Page 10 of Crimson Born

Reece’s hopeful expression fell. He nodded. “Of course. Okay, well, can I call you?”

“I don’t have a phone.” I giggled, embarrassed.

“Oh. Right.” He snapped his fingers and twisted his mouth to the side. “You know what? That’s okay.”

“It is?”

“Yeah. You know why?”

“Why?” I asked, baffled at the abrupt change in his demeanor.

“Destiny. Do you believe in destiny, Abbi?”

Slowly, I shook my head back and forth. “Not really.”

“Well, I do. And I believe we’ll see each other again.” He took my hand in his. “You wait and see. I believe things happen for a reason, and I think the reason I came here tonight... was to meet you.”

I had no idea what to say. No one had ever said anything like that to me before. Frankly it sort of scared me.

There was no room in my life for someone like Reece, and I highly doubted I’d fit into his very well.

“Okay,” I said, like an idiot, and extracted my hand from his.

Then like a bigger fool, I turned and walked away as fast as my securely tied shoes could carry me.

4

Unholy Creatures

The eerily beautiful woman stared at my face for a long moment before lowering me to the blood-soaked pavement again.

“You want me to spare his life, even after he’s taken yours? You surprise me, little one... which isn’t an easy thing to do. What is your name?”

“Abi... Abigail,” I whispered.

“How would you like to come with us, Abigail?”

I had no idea what she was talking about. I wouldn’t be going anywhere with anyone ever again. The life was ebbing from my body faster with each passing second. In fact, I didn’t have the energy to even respond to her odd question.

The woman bent her head and placed a kiss on my palm that I could not feel.

Rising, she walked over to the ruined car and squatted to peer inside at Reece. “Looks like this is your lucky night. You can thank the little good Samaritan over there that you didn’t wind up cooked alive.”

Then she lifted his hand and brought it to her mouth as well.

“Hey,” he yelled out. “Why’d you do that?”

She didn’t answer him but stood and addressed her unseen companions. “I’ve claimed these two. All the others you can drink.”

What?What was happening?Claimed? Drink?

There was movement all around me. Apparently she had not two companions but many. People were filtering through the accident site, laughing and chatting as if they were at a church social instead of at the scene of a tragic accident.

Where had they all come from? And what were they doing?

From my position flat on my back, I couldn’t see the buggy or my friends. Icouldsee Reece’s car. Which suddenly flipped and landed right-side-up on its tires.

I stared in disbelief as he opened the driver’s side door and got out. He looked as shocked as I was.

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