Free A Despair of Demons (Travelers, Book 1) by Cassy Campbell Page A

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Liv. “What’s going on in your head, Olivia Jane? Got somebody all picked out?”
    Liv’s stomach
swooped painfully. All she needed was for him to find out about her newfound
fascination with Jordan and start trying to play matchmaker. “No I don’t have
someone picked out, Benjamin Bartholomew .” Ben looked scandalized at the
use of his middle name. “And don’t call me Olivia. Olivia is a fat girl. My
name is Liv.” She stood abruptly. “I’m going to use the ladies’.”
    Ben waved her
off and Liv headed into the crowded tavern.
    She had just
stepped out of the bathroom when she bumped into a man in the narrow hallway.
    “Sorry,” she
said automatically, then froze as she got a look at his face. Although she
still didn’t remember him, she recognized Connor’s description: black hair,
blue streak, dark eyes, narrow face, pale skin.
    “You!” she
cried. “What are you doing here?”
    His eyes opened
wide as he recognized her as well. “I just cannot stay out of your way, can I?”
he said, more to himself than Liv. “I hate to do this to you again.”
    “Who are you?
Are you really Singular? Who’s Raul?”
    He looked even
more startled, but said only, “I must not be found here. I was not here. Forget
you saw me.”
    Liv caught her
balance as some rude bastard shoved past her on the way to the men’s room.
    “Excuse you!”
she said to his retreating back. She didn’t expect an answer, which was good
because she didn’t get one.
    She continued
on into the crowded bar, where she literally ran into someone she knew.
    “Jennifer? What
are you doing here?”
    Jennifer looked
chagrined to be caught in another world by one of her former classmates. Her
two companions, both men, looked positively mortified.
    Jennifer hiked
a smile onto her face. It looked as fake as her cheery voice sounded. “Liv!
It’s been too long. What are you doing here?”
    “Just having a
drink with some friends.” The two men stood together two feet away and looked
around as if they couldn’t hear Liv or Jennifer. Actually, they seemed to be
looking for someone. Something nagged the back of Liv’s brain, but she couldn’t
quite get a grip on it. What had she been thinking about?
    “How’s the
DEPOT treating you these days?” Jennifer asked. The existence of the DEPOT was
highly classified, but Travelers were scarce and they all knew about it, either
through stories told by other Travelers or the DEPOT’s own recruitment efforts.
    “Well. You know
I can’t really talk about it.”
    “Right, all
that nondisclosure stuff. You’re so loyal. Oh, that’s right, they put you
through school, didn’t they?” Jennifer’s fake smile transformed into a real
smirk. She had always harped on about how real scientists didn’t work for the
government.
    “Yes,” Liv
snapped. “And what are you doing these days?”
    “Oh, I work for
a private company. Developing new technologies.”
    “You mean
stealing them.” Liv glared. She knew there was no way to regulate Travelers,
but she still thought that they should be banned from forming corporations that
only functioned by stealing who-knew-what kinds of technologies from other
worlds.
    “You say
tomato. Besides, isn’t that exactly what you do for the government? For a lot
less money?”
    “We don’t
steal. But I can see how you would need to. Private industry is all about
results, isn’t it? And the DEPOT does only take the best. But I’m sure
you’ve done the best you could.”
    Liv smiled
sweetly as outrage flashed in Jennifer’s eyes. Point to me, bitch .
    Jennifer
spluttered indignantly. “Real scientists… government… research….” She took a
breath and puffed out her chest like an offended chicken. “At Innerstellar
Technologies we work alongside scientists in other worlds to understand their
discoveries!”
    Liv’s stomach
shriveled. Goddamn Nathan. It was like thinking about him earlier had conjured
him closer. “Innerstellar Technologies?