Free Meagan's Marine (Halos & Horns) by Lori Leger

tucking him into his bed. She heard her
roommate’s sharp intake of breath at the doorway and met her gaze. “What Nik ?”
    “It’s warm again.” Niki ,
her voice shaky and faltering, stood at the threshold, stiff as a rod. “The
last time I was in here, my nipples practically had icicles on ‘ em .”
    Meagan checked the room again. “It seems
to be fine now.” She walked over to the picture frame of Christopher lying face
down on the dresser. She picked it up, startled to see the cracked glass
covering his handsome face. “What happened?”
    “It, uh…flew off the dresser and broke.”
    “You mean it fell off the dresser?”
    “Hell no!” Niki hissed. “When I tell you that thing flew off the dresser, that’s exactly what I
mean.”
    Meagan caught her friend’s reflection in
the mirror and knew she was telling the truth. Nik’s face was a masque of terror wrapped in a façade of nervous tension. Her thin
arms hugged at her middle as if she struggled to keep from falling apart. It
was as though it took every ounce of strength she possessed not to bolt in the
opposite direction of Buck’s room.
    Meagan took one last look at Buck before
approaching her friend. “Come on back to my room with me. I want to hear
everything.”
    They stopped in the kitchen to pull a
chilled bottle of cheap wine from the fridge and two glasses off the shelf.
“I’m gonna need this to sleep tonight, hon,” Niki said, twisting the cork out of the previously opened
bottle. She filled her glass to the brim and took a huge gulp before settling
on Meagan’s bed.
    Meagan filled her glass halfway and
settled back against the headboard. She took a sip then faced her friend. “Tell
me.”
    Niki took a deep breath as though to build her courage. “Everything was fine, Meg. I
fed Buck his supper and gave him a bath, and he fell asleep watching Prancer . He didn’t give me a bit a trouble, as
usual.” Her big green eyes seemed to grow even larger and brighter as she
continued with her story. “As soon as I tucked him into his bed, all hell broke
loose.”
    Niki gulped her wine and held the glass to her chest with both hands. “When I turned
around to leave the room, the temperature dropped.” She shook her head in a
violent, jerky movement. “That doesn’t describe it nearly good enough. It was
more like running smack dab into a wall of icy air! From one second to the next
I was blowing smoke, Meg. Then…that picture fell on its face. I went to pick it
up and it slid all the way to the other end of Buck’s dresser…a good two and a
half feet, I tell ya . And fast!” She stopped long
enough to throw back the rest of the wine and refill her glass.
    “I went to pick it up again and the damn
thing flew across the room, Meagan, I swear to God. It smashed right into the wall
on the opposite side of the room. It about scared the life right out of me! I
couldn’t help it, Meagan. I screamed and it scared Buck. He woke up screaming.
I picked him up and left the room with him. It took me a good fifteen minutes
to calm him down. As for me, well hell I’m still trying to calm down, as you
can see.” Niki raised her wine glass and took another
swallow before resting it on the nightstand. She sat in a ball against the
headboard, hugging her knees to her.
    Meagan groaned and reached out to rest a
hand on her friend’s arm. “Now I know why you closed the door of his room.”
    Niki shook her head. “I didn’t. He did.”
    “Buck?”
    Nik’s eyes were saucer round and filled with terror. “No— him —the sad man. He
slammed it closed as soon as I walked out of there with Buck…who told me he saw the sad man do it.”
    “Holy crap.” Meagan lifted both hands to
her face. “What the hell am I gonna do about this?”
    “I called Elvinia and told her everything that’s been going on.”
    “Who?”
    “My friend, Elvinia .
The one that’s been on vacation? She made it back last week but has been too
busy playing catch up to