Lauren went through the shop, flipping on lights on her way to the bathroom. To hell with the electricity bill—it was creepy being in a dark building all alone. And besides, for the past few days she’d had the feeling that someone was watching her. She knew it was crazy and completely impossible but she kept finding herself looking over her shoulder. Feeling like a pair of invisible eyes was watching her every move.
“Stop being stupid,” she muttered to herself as she tucked her long, silky black hair into a hairnet and checked her reflection. The girl in the mirror had smooth mocha skin and large eyes the color of fine whiskey. A tip-tilted nose made her cute rather than exotic, despite the eyes, but her full lips pushed cute to beautiful when she smiled—or so Lorenzo said when he was feeling poetic.
God, what was wrong with her? Why did she always fall for jerks and players? Just once Lauren wished she could meet someone genuine. Someone who was exactly what they seemed to be. But with her work schedule now and trying to keep the shop open seven days a week, she wasn’t going to have time to meet anyone but customers.
“Not that I have time for a love life even if I did meet someone,” Lauren muttered to herself. “As if—”
The words died on her lips. For a moment she could have sworn she saw a pair of eyes behind her in the mirror. Red eyes.
She whirled around, her heart pounding, to see…nothing.
“Of course it’s nothing. There’s no one here but me.” The sound of her own voice made her jump and Lauren put a hand to her chest to still her beating heart. It was time to stop being silly and get down to business. Today she had a brand new recipe she wanted to try out—a strawberry hazelnut with cream cheese frosting. She’d tried a small batch in the kitchen in her condo and they had come out nicely but—
Suddenly there was a popping, humming sound like electricity and the air around her seemed to be full of lightning. Every hair on her head stood on end and her nerves twanged like plucked strings. Danger—you’re in danger! an inner voice shouted. The voice of instinct—the same primitive voice that must have warned the cavemen when a fire or flood was on the way.
Lauren wanted to run—tried to run—but everything happened too quickly. The crackling electrical charge seemed to close around her, like a vast hand, and suddenly she felt herself dissolving. Looking in the mirror she could almost see it happening in slow motion—her body had been broken into a million tiny particles that were all vibrating against each other in deadly harmony. Her clothes, however, remained unaffected. In fact, they fell away from her, landing in a heap on the floor.
No! No, what’s happening?
There was no answer but suddenly she saw the eyes in the mirror again. Red eyes—blood red and laughing at her pain, her fear. She could almost feel the evil in that crimson gaze—the intent to cause harm—the desire to wound and mutilate and kill.
Before she could think anything else, the tiny white tiled bathroom of The Sweet Spot disappeared and she felt herself flying through the air in pieces. It was the most bizarre sensation she had ever felt in her life—as though someone had put her entire body through a cheese grater and shot the results into the air at supersonic speed.
I’m dying. This is dying, right?
Again, no answer. But suddenly she felt herself reforming—all the tiny particles finding their places and sticking together again. Oh, thank God! She felt her arms and legs frantically, making sure she was all in once piece. She was naked but she was whole and at least nothing seemed to be missing.
“Here ssshe isss at last. Sssee, my ssson, ssshe bears the mark. The mark the prophesy ssspoke of.”
A long, skeletal finger suddenly appeared in front of her and pointed between her breasts. Lauren looked down to her small, pale birthmark reflexively—it was shaped like a star and stood out against her creamy brown skin. She’d always had it and never even thought about it anymore, though it looked strange when she wore a bikini.
A feeling of dread filled her as she looked up, up, up the long arm clothed in billowing cobwebs and into the burning red eyes she’d seen in the mirror.
“Yesss,” hissed a voice Lauren knew she’d been hearing in her dreams for the past few weeks. “Yesss, ssshe isss the one. At last I have her. Ssshe isss mine.”
Chapter Four
Kat was flying again but this time she wasn’t looking down at herself. Instead she was hovering inside a narrow stone tunnel. There was a faint light at one end that illuminated the pinkish brown stones and she could hear footsteps coming, echoing down the long enclosed corridor. Who’s coming? Will they see me?