Night Terrors: Savage Species, Book 1 Read Online Free Page A

in.”
    “Please be nice, Eric.”
    “You’re nice enough for both of us.”
    Footsteps sounded from below, their daughters tromping up the basement stairs. Kate appeared first, followed by Olivia. Olivia went straight to the computer desk, presumably to draw circles on her notebook, but Kate just stood at Charly’s side.
    “Does Dad know about the wall yet?” she whispered.
    “What wall?” Eric asked.
    Charly winced, drew Kate closer.
    “I drew a purple walrus,” Kate said.
    Eric watched her from the kitchen table. “Purple walrus.”
    “I made his tusks green.”
    Eric looked at Charly for an explanation. Beyond her husband, Charly saw Olivia’s four-year-old face pinch with worry.
    “Most of it’s already come off,” Charly said. “She used acrylics, so there are only a few places where I had to use thinner.”
    “Wait a minute. She did what?”
    “She’s already apologized,” Charly said. “I took away her dolls, and she’ll have to load the dishwasher—”
    Eric’s face reddened. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
    Against her leg, Charly felt Kate flinch.
    “It’s fine ,” Charly said. “She knows she made a mistake—”
    “Then why does she keep screwing up?” Eric said, rising. “Christ, Kate, you think your teachers are gonna put up with this kind of crap?”
    Charly squeezed her daughter. “You and Olivia go back downstairs, honey. We’ll eat in a little while.”
    Kate darted away and escaped through the basement door, but Olivia moved very slowly, her large brown eyes—Eric’s eyes—never leaving her father.
    Eric was shaking his head and pacing about the kitchen. You asshole , Charly thought. How about you try loving them, too?
    “You plan on doing that when she gets in school?” Eric said, his voice echoing through the kitchen. “Shielding her whenever she misbehaves?”
    “Her teachers won’t overreact the way you do.”
    “Then they aren’t doing their job.”
    “It’s kindergarten, Eric, not the Marines.”
    “Keep coddling her, see where it—”
    The doorbell sounded. Eric got that look in his eyes, the one he reserved for referees who made calls against his team. “Good,” he said. “About time he showed up.”
    “Please don’t be rude to him.”
    “Oh no,” Eric said, moving through the kitchen doorway. “We wouldn’t want to hurt your boyfriend’s feelings.”
    Charly hugged Jake, whose wails were starting to make her teeth chatter, and said, “Mommy’s gotta put you down for a minute, honey.” She walked him over and deposited him in the pink swing they’d used for all three kids; Eric had wanted a new one, claiming the color might turn his son into a homosexual. As she laid him down, Jake frowned as though about to scream, but when the circus animal mobile began twirling to the cheerful music, he relaxed and grinned up in delight.
    “…hope you do a better job next door than you did on this place,” she heard Eric saying.
    “What can I help you with?” Sam said. His voice sounded pleasant enough, but when she rounded the corner and saw him, she could see the strain around his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, and his light blue work shirt was badly wrinkled. Still, she thought, it brought out the deep blue in his eyes. He was a good five inches shorter than Eric, but she liked his build. Compact. Arms hard from manual labor. Bet he’s not afraid to change a tire , she thought.
    Standing there with only a few feet between them, she was able to contrast her husband to this man more clearly than ever. Eric with his gel-shiny black hair, Sam’s hair dark brown and probably finger-combed in the mirror of his pickup truck. Eric wore the red-and-white WIU women’s basketball T-shirt and light gray shorts; Sam had on a button-down blue polo and the same dark blue jeans she’d always seen him in. She doubted he owned anything else.
    And of course there was the age difference.
    “For starters,” Eric said, “the