Death In Her Eyes - Erin Bedford Page 0,8

to help you now. We can see you, Nabi.” The last word came out as a hiss. Nabi. They repeated it over and over almost like a prayer. The sound of them grew louder and louder, until I couldn’t even hear the sound of my own voice anymore.

As I knelt there with my hands over my ears trying to drown at the noise, the burning in my hand started to fade and with it another voice could barely be heard over the chants.

“Eleanor.”

Dad?

The chanting around me came to an abrupt halt as if they had heard it to and were trying to listen. I lowered my hands and slowly pushed to my feet. With the pain in my hand gone, I scanned around me and saw the shadows still there, just barely moving around in the corners of the room. Were they scared of my dad?

“Wake up, Eleanor.”

The sound of his voice caused light to shine into the darkened theater and my eyelids fluttered open. Even as my conscious awakened in the back in my mind, in the theater I could still hear them. No longer silent and waiting but panicked and rushing about in the darkness. In their haste for escape I could still catch them chanting the word.

Nabi.

“I think she’s waking up now, Bart. Give her some room.” My eyes snapped open at the new voice of a woman near my feet. One hand rubbed my eyes as I tried to sit up on what seemed to be a leather couch. Where was I?

“Don’t move to fast dear. Though, you were out cold, shifting still makes most of us nauseous the first time.” There was a slight musical note to her voice, and I wondered for a moment if she was related to my dad.

I blinked my eyes several times as I stared at the dark-haired woman at the end of the couch. She stood with her arms crossed under her breast, which looked like they could spill out of the v-cut in her deep purple suit jacket at any moment. Was she even wearing a shirt under that thing?

“Who are you?” Damn. Even my voice sounded hollow compared to hers. Maybe I should stop smoking. Nah.

“Eleanor, don’t be rude.” My eyes jerked from the woman and over to my dad, who stood by my side. Hands in his pockets he had a smug expression on his face that was just itching to be slapped off. If my hand didn’t still ache, I would have done it by now.

I swung my legs over the side of the couch and took in the room around me. We were in an office. The woman’s I assumed. Books filled the bookshelves that decorated the walls. A large mahogany desk took up much of the space in the middle of the room. There was no name plate and no personal items that would give away who she was.

“What did you do to me?” I was proud of the venomous tone my voice had taken on. It was hard to sound threatening when you had to look up at someone.

“Eleanor it was for you own good.” My dad didn’t even remotely sound apologetic for what he had done. “You wouldn’t have left with me otherwise and we were running out of time.”

“You’re damn right I wouldn’t have.” I stood and curled my hands into fists. I’d never had a lot of patience. As an only child I had always gotten what I wanted, when I wanted it, and right then I wanted answers. Ignoring the stranger in the room, I shoved a finger at my dad. “You think you can just pop back into my life whenever you and abduct me because you think it’s best? Well, listen up, pops.” I popped my p aggressively. “I’m a grown ass adult. Eighteen, almost ninteen. I don’t have to do anything you say. In fact, you lost that right when you left mom and me to fend for ourselves.”

I shoved around him intent on leaving. Never mind that I had no idea where I was. I just needed to get away from him. A thin but strong hand latched onto my elbow and halted my dramatic exit. Glaring down at the black painted nails, I jerked my eyes up to the dark purple eyes of the stranger. I was startled enough by her unusual eye color to drop my scowl but what really got to me was I couldn’t see her death either.

Leaning in close