Vampire Memories #5 - Ghosts of Memories by Barb Hendee Read Free Book Online Page B

in front of the church, he shifted the dog food slightly to free one hand, and he’d just reached out and opened the wrought-iron gate leading into the garden when a voice sounded from behind him.
    “Hey, man, any spare change?”
    Letting go of the open gate, Wade turned. A down-on-his-luck type had appeared from nowhere and was standing right behind him. The man wore baggy pants and a shabby coat and was badly in need of a shower. His eyes were bloodshot, and Wade felt sorry for him. Normally, if Wade had cash, he never minded helping out the homeless, but tonight he’d used his debit card for the groceries.
    “I’m sorry,” he said, “I don’t have any cash.” Most of the food in his bag had to be boiled or chopped or fried to be of any use, so he wasn’t sure about offering that either. “But I come this way a lot. Try me again.”
    He started to turn away, and the man said, “No,” in a surprisingly hard voice.
    Startled, Wade turned just in time to see something flicker across the man’s bloodshot eyes. Without waiting, Wade reached out telepathically and slipped into the man’s mind. A wall of rage and violence hit him so hard he almost backed up. He was normally a good judge of character, and this man had seemed so calm. Reading beyond the surface emotions, Wade saw that he was an alcoholic who hadn’t had a drink in two days, and he was desperate.
    “Just give me your wallet,” the man said.
    Still reading his mind, Wade then realized he had a knife hidden in his right hand. Of course, Wade was carrying a loaded automatic pistol under his jacket, strapped to his chest, but he’d need to drop either the dog food or the bag of groceries to pull the gun, and that would leave him wide open for a few seconds—long enough to get stabbed.
    “Do it,” the man ordered.
    Wade didn’t care about his wallet, but the rolling rage in the man’s mind made him careful. He wasn’t certain that just passing his wallet over would be the end of this.
    “Okay,” he said. “Just let me put one of these bags down.”
    His mind was still racing. He wasn’t exactly afraid. Anyone who’d face down Julian wouldn’t tremble too much over a homeless alcoholic, but the last thing he wanted to do was to shoot someone right here in front of the church. He didn’t want the police anywhere near their home.
    “Now!” the man said, his voice breaking this time.
    “All right. Take it easy.”
    Wade began lowering the grocery bag, still wondering how this was going to play out, when a low rumble sounded from his left side.
    He looked down.
    Mr. Boo stepped out of the open gate. His jowls trembled, and his fangs were bare, and his low growling turned into a snarl as he stared up at the unknown man. Even though his ribs still showed, he no longer looked quite so thin. He looked more like ninety pounds of pissed-off bone and muscle.
    The desperate man took a step back, and Boo stepped after him, snarling louder.
    A second later, the man turned and bolted down the street.
    Wade just stood there, looking down at the dog’s tattered ear. Boo stopped growling.
    “Not that I’m not grateful, but how did you get out of the church?” Wade asked. Then he peered through the darkness to see Maxim coming toward him from the front doors. “Did you let him out?”
    Maxim nodded. “He ask me.”
    “He asked you to let him out?
    Maxim nodded again. “He sense a bad thing out here, and he likes you. You feed him when he very hungry. When he sad.”
    That last word made Wade feel like he’d been punched in the stomach. But the dog had sensed something and then asked Maxim to let him outside…to offer protection.
    “I get it,” Wade said quickly. He hefted the bag of dog food over his shoulder. “Come on, Boo. Let’s see if you like this stuff. You can’t keep eating up all the hamburger.”
    Once again, Mr. Boo just grunted and followed him into the church.
    Eleisha was curled up against Philip on the living room couch.