Here’s another snippet from chapter thirteen of Nightmare City. Eden and Vaughn Taylor, allegedly the Order’s best shade hunter, are like oil and water. They’re both hunting the same shade – but can’t agree on the best way to collaborate…
The shrilling of the phone shocked me awake. I focused on the clock through the blur of my eyes. Almost six in the evening. Fudge. It was probably Cecelia, wondering why I was late for dinner.
I grabbed the phone with a heavy hand. “‘Lo?”
“It’s Taylor,” came the gruff answer. “Is this Eden Maybrey?”
I fought down a yawn. “If she were awake.”
“Typical freelancers, sleeping through the day while the real hunters do their job for them. Guess there’s no need for me to ask how the chase is going.”
“I was hunting until an hour ago.” Okay, two, but he didn’t need to know that. “But like you said, that doppelgänger is a mean son of a bitch.”
“You confronted it?” His voice was suddenly calm. Like the surface of an ocean just before the storm. “Without me?”
“Um… yeah.”
“You promised you’d call me for backup before engaging it.”
I had promised. With fingers crossed behind my back. “The situation didn’t leave me enough time to call.”
“So it escaped again.”
“It burned me and jumped out of a second-story window.”
“For the love of all things real, how stupid can you be? I specifically told you that–”
I specifically hung up on him. He had a right to be mad, but I didn’t have to take his insults.
I’d just dozed back off when the phone rang again. I thumbed the green button. “One more word above a whisper and I turn off my phone.”
“You don’t want to annoy me after the shift I’ve had,” he warned.
“Don’t tell me Captain Ganner’s best hunter let a shade escape,” I couldn’t help but needle him.
“Fuck you.”
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