Rendezvous with Hymera Read Online Free Page A

foggy mind blurred by wine and fatigue, Clara wondered how the woman could float like that, considering the lake was over thirty feet deep. Suddenly, the woman turned and Clara saw, for a moment, in the vague lunar light, a ghastly pale face and a pair of eyes as dark as the lake itself.
    Next to her, a ferocious growl had a cold shiver trickling down her spine and all the hairs on her body grew erect. She turned around slowly. Tony, showing his fangs in a threatening grin, was looking in the same direction, still growling lugubriously, with his body tensed in attack position.
    The young woman looked again through the window, blinking rapidly to clear her vision. The feminine figure was gone, but the water’s surface was covered by waves of translucent fog. The lake seemed to steam.
     
    ***
     
    After a restless night, full of odd dreams, she awoke under Tony’s hairy weight; he had installed himself next to her while she was sleeping, an unusual thing for him to do. The dog had been given to her almost six years ago as a present from her father and she had raised the furry ball with the same devotion she would have felt towards her own child, trying to impose on him a rigorous education. Therefore, it had been more than a few years since the quadruped had felt such an acute need for affection – and maybe even protection – that he would break the rules of canine etiquette.
    Presently, spoiled with the loving caresses of his mistress, Tony gave no sign of insecurity or anxiety, groaning and whimpering conversationally in his usual dialect as a response to her playful pampering. After this demonstration of attachment and sympathy, Clara pushed him gently off the bed and got up, feeling the past night’s effects as a vague sensation of a hangover.
    With her ruffled hair and puffy eyes, she pattered with bare feet on the kitchen floor. She brewed some coffee, so strong that only a short olfactory analysis of the steam dancing over the kettle cleared her mind and revitalized her body with an incipient constructive energy.
    In the sunlight sneaking through old shutters, the past night’s events seemed phantasmagorical, result of fatigue and the alcohol, with which she wasn’t used to.
    However, somewhere in her subconscious, the ghostly image of a woman on the lake persisted.
    After she fed Tony and sent him outside in the garden, Clara was thinking, in a distant perspective, of breakfast, when she heard a discreet knock on the wooden front door.
    Probably Rose , she thought while opening the door.
    The visitor was Colin, holding a quite sizable paper bag that emanated a delicious smell. After he rapidly measured her with a glance, from the long, disheveled hair to the ducks and bunnies pajamas, he grinned widely and said:
    “Did I wake you up?”
    Deciding it was too late to feel embarrassed by the way she looked, Clara displayed a sweet smile and stuck her nose into the bag full of donuts and cupcakes, breathing deeply.
    “I forgive you, ’cause you seem to know my weaknesses pretty well. Come in,” she invited, already munching a donut with studied nonchalance.
    As always, Colin looked gorgeous, unshaven, dressed in a white shirt and jeans.
    I must be completely depraved , she thought, self-admonishingly. Every time I take a look at this man, my hormonal level rises and my brain activity drops drastically! It’s not normal! she scolded herself, taking care to keep a neutral expression, not to betray her naughty thoughts.
    She offered him a seat on the large couch, while Tony was sniffing him suspiciously.
    “I’ll go make myself look more presentable,” she told him, placing a coffee cup in his hand. “Careful, it’s lethal to the uninitiated,” she warned him indicating the black liquid. "I’ll be right back.”
    “No problem, take your time, Tony will keep me company,” Colin replied, scratching the furry ears. That action gradually turned the dog’s caution into a reluctant beginning of