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Etta peered at me worriedly, her somber gray eyes clouding more.
“Is Orson working you too hard, honey? I can talk to him for you, you know.”
I exhaled. “No,” I insisted. “I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep well last night.”
Etta made a commiserating sound and clucked her tongue.
“It must get so lonely in that house all by yourself. You need to get out there, get laid, girl. Why don’t you let me set you up with one of Orson’s friends?”
I smiled politely. “I’m not really in the dating mood,” I replied.
“It’ll be good for you to get out. All you do is work and stay home, Abby. You’re too beautiful to waste away like this.”
My insides shifted uncomfortably. I didn’t like where this conversation was going, but I let her prattle on without comment, my mind still on Elijah.
“Your mate is gone, honey, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun, you know?”
“Yep,” I replied shortly, wishing she’d get the hint.
I quickened my pace as we turned the block, stepping off the curb and into the gutter as a teen on a bicycle flew down the street, his cheeks pink with concern as night fell around us.
Hurry home, kid. Bad things lurk in the dark,I thought irrelevantly.
“Abby,” Etta grumbled, stopping to unhook her arm from mine when she realized I wasn’t really paying any attention to her well-meaning blathering. Stifling a sigh, I looked at her. She placed her palms on my bare biceps and met my eyes seriously. “It’s been two hundred years, honey. You need to move on. Elijah isn’t coming back.”
Well, that answered my question. They definitely didn’t know he was in Pario City.
Inadvertently, I shivered again, this time, the hairs on my arms fully raising to the point that Etta noticed.
“Are you all right?” she demanded. “You don’t look well.”
I forced another smile. “Like I said, I’m just tired,” I insisted. “It’s nothing a good steak won’t fix. Come on, before the meat’s all gone.”
I hurried forward, hoping that Etta couldn’t read my guilty expression.
Dammit, Elijah, why did you come back? Why couldn’t you just leave well enough alone?
Chapter9
Elijah
It was as good a place as any to drink, since I had no other plans. There were rooms upstairs, according to the sign attached to the clapboard outside, and the inside had only a sprinkling of patrons, none of whom paid me any mind. So far, it was the most promising place I’d been since arriving in Pario City.
“How much Wi-Fi you gonna use?” the bartender asked when I requested a room.
“How much what?”
“Wi-Fi. Internet. You gonna stream or game or what?”
I stared at him blankly.
“Oh, good lords, you one of them dweller types, ain’t you?” he sniffed. “You from Forny?”
My expression must have once more displayed my complete lack of understanding because he slapped a single key on the counter, the plastic attachment displaying the number three upon it.
“Seventy-five for the night. If you rent pornos, you pay in advance. That means, you come down here and pay at the counter, in advance. You hear?”
I snorted. “I’m not renting porn.”
