Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,73

weirder by the minute and I wanted nothing to do with it. If I ignored it, it might just go away.

Marge set a cup of coffee down in front of Chief and then settled the three plates of food she'd managed to balance on one arm in front of me. She looked to Chief. "You hungry?"

"Uh. Too early for lunch, I just came for the??how." He was staring at the mountain of food in front of me.

"We got a pool going in the back. You want in?"

"On whether or not she finishes?"

"Boy or girl." Marge giggled and walked away. I stared at Chief with a horrified expression on my face.

"I'm not fucking pregnant."

He looked at Mount Saint Burgersteak and raised his eyes, cocking a disbelieving eyebrow at me.

"Not another word."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Smart boy. So, if you weren't at my place and you didn't go home??

"Slept on a cot in cell seven."

"Ouch. Not the most comfortable accommodations."

He just stared deadpan, not having the courage to mention that I would know because he had made me spend the night in one of them when he arrested me. He was truly getting wiser in his old age. "Nope." Marge saved the situation by depositing a piece of pie in front of him. "This for me or her?"

"You. She'll probably want one with ice cream. And by one, I mean one whole pie."

I picked up my empty burger plate, snagging one more French fry, and handed it to her. "Nope. No pie for me. Gotta watch my figure." I grinned and cut a piece off my omelet with my fork.

"Watch it do what?" Marge rolled her eyes and walked away.

"Well, I was going to offer to pay, but I think I might have to wait until payday." Chief grinned.

"Okay, you can stop picking on me now. I was actually going to skip brunch, but my stomach was gnawing on my backbone. Think I've been using too much juice lately and my body is having trouble keeping up. Kind of like when I go all vampy and have to feed off Yuki."

"Ew."

"Shut up." I tore off a piece of steak, not having realized I'd picked it up with my fingers instead of using my fork and knife.

The shockwave hit first, blasting out the front windows out of the diner. The pain of shards piercing the skin of my neck and back registered before I heard the sound of the explosion. Then the searing heat instantly warmed the blast of cold air that filled the diner from the gaping hole in the plate glass.

Chief's face immediately started dripping blood before he got his arms up to protect himself. The rest of the diners dropped to the floor, but thankfully we were the only ones sitting by the window.

"What the fuck was that?" He got up and ran to the door.

Whatever it was had been far enough away to spare the diner any real damage. It had to have been one of the closer stores. I tossed the steak on the glass filled plate and gingerly got up, not wanting to slide my ass across any shards on the seat.

"Dot??

"What?"

"Bookstore," he said morosely and ran through the door.

My heart throbbed in my chest and I followed, glass crackling beneath my feet as I slipped trying to gain traction.

The front of the store was concealed by a cloud of black smoke as fire poured out of the massive hole in the front of my building. Throbbing in my chest ceased when my heart stopped beating. Putting one foot in front of the other, I forced myself to cross the street. "No??o??ooo??ooooooo," I wailed.

By the time I got there, the fire was out, and the smoke drifted away from the building. Closing my eyes, I prayed that the store wouldn't be littered with bodies. In the distance, I could already hear the warble of the fire engine sirens as they started.

The smoke cleared enough for me to see Chief run through the front door into the store. Panic overwhelmed my dread as I took off after him.

The store was filled with people. People and undamaged books and shelves. People staring at the glowing wall of magic inside the store separating the smoke, fire, and damage. My ward wall. I choked out a sob of relief. "What the hell happened?"

Jason shook his head, standing next to the two new cashiers.

"Is everybody okay?"

He looked around the store. "I think? What the hell was that?"

"You tell me. I was across the