Free A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) by Daniel Ruth

apartment
door.  Spinning, I faced the door, which had been blown open and now had smoke
pouring through it. 
    I
have a pretty high tolerances for surprises; it takes a lot to phase me, but I
admit I was looking around with my jaw agape trying to figure out what the hell
was happening.
    “What
the hell blew up?” I shouted as if I was yelling over an explosion.  “I mean
other than those bodies we just threw out the window,” I continued in a quieter
voice.
    “Um,
I guess the other three I killed on the way up to here,” the little Asian woman
said uncertainly.  I looked at her a moment.
    “What
other three?” I deadpanned.
    “There
were two waiting for me when I got out of the elevator and one ran by almost as
soon as I had downed the first two,” she said, shrugging.
    I
looked at the smoke billowing into the apartment.  The fire sprinkler system
triggered, soaking us both in seconds.  “Well, I think I worked up an
appetite.  Dinner?”
    The
woman I assumed to be Mei Ling glanced expressionless from the door blown off its
frame to the hole where the window once was.  “Let me get my travel bag.  I
think it’s time to check out.”

Chapter
5
     
    We
slipped down the stairs along with the stream of people evacuating the
building.  There were a few police and firemen running up, huffing and puffing
and generally looking stressed out.  Considering they probably were worried
about further bombs, I suppose they had just cause.  I would have told them it
was merely exploding shifter wizard minions, but I doubted that would have soothed
them.
    Once
we were out of the building, we simply walked past the fire barges floating in
the street and traveled a few blocks to a pub.  Slipping inside, we found a dark
cozy nook in the corner of the room and ordered a couple steaks.  She ordered a
beer and I had a root beer.  I think she gave me an odd look, but I ignored her
in favor of savoring the sarsaparilla flavoring.  When alcohol, stimulants, and
other drugs have no effect you take your pleasures where you can.
    The
pub was made up in a style I recognized from Jeremy’s old movies as the 1930’s
era.  There was a tiny model train that slowly chugged around the wall that
didn’t seem like an authentic period decoration but all in all the décor was set
firmly in a simpler time period, long before cars flew and nanites melted
Australia.
    Sighing
in bliss at the sweet carbonated goodness, I started the conversation.  “So
what's a cute werewolf like you doing in a dump like this?”  I think I heard a
line like that somewhere on our movie nights.
    She
started and then chuckled, “Well you brought me here, so you'd know best. 
Besides, I am not.”
    “You're
not what?” I asked having lost track of the conversation.  It was a bad sign
considering we had just started.
    “I
am not a werewolf,” she stated calmly, examining me for a reaction.
    “Oh. 
Er... panther?” I offered as a suggestion.
    “No.”
    “Tabby
cat?”  This merely garnered a look of mild disdain.
    There
was a moment of silence.  I guess I didn't really need to know her sub-species,
but it boded ill to a possible partnership if she wasn't willing to share even
this much.  I hoped she wasn’t a were-elephant. It would really feel weird.
    “What
were you doing in my apartment?”
    “Trying
to interrogate the people I found there,” I offered.  “They didn't seem to
belong there.”
    At
this point, the steaks arrived and we were distracted for a few minutes
eating.  Both hers and mine were extremely rare.  I mentally checked
were-elephant and were-whale off my mental list.  I suppose a were-killer-whale
was possible even though I had never heard of one.  Would they be called
were-orcas?  I finished first since I tend to gulp my food and started another
conversational gambit.
    “You're
Mei Ling?” I asked.  It never hurts to be sure you actually are talking to the
right person.
    “Yes.”
I waited for more.