Read Online Kindred (Kindred, Book 1) by Nicola Claire - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Nicola Claire
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it all, I still came up blank. It had been great catching up with Celeste. Having a girl-to-girl talk and seeing the cubs play fighting after the Hangi was entertainment plus, but my thoughts the next day were completely consumed with Jerome's story. There was no denying what he had been trying to convey to me through that tale. The Taniwhas and hunters like me, had worked side by side at one time fighting the Nosferatu, the vampires. And there still existed a treaty or pact, that Jerome believed bound the Hapū to me, to this day.
But, despite my wayward musings on shape shifter legends, work called. I did my best to ignore the increasing uneasy feeling that life was changing and I was just along for the ride. Sometimes, I wondered just how much control I had left. Since moving to Auckland, so much of my life had been turned upside down. Michel was at the centre of that turmoil, that spiralling tornado of supernatural events, that was sucking me inexorably in. He represented not only the bad I now was exposed to, but also the reason why my life was fast becoming a mess.
And then, of course, I felt drawn to him in a way I had never felt to another before. Reconciling what he did to my pulse rate when near and what he represented to my day to day life was impossible. I chose, for now, to just ignore it and concentrate on work. Denial could be a wonderful thing.
I'm usually the second to arrive at the branch, after the manager. He gets there at the crack of dawn, but that suits me fine, I wouldn't be able to get in if he hadn't done the usual checks beforehand. Once the signal is set, you know the poster is facing the right way in the front window of the branch, you know it's safe to approach, he's not being held hostage by gun wielding robbers.
If my life outside of work was spiralling out of control, at least my days at work were pretty much the same. From when the front doors open, until close of banking business at five. I grab my float from the safe out back, count it and place it in my drawer. I log on, open up my float on screen and I'm good to go. I'm the branch's main business teller. The others do everything from opening accounts, average customer deposits and withdrawals and foreign currency exchange. Me, I just deal with the big guys.
Queen Street is the centre of business here in Auckland City and my branch is right in the thick of it. I'm pretty busy from the moment my sign says Queue Here until I tally up my float and store it back in the safe at the end of the day.
I like my job, there's something so familiar in counting coins and notes and adding up cheques. The only variant is the customer and I know all of them by name now. It's such an opposite from my night-time gig, I relish it. In the evening, I never know when the pull will happen, what I will face and how it will end. But at work, I know. I know exactly what will happen.
Apart from today.
I felt them before I saw them. It was sunny out, so I was a little confused to start with. But when they entered the sliding doors at the front of the branch and I could see they were dressed head to toe in thick black coats, sunglasses and hats, I knew they had taken the vampire version of Slip, Slop, Slap to the extreme. However, covering up so heavily is pretty much a no-no in a bank. You could only make it worse if you were wearing a ski mask.
I knew these guys weren't here for the money, though. Evil reeked from every pore. I almost choked on it, it was so strong and pervasive, seeping past the customers before me and slipping up my nose. I tried to breathe through my mouth, but then I could only taste it and that was ten times worse. It wasn't the evil of a human criminal however, these guys were on a whole other plane.
There were three of them. Two standing either side of the doors, like Mafioso bodyguards, backing up the boss. The boss was big, over six feet looking at the strips of colour on the door jam. He walked slowly towards the end of my queue,
But, despite my wayward musings on shape shifter legends, work called. I did my best to ignore the increasing uneasy feeling that life was changing and I was just along for the ride. Sometimes, I wondered just how much control I had left. Since moving to Auckland, so much of my life had been turned upside down. Michel was at the centre of that turmoil, that spiralling tornado of supernatural events, that was sucking me inexorably in. He represented not only the bad I now was exposed to, but also the reason why my life was fast becoming a mess.
And then, of course, I felt drawn to him in a way I had never felt to another before. Reconciling what he did to my pulse rate when near and what he represented to my day to day life was impossible. I chose, for now, to just ignore it and concentrate on work. Denial could be a wonderful thing.
I'm usually the second to arrive at the branch, after the manager. He gets there at the crack of dawn, but that suits me fine, I wouldn't be able to get in if he hadn't done the usual checks beforehand. Once the signal is set, you know the poster is facing the right way in the front window of the branch, you know it's safe to approach, he's not being held hostage by gun wielding robbers.
If my life outside of work was spiralling out of control, at least my days at work were pretty much the same. From when the front doors open, until close of banking business at five. I grab my float from the safe out back, count it and place it in my drawer. I log on, open up my float on screen and I'm good to go. I'm the branch's main business teller. The others do everything from opening accounts, average customer deposits and withdrawals and foreign currency exchange. Me, I just deal with the big guys.
Queen Street is the centre of business here in Auckland City and my branch is right in the thick of it. I'm pretty busy from the moment my sign says Queue Here until I tally up my float and store it back in the safe at the end of the day.
I like my job, there's something so familiar in counting coins and notes and adding up cheques. The only variant is the customer and I know all of them by name now. It's such an opposite from my night-time gig, I relish it. In the evening, I never know when the pull will happen, what I will face and how it will end. But at work, I know. I know exactly what will happen.
Apart from today.
I felt them before I saw them. It was sunny out, so I was a little confused to start with. But when they entered the sliding doors at the front of the branch and I could see they were dressed head to toe in thick black coats, sunglasses and hats, I knew they had taken the vampire version of Slip, Slop, Slap to the extreme. However, covering up so heavily is pretty much a no-no in a bank. You could only make it worse if you were wearing a ski mask.
I knew these guys weren't here for the money, though. Evil reeked from every pore. I almost choked on it, it was so strong and pervasive, seeping past the customers before me and slipping up my nose. I tried to breathe through my mouth, but then I could only taste it and that was ten times worse. It wasn't the evil of a human criminal however, these guys were on a whole other plane.
There were three of them. Two standing either side of the doors, like Mafioso bodyguards, backing up the boss. The boss was big, over six feet looking at the strips of colour on the door jam. He walked slowly towards the end of my queue,
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