Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) by J.A. Cipriano Page B
Authors: J.A. Cipriano
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hair. He jerked me toward him with so much strength I thought he’d ripped my hair out from its roots. I stumbled forward into him, and his smell, like cigarettes and cheap beer hit me full on. I probably would have gagged, but before I could my entire world exploded into blinding starlight.
12
W hen my vision snapped back into place, Thes and Connor were both gone, and I was standing in a room with plush pink shag carpet, mood lighting, and Kanye playing on the stereo, which was almost worse than the sudden displacement. I wasn’t sure how the hell I had gotten here, nor where here was exactly, but I knew one thing. It wasn’t somewhere I wanted to be. Not even slightly.
The guy from before stood only a few feet away. He had his with his back to me and his shirt off, revealing more tattoos along with several Nordic characters stenciled across his shoulder blades like the last name on the back of some thug. Hey, I wasn’t judging. After all, my mom had been all tatted up, but my abduction, combined with him wasn’t jiving even a little. A sick little twist of fear welled up from my stomach, and as I reached for my swords, that fear leapt into frigging hyper drive. My swords were gone because of course they were.
He must have heard me moving because he turned and gave me that same “I’m envisioning you bent over a table” look, only this time there was a lot more heat behind it. His nose twitched as he sucked in a shallow breath and smiled. His front teeth were huge and yellow, abnormally so, but the rest of his teeth were otherwise okay. It was a little weird, making me think that when he’d traded his Christmas presents for two front teeth, he’d made the deal with the Easter Bunny instead of Santa Claus.
“How’s it goin’ shawty?” he said, his tongue flicking across his lips as he spoke. He leaned back against a burnt leather chair and watched me carefully. “Have a nice nap?”
“Nap?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him while searching for some kind of weapon. Aside from the chair and a rather oversized bed in the corner, the room was completely empty. Awesome.
He shrugged by way of answer and grabbed his jeans with one hand. He was wearing a belt, but it didn’t seem to be doing a very good job of holding his pants up because I could see a healthy portion of his acorn-patterned boxers. I watched him for half a second before realizing he was undoing said belt. My blood ran cold. Was he seriously about to do what I thought he was about to do?
“What are you doing?” I said, my voice nearly empty of emotion as I curled my left hand into a fist. I was going to hit him so hard his grandchildren would walk sideways.
“What ya think I’m doin’ shawty?” He grinned wider as he pulled his belt free and let it drop to the plush carpet. It seemed loud even over Kayne’s crooning. “Goin’ ta give ya the business.” His lips quirked. “Don’t worry. I gots the skills.”
“Yeah, that isn’t happening,” I said, calling upon my power. While I didn’t have my swords to draw from, I was still strong as hell on my own, and what’s more, I had the power of Idun’s apple thrumming through my veins. I wasn’t sure if it was enough, but I was betting it’d hurt a lot more than a bee sting.
His face fell as confusion played across his features. I wasn’t sure why, but my refusal threw him off, which struck me as odd. Surely girls didn’t normally go along with this. What was happening to the world? Either way, he was still getting punched. I shut my eyes, even though I shouldn’t have, and sucked in a breath. Power that tasted of oak and maple trees flowed into me.
“Oh, I got it now.” He snapped his fingers, and the sound shattered my concentration. My power fell away from me as my eyes shot open to see him standing there with a fat stack of bills in his hand. As my eyes went to the money, then back to his face, I saw he was grinning. “Ya one of those Craigslist shawties. Got to
12
W hen my vision snapped back into place, Thes and Connor were both gone, and I was standing in a room with plush pink shag carpet, mood lighting, and Kanye playing on the stereo, which was almost worse than the sudden displacement. I wasn’t sure how the hell I had gotten here, nor where here was exactly, but I knew one thing. It wasn’t somewhere I wanted to be. Not even slightly.
The guy from before stood only a few feet away. He had his with his back to me and his shirt off, revealing more tattoos along with several Nordic characters stenciled across his shoulder blades like the last name on the back of some thug. Hey, I wasn’t judging. After all, my mom had been all tatted up, but my abduction, combined with him wasn’t jiving even a little. A sick little twist of fear welled up from my stomach, and as I reached for my swords, that fear leapt into frigging hyper drive. My swords were gone because of course they were.
He must have heard me moving because he turned and gave me that same “I’m envisioning you bent over a table” look, only this time there was a lot more heat behind it. His nose twitched as he sucked in a shallow breath and smiled. His front teeth were huge and yellow, abnormally so, but the rest of his teeth were otherwise okay. It was a little weird, making me think that when he’d traded his Christmas presents for two front teeth, he’d made the deal with the Easter Bunny instead of Santa Claus.
“How’s it goin’ shawty?” he said, his tongue flicking across his lips as he spoke. He leaned back against a burnt leather chair and watched me carefully. “Have a nice nap?”
“Nap?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him while searching for some kind of weapon. Aside from the chair and a rather oversized bed in the corner, the room was completely empty. Awesome.
He shrugged by way of answer and grabbed his jeans with one hand. He was wearing a belt, but it didn’t seem to be doing a very good job of holding his pants up because I could see a healthy portion of his acorn-patterned boxers. I watched him for half a second before realizing he was undoing said belt. My blood ran cold. Was he seriously about to do what I thought he was about to do?
“What are you doing?” I said, my voice nearly empty of emotion as I curled my left hand into a fist. I was going to hit him so hard his grandchildren would walk sideways.
“What ya think I’m doin’ shawty?” He grinned wider as he pulled his belt free and let it drop to the plush carpet. It seemed loud even over Kayne’s crooning. “Goin’ ta give ya the business.” His lips quirked. “Don’t worry. I gots the skills.”
“Yeah, that isn’t happening,” I said, calling upon my power. While I didn’t have my swords to draw from, I was still strong as hell on my own, and what’s more, I had the power of Idun’s apple thrumming through my veins. I wasn’t sure if it was enough, but I was betting it’d hurt a lot more than a bee sting.
His face fell as confusion played across his features. I wasn’t sure why, but my refusal threw him off, which struck me as odd. Surely girls didn’t normally go along with this. What was happening to the world? Either way, he was still getting punched. I shut my eyes, even though I shouldn’t have, and sucked in a breath. Power that tasted of oak and maple trees flowed into me.
“Oh, I got it now.” He snapped his fingers, and the sound shattered my concentration. My power fell away from me as my eyes shot open to see him standing there with a fat stack of bills in his hand. As my eyes went to the money, then back to his face, I saw he was grinning. “Ya one of those Craigslist shawties. Got to
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