Read Online First Destroy All Giant Monsters (The World Wide Witches Research Association) by D.L. Carter - Free Book Online

Knew it. It was gulping me down,” she shuddered, her voice becoming shrill. “I could feel my life just draining away. I couldn’t catch it. Stop it. I almost …”
    “Hey. Hey,” shouted Smoke, shaking her shoulders. “Focus. Stay with me.”
    “At least I got away before the monster came.” Amber’s eyes snapped open. “Smoke, what if this is the monster that got Lucinda and Robyn? I have no chance against something like this.”
    “Calm down. You made a mistake and you survived it. Believe it or not, that’s a good thing. Now we just lie to the doctors and get you home and think of what we do next.”
    “I don’t know if I can fool anyone.”
    “You don’t have to make them think you’re well, Amber. All you have to be is too stupid to have the sense to stay in a hospital.” He gave her a lopsided smirk. “Think you could pull that off?”
    “Today? Oscar winning performance.”
    They were interrupted by a polite knock at the door. Before either could make a move it opened.
    “You’re looking better than earlier,” said a quiet voice from the doorway.
    Amber gasped and reached to her side, but the hospital gown had no pockets and she’d no idea where they’d put her fan when they’d undressed her. She made a mental note to find it as fast as possible, then turned her attention to the new arrival.
    “Well, you are a well-intentioned liar!” she said mildly even as she fisted her hands into the stiff hospital sheets. “Who are you, exactly?”
    “Karl Benn. You … ah … fainted in my bookshop this morning. I’m the manager.”
    “Oh, yes. You called the ambulance,” said Amber, narrowing her eyes as she studied the stranger.
    “I rode in with you, in the ambulance. Sorry I couldn’t stay. I had to get back to the store, but I phoned a couple of times to see how you were.”
    He was tall, taller than her, and pale and looked weak enough that she should be able to take him even in her own exhausted state. Smoke didn’t give her a chance to act. He was across the room and standing between her and the manager, glaring, before Karl could step into the room. She could see him clearly now. Her second impression was the accurate one. He was about thirty, skinny, with the look of a person who’d been indoors and ill for a while. A long while.
    Amber examined him, searching for any sign of evil intent, some sign that he was in league with a soul sucker or something similar. There was nothing to see. Unfortunately in the real world evil villains rarely had soul patch beards, deep brooding eyes, and long capes with high collars, or hosted reality “talent” shows. This one’s eyes were deep, but more sunken from fatigue than intending to conceal the mirrors of a depraved soul, and if she wasn’t mistaken, his hands were shaking just a little.
    Just like hers.
    The magic going on in his bookstore wasn’t doing him much good. Maybe he was an amateur and his spell casting had gotten away from him. He might have called up a monster that escaped his control.
    Karl stepped into the room, giving the scowling Smoke a wary berth and a weak smile.
    “I just wanted to check in and make sure everything’s okay,” he said, offering a box of hospital gift shop candy to Amber, who kept her hands flat on the sheet and made no move to accept it. “You gave your head a nasty crack. The girl on the register said she could hear your head hitting the ground all the way across the store.”
    He winced at his own comment then smiled and shrugged at Amber.
    “Well, my brother does say my head’s hollow,” said Amber.
    She reached out to scan his aura. There had to be some sign of his intent. No one could lie in his aura. A stab of pain tore through her and she collapsed back against her pillows, pressing the heel of her palms against her eyes.
    Smoke was at her side in an instant, dividing his attention between watching Karl and examining Amber for new injuries.
    “Amber,” he hissed over his shoulder,