Free IM03 - Pandora's Box by Katie Salidas Page A

all business. “Not until we are done for the night.”
    “Relax a little, we’ll get your writings,” I said, dropping the flirty smile. “You’ve been snippy and acting very nervous since we mentioned coming here.”
    “This is not a place filled with good memories. The less time I have to spend here, the better.” He pressed his hand to my back, urging me out of the hotel room.
    Nicholas followed us silently, his footfalls barely registering a sound on the pavement as we walked. If it weren’t for his shadow blinking in and out under the streetlights, I wouldn’t have known he was there.
    We walked for what felt like miles. Lysander would occasionally consult a map and point us down some tiny side street as narrow as an alleyway. I was certain we were lost, but didn’t want to damage his pride by bringing it up. He was already stressed enough. Something about this city, or maybe it was the place we were going, had Lysander on pins and needles.
    I tried to focus on other things around me to help push away the anxiety. This city was completely different from my home back in Vegas. I admired the overabundance of natural greenery. In the desert, most places were xeriscaped, meaning rocks and cactus— things that didn’t need a lot of water. Here, however, there were trees and grass and bushes and flowers. Even as autumn, approached the landscape appeared lush and full of life.  
    “Do you know where we are?” Nicholas finally spoke up after we had wandered through a small children’s park. He sounded weary and even grumpier than before.
    “This all looks so different,” Lysander said as he consulted his map again. “I believe … yes … there.” He pointed to a sign that said High Rock Way. “We’re close.”
    “Finally,” I sighed. We continued on down the narrow street as it curved around.
    “Different” certainly was the best way to describe this place. The neighborhoods here were so diverse from the cookie-cutter white stucco and pink Spanish tile houses I was used to seeing back in Vegas. Each home we passed had its own character and charm, and looked nothing like the house next to it. Some were squat, red brick structures; others had colored aluminum or wood siding. Two-story buildings sat next to three- and four-story homes. Some places were duplexes—side by side homes looking like mirror images sliced down the middle with a large retaining wall—while others looked like huge squares stacked on top of each other. Multi-family homes had two and three front doors and large slabs of concrete to accommodate more than one car.
     We wandered down the narrow sidewalk and came to a steep set of stone stairs that appeared to lead into a thick brush of trees. They just seemed to vanish into the woods, though we were in the center of a neighborhood.
    “This is it,” Lysander said proudly.
    I couldn’t see the house beyond, but I picked up the distinct smell of blood wafting in the air. Human blood. “Do you smell that?”
    Nicholas sniffed at the air and a scowl flashed across his face. “Yes. Old blood.”
    “We should be careful. No doubt we are in other vampires’ territory. We may have stumbled across their hunting ground,” Lysander warned.
    “In a neighborhood?” I asked. Lysander was very adamant about us not hunting in neighborhoods back home. He said it drew too much attention.
    “We don’t all follow the same rules,” Lysander answered.
    “Whoever it was, they left a mess,” Nicholas scoffed. “The air reeks of it.”
    “Great! Let’s just hurry up. I have a bad feeling about all this now.” I took the stone steps two at a time. They went up farther than I expected. When we finally broke through the tree line, a huge three-story red house stood before us. It was a gorgeous old home, with a wood deck jutting out beyond a large sun room. Even in the dark I could tell the richness of the terracotta paint on the wood siding. It contrasted nicely with the creamy white trim