Flight from Mayhem by Yasmine Galenorn Read Free Book Online

house.
    She snorted. “You have to be careful with ghosts. Never can tell what they’re up to, and half the time they aren’t what you think they are. My bets are on Mary to be in cahoots with the shadow creature. Then again, I could be wrong. I knew a wonderful spirit years back—named Connie. She had been killed in a car wreck back in New York, when Alex and I first came to America. That was when cars weren’t as safe as they are now.”
    As she spoke, she swerved to miss a garbage truck backing out of an alley. I grimaced, clutching the door handle, but she didn’t seem to notice.
    â€œOh yeah, what happened?”
    â€œShe went off the road and plowed into a brick wall. She’d been at a speakeasy. We arrived the year that Prohibition ended, but we were here for a few heated months before the law was repealed. Anyway, she had enough bathtub gin in her to drown a sailor. Connie was our neighbor. I remember going outside that night—it was sweltering in the city during the summer. No A/C back then. Anyway, so she came lurching up the sidewalk, bloody and roughed up. I ran out to help her, only to realize she was already dead. Her spirit hung around for quite a while after that, but her ghost always seemed a bit giddy, like the gin had never quite worn off.”
    I stared at Bette. A
drunk
ghost? “You have some of the weirdest stories, woman.”
    â€œYou haven’t heard the half of them. Not yet.”
    â€œWhy don’t you buy the house across the street? You’d be a fun neighbor and I can’t see any ghost getting one up on you.” I was only half-joking. Bette would make an awesome neighbor.
    But she shook her head. “No, girl. I love my houseboat and there’s no way in hell you’re getting me to live on dry land. I tried that with Alex and it never worked. We were roommates when we first arrived over here on the West Coast, though our relationship was dead and over in terms of any hanky-panky.”
    I smiled softly. The pair were the best of friends. That was one reason Glenda had broken up with Alex. She insisted he give up his friendship with Bette and there was no way in hell that would ever happen. I was glad that he had stood his ground. Anybody who would give up a friendship that had lasted over a hundred years for a bitchy girlfriend—or boyfriend—wasn’t the kind of lover I wanted to be involved with.
    â€œI’m not Glenda. You don’t ever have to reassure me, Bette.” I spoke softly, but she caught the nuance.
    She gave me a sideways glance as we turned into a parking lot by a Bonnie’s—a chain diner endemic to the Pacific Northwest that had recently sprung up everywhere. The cigarette was ready to fall off her lip, but she somehow managed to keep hold of it for a final puff before stabbing it out in the ashtray. “Shimmer, you’re a good girl. Don’t even start with the ‘I’m a dragon’ bit. I’m older than you are, so don’t even go there.”
    I wasn’t sure how old I was. Dragons had long, long lives—well longer than the Fae, for the most part, but she was right in that I was young for my kind. I had probably wandered the Dragon Reaches for a couple of thousands ofyears, Earthside years that is, but I was still new to the world in comparison to most of my Dragonkin brethren.
    â€œI just never want you to worry. I have no idea what will happen with Alex and me—we’re still testing the waters in our relationship, and frankly, I’m skittish enough to want to take it slow. Hell, if Glenda weren’t such a bitch and she wanted to still be friends with him, I wouldn’t care.”
    I pushed open my door and swung out into what was now a downpour. As Bette and I hustled inside, I noticed she was wearing a new zebra-print pair of stretch pants, along with a sparkling black sequined top. Her leather jacket hung open over the top, and her