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~ A Mortal Guide's to Preters by S.J. Wells
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MICHALIS SHIFTED INTOhis other form as soon as Catalina turned away. The only reason he had a penthouse built was to have access in and out of the tower without having to take the stairs or the elevator, which were far too slow and crowded for his liking.
He was already several hundred feet above ground when his hackles started to rise, and he immediately halted mid-climb as his senses picked up on Catalina's unease.
His first instinct was to leap back down so he could pick her up by the collar of her blouse as a wolf would with its cub. His primal desire was to carry Catalina all the way to the safety of his penthouse, ask her what was wrong, and kill whatever it was that had caused icy sweat to blanket over her skin.
The scent of her distress was making him bristle, but his tension abruptly turned into wariness when he sensed Catalina determinedly working to slow her heartbeat down. It was almost as if she didn't want anyone to find out she was troubled, and Michalis' mood turned brooding as he recalled her story about meeting an old woman and ending up drawingThe Priestessfrom a deck of Tarot cards.
He had security verify her story without telling Catalina, but Spiros and his men had come back empty handed. All of the security cameras at the train station had apparently experienced a few minutes of downtime...and it just so happened to coincide with the time Catalina had spent there.
Michalis shifted back into human form as soon as he reached his office, and he wasted no time in reviewing footage from the cameras that had the tower's entrance under surveillance.
His chest clenched as Catalina showed up in his monitor. Something she had seen in the corner of her eye seemed to have spooked her, and his mood took on a violent edge when he realized what she had seen...was apparently another man.
Who the fuck was this asshole?
The guy was clearly determined to hide his identity. He knew exactly where not to look to avoid having the cameras' facial recognition kick in, but just as it had been with Catalina...
Data from the city's thermal scanners were what gave him away, with the stranger's heat levels zigzagging between normal human temp and the kind of numbers that only a preter could register.
Some people might enjoy having more than one mystery to solve, but Michalis had always preferred having everything rigidly outlined and laid out in the open.
This asshole was an anomaly just like Catalina was, and Michalis was not the type to believe in fucking coincidences.
He would give her a chance.
One chance to come clean and tell him what the hell was going on.
But if she still refused to tell him the truth...
****
BUILDING MAINTENANCEis busy setting up additional cubicles at the back of the room when I reach our department, and I do my best to clear my mind of anything that's stupid and unnecessary.
These first two weeks following All Hallows' Eve are always crucial when preters make up your client base, and it's never been my style to let anything personal get in the way of my job.
Farah catches sight of me when she steps out of her office. "Oh good, you're surprisingly andweirdlyearly today."
"How is it weird whenyou'realways weirdly early?"
"I don't count," the older woman says simply. "I'm too hot to be weird."
That...somehow makes sense, and so I just ask, "Can I help you with something?"
Farah nods approvingly. "As a matter of fact, yes. There's this old woman who's been calling nonstop for the past ten minutes, and I just can't with her. She doesn't speak our language—-"
Oh.
Shit.
Maybe this is the time I should come clean about what I wrote in my resumé?
"Um, the thing about my Japanese proficiency—-"
"—-and I do mean she's not fluent at all. She doesn't even know what a WiFi network is!"
