Page 76 of A Velvet Kiss After Dark

The tears always ended eventually and her sadness and defeat would slip away sometimes, but misery loved company. And miserly she was, each and every day. Filled with unknowings, filled with overwhelming thoughts of torture and mayhem that he may be experiencing even right now this very minute. Thoughts that there might be something she could do to help save him always came…but how? What could she possibly do to help return Kane Gunner return home?

That was one puzzle she'd yet to answer.

In a box hidden inside a locked safety chest inside her bedroom closet there glowed an object of power.

Tabitha felt afeared to leave her penthouse, not only from her many fears anxieties which had developed since her journey through Hell, but because some outstanding presence refused to allow her to leave the relic. And, so it sat, inside a black gun safe. No weapon inside there, just a shining star of effuse enormity.

She went to it now, and as she gazed upon it with awe and fear, she spread her fingers before its bright-white surface and whispered aloud. "What is the truth of Kane Gunner?"

The relic remained docile. No visions came like the one she'd first had of seeing her father's plane crash.

Dismayed, Tabitha closed the box, and went back to work with a broken heart.

33

A knock sounded at the front door.

Tabitha Burke woke from her sleep with a start. Her bedside clock proclaimed it to be only minutes past midnight. She'd only gone to sleep a few hours ago. Her conversation with Lou still clung to memory.

She sought out the gun she kept inside her bedstand and released the safety mechanism in a routine motion.

Knock, knock.

Hardly anyone aside from those who signed her paycheck knew she'd moved here, nor would they drop in at such a late hour unannounced.

Pushing her bare feet into a pair soft slippers and pitching her royal blue robe around her shoulders, Tabitha peered around the bedroom door to scope out the front entryway. All was dark as she'd left it.

Knock, knock, knock!

The door rattled in its frame and a tingling of fear ratcheted up inside her.

This wouldn't be the first time psychotic werewolves had found out where she lived and attacked her in her very own home. That was the biggest reason she'd moved in the first place.

Hopelessness made her weak for a moment, and just then she wished she had protection; someone to help her. Someone who could dissipate all of her worrisome problems in life. Such heroes didn't exist. It wasn't real. At least she wasn't alone, or at least, unprepared. For she still had her gun in her hand, and enough gusto to blow someone away if he must.

"Who's there?" Tabitha hollered out from her position at the bedroom doorway.

The knocking ceased. She thought she heard a muffled voice speaking, but the sound was unintelligible.

"I said who's there?" she called out louder.

Three rapid knocks banged in response.

Glaring at the door and fidgeting with what to do, Tabitha gradually sneaked her way closer to the door and the peephole that awaited her. Her heart raced faster by the second; the was sound loud in her ears. She was ready to fight to the death if need be, because she if Hell had taught her one thing, it was that she was a fighter.

She called out in a clipped, authoritative voice as she neared the door. "Who's there?"

"Tabitha?" she heard clearly enough in response.

Tabitha frowned. That sounded like…a woman. Not exactly the psychotic supernaturals she would have anticipated with this kind of fear-inducing entrance.

Tabitha peered through the peephole.

What she saw made her gasp and whirl away, even as fright lunged at her to run!

A woman in black waited beyond the doorway. A sinister sight to behold. The woman looked like Death. Like a beacon for despair and helplessness—for tragedy. Eyes bleak like the darkest of space, skin pale and deathly, hair like that of a raven's wings, this sinister creature had a bloody splotch across her red stained mouth, which she wore like day-old ruined lipstick.

As if the woman sensed her fleeing, the door suddenly shattered open as the woman screeched like a banshee and burst into the room.

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