The Man Who Walked in Darkness (Miles Franco #2) (Miles Franco Urban Fantasy) Read Online Free

at me, unblinking. I tried not to notice.

THREE
    It wasn’t even 9 p.m. when the bartender kicked me out. I’d only polished off half a dozen beers and a whiskey or three, but I was in the mood for self-flagellation. As it turned out, I got someone else to do it for me. Some associate of the Gravediggers gang was trying his moves on a plump girl that couldn’t have been more than twenty, and he wasn’t taking no for an answer.
    By that time I was buzzed enough and angry enough to stick my nose in. I had a small bottle of Kemia in my pocket, and a couple of Pin Holes that would teach the bastard a lesson. Maybe I could even come up with something a bit more original. How well would his harassment work if I turned his underwear into a full-strength chastity belt?
    But I never put my hand on the Kemia. As I pictured opening the Pin Hole, the image of a bloodied corpse flashed in front of my eyes. The ghosts had been absent since I drowned them in beer, but even the thought of Tunneling…
    So I did it the old-fashioned way. I strode across the room, pulled the maggot off the poor girl, and shoved him up against the bar. “Who taught you your manners?”
    If he answered, I didn’t hear, since his pal broke a pool cue over my head. I went down in a heap and took a couple of blows to the ribs before the gruff-looking barkeep broke it up. Wasn’t much of a bar brawl. I took it the wannabe Gravediggers were regulars, because it was me that got put out on my ass after they cleaned out my wallet of the lone twenty.
    I wasn’t hurt bad, but I sat out on the corner just the same. A cop car blasted past, sirens blazing. A couple of ghosts watched me from across the road.
    The girl who was being accosted stumbled out of the bar a few minutes later. She saw me sitting there and drew up short.
    “You okay, kid?” I asked, clambering to my feet. “He didn’t touch you, did he?”
    She sniffed and gave me the evil eye. “Fucking weirdo.” She turned on her high heels and clattered away down the street. I didn’t begrudge her it. She didn’t owe me anything.
    All right, a goddamn “thank you” would’ve been nice, but I wasn’t bitter or nothing.
    It was a warm night, so I slung my jacket over my shoulder and stumbled home with my ghosts in tow. Home, for me, was 2310 Marlowe Street, an apartment building next to a laundromat that I’m pretty sure was a front for a drug house. The apartment building was practically begging to be torn down. When it was windy the building threatened to do the job itself. Still, it was home.
    I was deep inside my own head as the building came into sight across the road. I couldn’t get Claudia out of my thoughts. What the hell had she gotten into? Did I really know her as well as I thought I did? Most of our conversations had revolved around simple things. The finer points of Johnny Hodges’ saxophone work in “Don't Get Around Much Anymore”, or whether Stan Kenton’s jazz orchestra was too grandiose. She was normally a pretty quiet girl, but when it came to music, it was a different story.
    She wasn’t talking much now, though. She walked beside me, her shoes not making so much as a whisper. Her eyes never left my face. Please, Claudia, I begged, let me be. I can’t go round messing things up anymore. I can’t—
    A sensation of fleeting chaos passed through my head.
    I stopped dead. That was a Pin Hole. Someone was Tunneling, and they were close.
    I cast my eyes around. Light trickled through a crack in the curtains on the ninth floor of my apartment building.
    That was my apartment. But who…?
    “Tania,” I whispered.
    I dashed across the road, earning myself an angry horn blast from a passing motorist. No time to bother with the front door. The fire escape was faster.
    I pulled my bottle of Kemia and a small silver coin from my jacket pockets as I ran. I couldn’t afford to be worried about Tunneling now. Blood pounded in my head. I tossed my jacket away and ripped the cork