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

That’s Nathan Blank’s company, right?”
    “Yes. What’s it
to you?”
    “Despite his
shortcomings, I thought he was above coercive thievery. But then, I thought you
were too. What are you doing here, Jennifer?”
    Jennifer cut
her eyes to the side and hunched her shoulders. “Oh, you know, enjoying the
sunset.” She gestured vaguely to the absolute night beyond the black windows.
“Say, you haven’t seen anyone else who doesn’t belong to this world, have you?”
    “No.” Liv
frowned at Jennifer and her two companions, and felt that tickle at the back of
her mind again. She needed to talk to Ben. “Well, it’s been great running into
you, but I’d better get back to my friends. See you around.”
    “Okay, let’s
catch up soon.”
    Liv didn’t
answer as Jennifer and her two companions turned away. She watched them scour
the bar, check the bathrooms, converge in a huddle, and finally walk out the
front door. Who were they looking for?
    Again that
tickle nagged her like she was forgetting something important. She wracked her
brain, but finally shrugged and went back out to the patio.
    Ben and Markle
were engaged in a deep discussion of sports in their differing worlds.
    Winnie asked
Liv, “Who were you talking to, honey?”
    “Oh, just an
old classmate,” Liv said as she sat down. “Jennifer Ingers.”
    “No, I meant
that man.” Winnie waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
    Liv froze in
the act of reaching for her drink. “What man?”
    Ben and Markle
broke off at the tension in Liv’s voice and turned toward her.
    “The man with
the black and blue hair. I went in to grab another drink and I saw you two
talking, but then he turned and went into the bathroom and you headed back into
the bar.”
    “Describe to me
exactly what he looked like.”
    Winnie looked
alarmed by the expression on Liv’s face. “He was about our age, dark eyes, thin
face, straight nose, black hair swept to the side with blue streaks at the
front. Tall, about four or five inches taller than you, and slim.”
    “Ben,” Liv
said. The single word was both an entreaty and a command.
    “Yeah.” He set
his drink on the table as he turned to Winnie and Markle. “Sorry y’all, we need
to go.”
    Winnie looked
even more alarmed. “What’s going on? Is that man important?”
    “Very,” Liv
said. “Sorry, that’s all I can say. This is classified. Please don’t tell
anyone else about him, okay?”
    “Sure, no
problem,” Markle said. “But you know, if you need to find him, we could put it about
quietly—”
    “No,” Ben cut
across him. “We can’t risk anyone knowing about him at all. Don’t tell anyone.
It’s for your own safety as well as his. And ours,” he added as an
afterthought.
    “Okay,” Winnie
said, sharing a worried glance with Markle. “Be safe, you two.”
    “Always,” Liv
said with a passable smile.
    “We’ll get
together again soon,” Ben promised.
    Liv and Ben
strode down to the beach where they could vanish into the darkness.

Chapter 7
    Liv snapped
her sat comm shut.
    “General
Mace gave us access to the Hangar. How long has it been?”
    “About two
minutes,” Ben answered mildly, especially considering he was currently driving
his Jeep along a twisting mountain road at around a hundred miles per hour.
    “This time I
have to find out what he did to me.”
    “Don’t
worry. You’ll figure it out.”
    “Can’t you
go faster?”
    “Yes,
ma’am.”
    They reached
the base in minutes—Ben having exercised all his pilot reflexes to get
them there in one piece. They passed four security checkpoints on the way in.
Liv’s impatience ate holes in her stomach at every stop.
    Still, it
was a heap faster than parking at the Ranch like usual and taking the
underground tram to the DEPOT base. She didn’t have time for that tonight.
    At the last
security post, Ben cut his headlights, slowing his speed until his eyes
adjusted to the dark. Liv stared into the blackness, straining to see any