Hunter's Edge

Chapter Twenty One

Darkness

Halfway home, Angel's mind started trying to think past the fear suffocating her. She had no idea what had happened—one second, she'd been laying by Kel's grave, drifting closer and closer to sleep. It wasn't the first time she'd drifted off at Kel's grave. Even knowing that he wasn't in there, something about the cemetery comforted her.

Then, abruptly, that comfort had vanished and Angel was jerked in a cold, hard awareness. Unsure why, she'd been filled with a sense of fear that had jump-started her instincts. Single woman, at night, alone in a cemetery—shit, it sounded like some kind of B horror movie.

The more she tried to think past the fear, the easier it got and by the time she was five miles away, she wondered what in the hell she was doing. She'd been half-asleep—had somebody driven by? Had there been somebody else at the cemetery?

She didn't know.

But she wasn't going back there tonight, that was certain. She glanced in her rearview mirror and although it was nothing more than her mind pulling tricks on her, it seemed as though darkness chased her.

Darkness... That was all it took. That one thought passing through her mind, and the fear was back. Seriously back and trying to think past the fear wasn't helping this time because the more she thought about it, the more afraid she got.

"Then don't think about it. Your imagination is going to be the death of you," she muttered. Five minutes later, she turned onto the rutted, winding road that led to her house. When she pulled in front of her house, the motion-activated floodlight came on and she breathed out a sigh of relief as it managed to dispel some of the gloom.

For some reason, the sight of the light, of her little house badly in need of repair, made her feel better. Beyond the front door there was safety.

She grabbed her purse and keys, striding up to the door. The skin along her shoulder blades went tight. She almost paused long enough to look back—somebody was watching her. She felt it.

Her body was screaming a warning at her. That vague sense of fear was back, magnified, and now it had a focus. She didn't just feel fear.

She sensed malice, something evil. Something ugly.

Human nature—it could make a person hide under the covers to avoid seeing the monsters or it could make them turn around when to do so was death. Never made sense.

But Angel would be damned if she played into that B-movie mindset by slowing down to look instead of getting someplace safe. No—not someplace. In her house, across the threshold with the door shut behind her.

Angel got the door unlocked in record time and slid inside, shutting it with a bang. She turned the locks, the one in the doorknob, the deadbolt and the chain.

Something brushed her leg and Angel yelped, tearing away, only to realize it was Rufus. The big ugly mutt stared at her, his head cocked. He went to nuzzle her leg but then he froze, his hackles rising and his lips pulling back from his teeth in a snarl.

That illusive fear was pushing in on her again, choking her.

She checked each of the locks.

Wasn't enough. A scared, high-pitched voice kept whispering through her mind. Not enough, not enough, not enough. Rufus came to brace his warm body by her leg and she reached down, buried a hand in his fur.

The calmer, rational part of her mind told her to chill out. She was inside the house. Inside the house was safe. Inside the house was a big, mean dog that would rip any burglar to shreds and he'd also sound a warning if somebody was trying to break into the house...right?