Howler's Night Read Online Free Page B

hung past their shoulders in differing shades of red and brown. With broad foreheads and wide jaws, I couldn’t call them ugly. They were unusual, yes, but alluring and hypnotic as well.
    I wrapped my arms around myself and tiptoed toward the bar.
    I could feel their eyes on my back as I sat. Behind the bar stood a man who stared at me with a hard, penetrating look in his unnatural, tri-colored eyes of green and blue and red right around the pupils. His features were bold and angular and his skin as pale as my own; he looked nothing like the other patrons. He wasn’t dressed in leathers and chaps like the rest of them were. Instead he wore charcoal gray suit pants and a vest with a snow white tie in a Windsor knot. His short brown hair lay in casual spikes, and something inside of me twitched, like some force or entity that shared my space was undulating slowly awake.
    But just as quickly as it happened it disappeared, and I scratched the back of my neck, swiftly glancing down at my bare feet and trying to ignore the fact that my body tingled all over.
    The image of his clothes tried to jog a memory loose—of a man I once knew wearing something similar. I blinked as my palms grew moist and my pulse hammered. I couldn’t remember the name of the man or even see a clear picture of his face because it was hidden in deep shadow. The only thing my mind could latch onto was deep brown eyes. But when I tried to study the memory, it blinked in and out of focus like crappy cable on an antennaed TV.
    The man ran a dishrag across a glass tumbler and lifted a brow as if asking me a silent question.
    “What’s your name, girl?” he asked after another five seconds of awkward silence, and I could hear the gravel of years of hard living echoing behind it. I cocked my head because with his smooth skin and clear eyes he didn’t look much older than me. I wondered who he was. It bothered me that I didn’t know, but I thought maybe he was keeping his identity muted from me.
    If he could do that, that meant he was very powerful. Even so, I sensed no threat of violence from him.
    “I’m not a girl.” My words were automatic.
    He chuckled, and I shivered because it suddenly felt like I’d stepped into an arctic blast. I exhaled a white curl of steam.
    “How would you know?”
    I froze and narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean?”
    He set the glass down and planted his palms on the metal bar. “Didn’t mean nuthin’.”
    But I knew he meant something, even if he wasn’t staring at me, even if he seemed perfectly normal and bored by the entire conversation. I felt the truth ringing behind the mundane.
    “What’ll you have?”
    I hadn’t even looked at the menu. Surprisingly, I wasn’t hungry. I shrugged.
    “C’mon, darlin’.” He gave me a wide grin that again caused the blood in my veins to turn to slush. “Think real hard. You gotta have a favorite.”
    I pounded my fist down so hard I felt the metal yield beneath my hand. “What. Do. You. Know?”
    He had answers. And I had nothing but a million questions I needed answers to, and I knew he knew it.
    “Girl”—he leaned forward and I was blasted with a wave of power so intense that if I hadn’t been sitting I would have fallen to my knees—“you couldn’t handle what I know.”
    I grabbed my chest as my breathing hitched. I was running on nothing but adrenaline at that point, but I knew that whatever he was, I couldn’t take him. Then he grinned, and I was so confused that all I could do was frown and stare at him warily, feeling a lot like a mouse in the sights of coiled rattler.
    “Tell you what.” His twang was thick but soothing, and I liked the sound of his scratchy drawl. “You just sit there and think a spell. I got payin’ customers to tend to.”
    Then he snapped the rag across his shoulder and sauntered off, and I could finally breathe normally. Not in the mood to be bothered anymore, I rested my face on my fists and stared absentmindedly at the