Eater of Lives(SPECTR #4) by Jordan L. Hawk

I will.” John’s arms slid around
him, warm and strong and sure. “Let’s go to bed.”

Chapter 6
     
    Valerie hunched over her keyboard, staring at
the computer screen. A long list of men scrolled past, all of whom
had answered her newest profile on yet another dating site.
    She hadn’t left the apartment since coming
across the trail of the monster hunting her. A shiver ran through
her at the memory, and she plucked at the layers of blankets
wrapped around her shoulders.
    Monster . Like something out of a
horrible story: the wolf in the wood, waiting to gobble up the
three little pigs, or the witch fattening up Hansel and Gretel.
    But they were stronger than any monster.
    “ Yes. But you must pick another meal!
Hurry!”
    Impatience etched her veins in acid, pushing
back against the soothing cold, letting the edge of hunger in. And
hunger meant weakness. The weakness of her stupid body, wanting
what it couldn’t have.
    She forced it away and focused on the screen
in front of her. She’d had trouble concentrating lately, the cold
spreading to the edges of her thoughts. She paused at the picture
of a young man dressed in a baseball cap with a Confederate flag
emblazoned on it. Maybe him?
    But his profile was maddeningly nondescript.
No bragging about all the “bitches” he’d fucked. No suggestion he
thought women existed as objects for his pleasure, and “rape” was
just an invention of femi-nazis.
    Shit.
    “ Take him.”
    What? I…I can’t. Just the ones who deserve
it, remember? The ones who…
    She swallowed, pushing memory down. Demanding
hands and bare skin and…and…
    No. She was strong. Stronger than her
treacherous, weak body.
    “ Yes, you are,” crooned the cold thing
inside her. “Strong enough to see he deserves to be
taken.”
    But…how can I tell? Maybe he’s just a douche,
or a dumb ass. Not someone who deserves…it.
    “ You know. Just look at him.”
    She blinked blearily. Maybe his gaze had a
malevolent edge she didn’t notice before…?
    “ He’s willing to meet right away. Any day
of the week. He must be up to no good.”
    God, she was hungry.
    She reached automatically for the plate at
her elbow. Bone crunched under her teeth, but these were just wrist
bones, without marrow. Without flesh.
    Yes. The cold voice had yet to steer her
wrong. She just needed to trust her instincts. Trust her
strength.
    Clicking the link, she began to compose an
invitation to meet the man in a new bar, far away from the one
haunted by the monster.
    * * *
    “We’ve got her!” Sean exclaimed as he burst
into John’s office.
    John looked up from his computer. Excitement
flushed Sean’s face, and he wore a grin of anticipation and
relief.
    “What?” he asked blankly, his mind still half
on his email.
    “A call came in from the hotline—someone
claiming he’d seen one of his neighbors put a suspicious-looking
package in a communal freezer in their apartment complex. He opened
it up and saw part of a human foot. Charleston PD sent an officer
around, in case it turned out to be a pig’s leg, because who would
be stupid enough to stick evidence in a freezer where any of the
neighbors could find it? He says it’s genuine.”
    John’s heart sped. Thank Sekhmet. “Does the
cop know to pull back?”
    “Yep. He’s keeping an eye on the place to
make sure the suspect doesn’t slip out, but otherwise just sitting
tight for us. I’ve already let Kaniyar know.”
    “I’ll meet you in the parking deck in five,”
John said, sliding his chair back and picking up his coat. “Just
let me grab Caleb.”
    * * *
    Less than half an hour later, four SUVs full
of SPECTR agents screeched to a halt in front of the apartments.
The building began life as one of the grand old houses of
Charleston, but a later owner had broken it up into apartments at
some point in the last eighty years. Time had passed the
neighborhood by; cracks riddled the sidewalk, the pavement needed
patching, and most of the houses barely