Page 62 of Red Zone Awakened

“I mean it.Don’t look.”

And she didn’t.

For all of two seconds.

Keiko couldn’t say exactly why she decided to turn around to see what he was doing.She’d made a promise and fully intended to keep it, no matter how crazy it made her.Sure, she was curious, but normally she kept her word.For some reason, this time, she couldn’t.

Something made the hairs on her nape stand on end, and the air stirred around her.It was a strange, electric sensation that made her skin bristle and her heart race.It wasn’t so much that she decided to turn; it was more that she felt compelled to.

And what she saw was incomprehensible.

Mace had loosened his shirt and lowered it at the back.Just enough for her to see the small tattoo high on his shoulder.It was a strange tattoo for a man as dangerous and threatening as him.She would have expected a skull and crossbones or a biker-gang emblem; instead, there was a tiny, detailed drawing of a bat.

Huh.Weird.He said he hated bats.

For some strange reason, she couldn’t take her eyes off the tattoo, even though it clearly had nothing to do with his mysterious plan to cover the camera.The drawing was incredibly detailed.You could almost see every single hair on the bat’s head.And the eyes were so lifelike that they seemed to stare at her.

No.Not seemed.Theywerestaring at her.

An icy chill ran up her spine, and her stomach fell.She couldn’t drag her eyes away from the bat.And she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.Because the tattoo was moving.Mace’s muscles clenched, his body shivered and tensed, and the bat morphed from a two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional animal.

Right.

Before.

Her.

Eyes.

Keiko stared in horror as it emerged from Mace’s skin and sat at his collar, looking strangely pleased with itself—if a bat could look pleased.It was tiny, only a little bigger than her thumb, and had beige fur from head to toe, making it look like a ball of fluff rather than a flying harbinger of death.

She stood, frozen in shock, her mind completely blank as she tried to make sense of what she’d witnessed.There was no explanation.None at all.As she gaped at the bat, the bat stared back at her.And then, suddenly, it spread its wings and took flight.Heading straight toward her.

And that’s when Keiko screamed.