Read Online Unearthed by Robert J. Crane - Free Book Online Page B

the last couple hours. Would you mind if I got out of the car and walked a little?” She could almost detect him about to say no. “I feel like I’m cramping—you know, down there.”
    Worked like a charm. He almost flinched back. “Sure, just … stay up by the hood of your car, please.”
    “Sure thing, Officer,” she said, smiling sweetly. The smile faded as he walked off. Fucker.
    She opened the door and stepped out into the late day sun. It was drifting toward the western horizon, already hidden behind the trees that started only thirty feet from the edge of this road. She stretched her legs, her pantsuit sticky from the trip. At least she hadn’t had to wait at the baggage claim.
    “Ma’am,” Officer Reyes called to her. She turned her head to look at him, standing just behind the door of his vehicle. “I’ll only be a minute.”
    “Most men are,” Kitty said, making a pbbbbbbth noise with her lips while she waited. She stood, easing out of the seat, then stretched. She didn’t really have muscles, because she was just wearing a shell on the outside that looked like a human body. It felt like her essence would cramp up in certain parts of the shell, though, like it didn’t circulate properly when she was seated for too long. Other times it felt like it rushed to other areas the way blood did. She could feel it in her face sometimes, like at a charity auction, when she’d lost a bid. She’d smiled while her face burned like Rome. She’d made up for it later, though, turning the “winner” into a loser that she commanded for days until she got bored with the poor man.
    She stared back at Reyes through the tinted windshield as he sat there, presumably running her driver’s license and the rental car receipt she’d handed him. He didn’t look too bad, she thought. Not that she really cared what a man looked like; she was far more interested in what they licked like.
    She stretched, made a show of it, watching Reyes the whole time. She looked at the trees, tried to see the sunset. This was the thrill of nature? She didn’t get the scenic beauty or whatever. It was the color orange. Didn’t humans get used to seeing it in a box with the other crayons at an early age? People were more interesting than this. Demons could be even more interesting still, really, though she hadn’t met one that had truly interested her in a long time.
    Power, though, that was the most interesting thing of all.
    She sighed as Reyes got out of his car. Rousseau, her butler, had come down here and gotten the lay of the land, and had told her all about it. One thing stuck out: big county, small police force. They’d had some problem a few weeks back and lost a couple of their people for some reason. Short-staffed, scrambling, because of the hotspot. It was a recipe for good times, in her opinion.
    She stared at Reyes as he worked his way back toward her, along the dusty shoulder of the highway. She could see he’d come to a decision of his own and had a ticket in hand, along with her driver’s license and the rental car receipt. She plied him with a tentative smile as she slipped on a pair of overly large leather gloves she carried in her bag.
    “Ma’am, if it were up to me, I’d let you off with a warning,” Reyes said, clearly trying to win her over to his side, “but unfortunately, it’s a mandate from above. I have to ticket you.”
    “That’s okay, Officer,” she said, trying to look as dejected as she possibly could. “I understand.” She cocked her head. “Is that … what’s that on your collar?” She mimed a motion toward her neck, hinting him toward where he should put his hand.
    “What?” Reyes lifted his right hand—the one on the same side as his holster, just like she’d figured he would. “I got a string hanging or—”
    She lanced out with her superior speed and grabbed his hand and jerked it back, shattering his wrist and brute-forcing him to the ground. She heard his head thump