2. Darkness in the Blood Master copy MS 5 by Vicki Keire Read Free Book Online Page A

in your sleep and thrashing. I’ll get a thermometer.”
    I remembered flashes of my strange dream: forever twilight, crumbling gray stone. I wondered if I should tell him, wondered what he would think. Then I remembered the burning in my veins and a pair of dark eyes shot through with stars. Bare tattooed skin cooling mine. He isn’t one of us . “It was just a dream,” I said. I grabbed his wrist before he could leave. Shadow-sick. Burning out. Trap you here . “I think I’m just worn out from yesterday. Stay with me. Please?”
    Ethan didn’t say anything. He frowned, but he pulled me close as the sun rose.

    ***

    Ethan repeated his warning about Logan and I always having someone with us when we left the apartment that morning. I never mentioned my dream. I wanted time to process it, to figure out how I felt about it and maybe what it meant before I tried to explain it to anyone else. The nightmarish landscape and the dimly remembered warnings of the night before made me skittish through breakfast. 
    But when the three of us hit the square, we could see it was the beginning of a busy workday. Citizens of Whitfield went about their everyday routines, bustling in and out of stores, eating at outdoor tables, and generally getting on with their lives. Across the street, a few brave souls in short sleeves stretched out on blankets in the park, trying to soak up the weak early spring sunshine.
    I was willing to bet what was left in my checking account that more than half of them had some kind of hidden powers. I would bet even more of my meager savings that if Dark Nephilim were stupid enough to try to snatch either me or my brother from the middle of Whitfield’s Old Town Square in broad daylight, my supernatural neighbors, who usually minded their own business, would be on them in a heartbeat.
    I giggled as I pictured some of my stodgier neighbors suddenly sprouting fangs and claws to come to my defense. My giggles climbed in pitch until they bordered on hysterical when I imagined the good ladies of the gardening club chucking weeds and balls of fire at invaders. I turned my back on them as they knelt by the flowerbeds across from the fountain. I wouldn’t want them to think I was laughing at them. They might lob fireballs, or worst of all, give me a public scolding.
    “What?” Ethan demanded.
    “It’s just really hard to picture anything nefarious happening here,” I said.
    “Nefarious,” Logan repeated slowly. “Like being assaulted and kidnapped by Dark Nephilim in the middle of the park on your way home from work?”
    “Point taken,” I sighed. “But really, it was just that once.” Logan rolled his eyes at me. “Look, you and Ethan both have to get to work. I have to go drop off three sets of hand-painted Tarot decks at Mrs. Alice’s. This buddy system thing is silly on the square during business hours. I mean, just look around you. Nothing happens on the square without everyone knowing about it.”
    “We live in a fish bowl,” Logan muttered.
    “A big square friendly fish bowl,” I chirped back.
    “Replace friendly with nosy and I’ll agree with you,” he retorted.
    “A big square friendly fish bowl full of nosy supernatural…”
    “You’re both right,” Ethan interrupted quickly. After a minute Logan shrugged philosophically and disappeared into the hardware store. “You’re terrible,” Ethan said under his breath as I followed him to J. Roth’s, Bookseller. “You torment him endlessly.”
    “Why, thank you, Ethan,” I said. We paused just outside the diamond-paned door, and in three short hops I pressed myself up against him. “It’s what little sisters are for. It’s how I show him I care.” I stuck my hands in his jacket pockets. “I’ll miss you. To tell you the truth, you sort of have my dream job. Quiet, plenty to read. I can’t believe Old Man Roth decided to semi-retire.”
    Ethan laughed. “What would Mr. Markov do without his Coffee Goddess? Not to mention the