Page 11 of Safe in Shadow
She hummed to herself as she looked for pajamas in the few boxes by the foot of the bed.
Still, it doesn’t hurt to talk to something or someone—even if they won’t talk back. No one is here to say you’ve gone crazy.Grace fondly remembered the way Nana would talk to everything and anything in her little apartment.
She’d scold the microwave. “Now, now, you beeping thing. I’m an old lady. It takes me time to get around!”
“Ahh, my old friends. What do you recommend tonight?” Nana would say as she looked at her bookshelf or collection of DVDs.
“It’s going to be happier now. Lots of people in you. Sorry, that sounded weird. Lots of visitors. Usually happy ones, I hope. You’re going to get lots of TLC and... and... Damn it, Casey. He didn’t bring up any of my clothes! I specifically told him theonlything he could carry up was my overnight bag when he had to use the bathroom!” She nudged the bag he had brought up.
Shoes. Flip flops. Pumps. Sneakers.
Nothing I’d consider pajamas!
Grace paused in her towel, looking out into the pitch-black hallway. She could put on her dusty, grimy, sweaty jeans and shirt again.
No. Ick. Ew.
She couldn’t sleep in her wet towel, but the idea of walking alone in the big, empty house in the dark made her chest tight. She wasn’t afraid. She was just... It was unfamiliar, and there weren’t enough lights to guide her. The last thing she needed was a broken toe—or leg.
With a sigh, Grace continued to speak to the strange “presence” of Hilltop House. “You’re going to have to excuse me.I don’t think the manager-owner of the luxurious Hilltop House B&B should sleep in the nude in case of an emergency—but as the only emergency is likely to be caused by my own idiocy, I’ll risk it. Okay, Hilltop? You’ve got the night shift. I’m beat. I’ll sleep and you just... carry on. Do whatever your inanimate heart desires.”
Chapter Five
The human took a long time to fall asleep. She stared at the little screen of her phone for hours, tossing and turning.
Inhisbed.
Not that he slept on it these days (it didn’t have much of a mattress left anyway), but he slept under it.
When she finally fell asleep, her body hidden under a fresh pale blue comforter and crisp white sheets, he crept closer. The phone was still on her chest. Still softly chattering.
Anything in this house is mine. Let’s see...
Nyx gently reached out, arm extending, turning thin and spindly. His fingers touched the case and closed around it.
He could pick it up.
A tingle of power rushed through him.
Hilltop is stillmine. She may own the legal documents for it, but the deeper laws of life and death win over any scrap of paper.
He felt like crowing as he lifted the phone from her chest and put it on the small chest of drawers by the bed.
The rush of power made his essence flow hot, like it had when he’d watched her bathe. Hot and hard.
