Page 45 of Edge of Darkness

And his mother would know as soon as she heard his voice that something was bothering him—and how she did that, he had no idea—which was one of the reasons hehadn’tcontacted any of them. She wouldn’t stop until she got it out of him.

His family, and the commune they lived in, was pretty open-minded, but this might be pushing it, even for them. Plus, it wasn’t his secret to share.

So, for the time being, he didn’t have a choice but to avoid them.

Which meant he really didn’t have anybody to talk to who would understand. Well, there was Austin, but Austin had his own shit going on. And okay, there was Beckett. They’d gotten to be pretty friendly too.

So maybe he wasn’t as isolated as he thought. Opening his eyes, he stared at the computer sitting on his desk. There was also that psychiatrist guy Austin and Beckett had mentioned. He was certainly somebody Kit could talk to.

An involuntary shudder racked Kit’s body. Yeah, the good doctor certainly knew about paranormals—he was a vampire. Kit honestly didn’t know if he could handle that the guy drank blood to survive. He had to, but it didn’t change the fact that it still triggered Kit.

“Thanks, you fucker,” Kit whispered as a memory popped up of Nox sinking his fangs into Kit’s neck.

And Nox hadn’t even been a vampire, but Kit was associating his trauma with blood drinking. He knew what he was doing, but it didn’t change anything. It made Kit want to beat his head against the nearest wall because mimicsdidn’tneed blood to survive.

They only took it so they could mimic their victims, but Kit couldn’t seem to separate the two. His stomach rolled uneasily, but this time,this fucking time, it pissed Kit off. He was damn tired of reacting this way.

Kit had never been one to run from his problems and damned if he was going to continue to. Yanking his cell phone out, he fired off a text to Beckett asking if he would be able to set up an appointment with that psychiatrist—even though panic threatened to overwhelm him when he sent the text.

He practiced a breathing exercise, and when that didn’t seem to be helping, he marched himself down to the break room, yanked open the refrigerator, and grabbed a fistful of ice.

Even though his hand got uncomfortably cold quickly, it seemed to snap him out of the spiral he was headed into. He had no idea why the cold seemed to work, but he’d seen a video about it, and it did do the trick.

Kit wasn’t one to suffer panic attacks and never had, which was just one more reason why he really needed to talk about what happened with Nox to someone.

He wanted his damn life back.

Now that he had himself under control, he dumped the ice in the sink and dried his hand. Glancing at his watch, he was surprised to see that it was nearly lunchtime. Even more surprising was the fact that his stomach was growling. He was actually hungry.

While he was contemplating where he wanted to go for lunch, Beckett texted him back saying he would ask someone named Conrad to take care of the appointment with Doctor King. He also asked if Kit was ready for lunch.

“Great minds think alike.” Grinning, Kit told Beckett he’d meet him by the cash register in five minutes.

“SO WHERE do you want to go?” Beckett asked as they drove out of the bookstore’s parking lot.

“I don’t care,” Kit said, buckling his seat belt. “You got any suggestions?”

“What about Rafferty’s? It’s this bar and grill type restaurant that’s not too far from here.”

“Sounds good to me. Although I might be slightly overdressed.” Kit glanced down at his clothes.

“Well then, how about Embers?” Beckett asked, stopping at a red light. “It’s a bit more of a drive though.”

“Isn’t that the restaurant located in the Dominion?”

“Yup. Kage owns the building and the restaurant.”

“Oh. It’s kinda upscale, isn’t it?”

Beckett shrugged. “You’ll see everything from shorts and T-shirts to suits that cost ten grand there. Since Kage and Austin live in the building, they eat at the restaurant quite often. From what I hear, Austin isnota fan of dressing up.”

“You got that right.” Kit grinned at the memory. “One time I overheard his agent threatening him with all sorts of dire consequences if he showed up to a book signing in clothes that had more holes in them than Swiss cheese.”

Beckett snickered. “His agent is Lanny Brooks—Lady Lanny Brooks. By the way, she’s a dragon too.”

Kit’s mouth fell open. “Holy crap, of course—the red hair.”

“Yup. Not everybody who has red hair is a dragon, but every dragon who is a member of any Fire Court has red hair.”

---