Enter the Shadows (1st Edition) [SAMPLE]

Purest Heart - 1 | iv

It was just her luck being a pure heart.

Some endangered subset of humanity everyone was searching for. And apparently willing to kill for. Penny didn't feel particularly special that she was in high demand. Naturally overt to attention, she was none too pleased that two different species were locked on to her. The sensible thing would be to go to the police, seek protection, but how sensible was it to tell anyone what she knew. They would be laughing their heads off while they dragged her to the nearest psych ward.

Penny rolled over onto her side looking at the picture of her parents, and her brother sitting on her nightstand. She missed them. More than anything in the world, Penny missed them. They had been her everything, and after they—left, she had nothing. Penny had resigned herself to a quiet, nondescript, predictable life without danger, and or excitement. She had been fine with that. Penny ran a finger over their faces. If only the impossible had been there that night to save them. With memories of them uppermost in her mind, Penny fell asleep, silent tears running from her eyes.

***

Chewing her pencils was a bad habit. She did it when she worked and had absolutely no pencil that didn't have her teeth marks. Unless, of course, they were in the unopened boxes. Penny was typing out some pages from a handwritten manuscript. Or more like trying to type. She was having trouble focusing on the new pile of work she had been greeted with when she came to work Monday morning. The other pile she had left there was gone, and she knew who to thank for that. As the elevator reached the floor of her office she had squared her shoulders ready for the sarcastic onslaught of Caitlin Crashaw, but it never came. Penny found that unsettling. Her routine was being railroaded.

No one mentioned her absence or asked if she was ok. Penny hadn't noticed how alone she was, locked away in her office most of the time, coming in before everyone else, and leaving after everyone else had left— until now. Her life of solitude was a blessing, though. She was being hunted, which meant anyone she knew and was close to would have been potential leverage. Her choosing to be human, despite what Lochlan said, would hurt no one but her. Penny sighed, resting her elbows on her desk, and rubbing her eyes.

For her sanity's sake, she wished she could forget everything that had happened. Penny had been happy, and satisfied with the simple life she lived. But now her life was turning into some fantasy novel. Maybe she had gotten a really nasty bump on her head, and she was laid up in some hospital bed in a coma, dreaming. She dropped her head on her folded hands on the desk. She groaned, feeling the urge to kick something. It wasn't a dream. It was the middle of another week, and her new reality was the same. A knock at the door had her head snapping up. Caitlin never knocked.

"Come in."

Sonja, a coworker she had only ever exchanged pleasantries with, popped her head inside not coming fully into the room. "There is someone here to see you?" It was a question which was supposed to be a statement.

"Oh." Penny hurriedly tried to shuffle her desk into some semblance of order. It was impossible. She couldn't remember scheduling any meetings for that morning.

The door opened wider, and Penny looked up to see Lochlan coming into her office. He closed the door behind him, his presence swallowing most of the space in the room. He stood there in a well fitted, black leather jacket that hugged the muscles in his arms, with a white shirt underneath. His jeans sat snug on his hips. He tucked the temple of his dark aviator glasses into the top of his shirt. Lochlan smelt wild, and Penny felt an instant reaction to him. For a few seconds, she forgot how to speak.

"What are you doing here?"

"Why are you whispering?"

Penny cleared her throat. "What are you doing here?" She repeated the question in a normal tone, her hands fidgeting over the papers on her desk. She wasn't sure why her brain associated him with a bad omen.