Animus by Alex Owens

Author:Alex Owens [Owens, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: star-crossed lovers, contemporary fantasy, shifter romance, paranormal suspense, urban fantasy
Publisher: QuirkyGurl Media
Published: 2017-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Hours later, Pia dreamed of death—her own, many times over. They all stood out as tragic, violent or particularly abrupt. She was martyred for her beliefs, burned at the stake for beliefs she didn’t hold, and targeted by a madman in London with a taste for butchering pretty ladies.

Those were the horrific ones, but others were disturbing in their own way. So many accidents, freaks of coincidence and bad timing. Not once did she grow old and die surrounded by family and friends. Not once did she pass peacefully in the night. No, poor Pia never had the privilege of a good death. That was the most disturbing part.

She tossed and flopped in bed, wrapping herself up in the worn sheet like a burrito one minute, only to spin and accidentally kick Edgar off the bed the next. His meow and thump wasn’t what woke her though.

A low scratching at her window brought Pia upright and awake instantly. Chills snaked down her spine. It sounded like someone was cutting her window screen with great care. She eased off the bed and crept nearer to the window, careful to keep to the side of it, well within the shadows. She couldn’t see much, but the shadowy figure crouched outside was all that she needed to see.

Pia backed away from the window quietly, grabbed her jeans from the floor and pulled them on hastily. She grabbed a sweatshirt and her tennis shoes and crept to her back door, only to stop as the sound of her bedroom window squeaking echoed down the hall.

She was out of time!

She looked around for her phone or purse and saw neither. No time to waste looking, either. The only thing she could do was run. At least she was smart enough to know she had to do it quietly.

She slipped out of the door without a sound and sprinted around to the driveway. She eyed her car but didn’t have the keys—she’d have to strike out on foot. She ducked under the neighbor’s hedge and briefly thought about knocking on their back door. But she couldn’t bring herself to involve them. They had a new baby and who’s to say her intruder wasn’t hell-bent on taking her down, no matter who he had to kill to get to her?

Instead, she crept along the hedge backwards, keeping her eyes open for any sign of movement coming from her own house. She backed into something hard and unyielding, but before she could turn around, a strong hand clamped down over her mouth.

Pia struggled to break free.

“Quiet. He’ll hear you.” The man whispered. “I’m going to take my hand away from your mouth. Please don’t do anything stupid. Okay?”

Pia nodded, unsure if she was capable of following directions at that point.

The hand lifted from her mouth and Pia spun around to assess her situation. Her mouth gaped at the sight of him. Tall, lean, roughly her own age... with beautiful brown hair hanging down over ice-blue eyes. He had kind eyes, eyes that didn’t look crazy or homicidal.

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