Eternal (Eternal series) (36 page)

Emma looked to the edge of the crowd until her gaze met up with a strange pair of eyes.  The word strange worked on two levels in this instance; one, Emma didn't know this strange woman who appeared to be staring at her intently.  And two, her eyes were strange in and of themselves.  Even from this distance, Emma could see that they were flat black, and they looked angry. 

I'm just being crazy
, Emma thought,
what reason would this woman have to be angry with me?  She doesn't even know me
.   She was sure of that.  In a town this small you begin to know every detail of every face. 

This disturbing woman must be looking at someone else.  That was the only reasonable explanation, although Emma couldn't deny that those unsettling eyes appeared to be focused directly on her. Not on her exactly, but staring straight through her, piercing her like a hot blade and searing a hole into her very core.

It was odd that one pair of eyes could capture Emma's attention so fully, after all, there were hundreds of faces in the crowd, but this face was different than the rest. 

The dark haired girl's features were cold and sleek, catlike almost.  Emma tried to look away, to simply ignore this stranger's stare, but was captured in those eyes and frozen in place.

Whoever this mystery woman was, there was no denying she was beautiful.  Shimmering ebony hair flowed halfway down her back and whipped wildly around her face as if it were caught up in an imaginary breeze.  It danced around her in a hypnotic motion and seemed to lick at the air though there was no breeze.  In fact the air seemed especially thick and still at the moment, hard to breathe in.

Emma wondered why no one else seemed to notice the dark woman or looked in her direction.  She should have drawn a lot of attention, being such a beautiful stranger in this town full of ordinary people. 

But she didn't. 

Emma began to wonder if she was the only one who could see her.  Maybe she was hallucinating.  Would a hallucination have this much power over her senses?  Emma couldn't even blink to test her theory.  She was her prisoner.

The dark woman seemed delighted by Emma's predicament, and raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at her as if they shared an inside joke together.  An unsettling smile pulled up the corners of her exquisite deep red lips, conveying her obvious pleasure at the strange effect she had over Emma. 

Just then Emma felt another pair of eyes on her.  From her peripheral she could see Destry walking towards her slowly through the crowd. 

He probably wondered what she was doing standing there like an idiot. 

The wild woman's stare suddenly changed direction, turning to Destry. 

Emma wanted to scream to him, to warn him of the upcoming silent assault she'd fallen victim to that was now aimed directly at him, but she couldn't find her voice. 

Emma watched in helpless horror as the woman followed Destry’s movement with her empty eyes.

Emma felt the anger rise up, filling her with unimaginable rage.  She couldn't stand to have this strange woman look at him.  It made her sick in the pit of her stomach.  Something about her was not right, not natural. 

She shouldn't be here at all. 

Emma didn't want her anywhere near Destry. 

Overcome with the intense desire to protect Destry from this dark woman, Emma fought with all her might to break free of the invisible clutches that held her.

Someone walked in front of the dark figure then, blocking Emma's view of her for a fraction of a second.  And then she was gone, vanished into thin air, the spell she’d had over Emma broken. 

Emma couldn't even catch a glimpse of the back of her moving away through the crowd.  She was just gone.