Shards: Book One of the Anderian Series

Chapter 9: Betrayal

Forty-five minutes later, my suitcase was packed, and I stood in the middle of my living room, rifling through every possible place I could hide and coming up woefully short. June would take me in—I had no doubt—but I wouldn't ask her to risk her neck for me. Even if my gut whispered, Cian wasn't the indiscriminate killer I accused him of being. He did, however, seem to possess no qualms about kidnapping, and as much fun as handcuffs were, the next time I found myself in a pair, naked games would be involved. 

My grip tightened on the handle of my suitcase as I drew in a ragged breath. Maybe I shouldn't put Cian in the same thought as nudity. It was a damn shame Jac was so pissed at me right now. I clearly needed to relieve some sexual tension, or maybe the tryst with Jac was what got me in this mess. Like being sober for a year and thinking just a taste won't hurt—next thing you know, you're falling off the wagon—hard.

"Shit," I muttered. "Focus."

Making a spur-of-the-moment decision, I opened the Ride Share app and arranged a car to meet me at the gas station on the corner. From there, I would pick up my car. It was a risk I was willing to take. Being without a means of transportation made me feel too vulnerable—if I didn't think Jac would have me arrested, I would "borrow" his car to get out of town.

The walk to the gas station took longer than usual. My suitcase weighed a thousand pounds, and a miserable misting rain fell from a slate sky that slowly darkened to a green tinged indigo as the sun went down behind storm clouds. By the time I stepped into the parking lot, my hoodie was sodden, and pieces of dripping hair hung over my eyes. An elderly woman exiting the store gave me a wide berth, alarm clear in her wrinkled face.

I peered at my reflection in the glass and winced. Mascara streaks connected my jaw to my eyes. Eyes which were red streaked and wild, not settling on anything for any length of time. Every noise startled me, making me shrink beneath my clothes, as if I could become smaller and smaller until maybe I could disappear.

That would be the only way Cian wouldn't find me. Look at Molly. From the little I'd gathered from the echo, he'd hunted her for years and years. The moment I witnessed was only one scene among many, and the story ended the only way it could end—in her death.

"Ma'am?"

Barely suppressing a shriek, I turned. A late model silver sedan idled in the parking spot to my right, the driver leaning out the window expectantly. The glow of the fluorescent lights washed out his pale brown features, but his black eyes glittered unnaturally as he waited for me to acknowledge him.

"Ride Share?"

"Yep. I'm Lee. Bria?"

"That's me," I answered, cursing myself for not taking the time to create a false account. Licking my lips to un-stick them from one another, I let him take my suitcase and load it in the back of the car while I studied him for signs he wasn't human. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't give a flying rip—supernaturals had to make a living too—but it would be more coincidence than I could handle tonight.

"You getting in?" he croaked.

Stooped shoulders. Liver spots on the top of his hands. The unnatural glimmer in his eyes a product of bad lighting and cataracts. I was eighty-five percent certain he was human, considering most supernaturals stopped aging in their early twenties. There were a rare few who lived and died human lifespans, and even a rarer few who were cursed with long lives and forced to wear the years on their faces. But unless he was an unusually tall gnome, it was more likely he was an elderly Asian man trying to earn a little extra income to supplement his retirement.

"Yes, sorry... I—" This time there was no stopping the curdling scream that ripped from my chest and exited my gaping mouth as a mountain of a man landed on the top of the car, crushing its roof in.