Free Inhuman Heritage by Sonnet O'Dell Page B

and would have stroked his face if he hadn’t been pinning my hands. Instead I arched my neck so I could kiss him again, biting on his bottom lip. He growled in response and stroked down my arms to cup my breasts. He licked between my breasts and kissed his way across gently nipping me with his teeth. I cried out, my pelvis leaping up against his. I was about to demand he get out of his pants and into mine when I heard the unmistakable sound of a key in his front door. His eyes went wide and a look of chagrin washed across his features. The door opened and someone came inside. He detached himself from me trying to decide whether he could make it to the door or not when a female voice called out.
    “That stupid job was for telemarketing, Magnus, you don’t know me that well but I’m not a people person!”
    I looked at him and the horror must have shown on my face. I scurried back from him to the head of the bed where my top was and started to redress myself.
    “Cassandra wait,” he said pleading with me. Nancy appeared in the bedroom door and Magnus glared at her.
    “You were barely there for two hours,” he growled angrily. Nancy looked at me with her eyes wide. I glared at her, shoved Magnus hard and grabbed my boots so I could put them back on. He tried to grab my arm but I was out of his reach leaned against another wall trying to get them back on.
    “I...I’ll just go to my room.” Nancy vanished from the doorway as I got my last shoe on. I turned to glare angrily at Magnus.
    “She’s living here, she has a key.” I shook my head and stormed for the exit, in almost an exact replica of the last time I had been here. He grabbed my arm harshly at the elbow.
    “She had nowhere else to go,” he said. I pulled my arm away from him. “I felt sorry for her.”
    “That’s not my problem. This was a mistake,” I said and was shocked when Magnus grabbed my shoulders and kissed me forcefully trying to convince the mood to return. I reeled back from his lips and slapped him hard across the face. I stormed out the front door grabbing my phone and key from where he’d put them on the counter. I was stopped on the driveway because next to his sleek new car was his old ford. He had given her his old car for her use. That for some reason made me even madder. I screamed at the sky and stomped off heading on the long walk back to town.

Chapter Seven
    I was glad for liquor stores that were open past ten on a weeknight as I shambled into my apartment carrying a bag containing two large bottles of premium Russian Vodka. From the price I doubted it was premium. Cheap booze always seemed to have better names to convince you just because you were on a budget didn’t mean you couldn’t have the good hooch. I pushed the boxes from my coffee table to clear a space and rifled through my cabinets till I came up with several colored shot glasses that had been bought for me as a novelty gift several years before. I lined three of them up shakily trying to pour vodka into them. I seemed to slop more on the table and the rug underneath it then I managed to get into the glasses. I could feel something at the back of my mind, threatening to break through, to erupt in the forefront of my thoughts with blinding clarity. I wanted to remain numb. Numb and happy.
    I downed each shot in quick succession and felt that fluttering in the back of my memory go quiet and still. Whoever said ignorance was bliss had it right on the money. I let my eyes flutter with a wave of pleasant drunkenness that it had taken me all night to achieve. I lay down on the couch writhing happily to the sound of my ringing telephone and ignoring it completely.
    Next thing I knew morning light was flowing over my skin and drums were banging in the back of my head. I cried out from the pain and swiped knocking the vodka bottle off the table; it flowed into the rug soaking it. I grabbed at it, downing what was left quickly. I lay against the back of the couch and slowly