Page 38 of Newly Undead in Dark River

“Hudson. My last name is Hudson.”

“Judge Hudson?”

He shook his head. “No. John. John Hudson. Judge is a nickname I...earned in my old profession.”

I pushed. “What profession was that exactly?”

His jaw clenched, but he gave a tiny shake of his head. I sighed.

He lifted his hand up and cupped my cheek. “I care about you so much, Raine.”

I rested my forehead against his and sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

Then, because I was weak, I let him take me to bed and make love to me all night.

But I wasn’t surprised when I woke the following evening, and he was gone.

Chapter Fifteen

Iwas that girl. You know the one? The one that needs a man in her life otherwise she’s a ghost of herself? How the hell did I end up that girl? What happened to Raine, Badass Mother-Flipper who wasn’t going to be tied down, that was going to flit from hot sexy paranormal to hot sexy paranormal, like a horny honey bee?

Apparently, I lost her somewhere between the Shifter snack pack and the paranormal sandwich. And now I was just hungry.

I flopped onto the couch in the library of The Immortal Cupcake and ate a huge slice of Angeline’s Devil’s Food Cake. Lucky my ass wasn’t going to get fat because I’d basically eaten today’s wages in baked goods.

When the bell tinkled overhead, I was surprised to see Cresta, Angeline, and Ella standing in the archway between the two sections of the business. They were dressed in outfits that were so spangly and shiny that they hurt my eyes.

“Is it ‘dress like a disco ball day’ and no one told me?” I said, shoveling more cake in my mouth.

Angeline looked at the other two women and inclined her head in my direction. “She’s been like this all week.”

“Tragic,” Ella said, shaking her head sadly.

“Hey, I’d be gorging myself on cake too if I’d been loved and left by the Drifter. The man is-” Ella elbowed Cresta in the ribs to make her stop and held out a garment bag.

“Put this on. We are going out.”

I scoffed. “Oh yeah? Is the diner having a seventies night?”

Angeline dragged me to my feet and pulled me toward the kitchen. I hadn’t even noticed that the store was now closed. Once I was in the freshly scrubbed kitchen, they all stood around me.

“Strip, change into this sparkly little dress, and we are going to a nightclub in Calgary.”

I froze, my fingers clutching the garment bag in my hands. “We are going to leave Dark River?”

Ella was already tugging at my clothes, making little tsking noises at the chocolate buttercream stains. “Yep,” she said, popping the P.

I looked at Angeline, equal parts terrified and hopeful they were telling the truth. “There's no way Walker would let me leave the safety of the town. I’m still too new.”

Angeline gave me a look. It was part sneaky, part self-satisfied and all trouble. “Walker is coming with us.”

Twenty-five minutes later I was jammed into Angeline’s sleek black BMW, with Mr. Control Freak at the wheel. Angeline hadn’t minded when he’d headed to the driver's door, just tossing him the keys and climbing in the back to sit beside an already giggling Cresta and Ella. Apparently, no one really got to go to the big city often, so they were even more excited about this than I was. Actually, I wasn’t excited at all. I was a ball of nervous energy all wrapped up in killer heels. I finished the blood bag in my hand and no sooner had I put it down, that Walker handed me another one from the cooler in the footwell. Apparently the idea was to gorge me on blood on the way, and by the time I got there I’d be so full that the temptation of all those flitter-fluttering heartbeats would be dampened. This was pre-drinks to the extreme.

“Shouldn’t we ease into it or something? Start with, like a cemetery?” I asked Walker in a low voice.

“Are you making a dead joke?” he stage whispered back. “It’ll be fine, Raine. I won’t let you do anything you regret.”

I scoffed. The last time someone had told me that, I’d ended up doing tequila shots out of the navel of a freshman at a frat party. I reassured myself that the tequila probably sterilized whatever gross belly button crud had been living there.

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