Fated: Karma Series, Book Three by Donna Augustine Page A

the lump of chocolaty goodness in my hands.
    I also recognized it immediately. I’d saved him—Eddie, the petty thief. I’d dragged him kicking and screaming out of an alleyway when he would’ve been stabbed with his own knife.
    Somehow, I didn’t think he came here to show his gratitude. I wasn’t sure if he had found me intentionally, although I couldn’t imagine how, or perhaps the lack of shopping opportunities had created this chance meeting. Either way, he was on my bucket list. And here he was, serving himself up like a chilled bottle of champagne and yet I wasn’t allowed to pop his cork, so to speak.
    I turned to face him and realized someone had already beaten me to the killing. He was already dead or at least not human anymore. Oddly, he didn’t look that much different from when he’d been mortal. Or maybe he did and it was just me?
    It was still strange how I could recognize anyone after they changed but I did. Like with this guy, I knew he looked different but it was still him somehow. And it hit me. This was the first time I realized I wasn’t recognizing him as a human would recognize another human. I was recognizing him on some other deeper fundamental level that had my thoughts spinning.
    All those times I’d thought I’d recognized someone in my human life but couldn’t put a name to the face, this is what it had been. The thing that makes us who we are, that goes with us from life to life, it never changes. We always know the people that have surrounded us deep down, whether they are meant to be in our lives at that moment of time or not.
    As much as I wanted to drift off into my memories and musings, standing before me was a problem wrapped up in a black tracksuit. He wasn’t alone. He had two others with him, neither of whom I recognized, but definitely not human either, and it looked like they’d all done their shopping in the same place.
    I didn’t know what happened when people were recruited outside of the agency but I knew it made them stronger, quicker and, in essence, a match for me. The biggest problem was, there were three of them and, if I had to guess, everyone outweighed me by almost double.
    A couple of things immediately ran through my mind. Firstly, how had I been so lax that I hadn’t noticed three large men approaching me? Secondly was that Malokin must have been very busy and it better have been before the truce he’d called for.
    The fact that there was a truce should’ve put me at ease but something didn’t feel right about this. I saw intent in their eyes, their stances, in the forward tilt of a head and the way one was rolling up his sleeves. They wanted to inflict pain and wouldn’t be happy until they did. They probably wouldn’t be happy afterward either, but that was their shrinks’ problem.
    I belatedly scanned the store. The clerk was gone, and the back door was also wide open. I was glad for it even if I was silently calling him every name for coward that existed. This had the smell of something that was going to get ugly. The clerk hadn’t needed any more help in that area. He’d had a face that perfectly matched his shitty attitude. I wouldn’t want to be partially responsible for kids everywhere running away in tears.
    I held up my hands, palms outward, toward the three undead amigos.
    “I’m not looking for trouble.” I sounded like a bad action flick. Even in those movies that line never worked. I needed something extra. “Seriously,” I tacked on. Oh, yeah, that made it so much better. Now they wouldn’t screw with me, for sure.
    I could always try the honest approach and tell them I didn’t want to fight because I was outnumbered. I’m sure that would get them to leave me alone.
    In actuality, I wasn’t adverse to a fight. My mouth drooled at the idea of taking out Eddie, just not three on one. If I could only get them to take turns, my night would be perfect.
    Most likely it wouldn’t matter what I did or said. I was fairly certain