The_Demons_Wife_ARC Read Online Free PDF Page B

said, once she was sure she
could control the pitch of her voice. She intended to sound casual, but it came
off as sounding a little desperate…especially looking like she did right now.
    He drove for a
while in silence, but not far because he pulled up to the curb directly in
front of Claire’s apartment building. She looked at him with a mixture of
suspicion and amusement.
    “Wanna tell me
how you know?” she asked.
    He sat there
with his hands draped over the steering wheel, his long fingers hanging
loosely. The engine was purring, the wiper blades slapping back and forth. He
stared straight ahead as if he was still driving. The reflected lights of the
city played across his face, creating the illusion that his features were
shifting…changing shape even as she watched him. It was both unnerving and
intriguing.
    “How did I
know what?” he asked, turning to her. His eyes glowed like chips of ice in the
darkness. He was smiling, but there was a ravenous look about his smile that
for some reason made Claire think of the “Big Bad Wolf.”
    Claire nodded
to indicate the building they were parked in front of.
    “Where I live.
This is my place.”
    “It is?”
    He sounded
surprised, but a mocking note colored his voice.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “I pulled over
where I saw an empty parking space. I figured you couldn’t live far from here
because you were walking in the rain. If you lived on the far side of town, you
would have called a friend…or a cab.”
    Claire nodded,
still suspicious. It sounded reasonable enough, but still—she wasn’t sure.  She
had the sudden paranoid thought that maybe this guy had noticed her at some
point and had been stalking her for…
    Who knew how
long?
    Maybe running
into her at the restaurant and then following her to the hospital had all been
planned, somehow.
    Not likely , she decided… I’d
have noticed a guy like this right away.
    “Well…thanks
for the ride, such as it was,” she said with a laugh.
    “The doctor
must have given you a prescription. Do you want me to drive you to the Rite-Aid
in the morning to fill it?”
    Claire shook
her head.
    “I have a
couple of pills to get me through until I can fill it. My roommate will run
down to the pharmacy for me.”
    “Ahh, yes.
Sally,” he said, nodding.
    Claire glanced
at him, then looked over her shoulder at her building, and then back at him.
    “Thanks for
the ride, then,” she said.
    The door latch
clicked, and the car door swung open. The air had a chill, and the rain came
down hard. Fitful gusts blew needle-sharp spray into her face.
    I can’t look
any worse than I already do , she thought bitterly.
    Shivering, she
cringed inside her coat, pulling the collar up around her neck as she prepared
to make a dash to the front door.
    But
then—somehow—Samael was out of the car and standing beside her on the pavement.
She hadn’t even noticed him getting out and running around the car,
but—somehow—he had produced an umbrella as he extended a hand to help her out
of the car. The umbrella expanded, and she felt safe under its shelter. She
glanced at Samael and smiled.
    “Thanks,” she
said, but that didn’t begin to express the amazement she was feeling,
considering how fast and smooth he had moved.
    “It’s the
least a gentleman can do,” he said. “Is this your door?”
    As if you have
to ask ,
Claire thought wryly but didn't say.
    Side by side,
with rain beating a wild rhythm on the umbrella, they walked under the
sheltered alcove at the front of the building. Samael collapsed the umbrella
and shook it, and they stood there, looking at each other in awkward silence
for a long moment. Cars passing by on the street seemed to recede into nothing.
The night and everything around them seemed so distant, but Claire tensed when
a low grumble of thunder sounded above the sounds of the passing traffic.
    “That’s
weird,” she said, leaning forward and scanning the sky.
    “What is?”
Samael glanced up and down the