City of the Dead by Eileen Dreyer

Author:Eileen Dreyer [Dreyer, Eileen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!

Chastity was standing in front of the stairs to James’s apartment watching the pedestrians when she felt a hand on her elbow. She knew it wasn’t James. Even Superman didn’t change that fast. For only a moment, she considered just walking off with whoever it was. Disappearing into the night and taking her consequences where she wouldn’t have to face James again. She started to turn so she could at least address the person.

Then she was pushed from behind. Hard.

“Hey!” she yelled, trying to pull away. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Her attacker grabbed hold again and propelled her toward the alleyway between the buildings. As Chastity struggled to stay on her feet, she caught sight of his face in the streetlight. She gaped like a fish.

“Good God. What are you doing here?”

It was Lloyd Burgard.

Lloyd the crazy person, in his suit and tie and precise haircut. “Shut up,” he commanded.

Then he shoved her so hard into the alleyway that she dropped her cup and slammed against the far wall.

“I can’t wait…wait any longer,” he insisted. “You have to show me.”

Chastity scraped her hands against the bricks. She twisted her ankle on those damn shoes. Her legs were suddenly sticky with the dropped Hurricane.

She straightened, thinking fast. She’d had too many surprises in too few days, and way too much alcohol in the last few hours. She was reeling with it.

“Show you what, Lloyd?” she asked, backing up against the wall. Trying hard to make eye contact.

But his eyes were in the shadows. He was standing there at the edge of the alley, silhouetted by the neon, and she could hear the rasp of his breathing. She caught a gleam of something wet at the corner of his mouth.

Her very own angel of judgment. And he’d finally come for her. She sure couldn’t think of any other reason Lloyd Burgard should have appeared on Bourbon Street at midnight.

At this particular midnight.

“You know, your sister Lillian is looking for you,” she said, trying hard to control her voice, to seem nonthreatening and friendly.

Lloyd wasn’t buying it. “Don’t you understand?” he demanded, crowding her against the next building. “You escaped your punishment. How did you do it?”

The alley smelled like piss. Like rotted food and stagnant water and rum. Chastity was no more than ten feet from people, but nobody turned her way. She had to get out of that alley.

“How did I do what?” she asked.

“Escape the angels of death.”

For just the briefest moment, Chastity’s attention faltered. Wouldn’t it be really funny, she thought, if he weren’t crazy? If he really were the angel of judgment, and death was after her?

She shook it off, though. She knew, in a split second, that things had just changed again. That Lloyd was telling her something wrapped and coded in his own language.

“What angels, Lloyd?”

He waved a hand at her, and his voice was sharp with impatience. “They pulled you out of the cab. I saw it myself, and I said, ‘Thank you, Lord, because I don’t have the strength to carry out the will of the saints.

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