Read Online Dark Awakening by Kendra Leigh Castle - Free Book Online Page A

muttered, feeling terror trying to return in full force, tickling the back of her throat with icy fingers. Finally, she managed to drive the correct key home and turn it in the lock with a gasp of relief. The sharp click brought with it a burst of reassurance. Here was sanity. Here was some measure of safety. Quickly, Lily stumbled into the lit entry hall and slammed the front door shut behind her, then flipped the dead bolt.
    I’m home. I’m safe. I’m home.
    She turned, dropping her messenger bag beside the coat rack in the hall, and closed her eyes for a moment. She needed to center herself, to let the horror recede in the comforting presence of the familiar.
    “I’m okay,” she said aloud, her voice sounding thin and shaken. “Everything’s okay now,” she continued, more firmly. Then she opened her eyes, squared her shoulders, and moved toward the arched entrance that led to the open space of the kitchen and family room. Her footsteps tapped reassuringly across the wood floor.
    With the return of normalcy, fear became anger.
    Hell with this
, she thought as her world began to right itself, and doubt about what she’d actually seen began to creep in. She was not a victim. She needed a plan. So the first step, the most logical step, was to call the cops. There was no way she was just going to sit here and wait for something awful to happen when there was a police station not two miles away. Tynan had obviously been stalking her. That much she knew for certain. Everything else, well… It was possible, even probable, that he’d been trying to scare her. She hadn’t actually seen anyone else out there by the parking lot, had she? As for the glowing eyes and the fangs, someone clever enough, and sick enough, could have manufactured effects like that.
    Humiliation twisted in Lily’s stomach.
    “God, I’m an idiot,” she said. She’d been such an easy mark.
    She reached to flip on the light, but as soon as the room brightened, she wished that she’d driven directly to the police station.
    But it was far too late for that now.
    He watched her from where he’d arranged himself in a chair at her little kitchen table, a bemused expression on a pale, handsome face that would have been the picture of friendly innocence but for the hunger that gleamed in eyes that looked blue one second, red the next.
    “You’re being a little hard on yourself, don’t you think?” the man said in smooth, cultured tones that matched the elegant picture he presented. Crisp khaki pants, pressed button-down shirt, shoes that gleamed with polish. Not a hair was out of place. One foot rested casually on the opposite knee, and his hands, as pale as his face, were foldedgently in his lap. A black wool overcoat was folded neatly over the back of one of the other chairs. He could have just come from a business meeting.
    Apart from the fact that he was utterly terrifying.
    When Lily said nothing, only stared at him with her mouth and throat going dry, he sighed.
    “Not even a hello? Well. You may not be an idiot, but you’re certainly lacking in manners.”
    He regarded her with those strange eyes, making her skin crawl. There was no emotion there, only dead cold. The eyes of a killer.
    “Lily Quinn. I’m afraid you’re in some trouble.”
    “Who are you?” Lily finally managed to croak. “I don’t know you people, and I know I haven’t done anything. I think you’ve got the wrong person.”
    The man chuckled softly. “People? Well, well. The queen’s pampered pet has finally decided to show himself and make nice with you, yes? I’m surprised. Tynan was never gifted with many social graces.” His eyes drank her in, up and down. “Though I can see why he changed his mind. He wants something, of course. Our kind rarely bothers with yours unless we want something.”
    Lily fought off a shudder. For whatever reason, this man had the complete opposite effect on her than Tynan had, though she had no idea why—it was a fair bet