Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(13)

the alcohol might mess up your henna tattoo.”

That had Miranda opening her eyes. She’d forgotten all about that. Lifting her head, she glanced at her arm, and a little gasp caught in her

throat. The limb was swollen, slightly purple. The tattoo, a pale grayish pink, came halfway up to her elbow. It was bigger. Wasn’t it? Then

again, it had happened so fast.

She couldn’t help but wonder what it meant. Did it tell her if Shawn was the right man for her? Did she even want to know? No. Yes. Maybe.

“Where’s my phone?”

“With your clothes, why?”

“I’d like to take a picture of it.” Maybe later, she’d have the courage to see if anyone could tell her what it said, what it meant. If it

meant anything.

The old witch might have been pulling a hoax. Miranda really didn’t believe that now, but she wanted to. Her heart grew heavy again, realizing

the witch might be dead. Sure, Miranda had tried to get her to leave, but she could have tried harder.

She couldn’t help but wonder if the death angels, the angels overseeing the supernaturals, were going to hold Miranda accountable.

The nurse found her phone and snapped a few shots of the pattern on her arm. Then she gently went to rubbing Miranda’s arm with astringent-

scented wipes. Just the slightest touch set the bone to aching and Miranda closed her eyes and repeated a calming mantra.

“Maybe I didn’t need to take a picture of it,” the nurse said. “It’s not coming off.”

Miranda tilted her head and stared at the tattoo. “It has to.” Her mom did not like tattoos.

“Oh!” The nurse’s touch jerked away from Miranda’s arm, fear rounded her eyes.

“What?” Miranda asked.

“Your tattoo is climbing your arm and down your fingers.”

“Oh, friggin’ frack!” Miranda lifted her head and watched as the squirrely lines snaked up to her elbow and down to her knuckles.

How long was this thing going to be visible?

She racked her brain to recall a curse or a significance to the pattern but came up empty.

Was she going to be covered in this crap? The inky pattern moved another inch before it stopped.

Stopped, but for how long?

What the hell did this mean?

Panic pulled at her chest and then she remembered that Tabitha had gone to the fortune reader before, and she didn’t walk around with a

permanent tattoo. Surely it would fade.

“Okay.” A white-coated pale-faced doctor walked into the room with fake cheeriness. “Why don’t we get you put in a cast, so the cops and

your friends out there will calm down? The mouthy brunette out there, I swear if she could, she’d wring my neck.”

Little did the doctor know—if the brunette who he referred to was Della—she’d have no trouble wringing his neck. Not that this was Miranda’

s biggest concern. She had a moving tattoo, a semi-conscious sister, and possibly some drug charges to get out of.

The doctor’s neck was his own problem.

*

“Don’t you ever question my orders again!” Caleb, morphing from bird to man, screamed at Perry as the three of them landed behind a wooded

lot at the side of the three-bedroom house they’d rented while doing jobs in the Dallas area.

Caleb shot forward and slammed both of his palms on Perry’s chest. Perry didn’t budge. In the last year, he’d spent hours making his human

form as powerful as he could. It would take someone more than this asswipe to knock him down.

He stood square and firm, and fought the urge to get in the man’s face. The temptation to morph and give the jerk a real fight shot adrenaline

into his blood. But the intensity didn’t compare to what it had been at the bank when Caleb threatened an innocent girl. A girl who had

reminded him of Miranda.

For that low-life action, Perry had a bone to pick with this guy, a freaking big one, but everything in his gut said “not now.” In part

because he didn’t need to be tossed out of the group just yet—his objective wasn’t complete—but mostly because at this second he had

something else to do.

His heart demanded it.

He had to check on Miranda. That feeling, the image of her lying lifeless hadn’t stopped digging at his soul. Would she even answer his call?

Probably not.

He’d have to call someone else.

“Did you hear me!” Caleb lurched forward as if to come at him again.

Perry held up one hand and promised himself that soon, soon he’d teach this guy a lesson he wouldn’t forget. “I heard you. But if we hadn’t

left we probably would’ve been arrested.”

“Hell no! We could have turned at any time and left them scratching their asses!”

“And bring the FRU down on us?” Perry tossed out. From the corner of Perry’s eye, he saw his father had completed his turn.

“Perry’s right!” his father, running his hand through hair that was still as blond as Perry’s, added his two-cents’ worth. The fact that

those two cents were on Perry’s side felt better than it should.

“We had to get out of there!” The frustration in his father’s bright eyes echoed in his posture.