August 2024 WipWordSearch Excerpts Week 3

“#Throw back some of the red stuff, kid. It’ll make you feel better. Or at least help you forget for a night.”

“Bonjour,” Penny said as she entered the last available space in the kitchen. Penny—Penelope—Sutter was Artemis’ best friend and her #total opposite. Sharp, strong, cutting eyes, and perfect posture.

Thomas stepped onto the side road the store cornered on and ripped off the bottle #twist cap, the plastic splintering. The pain he felt inside kept growing and spreading, along with the building energy. It came from the pain and wanted him to quench his thirst.

Maybe it was his guilty conscience, a #trick from his mind to convince him to follow after Sean. But following him would do more harm than good.

Thomas wasn’t sure he could face Sean or himself at the moment—he’d been using his friends since he’d been changed, and now that he’d been called out, he didn’t know how #to change.

“Until this moment I’d honestly #thought—maybe even hoped—you were just crazy,” Nelson confessed, his eyes full of professional curiosity as he watched Thomas work.

Silence once again filled the room.

At that moment, Thomas wished he could have been anywhere but at the small table. He’d #turn back time if he could.

Thomas jumped hastily to his feet, avoiding Penny and Artemis’ stares. He had work to do, although it was the first #time he ever regretted working in the medical field.

The early morning rays slipped #through the thin slots, and she squinted to make sense of the small figure approaching the entrance to her old apartment complex.

“If those idiots down by the docks know what’s good for them and show up, we can probably get a good thirty people #total,” Clive said with a twisted grin.

Icy fingers of dread began to #twist themselves into Clara’s stomach.

“No, you’re trying to #trick me. You’re working with this witch and this tick.” Violet shook her head to clear her doubts. “You’re a coward. Burn in Hell!”

The sound was not loud enough #to be heard over the breaking glass and the wicked explosion that followed.

He climbed back in his car and rolled down all the windows as she approached, and she had to fight down the urge to complain. She #thought she smelled, too. Just not vampire bad.

Yet the hairs on the back of Clara’s neck rose and she bared her teeth, the bestial part of her mind trying to break free and #turn her into a mindless monster ready to flay the threat.

The first #time she’d lost control had happened during her second decade.