The truth is, they’ve been having a blast the last few months, and having another drakul around is an unpleasant reminder of everything that went down in Charleston.'Īnd you? Zahira asked. Gray is… Sulking seemed demeaning, even though it was accurate '… upset by the new drakul. Traffic slowed to a crawl, and flashing red lights indicated an accident ahead. She sighed wistfully at the missed opportunity. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t have learned something from him. 'You do remember Drugoy wanted to kill us, don’t you?' He snorted at the disappointment in her voice. We’ve never studied one in a dead body, and the only one we’ve been able to interview live is Gray. Our sample size is too small to make generalizations about drakul behavior at this point. I’m just some random mortal to him, so why trouble himself to save me?'Ī little line popped up between Zahira’s brows. John used the excuse of merging into traffic on I-10 to consider his response. 'Not to sound ungrateful, but I don’t understand why.' His lips pressed together, as if to hold in the next words. The drakul grabbed me before I could fall and pulled me back up. You’re only saying that because you didn’t see the creepy piles of rotting stuffed animals. The rougarou almost took me with it, off the side of a roller coaster in an abandoned theme park.Īn abandoned theme park? I wish I’d been there. He saved my life, he said, because that seemed as good a place to start as any. Bruises encircled one wrist like a bracelet, where the new drakul had grabbed his arm to save him from plummeting to certain death. The scar tissue on his calf ached, and his fight with the giant rougarou in the early hours before dawn had left him battered. He’d barely had time to shower, let alone sleep. Right now, he was running on coffee and the dregs of adrenaline. But judging from the gleam in her eyes, sleep was the farthest thing from her mind.

She’d spent most of last night helping him research, then boarded a flight to New Orleans first thing this morning. Same old Zahira, brimming with enthusiasm even though she had to be exhausted. So tell me everything about this new drakul. Her seatbelt clicked into place, and John pulled away from the curb and into airport traffic. On the plus side, my badge kept me from being taken aside for a ‘random’ screening. She smoothed the legs of her pantsuit, then adjusted the hang of her hijab. John turned down the radio and asked, How was your flight?Ĭrowded. The door to John’s SUV swung open, and Zahira flung her bag into the back seat, before scrambling into the front beside him.

Bringer of Night by Jordan L. Hawk