Free The Haunting (Immortals) by Robin T. Popp Page A

one of the runners was loose and the door was hanging at an odd angle. “I can fix it. I’ll need to replace the runner,” he told her. “But you’re in luck—I’ve got a spare downstairs. Be right back.”
    “Oh, great. Thanks.”
    Will left his tools there and hurried down to the storeroom. Soon, he was back in 14-A, hard at work with Sarah looking on. He glanced at her sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning back on her arms, posing for him. He raked his gaze over her appreciatively. “What time does your sister get home?”
    He almost laughed when she sat up and crossed her arms. “Any time now.”
    She was lying and they both knew it. Perhaps she was being coy. Maybe she wanted him to come to her, toss her on the bed and make love to her. He considered it. But what if he was wrong and she wanted to take things slowly? He didn’t want to frighten her.
    For now, he’d focus on fixing the doors. The rest would come later.
    He’d barely started when she cleared her throat. “Um, you’re okay here by yourself, right?” she said, standing. “I just remembered that I promised Mai I would take her…something.”
    She didn’t even wait for his response before hurrying out of the room.
    When he heard the front door open and close, Will laughed quietly to himself. He’d forgotten how young and naive Sarah was—thanks, no doubt, to her older sister’s obsessive protectiveness. He’d obviously excited her—which had made her nervous.
    He set about his work, thinking that he’d made the right decision to go slow with this one. He didn’t want to frighten her off before he’d had a chance to enjoy her.
    Mai was about to start dinner when there was a knock on her door. Her first thought was that it was her vampire friend Ricco coming to visit as he’d promised when she’d called him to tell him she moved. Then she remembered that he was still out of town at some vampire council meeting. She went to the door and peeked out to see Sarah standing there.
    “Hi,” Mai greeted her after opening the door.
    “Hi.” Sarah sounded relieved. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”
    “No, of course not. Come in. Is everything all right?”
    “Yeah. Everything’s fine,” Sarah hurried to assure her. She offered up an apologetic smile as Mai closed the door. “Actually, Will’s over at my place fixing the closet door and I didn’t want to be there alone with him.”
    Mai gave a soft laugh. “I know exactly what you mean. What is it with that guy? I came home and found him in my apartment.”
    “That happened to us once. Jenna went nuts. She really chewed him out for it, too.”
    “Well, I asked him not to come by when I’m not at home, but judging from the way he acted, I don’t think he was paying too much attention.”
    “He’s a dork.”
    They shared a laugh and Mai thought again how much she liked Sarah. “I was just fixing myself some dinner. Would you like to join me?”
    “Thanks, I’d like that, but maybe I could take a rain check? As soon as Will’s gone, I need to get back to studying. But please, if your food’s ready, don’t let me stop you from eating.”
    “Actually, I only just started it. Come talk to me while I work?”
    “All right.”
    Sarah followed her into the kitchen and leaned against the counter while Mai cut up vegetables.
    “So, how are things going?” Mai asked
    “Great.” Her tone didn’t match the word.
    “Everything all right?”
    Sarah sighed. “I’m taking an extra class this semester, which has turned out to be harder than I expected. I’m burned out on school and just want the semester to be over.”
    “Will you have your degree then?”
    “No. I still have another full year.”
    “So you’ll get about a month off before classes start up again? That’ll be nice. Or will you have to work that month?”
    “I wish.”
    Mai paused in her chopping to look at Sarah. “You want to work?”
    She smiled. “I know, call me crazy. The thing is, Jen’s