Savage Craving - Cecilia Lane Page 0,11

to stay with her until her security detail arrived. Acutely aware of the eyes on her back, she gave the parking lot a general wave before slipping through her door.

She leaned against the door and dragged down an unsteady breath as soon as she was inside and alone. The quiet pulsed loud in her ears. The hum of the fridge, the beat of her heart. Such soft sounds drowned out all the remembered noise and activity of the SEA field office and set her teeth on edge.

Tears welled in the corners of her eyes. Cedric’s face and a whole mess of nameless others filled her mind. Dead. They were dead. She’d narrowly avoided going down that path with them.

She spun around and furiously engaged the locks and slid the chain into place. Still not enough distance between her and the outside world, she backed away until she bumped into a wall. Lilah whipped around expecting to find the hard chest of an intruder. The scream that bubbled in the back of her throat turned into a harsh yelp of laughter.

She was going crazy. For real this time.

She made her way to her bedroom. A scalding hot shower was in order. She wanted to wash the day from her skin, maybe burn away some of the memories that branded themselves on her bones.

Her energy gave out the moment she spotted her bed. Lilah collapsed on the mattress, not bothering to take off a piece of her clothing or even kick off her heels. She stretched out her legs with a wince of pain. Her knees hurt from the bruises and scrapes of road rash. Her wince turned to a grimace when she pulled her skirt higher up her thighs and ran her fingers over the jagged scars she’d carried for years.

She tried to be a good person. She recycled. The rules of the road were followed when she was behind the wheel, no matter how easy it was to go ten over the speed limit when she was running late or roll through the stupidly placed stop sign near her favorite coffee shop.

How the hell did she keep getting wrapped up with shifter trouble? Had she hurt kittens in a previous life? Tripped a priest? Clearly, she’d done immense harm to call for the repeated attempts on her life.

Curling up on her side, she let the day’s loss and terror finally wash over the carefully erected walls of control. Her entire body shook as sobs worked out of her middle.

She wanted a do-over. Not just on the day, but on her entire life. Born anywhere but a tiny, backwater town in Oklahoma, first kiss given to anyone besides the monster she’d thought she’d loved and whose family wanted to murder her in return, live in any reality without those animals lurking under a person’s skin.

Scars and death threats were her reality instead.

Even after her sobs abated, Lilah didn’t move. She stared straight ahead, empty inside, until her lids grew heavy and she slid into a fitful sleep.

Sometime later, she jerked awake. She stayed still, body stiff with fright, unsure of what had prompted her sudden trip back to consciousness. She quickly cataloged what she heard around her—the hum of her fridge, the faint chatter of a neighbor's television—then opened her eyes and pinpointed a red robe hanging from the edge of her dresser and the bluish-grey of her walls. Identifying sights and sounds slowed her runaway mind on the fast track to a panic attack.

She was alone in her apartment. Safe. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

Lilah froze at the soft groan of metal.

One second bled into the next. Her heart thundered against her chest. She didn’t dare move or breathe. She willed the rapid beat to stillness.

Nothing else made a sound. No monsters jumped out of the dark with the flash of fangs and claws ready to find their homes in her flesh.

She let out a long breath and fell back against the bed. The metal railing on her balcony sometimes shifted with the wind. That was all.

No wind rustled the leaves of the trees growing next to her window.

She jumped again when her phone buzzed on her nightstand. Lilah slowly sat up and reached for the device. “H-hello?”

“Lilah McKenna?” the deep voice on the line asked.

“Who is this?”

“Seth Foster. Jaime asked me to come check on you.”

Security. Right. She should have known. She pushed to her feet and made her way into her living room. “I’m…” she trailed off.