Sacrifice Me

By Sarra Cannon

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is
entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Sarra Cannon

eISBN: 978-1-62421-026-6

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Cover Design by Robin Ludwig Design, Inc.
http://gobookcoverdesign.com/

Editing Services by Janet Bessey at Dragonfly Editing
http://dragonflyediting.blogspot.com/

Formatting by Dead River Books
http://www.deadriverbooks.com/

Find Sarra Cannon on the web!

http://www.sarracannon.com

Large black wings rise up against the shadows.
I stagger backwards, tripping over something soft on the ground.

I look down to see a ratty old teddy bear.
Something from my childhood that tugs at the edge of my memory. I
pick up the small tattered thing and bring it up to my chest, hugging
it close. It smells like home. My old home.

I hear the fluttering of wings and look up, but
I’m no longer in the dark alleyway. Instead, I’m in a
long, narrow hallway that stretches out as far as my eyes can see.
Doors line both sides. A light above flickers on and off.

I clutch the bear to my chest and walk forward.
I’m not sure what I’m searching for, but I think it must
be this way. I follow the sound of the crow’s caw.

On each side of me, the doors are marked with
different symbols. A horse. A serpent. A flower. A butterfly.

I keep to the center of the hall, not daring to
reach out and touch any of the doors. I half expect one of them to
open and reveal some chamber of horrors on the other side. I can’t
shake the feeling that someone is watching me. Following me.

But when I turn to look, there’s no one
there. I am alone.

Alone except for the crow.

I keep moving forward, my steps tentative, like
a little girl. I feel small and frightened.

The sound of flapping wings echoes around me,
but I can’t see the bird. She’s here somewhere. If I
could just find her, I’d be safe.

I’d be home.

The overhead light finally flickers one last
time and then dies, dousing the hallway in darkness. I stop, unsure
what to do without someone to guide me or tell me where to go.

But then I see it. Just up ahead, one of the
doors is glowing.

I force my feet to move, feeling that if I
could just reach that door safely, I would find the answers I’ve
been looking for.

The hall is long and dark, but when I finally
reach the glowing door, I gasp. The symbol carved into the wood is
the outline of a black crow.

With a trembling hand, I reach for it.

The buzzing of my alarm ripped me from the dream.
Sweat poured down the back of my neck and my heart pounded against my
ribs.

Holy crap. Last night had really done a number on
my head. It had taken me forever to get to sleep in the first place,
and I must have spent the rest of the night lost in the same dream,
walking down that endless hallway over and over again.

I pushed my hair off my face and sat up. The black
t-shirt Rend gave me was lying on top of my desk. I just stared at
it, as if looking at it long enough might make it disappear. How
could he expect me to go back to that awful place?

I’d almost died last night. If he hadn’t
shown up at just that moment, I would probably be sprawled out in a
dumpster, drained of every single drop of blood.

The image of that guy licking up a few drops of my
spilled blood from the ground invaded my mind and I squeezed my eyes
shut, begging it to go away.

This couldn’t be real. Vampires didn't
really exist, right? They were myths or make-believe, not something
you actually encountered in a dark alley. Maybe I’d just gotten
hold of some really bad drugs last night and went on some kind of
weird trip. Maybe I’d get to the club and realize it was all
just one, long nightmare.

But I knew in my gut that it was no dream.

I thought about crawling back under the covers and
ignoring the rest of the day. What would Rend do if I didn’t
show up to work? It wasn’t like he knew where I lived.

I hope.

Still, he struck me as the kind of guy who would
know how to find people. And I most definitely did not want him to
have to come looking for me.

Random bartender or not, those guys last night had
been scared of him. Terrified. So what did that make him?

More than just a bartender, that’s for sure.

And if he expected me to work for him at Venom, I
didn’t have much of a choice but to show up.

I forced myself out of bed and climbed into the
shower, turning the water up as hot as it would go. I washed off the
stench of sweat and cigarette smoke and let the hot water wash the
crusted blood from my palms and my elbow. A large black and blue
bruise had formed on my arm where the tall guy had grabbed me.

I knew I was lucky to have gotten out of there
without more damage done. What would happen if I had to work there
now? Night after night?

I couldn’t do it. I’d have to go in
today and tell Rend that I’d work off whatever debt I owed him
and then I was out of there, gone forever just like he’d wanted
in the first place. I would find a way to wipe the whole experience
from my mind and move on.

When my skin had turned bright pink from the heat
of the water, I turned it off and got dressed, pulling on a clean
pair of jeans and the black Venom Staff t-shirt.

The only consolation as I grabbed my keys and
headed out the door was that he’d asked me to come in at ten in
the morning instead of ten at night. I didn’t think I could
face that place again after dark.

The outside of the club looked very different in
the light of day. Less dark and dangerous and more like any other
rundown building on this side of town.

I parked in a nearby lot and headed toward the
alley entrance, wondering again why they didn't have a more normal
entrance facing the main street. I also realized I had no idea where
that back door must have taken me last night. If this was the back
alley, where the hell was that?

I shook my head. Maybe there were just some things
I was going to have to let go of about this place. I took a deep
breath and steeled my nerves for whatever may come. There was no
doubt I owed this guy Rend for saving my life. I just hoped I didn’t
have to run into anymore demons or vampires while I was there.

I’d be good with never having to see fangs
again in my life, thank you very much.

Inside the first hallway, the green liquid still
glowed as brightly as it had the night before. Were they open all
day? Or did they just leave these lights on all the time?