Page 8 of A Fury Of Shadows

In the end, they settled on a sci-fi suspense that soon turned into a full-on horror fest.

I sure would like to fight a monster like that, Brimstone enthused at the heinous alien life form ripping apart several unsuspecting and evidently too-stupid-for-their-own-good humans on the screen.

Mae grimaced.I wouldn’t.We see something like that one day, we’re running the other way.

She stiffened a moment later and looked at Vlad. “I get that horror flicks scare you, but you should really stop touching my thigh.”

“That’s not me. And horror movies don’t frighten me.” He glanced her way. “The same can’t be said for Hellreaver.”

The weapon twitched where he was hugging her chest.

Mae’s gaze dropped farther.

Tarang had a giant paw on her leg and was giving her puppy eyes.

“No,” she said firmly.

The puppy eyes got worse.

Mae steeled herself. “You’re not sleeping with us,” she told the tiger. “The last time you did, you almost squashed me. I even had a nightmare that I was being suffocated by some kind of Yeti.”

Tarang yowled before plopping his head despondently on her knees.

I shall make sure he does not sit on your chest, my witch, Brimstone said indulgently, evidently feeling sorry for his friend.

“You and Hellreaver snored your way through the tiger trying to kill me,” she reminded him.

A sandpaper tongue rasped hotly up her cheek.

Mae sighed as Tarang slobbered her with drool. “Alright, you can sleep with us. But you’re staying at the end of the bed.” She paused. “Andwe’re brushing your teeth.”

Tarang brightened, his tail picking up speed where it swept the floorboards.

“You’re such a pushover,” Vlad told Mae.

The movie ended with the puny humans somehow managing to outsmart the alien monsters.

“Evidently, a few of them were smarter than a jellyfish,” Mae muttered as they climbed the stairs.

Vlad chuckled. “There’s a sequel. Should we watch that next week?”

“Okay.”

They said goodnight on the landing and headed for their respective bedrooms.

Mae mulled over the routine she and Vlad had settled into since she’d moved in with him. Although he’d made advances toward her in the past few weeks, he’d never crossed the line that would have jeopardized their friendship. It was something she would forever be grateful for. Just as she was thankful that he’d been by her side the night she’d lost Nikolai to the Dark Council. She knew she would have lost her mind had he not held her in his arms in the hours that followed their disastrous battle.

Her boss’s face flitted through her mind as she slipped under the covers. Steve Hodge would be expecting a call from her soon. Despite the pressures the forensics labs in New York had been under lately, he’d managed to convince the hospital to grant Mae the sabbatical she’d requested after the events in Concord. He’d practically told the board it was either that or he was going to hand in his notice.

Hodge didn’t know she was the Witch Queen and had no awareness of the world of magic that existed alongside humankind’s mundane existence. But he’d been there the night her powers had awakened and witnessed firsthand the kind of monsters the Dark Council had sent to capture her.

More than that, he was her friend. Guilt tightened her throat.

He’s going to hate me when I tell him I have no intention of coming back yet.

With Nikolai’s fate at stake and Vedran getting ever closer to unlocking theBook of Shadowsand fulfilling whatever sinister intentions he had for the magic community, she didn’t have time for her normal day job. Not that she would have been able to focus on it anyway.

Sleep came uneasily, the quandary of how to overcome Anya’s Illusion Sorcery weighing on her mind while she stared at the dark ceiling and listened to the gentle snores of Hellreaver and the two familiars sharing her bed. She didn’t know when she drifted off.

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