Read Online Sixpence & Whiskey by Heather R. Blair - Free Book Online Page A

like a snow globe full of Technicolor glitter. Jack. Thomas. Wolves. The bet with Rochie. Jack’s mouth. Where the fuck is Georg? Stephen. Jett. Jack putting those packets in my hand. Wondering if he still tastes the same…
    Fuck.
    I throw the covers off and get to my feet.
    I gotta walk this shit off. It’s what I do. Throwing on jeans, a T-shirt from T&T (a cauldron with steam rising, a pair of crossed whiskey bottles just above) along with a hoodie, fingerless gloves and my trusty Uggs, I open the window. I could take the front door, but I have a feeling Ana has wards set up all over the house. I’d rather her not know what I’m up to every second. She plays at being Mom, but she’s a damn poor substitute.
    The trellis has been replaced since I used to use it to sneak out and see Jack, but halfway down this all feels way too much like memory lane. I cling to the trellis for a moment, smelling roses that died weeks ago. I almost expect to see a tall, dark form waiting on the sidewalk on the other side of the hedge. No one is there, of course. The night is empty.
    Or so it would seem.
    I jump into a patch of browning lawn (the snow is mostly melted, for now) and head for the street, weaving through crazy Mrs. Rudd’s yard, praying she doesn’t come out to feed the squirrels. She likes to do that at odd hours, wrapped in her ever-present flowery house robe. My mom used to have tea with her now and then, said it was a gas, but the woman has given me the heebie-jeebies since I was tiny. I catch a whiff of vinegar and the creak of a door and haul ass out onto the street.
    It only takes me a few minutes to reach my destination. Soon I’m slipping down into the small canyon that makes up the actual ‘park’ part of Congdon Park.
    It’d probably seem creepy to most, walking down the moonlit hiking trail, skeletal trees waving overheard, the slight moan of the wind, leaves crunching under foot, odd crackles off in the woods…okay, it’s creepy as fuck, but I like it.
    It relaxes me. I’m not particularly worried about being attacked. Anything human I can handle, and while there are a lot of scary things in the FTC world, most of them will leave me alone.
    Or so I think until I realize I’m being shadowed.
 
    The teeny hairs on the back of my arms are buzzing. I look around warily. Somehow I’ve made my way down into the canyon proper without realizing it. Tischer Creek is pretty unassuming most of the year, except spring when the snowmelt can turn this little stream into a raging monster. Tonight it’s just a faint ribbon of starlight, winking over the rocks and whispering under the bridge looming before me. I sniff, but it isn’t my nose that tells me who’s following me. It’s my heart.
    “Hello, Luna.”
    She emerges from the night, shaking her head with her close-cropped hair. To say Luna is …unusual in appearance is putting it mildly. She’s an albino dark wolf, which means in human form she is a black woman without color. Her skin glows as if she’s dusted in luminescent chalk. Tall where I am short, hard where I am soft. She ripples with muscle and strength. A predator from head to toe. There is beauty in Luna’s appearance, but it is a cold, otherworldly beauty. Cruel.
    It wasn’t always this way.
    Luna was my best friend before Sy. My childhood partner in crime, truly my fourth sister. And oh boy, did the two of us get into some wild shit. The werewolf and the witch.
    Then my mother killed her father, and here we are. Watching each other through the strips of moonlight that flutter into the depths of the canyon like forgotten ghosts. Wondering which of us is going to draw blood first.
    In wordless agreement we walk up the steps to the bridge and lean over the railing, side by side, not looking at each other. Not touching either, though the air is thick between us.
    About fifteen years ago, her dad went rabid as fuck. Honestly, Gilead was kind of out there even before he caught the moon madness.