Page 31 of A Bond with the Dark

“It was nice to meet you, Sayah,” he whispers to the shell of my ear.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand, sending chills down my spine.

“I can’t wait to see you again.” He kisses me on the cheek and then is gone.

“Are you gonna see him again?” Claire tries to ask as I slide into my seat again, although the words are jumbled and slurred.

I giggle. “Yeah, he’s taking me out tomorrow night.”

“That’s so awesome, Say. I’m glad,” Anna says.

“Me too.”

Things like this don’t happen to me. Especially when I’m with beauties like Claire and Anna; guys usually flock to them, not to me.

I cannot wait to see that man again.

After Dominic’s departure, I try to keep having a good time, but the rounds of beers and shots keep coming. When groping commences—a solid squeeze to my right boob by Claire—I decide it’s time to go.

Going out with the girls is always fun; however, it’s different now that I’m sober. I used to be the life of the party, laughing and being dumb, dancing and making an utter fool of myself. The last few times I went out with them, the more drunk they got, the more I felt out of place. It’s like being an outcast. Alcohol is the only drug people make you explain why you don’t use it, and having everyone ask why I’m not drinking is starting to get old. It’s why Claire is closer to Anna now.

Claire and I had been inseparable when we were each other’s drinking buddies, and Anna is that to her now.

On our way home, I feel my phone vibrate and pull it out of my pocket at the next stoplight.

It was so lovely to meet you. You are gorgeous. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow.

Because both girls had passed out after merging onto the highway, I have no one to share my schoolgirl giddiness with, so I set the phone down at my side.

Pulling to a stop in Claire’s driveway, I finally text him back.

It was nice to meet you, too. I can’t wait either!

I help the girls into the house, make sure they’re lying on their sides on the couches, and head back to my car when my phone vibrates again.

Let me know when you make it home safe, okay?

He is so sweet and handsome. The butterflies in my stomach excite me. But on the other hand, whenever I consider dating again, I worry about someone coming into my space with my child, which always tugs against those feelings of sweet new beginnings.

And there is something dark about Dominic I can’t quite put my finger on. The further I get from him, the more that coat of euphoria slides off, and I feel the darkness seeping in.

13

EMBERS OF THE BROKEN

DOM

Something about Sayah speaks to me on a different level than other women. She seems familiar, and I know she’s in her thirties, but she has an aura about her that’s as old as time. There’s also someone in my past who she’s very reminiscent of.

I couldn’t find out much about her in our short encounter. She seems to know she’s a witch, as she carries that with an effortless grace, but I’ll need to spend more time with her to glean much else, or what she knows of grimspawn and vampires or supernatural characters.

I need to find out more information about Sayah, and if I don’t get that information, my family will come to kill her. But for now, I’m enjoying getting to know her.

I tracked down Mara when I left Sayah’s table and talked to her some more about the local haunts in LoDo. She told me the location of the Denver entrance to Neverdusk, so tonight, before my date with Sayah, I plan to go there and search for any additional information.

I’ve spent the day texting Sayah, getting to know her while I shopped around for a house to rent in Windsor. I needed to make my lies to her believable. I hate lying to her, and I tried to pepper my lies with truth to ease some of the sting—I actually am a data analyst, just not in Colorado.

Under normal circumstances, she would be someone I’d be interested in dating.

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