Read Sunrise at Sunset for Free Online Page A

him.
    “Well, you better go now while it’s safe. I’ll see you in class,” Katrina calmly urged as she turned to head across the nearly empty parking lot.
    As if snapping out of a trance, he shook his head and called after her. “Hey, wait! At least let me drive you to your car.”
    But she just shook her head slightly and kept walking. “No need. Drive carefully on your way home.”
    He glanced down to unlock his car door. “Maybe we should go by the security office to report this!” He looked back in Katrina’s direction to see if she had heard him, but she’d already disappeared from view. He scanned the well-lit parking lot, but could find no trace of her. There weren’t even any cars within view that she could have gotten into, and he didn’t recall hearing an engine start. Strange , he wondered.
    He drove to the other side of campus where the security office was located so he could file a report. It occurred to him that the campus could use some of those emergency call boxes in the parking lots, and some battery-backed up security cameras. Somehow he doubted with their state’s poor economic conditions and declining budgets that either of those ideas would be coming to fruition anytime soon.
----
     
    The would-be robber pulled his black hoody closer around his face against the evening’s renewed drizzle as he hurried down the neighborhood street, still clutching his left arm to his ribs. They ached furiously, and he anticipated that at least one was probably cracked.
    He paid no attention to a lone sports car driven by a red-haired woman glaring out the window at him as it passed. Instead, he stared at the sidewalk and angrily kicked an empty beer can out of his way. He was furious about the failed encounter back at the parking lot. That should’ve been fast and easy. That college guy was an easy mark for quick cash. But who the hell was that crazy woman with the boots ? he fumed. It was as if she came from nowhere. He felt embarrassed and pissed off, and his ribs badly ached where her boot heel had caught him. He cursed to himself as he abruptly turned down a trash-strewn alley between two older brick buildings.
    It was a shortcut he had taken many times before. Experience had taught him that survival depended on knowing where to go and how to get there with a minimum of visibility. He tramped across papers and debris and was halfway down the alley when he heard boot heels clicking not far behind him. He stopped and palmed his knife from the sheath concealed underneath his hoody as he turned to see who it was. The lady from the college parking lot had stopped approximately thirty feet inside the alley and just stared at him with a flat expression.
    He sneered back at her. “Well, if it ain’t boot lady!” he growled. Maybe the night just got a little better . She has to be one crazy bitch to be following me.
    “Miss me?” Katrina asked with a sadistic grin while patiently standing her ground. Her hunting instincts sang with life as she felt her fangs extend inside her mouth.
    “Come here and let me show you how much,” he snarled as he stalked towards her.
    She stood patiently with her hands out to her sides. He was almost to her when he lunged over the last couple of feet while bringing his knife to bear with a swipe. She deftly caught his wrist and twisted. Pain shot through his wrist as the knife harmlessly clattered to the grimy concrete.
    “Bitch!” he yelled, and punched her in the face with a solid blow from his left fist.
    Katrina took the blow fully on the jaw, causing her face to momentarily twist in the other direction. Her head swiveled back to stare at him, and he could have sworn that her eyes were glowing!
    “What the fu --” he started before he cried out in agony as she snapped his right wrist bones with a quick twist of her hand.
    She slammed him against one of the old brick buildings bracketing the alley while using her left hand to pin his face against the wall. Before he