Sin Eater by C.D. Breadner Read Free Book Online

her ear or something. When she looked back, he was gone.
    Iola turned off the lights and went to bed, suddenly totally sober.
     
     
     
    The Sin Eater continued down the alley. He was cursing himself for letting himself be seen, but on the other hand … he didn’t mind her knowing he was there.
    This woman still wasn’t giving him anything. He could read nothing from her. When he saw her and her … friend coming down the block he’d instantly noticed she was intoxicated, thought maybe that would help. But there was nothing.
    And then when the tall woman had looked at her with such care … he couldn’t hel p himself, he pushed his way into her brain. And he convinced himself that he didn’t make the woman do anything she didn’t want to do anyway. He took over her body, and made her kiss the object of his new obsession. But the tall, dark-haired woman was strong, and she stayed mostly in control of her mind. He was really just the navigator, telling her to do it. And when she did, he felt it.
    He wiped his mouth, still feeling the petal-soft lips against his like they were the ones that had actually kissed her. And as he pulled his hand away, he could still smell the woman from earlier that night, Ellen. Dammit, he hadn’t wiped himself from her memory, like he should have. That was his ego. He wanted her to remember him.
    A familiar smell wafted to him over his pondering, and he stopped, turning back to the mouth of the alley. Sulfur. Very strong, since the source of it was nowhere to be seen, and yet still the scent lingered.
    He frowned and paced back to where he’d first caught its trace. There was a huge metal trash receptacle to one side, and behind it … that’s where the stink was coming from. Someone had lingered here, hiding from … the street. It had to be.
    He closed his eyes, scanning the area for mental activity. There was no one around, he was alone. So who the hell had stood here so long …
    The man from the night before. It had to be. The scent the Sin Eater had picked up on was quite potent, but once the woman had gotten rid of him on the street all on her own, his attention had shifted completely from the man to her. And where had that smelly little toad gone?
    The Sin Eater had let him wander off, unseen. Hadn’t even tried to find him afterwards. He’d been caught up in her .
    That’s why he needed to focus, dammit. The man reeked of evil deeds done in the past and more to come. And he’d let him get away.
    Fuck. No more women; that was the new resolution. And if he had been put in a less humanly body that would actually be possible, wouldn’t it? Some human instincts he could stop, others he was totally at the mercy of his own physical weaknesses.
    He had to find the source of this malice. If the man had decided this woman was the subject of his next nefarious act, the Sin Eater knew he could find him tomorrow night, right here, behind the dumpster. He was sure the man would come back. The man was a source of evil waiting to be released back into the natural order of things.
    And wasn’t it just awful that he would have to come back and possibly see her again?
     
     
     
    Claudia had changed into her pyjamas, washed her face, tied her hair back and made herself a cup of tea, but none of it had calmed her nerves. She was shaking, she was appalled. She couldn’t believe that after two years of platonic friendship she’d made a move on her only real friend while the poor thing was intoxicated. If she wasn’t an eleven-years-sober alcoholic she would have had a stiff drink.
    She had a real issue with unequal partnerships, and that’s what that had been. They were not both in their right mind, so it was wrong . Simple as that.
    She flashed back to her dorm room, waking up on top of the covers of her bed, her shirt pushed up, her bra around her neck, and her jeans and underwear on the floor. There was also a condom package on the ground, the condom itself nowhere to be seen. And she