by Dale Mayer
“She didn’t deserve that,” Genesis said. “She was a good woman.”
“She owned too much, knew too much, and did too much,” he snapped. “She deserved everything coming to her.”
Her heart sinking, Genesis asked in a small voice, “Did you kill her?”
“No.” His headshake was immediate. “We didn’t need to. She passed on her own.”
Tears of relief came to her eyes. “Oh, thank God.”
“Of course, she’d rather we’d killed her than take you out, as I will soon.”
“And then I’ll take you out.” Portman’s Junior’s voice from the doorway was a welcome distraction. Until she saw the look in his eyes.
She shuddered.
Grandfather swiveled, shock on his face. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be back at the hovercraft.”
“Nah, change of plans.” Without warning, he fired his weapon at Grandfather. A bolt of light zapped across the small room, hitting Grandfather square in the chest. He clutched at his heart, stumbling backward with the force of the shot, and tumbled into the water.
“Good. That should take care of him.”
And that was a sure sign Portman Junior had lost his marbles. Grandfather had fallen into a healing pool – and one of the strongest available.
She studied the youngest Portman. “Now what?”
“I want the star charts and the land documents.”
“And again, not being a blood member of the family, you can’t hold the title to the land.”
He shrugged. “But that’s only as long as the documents exist.”
Uh oh. She watched him pull a dozen small black rocks out from his pockets.
“Where did those come from?” She was afraid to hear the answer.
“I made them.”
“You can do that to those rocks so quickly?”
“Sure can.” He threw one into the healing pool. Instantly, the water hissed and boiled in agitation. Grandfather’s body tossed about in the choppy waves. She raced over to the edge of the pool.
“Oh, I don’t think so.”
A zap of blue energy sparked. She dove behind the raised edge of the pool as the blue streak crackled overhead, just missing her.
She pulled energy around herself, becoming invisible once again, soft chitters at her ear. She crawled forward and made it to the far wall behind the chairs and table.
A kerfuffle just out of her line of vision had her peering warily across the room.
She watched as Connor tackled Portman Junior to the ground – again. A few hard swinging fists, a few more grunts, and then Connor leaned over Portman’s prone body, his chest heaving and his head hanging low as he caught his breath struggling against the forces zapping his energy.
“It’s okay, Genesis, he’s out cold.”
She threw off the cloaking energy and raced to her healing pool, only to find that Remi already had the rock out of the water and carefully wrapped up in his energy.
“Thanks, Remi.” She stood for a moment studying Grandfather, but he was alive and appeared to be in a healing stupor.
She turned back to Connor. He had turned Portman over on his belly and held his hands behind his back.
“Those black rocks are deadly,” he said, “But they did do something good.”
She walked closer, studying changes in his energy that she could see but not understand.
“As they pulled on my energy to reassert their own balance, they removed something I hadn’t known was there.”
“Oh? And what was that?”
He motioned to Grandfather floating in the pool. “A layer of suppression energy he’d used to keep me in his network.”
Crouching down beside him, she looked to see his energy from a different perspective. “You have your abilities back for real this time, don’t you?”
He grinned. “Sure do. I don’t know why he was allowed to infiltrate my system like he did, though.”
“Um,” she said, “I might be able to explain that part. After you left a year ago, your energy weakened the farther apart we got.” She shrugged. “No, I didn’t do it, but as we’d already aligned perfectly, our energies were happy that way. After you left, we both became weaker for a time until we healed. In your case, that gave Grandfather the opening he was looking for.”
She pondered the issue then added, “Chances are he’d been doing that in a light way for a long time, so you couldn’t see him for what he was.”
“How could he keep that up though? Especially with so many people around him.”
She shrugged. “The difficulty is more in the initial set-up. After that, as long as he had that pathway in place, he could feed it whenever he needed to.” He was very strong, and in a very sneaky way.
“And that would explain why my abilities were always stronger when close to the healing pools. They could heal the damage his energy caused and heal the grief and loss from losing you.”
“Exactly.”
*
Connor stared at the woman so many people had accused of hurting him in wonder. “I’ve been a fool.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You were operating without your normal level of intuition. You couldn’t tell the truth from the lies.”
“And now I can again.” He smiled gently. “And I can see that there never was any artifice. It’s all open honesty with you.”
She grinned. “It’s the only way a healer can actually be.”
“My spirit dog…” he said hesitantly in a low voice. “When he died, I was heartbroken.”
“He found Granny. So did dozens of others. She tried to find other people for him, but he’d become attached to her.” She looked down at the floor. “When she passed, he stayed here.”
“Is there a way for me to have him back?” He didn’t know what to say to make such a thing happen. If it was even possible.
“If you want him.” She gazed into his eyes. “I think it’s why he’s been hanging around. He knew you were here a year ago. Then you left and we were both broken-hearted. He’s rarely been around since.”
He reached out and snagged her close. “God, I’m so sorry.”
“So am I,” she whispered. “But maybe it’s the way things needed to happen.”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “I’m certainly a lot wiser now.”
He tilted up her chin. “But I wouldn’t have wanted to have hurt you for anything.”
“Then promise to not do it again and I’ll forgive you.” She laughed. “Actually, I forgive you anyway.”
He bent his head, and just before his lips took hers in a searing kiss, he said, “I promise.”
“Uh, I hate to disturb you two lovebirds,” Matt interrupted. “But the hovercraft from the Center is looking to land, and they can’t find the place.” He faced Genesis. “Did you cloak it again?”
Genesis laughed. “It was only partially uncloaked.” She rose to her feet. “No problem. I can fix that.” And she smiled. “Actually, now it feels like I could fix anything.”
“Speaking of fixing anything – did you by any chance have something to do with the missing star charts at the Center?”
She gazed at him. “Are they missing?”
He studied the look on her face then groaned. “You cloaked them, didn’t you?”
A chuckle escaped. “Let’s just say that you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them when you go looking again.”
Connor looked down at the still-unconscious man, whipped off his belt, and tied up his hands. “Just in case.” And then he realized something else. “Remi is moving all the rocks so they surround him,” he said in surprise. “Why?”
“The rocks want to return to balance,” she said gently. “He stole energy from them, and they are getting their own energy back.”
He shuddered, watching as Portman Junior’s skin took on a deep-gray cast.
“Will it kill him?”
“I don’t know. But he created this. And as long as they aren’t reachi
ng for my energy, then I don’t really care.”
She brushed past Matt to go outside. Matt walked over to Connor.
“You can see Remi now?”
He nodded and quickly explained about Grandfather’s energy.
Matt sighed. “What a damn mess.”
“Yes, but it’s a good one now.” Connor stood up. “We’ll get to the bottom of everything eventually. Genesis will be safe and the documents and star charts will be preserved forever.”
“We’ll need to bring her sisters back,” Matt said, his tone deepening.
Connor laughed. “Will they come? That’s a whole different story.”
“They’ll come,” Genesis said from the doorway a beaming smile on her face. “When they are ready.”
Matt nodded, staring down at his shoes, reminding Connor of his own unfinished business.
“Let’s hope it’s soon.”
Connor glanced over at Genesis, who had a faraway look in her eyes. She laughed softly and pointed at Grandfather. “He has started something…set something in motion. I can’t see the details, but I know that Tori will be back soon.”
Matt brightened. “And Celeste?”
Genesis studied him carefully. “When the time is right, she’ll be here, too.”
That deep gaze of his locked on her face. “Promise?”
“I promise,” she said seriously. “There are different pathways for different people. I’m just so grateful that I have come to the end of mine.”
In two strides, Connor was at her side, swinging her up into his arms. “Not the end, just the beginning.”
And he kissed her.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Genesis! If you enjoyed my book, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a review.
Dear reader,
I love to hear from readers, and you can contact me at my website: www.dalemayer.com or at my Facebook author page. To be informed of new releases and special offers, sign up for my newsletter. And if you are interested in joining Dale Mayer’s Fan Club, here is the Facebook sign up page.
Stay tuned for the next book in this series. If you’d like to read about other books I’ve written, please turn the page.
Cheers,
Dale Mayer
Your Free Book Awaits!
Blood doesn’t just make her who she is … it also makes her what she is.
Like being a sixteen-year-old vampire isn’t hard enough, Tessa’s throwback human genes make her an outcast among her relatives. But try as she might, she can’t get a handle on the vampire lifestyle and all the … blood.
Turning her back on the vamp world, she embraces the human teenage lifestyle—high school, peer pressure and finding a boyfriend. Jared manages to stir something in her blood. He’s smart and fun and oh, so cute. But Tessa’s dream of a having the perfect boyfriend turns into a nightmare when vampires attack the movie theater and kidnap her date.
Once again, Tessa finds herself torn between the human world and the vampire one.
Will blood own out? Can she make peace with who she is as well as what?
DOWNLOAD a complimentary copy of VAMPIRE IN DENIAL? Just tell me where to send it!
Tori
Book 2 of Glory
Buy this book at your favorite vendor.
Hurt and betrayed, Tori has gone into hiding. Anything to give her time to heal from losing the love of her life.
Devon came looking for her…for all the wrong reasons. He needs her help to save a large band of locals caught behind a weird energy pattern.
An energy worker, she can’t turn her back on those in need. She will help him, but only if he disappears from her life forever.
He agrees but has no intention of honoring his promise. She’s finally let him back into her life – he has no intention of screwing up a second time.
Tori isn’t big on forgiveness, but she is big on Devon. Only the weird energy pattern was a problem – a big problem –and the start of something sinister.
Before she can work out what’s going on, the stakes go up, and she realizes there might not be a future for either of them.
Chapter 1
Tori Chandler checked her watch. Damn. She had just two minutes to decide. Her break was only fifteen minutes and she didn’t dare be late. Not with a new job and a strict boss. Should she risk a trip to the bank? She could always walk out if the line didn’t move fast enough.
She needed the little cash she had for her rent. She had to pay daily until she had a month’s worth saved up, and she was already behind. Her landlord had caught her in the hallway this morning and had given her an ultimatum. She needed that hideaway. It was walking distance to her new job and saved her bus fare. She had to keep her landlord happy until next week when she’d get her first paycheck. She’d already given him the last of her cash. And she didn’t use plastic – on purpose. Too traceable. She didn’t know if she was still on anyone’s radar – she just knew she couldn’t take the chance. She’d left in secret and planned to stay gone. Except for her sisters, there was nothing left for her back home.
In six months, she still hadn’t found another place to call home. Pain and anger had sent her on this journey and now she was afraid she didn’t know how to quit.
Moving a lot meant accumulating very little. If her landlord dumped her belongings outside when he kicked her out, it wouldn’t take more than a carry bag to pack – she had so little to her name.
This was her first chance to settle in a long time. Now if she could just make it work.
“Tori, go for your break now. See you back in fifteen.”
“Thanks.” Tori smiled. “I’ll just hop over to the bank.”
Mary, her supervisor, frowned. “Bad day for that. It’s the last day of the month.”
“And that’s why I have to go.” Tori gave her a bright smile. “Not to worry, if the line is too long, I’ll just come back.”
That brought a smile to Mary’s face. “Good idea. You’ve been a model employee so far, but you know how the owner feels about tardiness. Best not to push it.”
Tori rolled her eyes at Mary’s back as she walked away, then bolted for the front door. Did no one in this world understand that sometimes shit happened and had to be dealt with?
The bank was only a few stores over in the big strip mall. It was a small branch and served mostly locals. Thankfully. And considering it was almost noon, she had to get there before the rush. There was no one hurrying to get inside, so that was a good sign. Tori pulled open the double glass door and rushed in.
Cool air hit her. She barely noticed as her senses went on full alert.
There was an eerie silence…all around her. She stopped and looked ahead. The tellers were all staring at her, fear and anger on their faces, but mostly…horror.
She straightened and realized that something major was wrong. Her instincts said run. Get the hell out of there.
Then she heard it. Click. And something round and hard was shoved into her back.
“What a nice day for you to come to the bank.” A gravelly voice spoke in her ear, the smell of beer and stale pizza mixed with sour belching almost dropping her to her knees. “Welcome to the party.”
Tori closed her eyes. Shit happened all right.
But why always to her?
Buy this book at your favorite vendor.
Psychic Vision Series
Tuesday’s Child – Book 1
What she doesn’t want…is exactly what he needs.
Shunned and ridiculed all her life for something she can’t control, Samantha Blair hides her psychic abilities and lives on the fringes of society. Against her will, however, she’s tapped into a killer—or rather, his victims. Each woman’s murder, blow-by-blow, ravages her mind until their death releases her back to her body. Sam knows she must go to the authorities, but will the rugged, no-nonsense detective in charge of tracking down the killer believe her?
Detective Brandt Sutherland only trusts hard evidence, yet
Sam’s visions offer clues he needs to catch a killer. The more he learns about her incredible abilities, however, the clearer it becomes that Sam’s visions have put her in the killer’s line of fire. Now Brandt must save her from something he cannot see or understand…and risk losing his heart in the process.
As danger and desire collide, passion raises the stakes in a game Sam and Brandt don’t dare lose.
Hide’n Go Seek – Book 2
A twisted game of Hide’n Go Seek forces an unlikely alliance between a no-nonsense FBI agent and a search-and-rescue worker.
Celebrated search-and-rescue worker Kali Jordon has hidden her psychic abilities by crediting her canine partner Shiloh with the recoveries. But Kali knows the grim truth—The Sight that she inherited from her grandmother allows her to trace violent energy unerringly to victims of murder. No one knows her secret until a twisted killer challenges her to a deadly game of Hide’n Go Seek that threatens those closest to her.
Now she must rely on FBI Special Agent Grant Summers, a man who has sworn to protect her, even as he suspects there’s more to Kali and Shiloh than meets the eye.
As the killer draws a tighter and tighter circle around Kali, she and Grant find there’s no place to hide.
Maddy’s Floor – Book 3
Medical intuitive and licensed MD Madeleine Wagner thought she’d seen every way possible to heal a diseased body…then patients start dying from mysterious causes in her long-term facility.
The terminally ill fight to get into her ward. Once there, many miraculously…live. So when her patients start dropping and she senses an evil force causing their deaths, she calls on her friend and mentor, Stefan, for help. Together, they delve beyond the physical plane into the metaphysical… Only to find terror.
She wants to save everyone, but are some souls not meant to be saved?
Detective Drew McNeil has two family members in need of Maddy’s healing care, but his visits to her facility leave him wondering – who cares for Maddy? Bizarre events on her floor raise his professional curiosity. And the more time he spends with Maddy, the more personal everything becomes. When the deaths on Maddy’s Floor intersect with one of his cold cases, he realizes an old killer has returned – and Maddy’s standing in his path.
