Welcome to the Dream (A Celeste Cross Book, #1) (30 page)

She stopped herself from
shivering forward.

‘
It will be okay,’ he said
quietly as he turned back to survey the other soldiers in the room
before them.

Chapter 17

Celeste Cross

Soon Jack was called away.
He still had a lot to do, even though the threat had finally been
contained.

With nothing to do in the
arrival lounge but wait, Celeste had found herself wandering up the
escalator and back through the food court. She didn't feel like
just sitting there and watching everyone else work – plus, she had
a lot to think about.

When she reached the other
side of the room that lead down from the mezzanine level to the
shops and corridor that wound its way to departures, the lights
suddenly turned off.

There was a loud whirring
sound as something wound down, and the floor even shook
slightly.

Though a quick spike of
adrenaline pushed through Celeste, she clamped down on it soon
enough. It was probably just the cleanup crew getting to work on
the electrics or something like that.

She paused there, waiting
long enough until her eyes adjusted to the dark.

Out of the silence and
shadows, she heard footfall coming her way.

‘
Do you have a torch?’ she asked
casually, assuming it must be several soldiers making their way to
whatever task they needed to complete.

They didn't answer, but they
did get closer.

‘
Hello? Do you have any
night-vision goggles or something? I should get back to arrivals.’
She twisted her head, facing the direction of the
stairs.

Whoever they were, they
didn't say a thing.

She tried to keep control of
herself, but a spike of suspicion made her back cold.

‘
Hello?’ she tried
again.

She could distinguish their
forms now, but only barely; it was very dark, and even though there
were a lot of windows along the wall behind her, the night wasn't
that bright.

The soldiers were big, and
they were clearly dressed in heavy gear with rifles at their
side.

They walked right up to
her.

Just as Celeste prepared to
say hello once more, the word stuck in her throat.

She saw a blue light, but it
was faint. It wasn't coming from any kind of creature though; it
came from the wrist of the man in the lead.

Though she couldn't be sure,
something told her it was somehow related to a Yaoguai.

She straightened up, sucking in
a breath. ‘It's okay, they're afraid of me,’ she pointed out,
suddenly realizing that these were probably soldiers who were
transporting a relic, and maybe they needed her help. After all,
Jack had mused in the arrival lounge about whether a Yaoguai would
bother regenerating and coming out of their relic in her presence.
They were deathly afraid of her, so maybe she could be used to
guard a relic until it was locked down properly. ‘Do you need my
help to transport it?’ she asked quickly, glancing down at the blue
light again.

The man at the front took
another step, coming uncomfortably close to her.

Before she could back off to
re-establish her personal space, he leaned in and spoke to her in a
croaky, grating voice: 'and what you scared of?’

Celeste froze.

It was too late.

Before she could back off,
the guy in front of her lunged forward and wrapped his arms around
her middle. In another second, something pressed into her
neck.

Celeste Cross lost
consciousness and flopped forward.

End of Book One

The next book in this series is
called Behind the Veil (A Celeste Cross Book, #2), and is currently
available.

For free fiction and details on
current and upcoming titles, please visit
www.odettecbell.com

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