Shadow Fall by Glass Seressia

Author:Glass, Seressia [Glass, Seressia]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Pocket
Published: 2011-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

Buzzing slid along Kira’s arms as she pulled her bike into the underground garage for Light International, the privately held multinational conglomerate that served as the front and funding source for the Gilead Commission. Light International had been a company longer than the United States had been a country, and no one questioned its existence.

She rolled through the security shield and stopped at the mechanical arm at the guard shack. It looked ubiquitous, exactly as it was supposed to, but Kira knew that layers and layers of protection—both magical and mundane—swathed the entry. She’d heard that a Shadow Adept had tried to breach the entrance five years ago, but had been violently repelled. Kira didn’t know if it was urban legend or not, but there was a dark, oil-stain-looking blotch on the pavement in front of her, a blotch that resisted all attempts to pressure-wash it clean.

The security guard squeezed out of the small kiosk, handheld scanner aloft. How Rhino managed to fit his bulk into something the size of a guest closet was beyond Kira. He was so big people were afraid to step into an elevator with him, afraid of being stuck between floors or worse yet, being stuck in his massive layers only to suffocate unnoticed. The fears that kept others from riding with Rhino were the reasons Kira did. His presence kept her from accidental contact.

She lifted her visor, not that Rhino needed to see her eyes to make a positive identification. He held the palm-sized scanner in one beefy hand, and she wondered if it could read the Shadow that still tainted her and turn her into an oily stain on the ground. “Hey, Rhino.”

“Hey, Kira.” People expected the security guard to be slow, yet he was anything but. He came from a family of hybrids sometimes called slag demons because their highest evolved form looked like a giant lava version of the Thing. His voice was an even tenor, and she knew for a fact that he could cut a rug with the best of them. He lowered the scanner without activating it. “Two visits in as many weeks.” Kira had stopped by two weeks before to retrieve some new equipment. “I’m going to stop being surprised when you show up around here.”

“I’m here because of the were-hyena the SRT brought in last night,” she answered, easing her bike forward. “Don’t worry, I’ll get back to my hermit-like ways pretty soon.”

“I hope not. You’re the highlight of my day.”

“Then we need to get you out of that guard shack more. Are you staying warm?”

Rhino nodded. “I’m managing. The elders have gone to ground for the winter, except for the clan leader of course. Atlanta is warm most of the time, but it is not Hawai’i. By the way, I have a chipotle turkey chili recipe you have got to try.”

“Are you kidding? You have a molten lava core. I don’t, and I’m not planning to get one anytime soon. I felt the effects of that curry you gave me for an entire week!”

Rhino laughed.

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