Chapter One

It was starting to snow, not too much out to the ordinary for winter in the Dakotas. The fact that there wasn't much snow and ice covering the whole of the state was much more unusual for this time of year. Pondering that would only lead to more dread that I could deal with at the moment, so with a small sigh that I hoped would go unnoticed by my co-worker, I let my thoughts wonder away from that dreadful subject. I still found an odd beauty to the softly falling flakes as they fluttered down to the sidewalk, where they landed and quickly started piling up. I didn't pay much mind to where they landed, it was pointless and rather sad. There was no way you would be able to see the beauty of the fat flakes if you were looking down instead of up toward the dull, gray sky.

"Harper, you can go. There is no need for both of us to close tonight, not with this crap starting up already," Angie told me, looking grimly out at the flakes swirling around. I didn't know how old Angie was; physically she appeared a couple of years older than me. Maybe around twenty-eight, or twenty-nine. But there was just something about the way she held her-self, and the odd pressing weight that sometimes split from behind her eyes that made me think she was much, much older than anyone would have guessed at. Or maybe, just maybe there was a very good reason most didn't ponder too hard on her age-it would only lead to questions, and answers that most wouldn't be able to fully understand without losing their grip on reality.

"Or some people could just be too superstitious, and goofy for their own good," I grumbled moodily under my breath as I clocked out, and snagged my bag. I hated when my thoughts got away from me like that. The world wasn't anything other than what it was. There were no mysteries, no centuries old bosses, no magic; nothing but what was right in front of us. People and our lives. That was all.

It was just too bad that I couldn't get my self to truly believe that for the smallest of a second. There was still some part deep inside me that screamed that it was all a lie, all of it. But thankfully, that part was easily enough to ignored to the point where I didn't realize it was there much any more.

"What was that?" Angie asked me, tilting her head as she eyed me. Her hair fell across her shoulder from the movement, a shining heathy mess of warm chestnut that almost matched her skin. But that made her unusual, unnerving amber eyes seem to glow out at me. They reminded me of hawk eyes, sharp and ever watchful.

"Nothing, just griping at myself for being stupid," I told her honestly, shouldering my backpack.

"Harper," she started, heat and long suffering woven through the syllables of my name as the never-ending argument picked up again.

"I know, Angie. I know," I mumbled, scuffing my shoe on the carpet. Or the thin, worn stuff that was supposed to be carpet. It was long past it's expiration date.

"If you know, then why do you insist on calling your self stupid?" Angie demanded, her eyes flashing dangerously with anger.

I just shook my head, mutely as I headed for the front door. I had no want to start this argument up again, not now; not ever. Not when I couldn't tell Angie the truth about why I was calling my self stupid. I couldn't tell anyone that. Not even myself, if I was being honest.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Angie," I called to her as I was pushing out of the front door. The cold blasted me in the face, and bit at all the skin exposed to it. Gasping, I pulled my gloves on as the door swung shut behind me, leaving me shivering out in the freezing cold alone.

I huddled in my coat, pulling on my backpack as I started off down the street toward the little coffee shop not too far from my apartment. That was one of the benefits to living down town, I suppose. Everything was within walking distance even in winter. Well, at least for me. My roommate wasn't so lucky which was why he had my car at work with him. It was generally easier this way for both of us.

I smiled as I neared the tiny coffee shop, the fat snow flakes raining down quickly now. The weather channel had said that we were supposed to get anywhere from fourteen to sixteen inches tonight going into late tomorrow night. Blizzard, yay! Not. If we truly got hit with that much snow, even our city would get shut down.

I was about five steps from the front door of the coffee shop, smiling as I spied my favorite barista, Sam. He just had this way of making the coffee that much better than the rest of the baristas, and I had no idea what it was. He claimed he did that same thing as the rest of them, but I just couldn't believe that. And neither did the rest of his regulars.

Frowning, I glanced around me as a wave of uneasiness spread through me causing the hair on the back of my neck to prickle. My heart hammered fearfully, but I forced my self to turn in a slow circle, trying to see through the thickly falling snow. But I didn't see anyone on the streets, or sidewalks. They were deserted.

I shivered, turning quickly toward the coffee shop as a new, fresh wave of fear flooded through me. I needed to get inside the coffee shop, now. If I just got inside, I would be perfectly safe; and then I could scold myself for being so stupid. If I could just get inside.

Something slammed into me, my shoulder gave a huge flare of pain seconds after I heard the sharp crack that seem to come from inside my shoulder as I went down in a dizzying blur of pain, speed, and falling snow.

I heard footsteps now, circling me lightly and still moving far too impossibly quickly. I knew at that same moment, that this was my death. And I wasn't afraid. No, I was calm as I rolled to my knees and looked into the face of my killer, prepared as much as I could be to meet death in such a terrible and unforeseen way.

My killer wasn't what I excepted; no junky just needing money for his fix or a gang member. No, my killer was handsome, sharp features and a glorious mouth that I would have loved to draw. His suit was tailor, fitting in such a way that could only mean big money. He even had a matching handkerchief square in the front pocket of his suit.

He crouched, a low rumble seeming to come from his chest as his while body went completely still, his muscles tense and screaming with power. But it was his eyes that caught me, and held me there in the insane madness swimming there in his gaze. Animal madness. There was nothing left in the depths of his dark eyes. Only my death.

He blurred out of sight, just as the pain in my shoulder went pale to the pain coming from my wrist. A liquid fire stated pouring up from my wrist just as I finally caught sight of him again, his head pulled back and striking my wrist again. And this time I felt the blades of sharp glass tearing through the layers of my skin as if it were nothing, completely nothing.

The liquid fire spread ruthlessly, swimming up my whole arm with every repeated motion of his head, and the horrible blades that ripped right through me. Again, and again, he tore at me with his blades, ripping and splitting the skin on my arm until he finally stilled, curling around my arm with his blades buried deep and his mouth locked on.

I don't know how long it took for me to become aware of the fact that he was slurping, tugging on my arm like he was trying to give me the worlds worse hickey. It was about the same time that my head started rushing, throbbing; as if the world was moving far too fast for me to be able to keep up. Blackness started edging in, stealing the world away from me piece by piece.

I felt more than saw his head pull back again, and a sense of anger filled me; seeming spill from that small part of my self that I kept buried so, so very deeply. And it kept building, filling me with an other-worldly mass of anger at this man stealing my life away from me.

"No," I stated calmly, the word ringing out of me just as his blades slid into my skin again. But the anger, disbelief, and entitlement of just what he had attempt to do to me burned through me; spreading up into his glass blades and turning them into ash as I willed it to do so. I grabbed his face, holding his eyes as I silently snarled at him with the weight of who I was heavy in his mind, just before I willed him completely away.

He screamed silently as the ash spread up him, dissolving him to nothing more than dirt spread around by the whipping wind.

Pain crackled through me, stealing what little breath I had as I fell into a deep, deep hole of hard darkness that was thankfully far from the pain tearing my body apart, and making it into something new altogether.