Sin City Goddess by Barbra Annino Page B

asked.
    “What? You don’t like ’em? They’re perfectly good sneakers. Found them at the Salvation Army. Nickel apiece.”
    “Why don’t you want them?” I mean, really, they were better than what both of us had on our feet.
    She glared at the shoes. “No style. I was gonna gussy them up, but I couldn’t find any green paint.”
    I wanted this nightmare of a conversation to end, so I accepted the shoes. I put one on, then the other, handing the woman the leopard platform stilettos one at a time.
    The running shoes were two different sizes, each with a different pattern. One was too big, the other too small.
    “Nice doin’ business with ya.” The woman set the bar down and stepped aside.
    I rushed out of there as fast as I could and didn’t look back.
    I heard voices to the right of the cement drain that led to the tunnels. I climbed up the embankment and spotted Archer and Tommy. The knife was some feet away from the men, as if Tommy had dropped it.
    “You gotta believe me, Arch. I’m telling you the truth,” Tommy was pleading.
    The sun was bouncing off Archer’s hair as he ran a hand through it. He blew out a sigh and said, “I believe you. Just lay low for a while, all right? Until I get to the bottom of this. I don’t want you buying, I don’t even want you using.”
    “Sure, sure,” Tommy said.
    “And remember, you never saw me. Understood?”
    The small man nodded.
    “Beat it now,” Archer said.
    I watched as Tommy scuttled down the cement embankment and disappeared into the black mouth of the tunnel.
    Behind me, I heard a screech. I got the distinct sensation that someone was watching me. I spun around to see a huge black bird flap its wings once, then disappear.
    Only it wasn’t a bird native to this world.
    “Did you see that?” I yelled to Archer.
    “See what?” He was ascending the hill.
    “That bird. Big one.” I turned to face the lawman. “Did you?”
    “No. Why? What’s the big deal?”
    I looked to where it had melted into the sky, scanning the endless blue for a slit, a tear, a rip. I didn’t see one. Had I imagined it? Perhaps it was a creature of this plane after all.
    As Archer and I started walking back toward Caesars Palace, he launched into telling me what he had discussed with Tommy.
    But I wasn’t listening. My mind was elsewhere.
    Because if that thing was what I thought it was, this was far more serious than any of us had imagined.
    For the first time since I had arrived here, I wasn’t angry.
    I was frightened.

Chapter 15

    He hadn’t meant to kill her. She was just so lovely. Her skin so translucent, so pale, it nearly glowed. He couldn’t stop cutting it. And her hair! That thick black mass of curls. He could have fashioned a blanket out of it and worn it all around town.
    Of course, now there was a mess to clean up.
    And he was one playmate short.
    No matter. When his partner arrived, they would have to devise a plan to get another one. Shouldn’t be too hard. This was Vegas, after all. Plenty of sluts to choose from. He preferred the spot where he had found the others, because of the energy, but if he had to, he could search elsewhere.
    He heated up some black coffee on the one functioning burner of the cracked porcelain stovetop. When it was good and hot, he poured it into a cup and sat down.
    The others were much better behaved now. They still whimpered occasionally, but they had stopped pleading after they had watched him drink her blood. Not a lot, of course—it wasn’t like he was one of those lunatics who believed they were vampires. But he liked the taste of a fresh kill, and he found it enlivened his soul to feed on his victims.
    But that other one—the troublemaker—she was still a pain in the ass. God, he wished he could cut her tongue out, carve her eyes out. He cringed. Those eyes gave him the willies, truthbe told. The way they sparkled like… like there were diamonds in them or something.
    They reminded him of someone.
    So, naturally,