Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Tarek says nothing, but his smirk says more than words would as he waves me off and starts going upstairs.
Apparently, I need to lock up and also take the new recruit home.
I’m about ready to ask where her purse is when a tap hits my shoulder; Tarek holds out her purse and coat, salutes me, then goes back in the direction of the apartment.
Groaning, I grab her things and slowly walk her out of the bar, careful to lock up when I leave. Not that anything would really happen since Tarek would attack anyone who dared to come in after hours.
He may be sarcastic as hell and slightly annoying, but he’s still a werewolf prince, powerful, and creepy with all of his predictions.
I shudder.
I hate the cold, but more than that, I hate that I actually feel cold. I’ve never experienced sensations of cold or hot before now, and it’s even more apparent with the wet cold.
My phone goes off.
The text reads: “A1.”
Kit is slumped against me while I walk her toward the corner deli; it’s open twenty-four seven. The bright blue open sign flickers on and off like it’s choosing different letters to use to light up each time between the letters.
She starts to snore in my arms.
I lightly tap her cheek; she startles awake and looks up at me. “Am I home yet?”
“Close.” I have the sudden urge to pat down her hair and make her feel better, but it feels like weakness on my part for someone I don’t even know who has already been this difficult so soon into knowing her.
The door to get into the stairs for the apartment is open already, meaning she has zero security. I bypass it and help her walk up the stairs. It smells like mold and dirt, the top stair is broken, and there are only two apartments. Hers is on the left, and it looks like someone tried to break through the wooden door.
This is where she lives? I immediately want to sit outside and make sure that she’s okay, even if I am annoyed.
This is stupidity at its finest, living in a place without actual locks. I go to her door and actually push it open.
She has nothing.
Not even a bedroom.
Just a couch, one blanket, one pillow, and a small kitchen that looks like it doesn’t even work.
“Thanks,” she mumbles, then stumbles toward the couch and lies down. From underneath the cushion, she pulls out a random energy drink and starts chugging it. That can’t be good for her. “Just gotta stay awake another three hours.”
Three hours?
I sigh and walk over to her. “How are you going to stay awake?”
Her answer: “Red Bull.”
I sit down on the couch. “Okay, so then what happens after the Red Bull?”
“I can finally rest.” She still hasn’t opened her eyes. “For at least the hours following before it repeats.”
“Why?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Try me.” I’m irritated as it is, but none of this is making sense.
“I’m a monster,” are her last words before she drinks two more Red Bulls, then turns on the TV and starts watching a show called Friends. I stay until her three hours are up, and when I get up to leave, she’s already lying there, sleeping like the dead. What a weird little human.
I go to the door and look over my shoulder, the sun is pressing through the window in such a way that it makes her body glow, and toward her beautiful legs, I swear I see a white tail.
I frown.
The vision is gone in a blink.
But I could have sworn, just for a minute there, the human… was a fox.
CHAPTER FOUR
井の中の蛙大海を知らず
I no naka no kawazu taikai o shirazu
“A frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean.”
Those who live in a small world think that what they see is everything; all the while, they never know about the bigger outside world.
~Japanese proverb
Kit
I don’t go to sleep until the morning. The darkness scares me, and I know that my reality is that I have to stay awake until sunrise. My head nods forward as light flickers in through the window.
Something soft touches my leg; I groan and look down. I hope to God that Horus wasn’t here long enough to see the trick of the light. Two Red Bull cans are crushed on my table, but I have a blanket covering me. Did he do that?
I check my phone and then get to my feet. I have maybe one hour before I need to show up for work. It’s been a while since I’ve slept all day, but I know I needed it if I’m going to survive tonight.
I get up and shuffle toward the kitchen to grab more Red Bull from the fridge. It’s literally one of the only things I stock up on, on a daily basis, just in case.