Didn’t go well?”
I went to the restroom and splashed water on my face to remove the sawdust and grime of the lumberyard. “It went fine.”
Pete chuckled. “That well, huh?”
“Yeah.” I was not in the mood to talk about Angela, or how I’d totally messed up a date with the hot college freshman because I couldn’t stop thinking about Emma and the wariness in her eyes when I’d stopped to offer her a ride. She must have gotten drenched in that downpour on the way home. Why would she prefer to walk and get wet instead of accepting a ride? She knew I was Sara’s friend and I wouldn’t harm her, especially with another girl in the car. But she wouldn’t even come close to the car. None of it made sense.
I had to admit, it was a different experience for me, meeting a girl who wanted nothing to do with me. It wasn’t that I wanted Emma that way. She was pretty, but… Okay, maybe I was a little attracted to her, and she was human, which was a big plus. But I didn’t do relationships, and Sara would likely kick my ass if I messed around with her cousin.
My phone rang, and I looked at the screen. Well, what do you know? Just the person I’d been waiting to hear from all week.
“You’ve got some explaining to do, missy,” I said.
“Hello to you, too,” Sara retorted.
“Hi, Sara,” Pete called over my shoulder. “How’s Miroslav? Still standing?”
“Ha-ha. How is life back home?”
I pressed the speaker button so we could both talk to her as we left the building and walked to my car. “Same old thing. Did you get the pictures I sent you of the Mustang?”
“Yes. It’s beautiful. I love that color blue. I can’t believe that’s the same old car you bought in January. I guess that means Peter is driving Jordan’s old car now.”
Pete jiggled his keys. “Yep! Not as pretty as the Mustang, but she gets me where I want to go.”
Sara was quiet for a moment. “So, I hear you’ve met Emma.”
“If you mean your cousin Emma who we didn’t know existed and is living in your place, then yes,” I said wryly. “Why didn’t you ever tell us you had a cousin?”
“Emma and I didn’t get to know each other until recently.”
“What’s her story?” I asked.
“I can’t really go into it. All I can say is she’s been through a lot, and the last few months have been really hard on her. She needed a quiet place to live, so I invited her to stay at the apartment.”
“Why didn’t you tell us she was coming?” Pete asked. “I think we scared the hell out of her Friday night.”
Sara sighed. “That was probably a mistake, but Emma asked me not to tell anyone. She’s a little nervous around people. If you knew what she’d been through… Well anyway, I thought she’d like New Hastings. I hope you all can be friends when she settles in there.”
Her explanation only made me more curious about Emma. Why was she so secretive? What gave a person nightmares that made them scream out in terror?
“So, you fluent in Russian yet?” Pete asked Sara.
She laughed. “Most everyone at Miroslav speaks English, thank God.”
A door opened in the background, and I heard Nikolas say something. I was about to call out a hello when Sara huffed softly.
“It was an accident, Nikolas. I didn’t do it on purpose.”
His deep laugh filled the phone, and I wished I could hear what he was saying.
“No one told me that area was off-limits,” she said. “There should be signs. And all I did was pet them. How was I supposed to know?”
“Uh-oh,” I said. “What did you do?”
Sara came back on the phone. “It’s nothing. Well, maybe not.” She let out a heavy sigh. “I took a walk earlier, and I saw a pen with some strange creatures I’d never seen before. The gate must have been unlocked because they got out and surrounded me. Someone started yelling and the weerlaks got freaked out. I was only trying to calm them down.”
Pete and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.
Weerlaks looked like honey badgers with really big fangs and a temper to match. They were always born four to a litter, and they stayed together, communicating telepathically. They were deadly creatures. I’d rather face a pack of crocotta.
I found my voice. “You used your faerie magic on a pack of weerlaks?”