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"Ambitious and fiercely original. Sondi Warner is the exciting new voice we've all been wai...
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September 8 | Before Daybreak
I smelled rain. Casting another net of Empathy, I waded through impressions of drunken stragglers hunting last call, but no hint of Aurie. Tired electric dance music pumped sluggishly from emptying clubs, and cars zipped by with people trying to get home. A thin mist now blanketed the city.
"Where the hell are you?" I whispered, chest tight.
I had visions of terrible things happening to her. However, Aurie had gone on her own before and been fine. If Darcy Cyprian wanted her, he could've snatched her many times over by now, and he hadn't. She was okay. She had to be.
A light drizzle started falling. As the cold, fat rain droplets came harder and faster, it was time to admit defeat. I returned to my apartment where I tried calling Detective Zyr. His voicemail greeted me. I tossed the phone on the nightstand with a frustrated sigh.
"Guess I gotta wait you out," I muttered to myself.
Trudging to the bathroom, I showered. My mind wandered through worse case scenarios while I lathered up. Cool grey morning sky illuminated the basement windows by the time I finished. Exhausted, I climbed into bed, but instead of the brief nap I intended, I was dragged under by deep sleep.
And gauzy dreams of sex. The sheets twisted around me. I was with Zyr. Irete hoshii...I wanted him inside. The rough, hungry coupling ached. Then lightning flashed, and Aurie stretched between us. My racing heart echoed the thunder rumbling in the distance.
Fricative anxiety whirred internally like cicadas underscoring the storm. Yet, the nervousness was easy to ignore as her body slowly danced above me. I held her waist, and she rose and fell, riding me to completion.
I gave Aurie an under-eyed stare from beneath black lashes. "Dashite...Uhn! Dashite, come for me," I seduced her. Abandonment was written on her beautiful face, but it was briefly obstructed by Zyr bowing over me.
"Do you really want to say goodbye to this?" he inquired.
No, of course, not. I smiled languidly as he clenched a fistful of my hair and dragged my mouth to his before I could answer.
With another flash of lightning, the lovers disappeared. "Zyr?" I called out. "Aurie?" My body felt chilled. Somehow, the bedroom of bliss had become a dark hall of nightmares. I dropped to my feet, running past scores of closed rooms. I had the feeling I was chasing something irretrievable once truly lost.
At the end of the corridor, there was Aurie. She flickered in and out of existence like the phantom she was. "Where's the sacrifice?" she asked in overlapping voices. Crimson raindrops descended through the high ceilings of the dissolving house. Suddenly, we were outside beneath a blood moon. Zyr howled warnings at the omen. Only it wasn't Zyr howling.
It was a Skype call.
I jerked awake. "Aurie?" I murmured. My gaze flew to my favorite chair, but she wasn't in it. Another clap of thunder rattled the church, and I patted around for my cell phone. Squinting at the screen, it was eleven a.m.
