by Susan Illene
“You’ll feel it more once it drops below zero, but in the twenties it doesn’t really affect us much.” Melena paused. “Unless you go to Purgatory because that place screws with your sense of cold and hot.”
Cori took another sip of her coffee. “I’m still not sure how I feel about being different.”
“I wasn’t either in the beginning.”
“So you do get used to it?” Cori asked, cocking her head.
Melena shrugged. “Mostly. I worry about how the passage of time will affect me, but I appreciate that I can put up a better fight now and that I’m nearly impossible to kill.”
Cori gave her a confused look. “You can be killed?”
“I was told a powerful enough immortal with a sturdy sword could probably manage it. Or maybe if I got dropped into an active volcano, it could do me in as well.” She twisted the mug in her hands. “But I haven’t been willing to test those theories out for obvious reasons.”
Cori could understand that. “Still, at least there’s a way you could die someday. I guess that’s something.”
“You know as long as you keep that attitude, he’s going to avoid you,” Melena said, giving her a reproving look. “For these past few months, you were the shining example to him of hope for a brighter future. Then you pretty much crushed it near the end.”
Cori swallowed back a lump in her throat. “It’s probably for the best he stays away right now.”
The sensor arched a brow. “You think you’re happier without him?”
“Not really, but we weren’t in love or anything, so I don’t know why everyone is making such a big deal about it.” Cori wished people would stop asking these questions when she didn’t have the answers herself. All she knew was that she was conflicted at the moment and needed time to work things out.
Melena stared across the yard at some unknown point, frowning. “You must have felt something for him.”
“I did care about him—still do,” Cori admitted, setting her coffee mug aside so she could lean back on her elbows. “Hell, I want to go over there right now and have mad, passionate sex with him if that makes you feel any better.”
Melena snickered. “Thanks for the visualization.”
“But it just felt like it all happened too fast. I don’t know what I want out of life right now, especially since it could be longer than expected, so how am I supposed to figure out how to be with him?” Cori had run through that circle of questions too many times to count.
“But you’d have sex with him?”
She nodded. “Yeah, sex is simple. It’s feelings that get complicated. I like hanging out with Bartol, cooking for him, talking—that was all great. He may be the only man I’ve ever felt completely relaxed around. I’m just not ready for big, life-altering decisions at the moment. Hell, I’m just starting to get my home rebuilt.”
Lucas, Micah, and Derrick had done something to speed up that process. They’d torn down what was left of her old cabin last week and started laying the groundwork for the new one a few days ago. In about a month, they expected to have it ready. Cori was still having a hard time believing it, but if people could live to be thousands of years old, she supposed anything was possible. For now, they had ordered her to stay away until construction was finished. That was the only condition they gave for them to handle the work with the meager insurance check she’d be receiving soon. Everyone promised it would be worth the wait, though.
Melena turned her gaze away from the yard, a smile playing at her lips. “We’ll work on Bartol soon. For now, you just concentrate on getting your life back together.”
“Thanks,” Cori said. “But just one thing.”
“Yeah?”
She narrowed her eyes on Melena. “What the hell have you been staring at?”
The sensor cleared her throat and looked away guiltily. “Nothing.”
“Bartol’s watching us, isn’t he?” Cori whispered, not daring to look that way again.
“He’s been here every day checking on you,” Melena admitted in a low tone.
“So there is hope?”
She nodded. “There’s always hope.”
Author’s Note
Thank you for beginning this journey with me into a new series. As most of you may have guessed, Destined for Shadows is a spinoff from the Sensor Series and begins approximately three months after the final installment, Darkness Wanes. I knew for quite a while that I wanted to write Cori and Bartol’s story and that they would be the first of the side characters to get my attention.
Bartol was first introduced in Chained by Darkness (book 2.5) and Cori was introduced in Darkness Divides (book 3). I knew as soon as I had them both down on the page that I would bring them together after Bartol got out of Purgatory. It wasn’t easy making the years pass so that he could be free. I just loved both these characters and really wanted to see them get their happy ending.
The trick was I didn’t think it could be done in one novel. These two had such traumatic and complicated pasts that I thought it would be better not to rush their story. After I polled Sensor Series readers, I got a one hundred percent response rate that Cori and Bartol should definitely get multiple installments for the same reasons as I felt. If you’re just jumping into the series without having read my other novels, now you know how that came about and why this one isn’t wrapped up neat and tidily. Please don’t shoot me!
I also thought I could do it in two books until recently, but the deeper I got into Destined for Shadows the more I realized this series would need three books to truly give them their happy ending. You can expect the next two installments this year (2017) because like many of you, I don’t want to wait. Please stay tuned to my website and/or social media for further information. The links are on the following pages as well as a complete listing of my other books in the correct reading order.
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Dark Destiny Series:
Destined for Shadows
Destined for Dreams (coming early summer 2017)
Destined for Eternity (coming fall 2017)
Sensor Series:
Darkness Haunts
Darkness Taunts
Chained by Darkness (novella)
Tempting the Moon (short story)
Darkness Divides
Playing with Darkness (novella)
Darkness Clashes
Facing the Darkness (Kerbasi holiday novella)
Darkness Shatters
Darkness Wanes
Dragon’s Breath Series:
Stalked by Flames
Dancing with Flames
Forged by Flames
Christmas with Dragons
About Susan Illene
Susan Illene served in the US Army for eleven years and worked as a human resources specialist and an Arabic linguist. She served two deployments to Iraq, and after leaving the army, she studied history at the University of Oklahoma. She and her husband currently live in Oklahoma with two high-maintenance cats doing their best to help her write her books.
For more information visit: www.susanillene.com
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You may also find her at:
Twitter- @susan_illene
Facebook- www.facebook.com/SusanIllene1
Goodreads- www.goodreads.com/author/show/6889690.Susan_Illene
Acknowledgments
I have many people to thank for their continuing support of my work. My family comes first because they have to tolerate the quirks of me being a writer. Thanks to my husband for picking up some of the slack this time so I could concentrate on the book. I was very proud of you for learning how to operate a dish washer for the first time (you and Bartol should compare notes) and for cleaning the cat litter boxes. Thanks to my father for helping w
ith beta reading and listening to me brain storm the plot. And a big thank you to my Aunt Connie and Uncle Jerry for letting me borrow their office for much of my writing time so I could focus better.
Special thanks to my editor, Angela, and to all my beta readers. Your enthusiasm and support in helping me get this book into shape is very much appreciated.
Also to the cover team. Victoria Miller did a fantastic job with the cover design for this novel. Josh McCullock did outstanding work getting the model shots despite the few hiccups along the way. Sam and Max Radcliff were amazing at posing and putting up with all the makeup we had to put on them to get their look right for the characters they portrayed. Celeste Raquel did a fantastic job with the aforementioned makeup, especially the burn scars on Max. Mauri McDonald was an awesome assistant, as well as the stylist for the female model’s hair (or wig in this case). I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better team. Thanks also to Sarah and Rachel for helping with the cover shoot planning, and to Julie for driving to OKC to help during the shoot.
For research on the novel, I want to give a big shout out to Stephanie Brandl over at Mystical Illusions Tattoos & Body Piercing in Oklahoma City. She helped give me perspective on what it is like to be a female tattoo artist as well as explain basic terms and procedures. The owner, Jody Benner, and staff there were kind enough to let me walk around their shop so I could get a good look and feel of the place. Someday, I’m going to go back for another tattoo there. Having said all this, any mistakes I made in the story are my own, or may have been done on purpose for the sake of the fantasy world building elements.
Last but not least, thanks to the fans. It is because of you that I can keep on writing. All your praise and words of encouragement over the years have meant a lot!
