Nightstruck - Jenna Black Page 0,53

alive and kicking.

I hoped the outage was localized, because a blackout at a time like this could be catastrophic. The police were obviously already overwhelmed, and people get weird in the dark in the best of times.

“I’d suggest ghost stories, but, uh, no,” I said, trying to match Piper’s tone.

“No,” she agreed with a dramatic shudder.

Bob, still being uncommonly clingy, had curled up at my feet and laid his head on his paws. I was edgy enough that I almost jumped out of my skin when his head suddenly snapped up and his ears pricked forward.

I didn’t know what he was responding to—I hadn’t heard anything—but I breathed a little prayer under my breath that it was my dad coming home. I was badly in need of his strength and self-assurance. He would know exactly what to do, how we could stay as safe as possible in the face of whatever was happening outside.

My hopes that Piper and I were about to be under the protection of the police commissioner himself were quickly shattered when I saw the fur on the back of Bob’s neck start to rise.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I really hoped Bob was only bristling because Piper’s and my anxiety was contagious. Silently, I begged for him to put his head back down and go to sleep, but instead he got to his feet and stared intently at the front door, hackles continuing to rise as his ears slowly flattened.

“This can’t be good,” Piper said, her eyes wide and frightened in the candlelight.

“The door’s locked,” I reminded her. “And we checked all the windows. And we have Bob.”

“Uh-huh. A pothole grew teeth and attacked a car earlier tonight, and we’re sitting here in the dark during a blackout.”

Her case was more convincing than mine. I reached over and took her hand, which was cold and clammy. “We’re safe here,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster, as Bob stalked toward the door, his lips pulling back from his teeth and a low growl rising in his throat.

There was a sudden, loud bang on the door, one short, sharp sound that in no way resembled a knock and that made both Piper and me jump to our feet and cry out in surprise. Bob did not appreciate it, and his growl turned into a full-throated bark that made my bones rattle. He threw himself at the door, his claws ripping into the paint as he tried to batter his way through to whoever—or whatever—was out there.

“Becket…” Piper moaned, her hand tightening on mine as we both backed away from the door and Bob’s fury.

If there were any other noises at the door, we couldn’t hear them over Bob. My heart was pounding in my throat, and I had the now-familiar queasy feeling in my stomach. The flickering candles made the shadows dance all around us, but we’d only bothered to light the living room, where we were sitting. Beyond their feeble glow, everything was pitch dark.

There was another sharp crack, this time not from the door but from the front window. Piper screamed, and practically broke my fingers with her spastic grip. We couldn’t see out the window because the shutters were closed, so there was no way to know what that noise had been. Bob abandoned his post by the door and roared over to the window, ears flattened, neck hair bristling, barking and snarling so viciously that even in the dark I could see the drool flying from his mouth. He rose up on his hind legs and scrabbled at the shutters with his claws.

The noise came again, this time from one of the side windows. Bob pursued it with single-minded fury. The side windows were set high in the wall, so Bob couldn’t get at them directly. Instead, he propped his front paws on the wall and kept making fruitless little jumps.

“It’s playing with us,” Piper whispered, so softly I could barely hear her over Bob.

“Either that, or searching for a weakness,” I whispered back. “It won’t find one,” I hastened to assure Piper when I heard the frightened whimper that rose from her throat. I might have been more convincing if I believed that myself.

I had no idea who or what was out there, and I had zero interest in going to a window and trying to get a look. Then again, I didn’t much like the idea of standing there cowering helplessly in the dark, either.

“I’m going to get my gun,” I announced,