Read Online Sacrifice Me by Sarra Cannon - Free Book Online

A Black Crow

    Large black wings rise up against the shadows.
I stagger backwards, tripping over something soft on the ground.
    I look down to see a ratty old teddy bear.
Something from my childhood that tugs at the edge of my memory. I
pick up the small tattered thing and bring it up to my chest, hugging
it close. It smells like home. My old home.
    I hear the fluttering of wings and look up, but
I’m no longer in the dark alleyway. Instead, I’m in a
long, narrow hallway that stretches out as far as my eyes can see.
Doors line both sides. A light above flickers on and off.
    I clutch the bear to my chest and walk forward.
I’m not sure what I’m searching for, but I think it must
be this way. I follow the sound of the crow’s caw.
    On each side of me, the doors are marked with
different symbols. A horse. A serpent. A flower. A butterfly.
    I keep to the center of the hall, not daring to
reach out and touch any of the doors. I half expect one of them to
open and reveal some chamber of horrors on the other side. I can’t
shake the feeling that someone is watching me. Following me.
    But when I turn to look, there’s no one
there. I am alone.
    Alone except for the crow.
    I keep moving forward, my steps tentative, like
a little girl. I feel small and frightened.
    The sound of flapping wings echoes around me,
but I can’t see the bird. She’s here somewhere. If I
could just find her, I’d be safe.
    I’d be home.
    The overhead light finally flickers one last
time and then dies, dousing the hallway in darkness. I stop, unsure
what to do without someone to guide me or tell me where to go.
    But then I see it. Just up ahead, one of the
doors is glowing.
    I force my feet to move, feeling that if I
could just reach that door safely, I would find the answers I’ve
been looking for.
    The hall is long and dark, but when I finally
reach the glowing door, I gasp. The symbol carved into the wood is
the outline of a black crow.
    With a trembling hand, I reach for it.
The Dream

    The buzzing of my alarm ripped me from the dream.
Sweat poured down the back of my neck and my heart pounded against my
ribs.
    Holy crap. Last night had really done a number on
my head. It had taken me forever to get to sleep in the first place,
and I must have spent the rest of the night lost in the same dream,
walking down that endless hallway over and over again.
    I pushed my hair off my face and sat up. The black
t-shirt Rend gave me was lying on top of my desk. I just stared at
it, as if looking at it long enough might make it disappear. How
could he expect me to go back to that awful place?
    I’d almost died last night. If he hadn’t
shown up at just that moment, I would probably be sprawled out in a
dumpster, drained of every single drop of blood.
    The image of that guy licking up a few drops of my
spilled blood from the ground invaded my mind and I squeezed my eyes
shut, begging it to go away.
    This couldn’t be real. Vampires didn't
really exist, right? They were myths or make-believe, not something
you actually encountered in a dark alley. Maybe I’d just gotten
hold of some really bad drugs last night and went on some kind of
weird trip. Maybe I’d get to the club and realize it was all
just one, long nightmare.
    But I knew in my gut that it was no dream.
    I thought about crawling back under the covers and
ignoring the rest of the day. What would Rend do if I didn’t
show up to work? It wasn’t like he knew where I lived.
    I hope.
    Still, he struck me as the kind of guy who would
know how to find people. And I most definitely did not want him to
have to come looking for me.
    Random bartender or not, those guys last night had
been scared of him. Terrified. So what did that make him?
    More than just a bartender, that’s for sure.
    And if he expected me to work for him at Venom, I
didn’t have much of a choice but to show up.
    I forced myself out of bed and climbed into the
shower, turning the water up as hot as it would go. I washed off