Halfling (Black Petals Book 1) by Tarisa Marie

around, but all I see is a broken window and an empty room.
    “He can handle himself. I need to get you out of here or Crispen will kill me,” she says in a rush, an apologetic look on her face.
    “What is going on!?” I yell, anger and confusion overwhelming me. I feel my cheeks flush. Why won’t they tell me anything? My house is under attack, I am under attack, so I think I deserve to know what’s going on.
    “Apparently he’ll kill me if I explain anything to you. Sorry, Megan,” she mutters, and the car lurches ahead. As we’re turning the corner, I watch in the side mirror as a body falls from my window and lands harshly onto the ground in a heap. I can tell by the clothing and hair that it’s Crispen. I shout loudly for Aria to turn around. She sees what I see, but she doesn’t stop.
    “I’m sorry, Megan, this probably looks terrible. I promise you that Crispen is fine. He will be fine,” Aria pleads for me to calm down.
    “He just fell from a second story window, straight onto his back! Even if he is okay, he needs to go to the hospital!” I shout, and reach for the lock on the door. I’ll jump out of this moving car if I have to.
    “Megan, don’t you even think about it!” Aria screeches and hits the lock button, locking my door again. “He is fine! He knows what he’s doing, trust me!”
    She hits the lock button repeatedly as she drives, so I can’t jump out.

Chapter 6
     
     
     
     
    Five minutes later, we pull up to a high-end apartment building and she parks the car in an underground parkade. She leads me to an elevator and then up to the second floor where we stand in front of apartment 224.
    “It’s your sister, open up, Mason,” Aria says in a sing-song voice hardly loud enough for me to hear. She doesn’t even knock, but the door opens and a male with dark blonde hair and brown eyes opens the door. This must be Aria and Crispen’s brother Mason. Although his hair is slightly different than theirs, and his eyes a different shade, he bears the same jaw line and dimples as his siblings. His gaze lands directly on me.
    “This is Megan, Crispen’s… friend. The girl he’s been with all the time lately,” Aria introduces me perkily.
    Mason doesn’t look surprised. He smiles kindly and takes a step back, welcoming us in. So this is Crispen’s apartment. His real home. I glance around at the tope walls and white furniture. I guess being a doctor, he can afford to live like this. What about his student loans though? Surely he has tons of them racked up.
    This apartment doesn’t look recently moved into. It looks like they’ve been living here a while. More evidence that Crispen was never my neighbor.
    I wonder what Mason does for a living, as I take in all of the high-end decor.
    “I’m Mason, Megan. It’s nice to finally meet you,” Mason greets me and shakes my hand. “Where is our brother, sister?”
    “He’s caught up with a minor disruption. He should be here soon,” Aria tells him flippantly. One wall of Mason and Crispen’s home catches my eye. The left wall is decorated from top to bottom with all different kinds of knives and swords . The two siblings catch me staring wide-eyed.
    “Quite the collection,” I admire awkwardly. I’m admittedly freaked out. I’ve heard that collecting these sorts of things is a fairly common hobby, but I’ve never seen anything like this.
    Mason grins. “You like them? Crispen and I collect them. You should see our training room!” he says enthusiastically. He obviously has a passion for weapons like these.
    I catch Aria scowling at him. “Crispen would kill you. He doesn’t want Megan to know anything.”
    They share a silent exchange. I break it. “Okay, this is getting a little obsessive, don’t you think? I think I should get to know what it is that is happening around me, because quite obviously it’s something that I should know about.”
    “I like her. She has balls, and Crispen needs someone to keep him in