Eternal by V. Forrest (new reading TXT) 📗

with their martini shaker and talked until after midnight. Fia had managed to say no after one green-apple martini and one wedding-cake martini, so her head was clear as they entered the game preserve. Her weapon, strapped into the leather holster she wore over her black Nike T-shirt, was loaded. For what, she didn’t know, but ever since they left the parking lot, taking the same deer trail into the woods that she and Glen had followed a little more than a week ago, she’d had a bad feeling.

“Witches? I don’t know,” Fia said softly.

They didn’t need a flashlight. All four women saw almost as well in the dark as they did in the daylight. A perk of being one of the living dead.

“Yeah, sounds a little out-there, doesn’t it?” Shannon ducked under a poplar branch that hung over the path.

“I guess. But maybe not any farther out-there than vampires.” Fia glanced over her shoulder to be sure that Sorcha and Eva were keeping up. “Who knows? Maybe there is such a thing as witches and they don’t believe in us, either.”

Shannon giggled. She was tipsy. They all were, except for Fia. And considering the fact that no one had pushed her on rounds three through five of the martini menu, Fia suspected the women had planned it that way. She sensed she made them feel safe. With her in the dark woods with them, none of them seemed to be afraid they might come upon Bobby and Mahon’s killer. Or if they did, they had confidence that their own homegrown law-enforcement agent would protect them.

“Come on, you two. Keep up,” Fia called over her shoulder. They were more than half a mile into the woods now, and approaching the place where Mahon’s body had been found.

Eva giggled. “Gotta pee. Hang on, Fee. Sorcha and I need a potty stop.”

“I told you to go before you came, kids,” Shannon sang as the two women stepped off the path to relieve themselves.

“How about you?” Fia asked Shannon.

The blonde grinned. “Went before I left, but thanks for asking, Mommy.”

Fia could have taken Shannon’s comment as an insult; on Fia’s age, her bossiness, any number of things. But she knew Shannon meant nothing by it and she found herself able to let it slide. She’d never particularly liked Shannon, but she was discovering that if she could just get past the big-boobed blond cocktail-waitress image, the young woman was actually kind of nice. Not at all the ditz she appeared to be at the Hill.

“So, how’s that hot FBI agent? Special Agent Glen Duncan,” Shannon said as if announcing his name on TV.

“Fine. I guess.” Fia was so surprised by Shannon’s sudden change of topic that it took her a second to regroup. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him since we left here last Friday.”

“Haven’t talked to him?” Shannon walked to Fia, looking up at her. “Are you nuts, girlfriend? He’s mad for you.”

Fia frowned.

“Oh, please. I know.” Shannon raised her palm. “He’s a human. Humans are dangerous. We’re dangerous to humans,” she chanted. “Well, I say it’s all a bunch of bull.”

“You do?” Fia asked. Then realizing that the way she said it made it sound like she was interested in Glen, she pulled back a branch and called softly into the woods. “What’s taking you two so long? Come on.” She looked back down at Shannon.

“Sometimes you just have to take chances, Fia. Maybe sometimes with humans. Sometimes with yourself.”

“He’s engaged,” Fia said.

“So what?” Shannon shrugged. “You like him. I think you should go for it. The way I saw him looking at you the other night in the pub, I don’t think that’s as big a problem as you might think. And as far as him looking like…you know, so what? Who cares? That was hundreds of years ago. People in this town have too much to say about too many things. You have a right to a little happiness. Same as anyone else in Clare Point.”

Fia crossed her arms over her chest. She’d been warm, hiking through the woods, but now that she was standing still, the slight breeze cooled her. She could hear Sorcha and Eva crashing through the brush toward them, giggling.

Fia looked down at Shannon, meeting her gaze. She had light brown eyes. Almost golden. She really was pretty when she wasn’t all tarted up. And smarter, maybe even more intuitive, than Fia had given her credit for in the past.

“You know, I was just goofing around with him in the pub,” Shannon said. “It’s just what I do. I would never go after a guy I thought you cared about. One any one of you girls cared about.”

Eva and Sorcha pushed through a holly bush, squealing as the branches prickled them.

“Ouch,” Eva yelped. “Glad I didn’t pull my panties down there.”

Sorcha grabbed her arm, and linked it through hers. “Press on, leerless feeder,” she called to Fia. “Mission accomplished!”

“I’m beginning to think we should have left them on the porch with their martinis,” Fia muttered to Shannon as she started down the path again.

There was more giggling and a few stumbles, but Eva, Sorcha, and Shannon all stayed together and kept up with Fia. They passed only a few feet from the place where Mahon had been found dead and everyone grew silent. The sad heaviness in the air seemed to sober the women, literally. Even after a week’s time and a full day of rainfall the day before, they could smell the blood and scent of their friend’s burnt flesh.

Fia shivered, wishing she’d brought her hoodie from the front seat of her car. “Now which way was this thing you think you saw, Shannon?” Fia didn’t question why Shannon had been on the game preserve alone in the middle of the night. Everyone in town hunted the deer, drank their blood, but it was something they rarely spoke of.

“I don’t think I saw anything. I’m telling you, it was some kind of