Page 19 of Newly Undead in Dark River

“Nothing. Just go about your life as normal. You look so different from the girl who first stepped through the doors of Bert and Beatrice's, that if the authorities walked right past you, I doubt they'd make the connection.”

“I found your things buried in a national park almost two hundred miles away.”

My head whipped towards Brody. “Did it tell you anything? Was all my stuff there? Did you bring it back with you?” He shook his head as I fired questions at him.

“I found no concrete evidence. I'm sorry, Raine, but I thought it was best to leave it all there. If the authorities find it there, they'll have no reason to come to Dark River. Someone had buried it, but I placed it back on the surface. Maybe a hiker will find it one day, but it's pretty deep in the woods. Give your family some kind of closure.”

So they'd think I was dead and buried in a forest somewhere. Sadness ran like acid in my veins. Brody squeezed me to his side.

“I got you this though.” He reached into the inside pocket of his fleece-lined jacket and pulled out my camera bag.

The tears, this time, were happy ones. My Dad had bought me the camera as a graduation gift after my senior year of high school. It was a proper professional DSLR camera, and I'd loved it. I'd filled up memory card after memory card with photos, of my family and friends, of college and my home town. I flipped it open, and there, tucked securely in a zippered pocket, was all my memory cards. I'd never deleted a photo. It was a catalog of my life.

I launched myself at Brody, wrapping my arms around his neck. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." This had been beyond thoughtful. He'd given me something small, a little bit of my old life that I could look back on, but it felt huge.

He patted my back hard and let out a little grunt. “Not so tight. Some of us still need to breathe.” I jumped back, but I couldn't wipe the grin from my face.

“This was really nice of you. I owe you one.”

Brody grinned. “Let's just hope that no hunters saw a wolf trotting around the woods with a camera around his neck, or we'll have those Twilight nuts around these woods searching for Caleb, or Jacob or whatever the hell that kid's name was.”

The image made me laugh out loud.

Walker squeezed my shoulder and left to talk to Angeline. I was starting to think that Walker had a serious thing for Angeline. I didn’t want to examine the burning feeling in my chest that came on the heels of that thought.

Brody put his feet up on the coffee table. “What's the movie and cupcake theme tonight? I may as well kick back here for a couple of hours and head home when you lot migrate indoors for the day.”

I stood and looked at the schedule. A small laugh bubbled up in my throat, and by the time it broke free of my lips, it was a full-blown guffaw.

“An American Werewolf in London.”

He groaned.“You're kidding, right?”

All I could do was laugh harder.

At Angeline's nod,I covered the snoring Brody with the mohair blanket from the back of the leather couch. The dawn was just painting the horizon. So much for his big plans to head home at daylight.

The last of the customers had headed home, full of lattes and pastry, and Angeline was switching off the lights.

“I'll see you this afternoon, Raine,” she called as she hurried out the door. I waved and finished putting the chairs away out the back. I liked the calmness of the early morning. Unless Judge was here, the time before sleep could be torturous. Better to wear myself out until I fall into a dreamless nothingness.

By the time the store was back to its well-ordered state, the bright morning sun was over the horizon and shining through the stained glass, painting the room in glorious technicolor. I was trying to stand in the sunlight for a few minutes at a time, gradually extending the duration. The sun dawned bright and happy, it was going to be a nice, sunny day in the mountains. I missed the sun. My eyes began to sting, so I turned and walked up the stairs to my apartment. Time for a bag of O neg and then snuggling up under the comforter.

Pushing my key into the door, lethargy weighed down my limbs. I wanted to skip the blood and just head to bed, but Doc Alice had been very specific about my daily intake requirements. I trudged into the darkened kitchen and over to the fridge. Seeing row after row of neatly bagged blood was no longer disconcerting. I guess I was adapting.

I'd just turned back towards the bedroom when the kitchen blinds were wrenched open, the bright sun searing my eyes.

I screamed and dropped the blood on the floor. Everything went white as the light burned my retinas. Someone was behind me, holding me to the light.

“If you know what is good for you, you'll find a way to get the Sheriff to drop his investigations.” A voice growled, deep and unrecognizable. I tried to slam my eyelids shut, but I couldn't physically make them move. “You've got it good. I made you, and I can break you just as easily.”

With that, my attacker let me go, and I dropped to the floor. I curled into a ball, trying to protect my eyes. It had only been fifteen seconds at the most, but every second had been like someone spearing electric shocks into my eyeballs.

Tears streamed down my face, and I heard a thump as someone burst through my front door.

“Raine? RAINE!” Brody was at my side in seconds. Noticing the Venetians, he closed the blind with a metallic screech. He wrapped me in his arms, and I buried my face against his chest. “What happened?” he checked me over for injuries, probably because of the amount of blood on the floor.

“Someone was here. My eyes.” Tears streamed out of my eyes, desperately trying to heal the burns.

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