Disconnected

by Bethany Daniel

  "Ok." Katy smiles, blowing one last kiss towards Will before coming to take my hand. "Alright, let's go before I can't get away."

  I pull her out to where our limo is waiting at the corner for us, "After you." I smile, opening the door for her to slide in.

  After I climb in behind her, she grabs my hand and squeezes tightly. "I'm so nervous. I don't compare to all of those actresses out there. I just had a baby 2 months ago! I'm going to look awful in pictures." She frowns, looking out the window as we drive.

  "First of all, I think you're beautiful, and as far as I'm concerned I'm the only one whose opinion matters. If someone dares to say anything, I'll deal with them, ok?"

  Katy smiles gratefully, leaning her head on my shoulder. "Ok. You're sure I look ok?" she asks, glancing down at her midnight blue floor-length gown.

  "You look amazing," I assure her. I wrap my arm around her back for the remainder of the drive to the extra-large theater where the premiere is being held.

  When we come to a stop, I squeeze her hand reassuringly. "All ready?"

  "As much as I can be, I hope we can find Scott and Krista."

  "I'm sure we'll be able to. We all have to go through interviews for the major stations. They'll probably be mixed in with that madness."

  Katy nods as the door is opened, and I step out quickly, helping her out. Immediately there are camera flashes and people asking us to pose, and soon Katy seems to be enjoying herself every time I grab her and kiss her in front of a camera or hold her against me for "just one more."

  After at least 30 different networks stop us to chat, we finally spot Krista and Scott in the mass of people. Krista is dressed in a sparkly hot pink dress that I'm sure she probably had Elize find just for her. You wouldn't be able to miss her, even in this crowd.

  "Kris!" Katy yells over the noise, waving her down.

  "Oh, Kate!" Krista squeals, making her way over to us. "Can you believe this? I got to shake hands with some of my biggest crushes! This is like a fan-girl's dream come true!"

  Katy laughs, shaking her head. "Being married to a celebrity hasn't changed those thoughts, huh?"

  "Heck no! I'm married, not blind!"

  Katy giggles and they scan the crowd, pointing out every other celebrity they are fans of.

  "Who's that?" Katy asks with a frown. She's pointing to a girl no older than 15 or 16, with pitch black hair that falls down to her mid back and a dress that barely covers what's supposed to be covered.

  "Oh, that's Zoie Reese, Excite's new toy. And from what I've heard, a whole lot of trouble, too. They keep giving her warnings because she keeps getting caught at raids, wild parties, you name it. But she really has a lot of potential, so they're trying to get her to tone it down before her whole image is shot. They don't want her to end up like so many other child stars."

  Katy shakes her head. "That's a shame. I can't imagine being so young and thrown into all this."

  I shrug, taking her arm and guiding her through the crowd. "It takes real talent to get into this business, and she has it. She just also has a lot of other issues that are getting in the way of her being the next America's Sweetheart."

  Katy frowns, looking back to where Krista and Scott are stopped, talking to yet another interviewer. "You know Krista works with kids that age in the school she works at. She's really good at her job. I bet she could get through to her somehow."

  I shrug my shoulders. "I'll talk to Mitchell and Scott about it. You could be right. God knows Zoie could use some guidance."

  Katy smiles at that and I pull her through the large crowd to our assigned seats inside. As we settle in, I hold onto her hand and think about the conversation we just had. Katy could be right, maybe someone like Krista is just who Zoie needs. I see the potential in her, and so does everyone else, or Excite never would have signed her. I think Krista has the will and heart to put up with a girl like her. I just don't know if Zoie has the open mind to listen.

  Read ahead to discover some samples of great books by some of my friends!

  Hell's Gift - Book 2 in the 'Save My Soul' series by K. S. Haigwood

  Copyright © K. S. Haigwood 2013

  Chapter 1

  Rhyan

  Someone cleared their throat. It must have been to get my attention, because we don't have the human annoyances of allergies or head colds, and I was the only other being in the recreational room.

  Nevertheless, I kept my head lowered and my eyes drifted shut in hope the approaching angel would get the hint that I had no interest in idle chit-chat.

  "She's happy, Rhyan."

  My lips parted and something in between a moan and a sigh escaped on the exhale. I'd heard the same line a thousand times. Next it would be, "You should be happy for her, not moping around here like a lost puppy. It's been a year. She's married to her soulmate and has a child now. You need to move on. Get over her already!"

  The whole of Heaven's occupants knew my problem. I felt like each and every one of them had voiced their opinion more than once, and I wasn't going to sit there and listen to it again like a broken record or a compact disk set on repeat. It wasn't like I was the only angel in love with their charge.

  My eyes shot open and focused on my new company. My stare held the first warning. Actually, there wouldn't be a second one. I'd heard enough.

  Josselyn froze and held both hands up in a silent apology or truce. "I'll shut up."

  I groaned, uncrossed my ankles from the foot stool and got swiftly to my feet. "Talk all you want, but I'm not staying here to listen to what you or anyone else thinks I should do with my eternity." I started for the door.

  I had to get out.

  I could feel the walls of the large room closing in on me.

  It was bad enough that I could hear Kendra's every thought, but when someone mentioned her, or reminded me that I needed to stop torturing myself because I will never have her, never touch her, never kiss her again...

  "Rhyan, please," she said, and I paused with my hand on the gold door knob. "I'm really sorry. I don't know what you're going through, but I seriously didn't come in here to make it any worse than it already is. I promise not to say anymore on the subject if you want to just hang out."

  I laughed sarcastically. "I can't just hang out, Jossel. I'm not me anymore!" I shouted, my body language suddenly changing to show how I really felt. Pissed.

  My fingers curled, forming a fist. I wasn't going to hit her, but the wall beside me wasn't out of the question. I guess there was a second warning after all.

  I growled in frustration as I pointed to the always spotless floor. "My Heaven is on earth, and she is sleeping with another man right now, a man that would have had a one way ticket to Hell if Coen hadn't interfered."

  Josselyn's eyes grew wide as she stared at me in shock. She finally blinked and looked around nervously. Her voice was considerably lower when she spoke again. "You don't mean that--"

  "I do--" I started, but she ran to me and covered my mouth with her hand. Surely she wasn't dumb enough to think that would shut me up.

  "Are you insane?" she whispered frantically. She looked around cautiously again to make sure that we were still alone. "I get the whole depressed thing..." Her brow furrowed. "...well, not entirely, but I can see that you are upset because you think some other kid stole your favorite toy. But you can't go around damning people to Hell unless you have a wish to go there yourself."

  I jerked my head away from her hand, then grabbed her wrist, stilling it in its place when she tried to follow my movement. I glared into her deep brown eyes. "Hell couldn't be any worse than the one I'm already living in," I said through a clenched jaw, then shoved her away from me and walked out the door.

  I lost my footing and practically fell into the corridor. My legs felt like jell-o and there was a high pitched ringing in my ears all of a sudden.

  What's happening to me?

  I shook my head in confusion and rubbed my blurry eyes in an attempt to clear my vision. I stumbled i
nto the wall and fell to my knees as Heaven spun around me; my palms, then skull, slapped the shiny floor with a loud clap and thump.

  Something was seriously wrong with me, but I had no clue as to what. Angels were free of imperfections. We never got ill or injured. Evidently those standard rules didn't apply to me anymore.

  I heard the door to the recreational room open, footsteps coming toward me and a muffled voice screaming my name.

  It sounded like I was in a tunnel. I could barely make out the words being spoken.

  "Rhyan, can you hear me? Say something! Tell me what's wrong so I can do something. Please!" Josselyn began to sob above me, fear for my wellbeing clear in her cries, but I found it impossible to answer her. I could only groan. I couldn't concentrate on how to form a word, let alone an entire sentence. My world had flipped upside down in only a few brief seconds.

  I would have panicked if I could have remembered how.

  I faintly heard the echo of a male voice shouting, then more footsteps pounding the stone floor in my direction.

  "What's wrong with him?" the male voice asked Josselyn, but I never heard her response.

  An unfamiliar feeling started in my toes and worked its way up my body. It was...pain. It felt like a hundred burning hands on my naked flesh pulling me under a lake of molten lava.

  My mouth involuntarily opened and a glass shattering scream left my throat.

  My last thought was of Kendra. I forced my eyes open and frantically grabbed for the first angel I could get my hands on. It was Josselyn. Her expression was full of terror and panic as she stared back at me.

  I tried my best to ignore the pain long enough to get my dying wish out of my mouth. "I give you Kendra." My voice shook, but I pushed through the weak vocals and finished what I needed to say. "Watch over her. I beg of you. I will not carry her soul with me into the unknown." I opened my mouth and released my link to Kendra into the shocked angel only a breath away from me.

  Josselyn

  She stared wide eyed and disbelieving at the empty floor where Rhyan had been only moments before. She tried to play the last few minutes through her head, but disorder and shock kept her thoughts scrambled in a big, scary mess.

  The uneasy feeling when first receiving a new charge had her hands gripped into tight fists. She could feel Kendra there, but she was asleep, so it wasn't quite so bad yet.

  "Where did you go?" she whispered to the empty place in front of her, and a tear fell from her eye, but evaporated into nothing before hitting the unblemished, unearthly stone that made up the heavenly floor.

  "He's gone over to Limbo," a male voice said, startling Josselyn out of her hazy nightmare. "I've only seen this happen three other times in four hundred years."

  She looked up at Malcolm through tear filled eyes. "It's my fault," she said, and her breath hitched a bit. A stream of fresh tears began to leak from her eyes, then disappeared before they reached their destination.

  He placed a hand on each side of her arms and lifted her effortlessly to her feet, then took her face in his hands and looked down into her eyes. "You can't possibly believe that after knowing the condition he was in. Rhyan has been dangling on the edge since Kendra made her choice, Josselyn. You can't blame yourself for his mistake."

  Josselyn fell into thought and completely ignored the fact that his hands had slipped to her neck, and his lips were slowly getting closer to her own. She backed away from him. "You've seen it happen three times? Has anyone returned to Heaven after going into Limbo?"

  She left his loose embrace and began to pace, but Malcolm only snapped his fingers and sat when a chair appeared behind him. He rested his ankle on his left knee, and then laced his fingers together behind his head, making himself comfortable for what appeared to be a long while. There was no need to interrupt her train of thought, or even answer any of her questions. She wasn't ready to hear them yet. He snapped his fingers again to place a chair in her path. She walked around it without pausing or acknowledging its presence.

  "There must be a way. Who made the decision to send him there? We were the only two in the room." She stopped pacing and looked at Malcolm, who only shrugged his broad shoulders. "You don't know? You've been here a lot longer than I have. Do you think you could help me out a little? If there's a way to get him back I need to at least try, Malcolm."

  "Why?"

  Her eyes widened in disbelief at his simple, yet ridiculous response. "Why?" she said, aghast.

  He nodded once and shrugged his shoulders again. "Yeah, why do you want to bring him back? He's obviously miserable, and there is nothing anyone can say to cheer him up or help him get over Kendra not choosing him, not that she had a choice, really. I know that. You know that. He knew that. I heard they offered to give her to someone else, and he about flipped his lid." His brow lifted in a question. "So, why do you want him to come back here?" Without taking his eyes from her, he snapped his fingers and the chair moved behind her legs.

  She glanced at the wooden structure and took a seat. "Thank you," she huffed.

  The corner of his mouth turned up on one side and he gave her a slight nod. "You're welcome."

  She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. She tried twice more before she finally got the words out. "What's in Limbo?"

  A mischievous smirk spread across his face. "How should I know?"

  She could tell he was hiding something. And she wasn't going to play games with him any longer. Rhyan didn't deserve to be in some Limbo because he couldn't help the way he felt about someone, and therefore control his actions and words. She had to get him back. She needed him back.

  Josselyn looked at his smirk a moment longer, then, giving him one of her own, she stood and began to walk away.

  Malcolm chuckled, but remained in his seat. "Where are you going?" When she kept walking and didn't respond, he lost his smile, then stood and followed after her. "C'mon, Jossel, I was only playing around with you. Really, what are you going to do?"

  "I'm going to visit Isaiah," she said.

  Malcolm froze in mid step, then closed his eyes and shook his head as he groaned, "Ah, Hell."

  Chapter 2

  Rhyan

  I broke into consciousness on the floor of what looked like an ancient wooden room. It wasn't shaped like a normal four walled chamber. It was more like an eight sided vestibule with no doors, windows or ceiling. It kind of resembled what I would imagine the inside of a giant barrel to look like.

  I blinked and wondered briefly if beyond the black hole above me was where I had arrived from. There certainly wasn't another explanation waving a red flag in my face. And my entire body ached as if I was human and had jumped from the Empire State building and lived to tell the tale. Was I human again? There was certainly a soft thumping in my chest as if a heart beat there. It hadn't been the strangest thing that had happened to me, so I told myself I'd concern myself about having a beating heart again later.

  I got to my feet and quickly scanned my surroundings. The room was dimly lit, but there was no source for the lighting. No fixtures, torches or candles illuminated nearby to give off the glow, but it was there. I didn't ponder on this much, for Heaven was the same; there was no day or night, week or minute. It simply existed, as did the light.

  The memory of Kendra popped into my head. How could I have done that to her? And worse, leave her in the hands of Josselyn? I couldn't feel her presence within me, and I suddenly felt like if I'd had anything in my stomach it would have ended up on the grimy floor beneath my shoes.

  "Hello?" I shouted to the dark pit above me, then paused. "Is anybody there?"

  "No," came a reply. I studied the bottom of the deep well in confusion, but couldn't tell where the voice had come from. It was as if it had started as an echo.

  "No? No, you're not there?" I asked, somewhat baffled, then tried to heighten my hearing, quickly realizing I was only at human strength with my sight and hearing, and that the rest of my abilities and enhanced senses would probably fail me
as well. It wouldn't stop me from trying, though. I tried to transport myself back into Heaven, but nothing happened. So, then I tried traveling to Earth. Nothing. I huffed.

  "No," the echo sounded again, bringing me back to my current reality, or unreality, rather.

  Although I hadn't slept in over three centuries, I was starting to feel like I was stuck in some really crazy dream. And it was beginning to irritate me. "So, if you are not there, where are you?"

  "Here," the echo said, then chuckled lightly.

  What? "Very funny. I'm amused and happy you are able to entertain yourself so easily, but I actually have somewhere to be. So, if you could tell me where the nearest exit is, I'll be on my way." I walked to the wall and checked for sturdiness. After patting a few different places, my fears were confirmed; I wasn't getting out of there without help.

  "Why would you want to leave so soon?" the voice asked, and I turned swiftly to find a scrawny old hunchbacked man with bright white eyes and a large curved nose staring up at me. He had a small patch of white hair atop his tiny head, and it was curled like a pigs' tail. I couldn't find the words to speak, but he evidently could. "I don't get many visitors." His mouth spread into what might have been an attempt at a smile, and I could instantly tell he'd missed his last few appointments with his dental hygienist."Won't you stay for a little while?"

  I backed up until my heel bumped the wall. I had no reason to be afraid of this man who was nearly two feet shorter than me with his hunch, but there was something in those ice glacier eyes that warned me not to be so trusting, that looks could be deceiving.

  "No--no, I think I'm going to go back home." I laughed nervously. "You see, it's really a misunderstanding that I'm here at all." I paused to glance around the room briefly, then looked back to him, trying with all my might to avoid his stare. "Um...by the way, where is here?"

  The little man laughed. He slapped his knee and grabbed at his side as the fits of laughter took control of his frail looking body.