Siphon (Siphon Chronicles, Book One)

by Cyndi Goodgame

  SIPHON

  Book One

  SIPHON CHRONICLES

  ✜

  By

  Cyndi Goodgame

  Also by Cyndi Goodgame

  (Wolf Clans)

  Arrow Clan

  Sword Clan

  (Vampire X Series)

  Vampire For Hire

  Vampire My World

  Vampire The Rogue

  Vampire Art Thou

  (Fey Court Trilogy)

  Deception

  Tainted

  Betrayal

  Guardian (Companion Novel to Deception)

  (Marked Like Me Series)

  Orion

  Son of Ra

  Scorpion

  Daughter of Anat

  The Shadow Queen

  Protector (Companion Novella to Marked Like Me)

  (Goblin’s Kiss Series)

  Denial

  Yield

  (Under Cover Chronicles)

  Under Cover

  Over Darkness

  Cornered Justice

  Mary Never Had a Lamb, She Was the Lamb

  (Twisted Nursery Rhymes for the Paranormal)

  Gargoyle

  (Hyde Chronicles)

  Praise for Cyndi Goodgame’s first paranormal YA series released in June of 2012.

  Reviews ofDeception:

  “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe! I choose this one. What’s not to love about a girl with three guys who aren’t hard to look at? Who will it be?” -Reading Junky

  “...I love the blend of romance and paranormal in the story. The book starts out very normal and then gets stranger and stranger until the real story begins.” –Andrea H.

  Reviews ofTainted:

  “Gah! I’m in love with this series. :) The guys are yummy and the storyline is complex. The book is intense and full of plot twists. I hope she writes fast, because I am dying to get my hands on book three.” –Andrea H.

  “...really good book. I only wish they would release the third book!” –Hilary S.

  “As far as Fey books go, these are near the top of my list.” –Scarlett J.

  ”I loved this book. A great ending to the series. I liked how the book ended although I could have seen this go another way as well. I was so excited to see if Pike, Ian, or Kin win the girl in the end. I was rooting for Pike although I knew that was not a likely. This is a great series that I will re-read many times to come! Love it!”- Amy

  © June 2014 Cyndi Goodgame

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher. This ebook/book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook/book may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Acknowledgements go to the various authors of classic fiction who wrote so eloquently that their words have become easy to quote in today’s written word. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN:

  [1. Supernatural-Fiction. 2. Magic-Fiction. 3. sylphs-Fiction 7. Historical references-Fiction]

  Email Cyndi at www.goodgamebooks@gmail.com

  You can reach Cyndi on Twitter at www.twitter.com/scgoodgame

  You can reach Cyndi at her website/blog at http://goodgamebooks.wordpress.com

  Follow Cyndi on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cyndigoodgameauthor

  Cover Artist, Olivia Leigh Photography.

  Kristin Lutts Editing.

  Summary:

  "Repeat thee and lose thee. Sing thee and lose thee.” These are the words that have plagued Lark’s dreams for as long as she can remember, but what do they mean?

  Seventeen year old Lark Spur has seen odd things her entire life. She siphons the years from those who are dying, but would rather be rid of such a distasteful magic.

  At a young age she realized the peculiar happenings when she would visit her deaf grandmother in the nursing home. Noting that they were associated with her and the other residents, she started to write things down, make notes. The victims even thanked her for lessening their pain on several occasions.

  That is, until Dane came to town. Dane’s unsettling stare holding the amused smirk on his face only makes her wonder if he knows…her secret. Every day, he watches her. When he started popping up in places other than school, her fear rose beyond just possible boy stalker.

  And worse, when she learns his true identity, she finds he is trouble and 100% part of the same circle of creatures she belongs too. And worse, he is not there to help her, but to take her away. Lark despises him and his hold on the secrets to who she really is. Yes, she had heard of him for years, but she was told to stay far away from him. She tried even now. It didn't work.

  Dane Crawford knows his place. It’s with the Siphon Council which he will soon have a place beside his father, the leader. He has worked hard to get to this level no matter what opposing belief systems he held to his father.

  Sent to bring in one of their own, Dane didn’t foresee who, or what she would soon do to change the course of his life forever. She is the one his father has been searching for. The one he fears more than any other siphon.

  Table of Contents

  LARK✜ I Am Not Alone

  DANE Same Old, Same Old

  LARK✜ Before the Second Class of the Day

  DANE Staring Contest

  LARK✜ Cafeteria Blues

  DANE Walking Away

  LARK✜ Like a Blur

  DANE Drowning

  LARK✜ Together Again

  DANE Detention

  LARK✜ The Votes Are In

  DANE All Ears

  LARK✜ Cat’s Out of the Bag

  DANE Trading Secrets

  LARK✜ Sleep the Thoughts Away

  DANE Information Highway

  LARK✜ Physical Science

  DANE Out of Breath

  LARK✜ Clouded by Kisses

  DANE Euphoria

  LARK✜ Insecurities

  DANE Making Friends

  LARK✜ All About Me

  DANE Birds of a Feather

  LARK✜ Tick. Tock.

  DANE The Lark

  LARK✜ Start Her Up

  DANE The One They Want

  LARK✜ Left Out

  DANE New Friends

  LARK✜ Old Friends

  DANE Rivals

  LARK✜ Civilized People

  DANE Plans Change

  LARK✜ Life…Rearranged

  DANE Girls Only

  LARK✜ Boiling Lava

  DANE Just For a Moment

  LARK✜ Privacy

  DANE Girlfriend?

  LARK✜ Acting Class

  DANE At the Council

  LARK ✜ No Turning Back

  DANE Seeing Clearly

  LARK✜ Justification

  DANE Failure is Not an Option

  LARK✜ Task at Hand

  DANE Sing For Me

  LARK✜ Making Out

  DANE Playing With Fire

  LARK✜ Nexus

  DANE Karma is…a Five Letter Word

  LARK✜ Being Brave

  DANE Assets

  LARK✜ Move Like Lightning

  DANE Some Kiss

  LARK✜ More Secrets

  DANE  What Next?

  Appendix A
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  Sneak Peek at Denial, book one of Goblin’s Kiss Series.

  LARK ✜ I Am Not Alone

  On my desk sat the journal I kept of all my “occurrences” at the nursing homes visits to my blood related grandmother before she died. A royal blue ribbon marked that day. The oddities started happening more and more after she was gone. I stopped adding them four years ago. The day I found out what I was cursed with.

  Beside the journal, lay the bracelet given to me by the only boy I ever dated or kissed. Sometimes I stared at it, but not because it made me miss the boy. He was slime. Because of the lack of proficiency on my inhuman ability to take a year of their life with a single kiss, I couldn't ever kiss a boy again.

  ✜ ✜ ✜

  Amber, my sister, had been in and out of my room borrowing clothes and still not satisfied with her choice so I hid the bracelet again for safekeeping. I gave up thinking about it or my own wardrobe and grabbed the first shirt I found. I didn't even glance at the black leather pants my stepmother bought me for the concert last year. Or the yellow shirt she loved for me to wear. Today wasn’t any more special than yesterday or the day before so why would it matter? I had no one to impress. And wearing the jacket I snagged for my birthday last week was out of the question until it was cooler outside.

  Sam, my best friend, snatched the red tee in my hand and replaced it with another.

  “You’re wearing THE shirt,” Sam, short for Samantha, rolled off her tongue. “You never know who might catch your eye or watch yours.” Sam was in a word...eccentric. Her fiery hair poofed out just the way she hated it and none of her clothes matched. In my opinion.

  “What shirt?” my half sister, Amber, popped her head in the door pulling her yellow sweater around her middle revealing a midriff that her father would never let her leave the house in. She shivered where she leaned on my doorknob. The thermostat was broken and we were all freezing until the repairman could get here after five this afternoon when the parental units would be available. It was warmer outside than in.

  “THE shirt. Oh boy, whom should we watch for? Sis has a crush. You have a clue?” Amber asked my best friend in what she called her "dare me" voice never looking my way. They talked like I wasn’t standing right in front of them.

  The shirt I christened the “catch their eye” shirt. It was just a simple green princess sleeve tee, but it hugged the right places, matched my eyes like it was made just for me, and happen to hit perfect on the top of my jeans.

  I smiled at my best friend and she rewarded me with an odd shaped mouth pout before blurting out, "We are late!”

  My sister made her fake sexy kitten noise causing me to ripple with annoyance, but I didn’t let her know it. She repeatedly asked Sam if she knew of my love interests. Of course there were none.

  “So, we always are. What’s up with the drama?” I asked a little annoyed at both of them while zipping around the room a little too fast for normal. I mumbled a few words to the goddess of aloneness wishing for once I had some peace and quiet as well as strength to remember to act “normal”. All it got me was a reminder from Amber that I really should stop talking to myself and recognize what the repercussions might produce. She avoided all of my oddities like a good sister would.

  “I happen to know the new boy starts today. Katelynn told Morgan that Jonathan in the office was talking about the new guy who came in and enrolled yesterday. Jonathan huffed about him being arrogant and how the girls all fell over drooling at him. Soooo…..I want to be there to see him and where he goes first. Next. And all day!”

  Malarkey. Sometimes I counted how long before she took a breath. Once, it was over a minute. That had to be a record. “Well, let’s get there then. Major emergency for Amber includes ogling guys and never, ever talking to them. By all means, let’s be on our way.”

  “Don’t be sour. One day you’ll find one you can’t live without. Mark my words, girlfriend,” Sam huffed.

  All three of us piled in the car. My freshman sister would leave us at the main hall and veer off with her art buddies. Sam and I would make the same “guy alert” trek down the main hall back and forth twice so she could make sure every guy on her “to watch” list caught her prance and bat of the eyes. She’d turned down the best of them. Sam was sweet and shy deep down inside, but all a guy ever saw of her was the vividly dramatic tease she presented herself as a front. She’d gone out with a couple of them, but they were not attentive enough. She said she preferred to shop around and find that perfect one that would treat her like the queen she was. I agreed to the point of waiting, just not her acting like a tease to every hot guy she aimed her baby blues.

  “You owe me the new bling jacket at the mall if she hooks up with the hottie.”

  “You’re on,” Sam high-fived my sister from the front seat to the back making her shiny brown hair bounce forward. She twittered all over the seat like she'd won the lotto.

  “How do you know I’ll even like him?” I argued. I refuse to date anymore. Guys are off my radar for the time being. I tried it out, but with my “abilities”, it is impossible to be more than friends. With any of them.

  “Oh, from the description of him there isn't anything not to like. I’m just betting because I’m tired of your mopey attitude towards all men and think you need a little eye candy to get you straight.”

  I rolled my eyes at the front windshield before climbing out of the car. The door slammed shut on it's own accord just as the car next to mine opened. A guy I knew from the hospital got out, said hello in a tenor of nicety, and headed off to the entrance. Jim. He volunteered, like me, in hopes of gaining a job there one day. His chances were great. Not mine. His girlfriend joined him by his car and before long were lip locked like Siamese twins.

  Sam popped her blue wad of gum with a snap oblivious to my fusion of jealousy. “Shut up that eye roll you are hiding from me and hurry. You will be happy I made you move your butt from what Morgan found out about him. He’s major hot, so that is an emergency.”

  We both stepped through the glass entrance with the slam of the doors in a unified thud. Racing up the steps of the main hall, not one person was in sight. We really were late. Several loomed around the corner of the upstairs otherwise known as Trophy Hall due to the walls and walls of i.e. trophies.

  Sam leaned in to say something and mentioned said “new guy” too loud.

  “We shouldn’t gossip like that. It will come back to haunt us. And he’ll never notice the two of us anyway.” I believed all of that statement. People get hurt by people saying the stupidest things. I should know. And well, the definition of the word people takes on a different meaning in my world and gives reason as to why the new guy would look once, hear the rumors, and never look again.

  “It’s not like this is bad. Quit being a baby. How else will we keep everyone frightened and somewhat intrigued by what we know?”

  No, what she knows. Somehow, she always seemed to get lumped into the circle by association. Guess the saying is true about choosing your friends, but Sam had always been loyal to me. She knows this guy will hear the rumors and never let himself near me. Foster won’t let them. My nightmarish ex will ward them off.

  It’s not like I have friends I’ve known who’ve moved from other places and spent time sighing over missing the big city or small town they came from. I couldn't be invited to places they didn't know me because those friends don't exist. I was born in this suburb and am still here. Nothing will ever change.

  DANE  Same Old, Same Old

  I hated this mission. Yeah, I was their best kept secret. Retriever, the council called me, taking care of unsightly blemishes on the map for dear ole dad. It keeps the money flowing no matter how dark it makes me inside, so I stay with it. It’s not like I have much of a life outside of it. At least not anymore.

  At one time I had girls swarming over me, giving me anything I wanted. And I took it. When I hit eighteen, it all changed. My body and my life went into a boxing match with itself. That�
��s when my father decided I was ready to take over the family business. Now, girls, they are all afraid of me.

  I have heard of Lark Spur, never seen her. She would hate me like the rest, or so I assumed. I wanted to just skip the whole “investigate” part and move to step two. Take her in and be done with it.

  My father said she had something he wanted. All I knew was that my father…hated her father. At some point my father wanted what her father had so he took it. Whatever that was, he didn't share with me.

  I'd heard the rumors of the nexus being in the Big D. I was new to the city. There were few places I hadn't been. If she was here, she was hidden well. The saying went that when she took, she sang out the words like a siren on the sea. That the victim would be so enamored by her and he or she would give over every year they owned.

  Or, at least, that is how the tale is told. It couldn't be real. One day I would find her if she is in fact not just a boy's dream.

  This was another day spent in high school numbering fifty-nine on my “retriever” roster for the year. Sometimes I wished I would at least look over twenty so I could refrain from taking this kind of jobs.

  Each and every assignment left me hating myself. I knew some of the siphons I returned were eliminated for good. Some were tortured. Most we're trained and made into fighting machines who would help my father take over whatever it is he wants to take over. Sometimes I pretended to not know he was out for power and I chose to ignore the council meetings so I wouldn’t know specifically why.

  Under the blue skies with an oak forest all around, I spied a girl alone eating a bagel that I guessed was her entire breakfast. How girls eat so little confounded me. My fuel tank was on empty even now and I just ate a five-stack of pancakes an hour ago. I would have to stop and snack afterward either way.

  I went through the usual routine that worked on even the shiest of girls who weren’t that great looking, but nice. I didn’t know what this assignment's girl looked like or even resembled so I would have to dig her out of the proverbial haystack.