Read Wraith's Awakening (Para-Ops) for Free Online

away, but I reach out, grabbing his arm, barely even noticing the small jolt of pain it brings. “Answer me,” I snap. _
    He looks pointedly at my grip on his arm and I release him.
    “Please,” I add.
    He closes his eyes in obvious frustration, then throws up his hands when he opens them. “They wouldn't have bothered trying to kill you, okay? They believe your kind can't be killed. But they know you can hurt. A lot. And if they didn't have the stomach to do it to you themselves, they'd have turned you in to someone who does.”
    “Would you have let them?”
    “What am I, your protector all of a sudden?”
    Yes, I want to shout, but I don't.
    “Would you?” I persist.
    “Assuming I wasn't dead myself?”
    “Yes.”
    “I don't know. I can hurt too, you know.”
    I nod. Again, I assume he's being honest and that he told me the truth about. . . well. . . having to tell the truth.
    “Would you have tried to stop them if they'd attacked me?” he counters.
    I swallow hard. Raising my chin, I say, “I don't know. I'd like to think so.”
    A strange look flickers across his face. “Then you have a lot to learn yet, wraith. Now let's go. We're almost there.”
    True to his word, we walk less than three more blocks before he climbs the stairs to a small brick brownstone with wrought iron planters and shutters with matching scrolled hardware. He knocks on the door and almost immediately a female voice speaks out of a small speaker beside him.
    “Who's the wraith?” the female snaps.
    Colt doesn't even glance at me. “She's just awakened. I need to rest but we'll be gone in the morning.”
    “Do you have-?”
    Now Colt glances at me, his displeasure evident. “Yes.”
    A buzzer sounds, releasing the lock on the gate. He motions me inside.
    I hesitate. “She's human?”
    “Yes.”
    “Yet, you trust her?”
    “I told you, I trust her much as I trust anyone, especially a human. Which isn't much.”
    “Then why-?”
    “She needs me. Right now, we need her. Are you coming or not, doll?”
    I glance around me. The neighborhood street looks deserted, but in the distance I see several forms walking toward us on the sidewalk. I remember the looks on those people's faces when they pointed at us. He'd been right. They'd wanted to hurt me. I'd seen it in their eyes. I'd felt it emanating from them. If Colt hadn't been with me, flashing his pearly whites and his red eyes, they'd have been on me.
    He'd stopped them.
    So I trust him.
    Not completely, but enough to get off the streets.
    “Smart,” he says blank-faced, then holds the door wider.
    I raise a brow and step past him and inside. “Well, we'll find out soon enough.”
    *****
    Colt's “friend” looks like a cross between Orphan Annie and Jessica Rabbit.
    From the neck up? Orphan Annie all the way: freckles, orange 'fro, guileless brown eyes.
    From the neck down? Va-va-va-voom. She is dressed to showcase her assets, too. A ribbed tank top with a low neckline showing lots of cleavage. Tight, clingy material hugging a nipped waist and rounded hips. Taut, muscled calves in four-inch stiletto heels. Despite all that, the way she snaps her gum and blows a bubble makes her seem far more orphan than rabbit.
    I turn to Colt with raised brows, not bothering to hide my “are you shitting me?” expression.
    He's ignoring me. He pulls something from inside his jacket and passes it covertly to Annie-Jessica-I mentally dub her A.J. for short.
    Although I strain my eyes, I can't make out what it is.
    Great, I think.
    I've placed my safety in the hands of a vampire pusher. My thoughts are confirmed by the covetous look that comes over A.J.'s expression.
    “They're not drugs,” Colt drawls. “Not the kind you're thinking, anyway.”
    A.J. doesn't bother waiting to hear what I'll say. Turning, she strides from the room. Seconds later, a door slams shut.
    A girl after my own heart. All I say, however, is “Lovely.”
    I hear voices coming from behind the closed door. Female