Second Nature (Crimson Cove Mysteries Book 2)

by Tara Brown

  The footsteps came up behind me fast. I didn't have time to spin. In the glass I saw a face I didn't know, just as the needle came down on me. I screamed as it stabbed and they pinned me to the glass door.

  My scream dulled to a moan as the pressure on my back faded and my legs started to feel heavy. I blinked and the face in the reflection of the window smiled. I blinked again and I was gone, drifting into total darkness until there was nothing.

  And then everything hurt.

  I grunted as something sharp dug into my forearm. It happened again. I couldn't hear anything except a slight, very slight crackle. Like a fire in the distance. The sharp thing stabbed and there was a giggle. A girl’s giggle. It sounded funny, like she was far away, and yet the stabbing pain was right there, touching me again in a new spot on my forearm.

  I tried to open my eyes but something covered them. My lashes brushed against it when I blinked.

  I listened for another sound beyond the fire and the giggle, but there was nothing. No ocean in the distance. No wind outside. No hum of electricity. It was the silence of a power outage.

  But there was a smell.

  Cigars.

  I didn't know where I was, but I knew that scent from somewhere.

  I winced as the sharp thing stabbed in again, making me hold my breath until it was pulled from my skin, leaving only a slight burning feeling.

  “Rachel?” I spoke with a gravelly voice, wondering why I’d heard her whisper in the empty house. No one answered back. The giggle was gone, as was the crackle of the fire. Even the pain in my arm had stopped.

  Were they real?

  Was this hell?

  Was I dead?

  I really hoped so.

  The End

  Go get Crimson Cove Three, Third Time’s a Charm, it’s out now. It’ll be a killer of a Christmas in Crimson Cove. You don't want to miss it.