Veiled Shadows

Chapter 3

I grab a big puffy jacket from the closet of Clyde's pack's safehouse and leave. It's two in the morning and the air is chilly so I wrap the jacket tightly around myself and brace against the cold. I decide I'll walk back to the street with all the clubs and grab a taxi there since there aren't any outside his building.

I'm almost there when I see the checkpoint. I groan. The guard has blocked off every entrance to club row and they're screening for users above the legal limit. I'm on the other side of the checkpoint so if I can just walk away without being noticed I can grab a cab somewhere else and get home without an issue. I start to creep backwards.

"Hey! You!"

Shit.

A young guard, no more than twenty, steps away from the barrier they've set up and jogs up to me.

"Routine check. This way."

He grabs hold of my arm and tugs.

"Oh. No," I say, trying to back away. His grip is too strong. "I'm just passing through. I'm not trying to get to the clubs."

"Doesn't matter," he throws over his shoulder, "Everyone has to do it. Just a quick prick and you'll be on your way."

He leads me to the back of a short line and deposits me there before heading back to his post. I look around desperately for a chance to sneak off but there are guards all over the street. My heart thunders. With the way I ate tonight there's no way I'm under the limit.

I spot an unattended alley and get ready to make a break for it, slipping my feet out of my heels so I can run. I'm regretting not bringing my knife. It would come in really handy right now but I didn't have room in my purse.

"Next." a bored voice calls.

I'm too late. I've reached the front of the line.

"Id?"

The man holds out his hand and I dig through my purse until I find my id and deposit it in his outstretched hand. The name reads Alexis Smith. Not my real name or my real id but I paid a lot of money for it and Martha makes the best counterfeits in the business. The Knittery might be her store but fake documents and information are her real business. He swipes it through his machine and Alexis Smith's information pulls up.

"This is your current address?" He asks.

I glance at the screen and nod. It isn't but I'm not going to tell him that. In fact, I've never even been to that address.

"You were booked once before?"

I nod again. About three months back I'd been caught in a checkpoint just like this one while leaving a bar. I'd been just at the legal limit and most guards would have let me go with a warning but the guard on duty that night had been a huge dick. Fortunately, I'd gotten Martha to make me a new id and she'd just given it to me yesterday. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to switch the old one out before I came out tonight.

"Hand."

I hold out my hand. He pricks my index finger and squeezes out a drop of blood. There's some whirring as his machine reads the results and his screen flashes red. He runs it again just to be safe. Red again.

"Sorry, miss," he sighs, clearly annoyed to have more work to do, "I'm going to have to get you to step off to the side here."

He pulls a form from a stack on the table and begins writing.

I try to argue. "I just forgot to use my singher before I left the house. I'm probably just over the limit so if you have a singher I could use it would be less of a hassle for both of us. Please?"