Eclipse of the Soul: The Interdimensional Saga, Book 2 by J.L. Hendricks Page A

it’s close to several alleys so we might even come across some rippers for
you Lancer.” I smirked at him when I said that last statement. He seemed to be
all business within a few days of waking from my transformation.
    We made our way to the taco joint without any trouble. I
encouraged the guys to all order one of each taco. It was Taco Tuesday after
all, and they were only one dollar each. I ordered one of each; they had
chicken, ground beef and carne asada . Man, were their tacos good! I also
got myself a medium Diet Coke. It always had to be Diet Coke, not Diet
Pepsi. That was just one more reason to love Joe’s.
    Each of the guys placed their orders. We found two nice
big picnic tables outside with a great view of South Broadway and 7 th street. There were a few alleys not too far away that we could check out after
dinner.
    “Ok B’Lana, I’ll admit that was a great dinner. And
cheap too. This is one place we will have to come back to.”
    “Lancer, are you actually complimenting something I did?
I think I’m gonna die from shock!” I playfully said as I put the back of my
hand to my forehead and faked a swoon right onto the picnic table. Sadly, I
closed my eyes when I did so and I ended up falling into Ash’s lap.
    Lancer was not too happy. He gave me a very stern look
which made me feel like a little kid who was about to be scolded for giving my
little brother a swirly or something.
    Of course Ash used that opportunity to put his arms
around me, to keep me from falling on the ground, or so he said. But he had the
look of a cat that just ate the canary. Then he winked at me and let me go.
    “B’Lana, Ash, this is not the time to play games. You
need to be on constant guard so stop messing around. B’Lana, you especially
need to be on your best behavior or you won’t be going out anytime soon.”
    I just sighed and said, “Yes, sir.”
    After that we started walking towards a nearby alley,
and I chose to walk next to Maliki so Lancer would stop giving me dirty looks.
    “You know, he’s just looking out for you. I know you
think you can handle yourself out here, but you really don’t know what it’s
like to fight a ripper. Once word gets out about you, they’ll come after you
first, most likely several at a time. None of them have seen a fae hybrid and
have no clue what you can do. So they are going to test you and if they kill
you in the process, they won’t lose any sleep.” Maliki was cool to talk to. But
he was also a realist. He told it to me like it was.
    At that point I looked around to check out what people
were doing. I noticed several girls who seemed to be trying to walk away
quickly. They were whispering and kept looking back behind them, like someone
was following them. They seemed afraid of something. One girl, she was maybe
five feet six inches at best, with long blonde hair  was wearing a coral short
sleeved top, a jean jacket and designer jeans with three inch wedge heels that
matched her top. She was wiping a tear from her face. Her friend had this horrified
look, almost like she had seen a ghost. I knew something was up with them. It may
not have been ripper related, but something was definitely wrong.
    “Hey Lancer,” I said as I was making my way closer to
him. “Look at those two girls across the street coming this way. They seem very
scared, like maybe someone is following them. Do you think it could be ripper
related? Look at how they keep looking behind them and are walking fast,
despite the fact that one of the girls is in heels.”
    Lancer looked over at them and then started scanning the
crowd behind them. He noted that the sun had been down for at least thirty
minutes and a larger crowd back where the girls came from started parting and
quickly moving away.
    “Alright, there might be rippers out in the street.
Maliki stay here with B’Lana and keep her safe. The rest of you come with me
and spread out to check the alley behind where that group seems to be quickly