Page 28 of A Velvet Kiss After Dark

His expression was thunderous, and it made her scared for real. This was a man who could kill another, and he was scaring the piss out of her.

Tabitha stuttered to say something in her defense, but her own heart was too busy pounding like Hephaestus's hammer banging out a piece of armor for the gods. She hadn't meant to get caught, but with his mysterious, cryptic messages about leaving town for a job, she'd had to uncover why. It was in her very nature to unearth secrets. It's how she made a living, after all!

"Leave this place now and never come back," Kane seethed venomously at her. He might as well have spat in her face for how harsh his words cut.

Then, suddenly he was lunging for some odd pocket of bubbly air that floated mid-air where the group had been chanting. Tabitha had never seen anything like this in her entire life. What had begun as awe had turned to pure terror.

What had she done? she wondered helplessly, feeling like a fool for traipsing out here hoping to surprise Kane with her cuteness and to perhaps get a cheeky story for her gossip column.

Kane spun away and raced into a bubbly pocket that had formed in the air.

A portal? she wondered.

There was no other explanation for what it could come up with, and she'd arrived too late to hear much of any dialog between Kane and his friends.. The bubble wavered like ripples of water in the breeze when he passed through it and out of her existence. It seemed to pop and crackle, wind swishing violently around it as if it would turn off at any second.

Tabitha took a step back, then another. An apology sat on her tongue, which wouldn't do any good as he'd already leapt through the oblong shape.

Then, suddenly, she heard the sound of sneakers smacking against concrete pavement headed her way. Still disoriented from what she'd witnessed, Tabitha was unprepared for what transpired next. She felt dazed by Kane's sudden outrage for her, and she wished she could apologize—something she rarely did for a story. She couldn't help but feel like she'd made a massive error in coming here and witnessing this little séance, if one could even call it that.

Magic was not normal in her world! At least not much. Vampires and blood, yes. Insane bullying werewolves, also typical. Magic holes in the air—not so much—at least not in her line of work as a professional journalist.

Normally she didn't mind someone getting angry over her pushing for a new and riveting story, but this time didn't sit well with her. As if she'd crossed a line with Kane that she wished she hadn't. She did, after all, sort of respect the guy; he brought up feels in her that made her feel all sorts of delight.

The running sounds were coming closer and Tabitha peered behind her to see a runner out for a nightly job. He wore a gray hoodie, dirty jeans and even dirtier shoes; the laces brown and crusted over with black gunk.

If he saw this lingering floating bubble in the air, he didn't speak of it, too busy keeping his hood pulled high and his eyes to the pavement.

Tabitha realized he was getting closer to her, and so she politely excused herself and huddled closer to that weird portal that radiated silvery light in the dark of night.

Working quickly, she snatched her camera from her bag and began snapping away at the strange fluid creation floating in the air.

Her thoughts began to concoct the story she'd be writing for tomorrow's column. This could be huge, and she'd leave Kane's name out of it like he'd ask her and save his anonymity. However, a group of mysterious supernaturals disappearing into a portal beneath the largest monument in the western hemisphere was nothing to sneer at. This had to be a spectacularly huge assignment for Kane Gunner. The whole team had looked ready to do battle!

The smack of sneakers didn't go around her as she'd anticipated, however, but sounded as if they veered closer to her. She'd been so distracted as she studied the apparition, memorizing it and all that she'd heard and witnessed so that she could catalog the details in her memory for her story, that she never thought to be cautious of the nighttime jogger.

Now her heartbeat picked up for a whole other reason. She was in one of the most dangerous cities in the world, alone, late at night. She carried no weapon, unless her camera and pen counted. The jogger spotted her, and they locked eyes—and that was when she realized she was doomed. She had only a moment to scream, an abrupt shout into the dark night that was quickly cut off as a struggle ensued. No one was around to help. The only one who might, was currently inside a magic air bubble, which had begun to blink rapidly as if it was fading out.

The man leapt at her and grabbed her satchel and yanked, trying to steal her top-of-the-line camera and bag. Eyes widening with fear, Tabitha screamed and fought to yank her very expensive camera bag back, but the ruffian growled and shoved her two-handedly backwards.

Her arms pinwheeled in mid-air as she fought not to fall backwards towards the magically disappearing bubble behind her. The ruffian suddenly produced a knife, and with a vicious yank, he cut the bag free from her shoulder, snatched her camera by its strap, and shoved her viciously backwards, and into the air bubble.

And then she was falling into the iridescent, oblong-shaped air bubble. A crackle of electricity sizzled over her skin, making her body jack hammer as she entered a pitch black void of nothing.

Blackness for all she could see. Eyes wide, pupils dilated so strongly that red lines zigzagged with bloodshot reaction to try to see anything around her.

Gasp. Gasp. Gasp.

She panted for air, but there was no air to breathe in this terrifying plane. She was suffocating on her own nothingness.

Blackness, so dark, she floated in it, surrounded by a void of pure evil, despair, and fear; but no one was around, there was no place to stand, and no air to breathe.

Need oxygen, her body panicked while terror screamed inside her mind!

So quickly did what little air she'd had remaining in her lungs vanish from her.

No air. Must breathe.

Gasp. Gasp.

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