The Better to Bite Read Online Free Page B

class—history,
someone save me
—I found myself looking for Rafe.
    And I found him, huddled in the corner and talking real close with Valerie.
    Figured.
    Not interested.
    At least, that’s what I was determined to keep telling myself.
    ***
    The strange, little shop caught my eye. I’d done my bit at school, made it through the day by only pissing off one jock—
score for me!—
and I was doing my good girl routine and heading to the sheriff’s station for my after school care.
    Then I saw the shop.
    Small, tiny really, with glass windows and a tilted sign near the entrance that just said, “Charmed.”
    I squinted, but I couldn’t see inside the shop. All I saw was my reflection. Pale skin. Red hair.
    Me.
    I walked closer, feeling almost like I was being pulled into the shop. A little bell jingled overhead when I slowly opened the door.
    The scent hit me first. Incense. Not a bad smell, but rather one that tickled my nose. My gaze scanned the shop. Shelves of books. Small glass jars, all carefully labeled. Gargoyles watched me from the corners of the room. Candles lined one wall, all shapes and colors.
    My breath eased out. A spell shop. Did Dad know this place was here?
    “Can I help you?”
    I jumped because I hadn’t even heard the lady approach. She was tiny, with stooped shoulders and weathered, brown skin. Her dark eyes were coal black, and her smile was big and warm. “Is there something you need, child?”
    Child? Not quite. “I was just looking.” I offered her a tentative smile back. “What kind of shop is this?” I asked even though I already knew. I actually knew far too much about places like this.
    “Why ask when you know.” She was still smiling but her gaze had taken on an assessing quality. Then she came closer, definitely invaded my personal space, and she caught my arm.
    Her touch was cold. Like, ice cold, and a shiver worked over me as her fingers clamped around my wrist. “Dark,” she whispered.
    Coming into the shop had been such a bad move. Now I had to deal with this weird lady.
    “You feel it, don’t you?” She asked me as she closed her eyes.
    “Um, no.” I only felt her increasingly claw-like grip.
    “The dark is all around you, always has been, and it’s closing in.”
    Was this her sales pitch? Seriously? Scare tactics to make folks do what? Buy some candles for protection? I tried to yank my arm back, but she wasn’t budging.
    I inhaled a deep breath and pulled more incense into my lungs. “I’m not afraid of the dark.” Even though I knew just what could wait in the shadows. Monsters.
    Not vampires or demons like you saw in horror movies.
    Humans were the real monsters. My dad had taught me that. My mom had learned that lesson, too.
    It had been the last lesson she’d ever learned.
    Her eyes opened and they seemed, if possible, even blacker than before. “Soon enough, you will be afraid of the darkness, child. You will fear what waits for you.”
    Okay. She was more than a little creepy.
    The bell jingled again, and she glanced over my shoulder. I snatched my arm free—hard—and jumped back a step as I whirled to see who’d come to my rescue.
    A girl stood there. My age. Light cocoa skin, bright green eyes, and with hair that tangled around her shoulders in loose curls. That green stare widened when she saw me, then it narrowed when she focused on the woman behind me.
    “Gran…” She began and there was no whisper of the South in her voice. None at all. “Are you trying to scare another customer out the door?”
    I’d seen the girl at school. She’d been in my English Lit class. Not the real talkative sort. But then, I wasn’t either.
    Footsteps shuffled behind me. I looked back. “Gran” was heading toward the long curtains that waited just beyond the cash register.
    “Sorry,” the girl muttered as she came to my side. “She didn’t mean to…” A long sigh. “Whatever she did, she didn’t mean it.”
    “Forget it.” I was more than ready to