This time, their vehicle didn’t stink. He’d insisted on it. Daniel had complained that it ended up costing them double, but the man in control didn’t care. They could afford it.
It was a different parking lot than last time, but after a while, sitting there, he couldn’t even be sure of that anymore. It was more of the same—rows of cars, trains rattling, brakes screeching, passengers going back and forth.
And waiting. Endless waiting. He repeatedly shifted in his seat, opened and closed his window, tapped the steering wheel, one leg constantly jumping as if it had a mind of its own.
“What’s the matter with you?” Daniel barked at him finally. “Can’t you sit still?”
He couldn’t—that was the thing. He nearly whimpered at the itch under his skin, at the tension in his gut. He needed this, needed it to be over.
The one o’clock train had already gone by, with five passengers, all men, walking past them. There was one more train. Daniel had said that if that train was a bust, they’d go home, try again the next night. But he couldn’t. He needed the hunt, the prey, the blood.
And then the train stopped. The first passenger, walking in the shadows, was a man.
Then, the thin form of a woman.
“There we go,” Daniel growled. “Are you ready?”
Was he ready? He was born for this. He was already poised to move, to stalk her, to pounce, to feed. His mouth salivated as he imagined the iron taste of blood . . .
“Ah, shit,” Daniel said.
A man joined her side. They were a couple. But the man was small. They could easily take him out. He would tear the man’s throat with his teeth, leave him to bleed to death. He opened his door, put one foot on the pavement.
Daniel caught his wrist. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’ll handle him,” he hissed at Daniel. They had no time. The couple was getting away. He needed this!
“No!” Daniel pulled him. “Close the damn door.”
For a moment he nearly punched Daniel’s face. His fingers tightened into a fist as he clenched his teeth . . .
He didn’t. He was in control. He relaxed.
“Tomorrow,” Daniel said. “We’ll find one tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” He shut the door and started the car, still vibrating with tension. “Tomorrow.”
Rhea woke up with a start and looked around her, confused. She had fallen asleep in her clinic, by her desk. That was a new low, even for her. She remembered doing some paperwork, then thinking she’d just lean back in the chair for a minute, give her eyes a rest. Ugh, it was already dark outside; she must have slept for over an hour.
She got up and shut all the windows in the clinic, then went over to the alarm panel and switched on the alarm. The thing emitted its shrill beeping, and the display counted down from twenty. She grabbed her bag, shoved her phone inside, and blearily shuffled to the door. She slid outside, shut it, then locked it. Inside, she heard the alarm panel giving its final beep as it turned on.
She turned around, took a few steps down the street, then frowned.
It was way too quiet. The road was empty of traffic, and there was no one around. Sure, her clinic wasn’t exactly in the busiest part of the city, but still. What time was it, anyway?
She checked her phone, blinking in shock.
Half past two in the morning?
She’d slept over six hours in her chair. No wonder her body felt so stiff, her neck like a rusty hinge.
Her house was only fifteen minutes away on foot. She walked to her clinic and back home every day. But she’d never done it so late at night.
For a second she considered going back inside, calling an Uber. But she’d already locked the clinic and turned on the alarm, and besides, taking an Uber for less than a mile drive?
This was one of the safer neighborhoods of Chicago. Didn’t she always tell her parents that when they fretted? Her dad practically thought she lived in a war zone. But in all her years in Chicago, she’d never been a victim of a crime, unless she counted spam mail.
She began walking home.
There was something creepy in striding down the empty dark street. And it was so freaking cold. She shivered, told herself it was because she was freezing, not because she was afraid. She would get home, take a nice long hot shower, and sleep in her