by Candy Crum
As I peeked my way around Aeric’s broad back, Khia’s eyes stared daggers into mine. “Girl, you are a coward, but we will fix that soon enough. Remove yourself from that parasites grasp and come to me, now.” When I didn’t move, I felt the temperature drop again. “Fine. Have it your way. If you won’t come willingly, then you will come by force.”
Suddenly, it felt as though something was pushing down on me as Khia’s direction changed. She locked her eyes on Aeric and her hand twitched as a hard gust of wind blew past us. Aeric sailed over the railing of the deck and crashed hard into the large tree that stood beside it. Bark broke off into thousands of little pieces and blew out into the yard in the harsh wind.
Brett took another step forward and I heard a deep growl. Though it was hard to admit, I knew where it came from. It was difficult to picture someone as sweet and funny as Brett being a Vampire. It didn’t seem possible.
“You dare challenge me? Your purring doesn’t scare me, little boy,” Khia said with a grim smile.
Looking toward the injured tree, I saw that Aeric was nowhere to be found.
“He must have been scared away,” Khia said as she took another careful step forward, focusing in on Brett. “I can’t even sense him, so he must have fled rather quickly. Amazing. I never thought he would ever abandon you, Brett. Oh, what vile creatures you are. Abandoned his brother to save himself.” She shook her head and tsked in mock shame.
Brett’s eyes met mind with a wink in my direction before changing his focus back to Khia. She lifted her hand in a graceful upward flick, lifting Brett off the deck.
“Ah!” Rachel screamed from her place on the side of the deck.
Brett’s helpless form was suspended weightlessly in the air above the deck floor. He was completely quiet and calm as he was held there. Movement caught my attention, and I saw Khia slowly making her way toward me.
“I promise that I can help you. I can feel your fear of me, and I apologize for that, but time is short. We must leave now.” Her voice was soft as she took another step forward.
“Kailah! No! Don’t go with her!” Rachel cried out.
“Insolence!” Khia snapped. “You will die for your interference.”
“No!” I screamed.
Don’t! Sayen demanded, but I didn’t care. I’d had enough.
Without further thought, I leapt off the deck, heading for Khia. She quickly prepared herself for the impact, but it never came. I was caught mid-jump and thrown back onto the ground. I landed hard on my back, the wind thrusting its way out of my lungs with a sickening hiss. My chest managed to inflate with a painful, rattled gasp.
“You will not touch either of them.” Aeric was back and his voice was far darker than before, threatening.
He was standing at my feet with his right hand wrapped around Khia’s throat. Her tiny face was floating half an arm’s length above his head, though, she was more than a foot shorter than him. I’d seen his agility when fighting with him, but his strength was something else. Seeing him suspend her like that that so easily, especially after having seen what she could do, I realized that he’d been right. I had absolutely no reason to fear him. If he’d wanted me dead, I would have been long ago.
Aeric never used a single ounce of his unnatural strength against me. He’d only used enough to help save the life of my best friend. He was a god among men and was obviously a force to be reckoned with. Something inside me changed, and I couldn’t help but see him differently as he stood there, defending me.
“If she can’t come with me, then I will kill her before I allow her to go with you,” Khia forced out as she hung from his large hand.
A deep, gut wrenching growl clawed its way from Aeric’s chest, somehow reverberating down into the ground under his feet where I lay.
“It is you who will fall before me today.” He sounded icier than death itself.
Aeric’s hand clenched and there was a loud crack as Khia’s body went limp.
Go! Now! Sayen ordered.
Aeric effortlessly tossed Khia’s unmoving body across the back yard and into the tall grass behind it.
“Grab’em and go!” Aeric said.
“Whoa! Brett!” I heard Rachel shriek from behind me.
I turned to look, but quickly felt arms wrap around me. My vision turned blurry and my head felt like it was spinning. When I could see again, just a half second later, we had already made it to their car. Aeric had picked me up and used Vampiric speed to get me to the Charger. I realized, when I saw Rachel there, that Brett had done the same thing to her.
“Amanda is still inside! I will not leave her!” I told Aeric.
He looked into my eyes and something crossed his face before he nodded once and ran off. In only a fraction of a second there was nothing but air in front of me. I heard the back door sliding open and it wasn’t long before I heard two screams. Just as fast as Aeric left, he’d returned, only with my sister in his arms. Brett returned with Mary and I knew then where the second scream had come from. I hadn’t even seen him move.
With quick reflexes, Aeric stopped directly in front of me, sat Amanda down, and stabilized her. He quickly grabbed her hair and wrapped his arm around her waist before leaning her over and away from us in time for her to throw up again.
My sister groaned loudly. “What – the fuck – was that?”
“No time to explain, sissa. Do you think you’re going to get sick again?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll get the car cleaned. Get her inside.”
Brett loaded Rachel and Mary into Mary’s car, since it was faster than Rachel’s. She drove the same thing that I did, a Chevy Sonic Turbo. That reminded me… Mine was still back at the grocery store in Seymour. Well, if it didn’t get destroyed, that is.
“Brett, there isn’t any time to move Rachel’s car,” Aeric said, making his way to the driver’s side of the Charger. “Drive through the yard and don’t be stingy with the accelerator. That thing has a turbo in it.”
Brett chuckled. “Oh, brother, you don’t have anything to worry about.”
Amanda got in the back of the Charger and loosely buckled into the middle so she could lie across the seat, and I climbed in the front. Both cars started almost simultaneously, and the anxiety eased a little. I told myself that it would be like last time. We would get away.
“Uh, Kailah…” Aeric said. “If there’s any way that you could put a barrier around us, that would be great.” It was easy to hear the warning in it.
“What? Why? I don’t know how to do that!”
Brett spun out in front of us and a few rocks flew back and hit the Charger before the Sonic spun around in the yard and took off for the road. Once they were gone, I realized why Aeric wanted the barrier. Khia was in the process of standing and she – looked – pissed.
“Why aren’t you going?” I asked frantically.
“It’s too late. She would have us by the time we got out of the driveway. We have no choice. You have to set a barrier.”
“But, if I use those powers around you, I could hurt you!”
I didn’t know what I was completely capable of, and one wrong move on my part, and I could hurt him badly. I didn’t know a lot, but that I was certain of.
“It’s a guarantee you’ll hurt me, but as long as you and Amanda are safe, that’s all that matters to me. Do it. Now!”
I put my hands out, as I’d done before in my dream, and as I’d seen Wendy do, but nothing happened.
“See! I can’t do it! Just drive!
“Try harder, Kailah!” he growled as he shoved the car into gear.
The thunder cracked overhead, causing me to jump. Khia’s hand was in the air as it had been when she pulled a lightning bolt from the sky. If that hit the far at full impact, it would fry it, and more than likely us, too. The only reason why we made it earlier was because it had been filtered through an Immortal’s body first. A lot of energy had been absorbed.
“Forgive me for what I’m about to do,”
Aeric said sadly. “I have no choice.”
There wasn’t even enough time to wonder what he meant by that. The next few events happened such a short time that I could hardly register it. Khia pulled another bolt from the sky and shaped it into an energy ball, ready to launch it at us. My heart started racing, and I began feeling light headed and panicky. The only thing that brought this on was Vampiric energy.
As I looked at Aeric, his eyes had gone a darker shade of green and something about him seemed off. In a flash, his large hand was tight around my throat, and I couldn’t breathe. The energy around my body felt like it was eating me alive. I felt a tear slide down my cheek, and I did the only thing that came to mind. I planted both of my hands in his chest as he began pulling me toward him.
The energy exploded from my body in all directions, and I heard him growl as he was thrown into the driver’s side door. I looked forward in time to see Khia’s ball of lightning be deflected by a growing, light blue cloud of energy surrounding the car before being thrown right back at her. I had created the barrier. Aeric used his Vampiric energy to frighten me into creating one.
The tires started spinning as the car took off, and I looked over to see Aeric recovering from the blast. His shirt was smoking all over as it slowly burned away from his skin, and I saw how badly I’d wounded him.
“Your skin,” I whispered.
“Not now. I have to get you out of here. She will only be disoriented for a few more seconds,” he said as he spun the car around in the yard and headed down the driveway. Though he winced in pain, he didn’t let it distract him.
The barrier around the car held strong, and once we were on pavement, Aeric opened the car up and there was nothing stingy about his lead foot on the accelerator. The man knew how to drive, and I was sure the extra senses and reflexes definitely came in handy.
“The shirt. Get it off me,” he ordered. I hesitated and he caught it. “Just shred it. There’s barely anything left, but it’s burning my skin.”
I leaned over and began tearing his shirt off. He’d been burned all over his chest and upper arms. Even his stomach was wounded, but it was his chest that held the worst of it. Large burns were on his chest from where my hands landed, and they spread out from there. It only took me a few seconds to shred the shirt off, and I threw it out the window.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
My eyes widened. “Me? You’re the one that we should be worried about. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, don’t worry about it. How’s your throat? I didn’t really hurt you, did I?”
He gently touched my throat with the tips of his fingers as he slowly tilted my head from side to side, inspecting my neck. After seeing everything he was capable of that day, it really did shock me to see how gentle his hands could be. He softly ran his thumb down the left side of my neck before placing his hand on the gear shift.
“Are you breathing okay?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you. I know why you did it. You weren’t really trying to hurt me.”
I saw his eyes narrow a bit as sadness crossed his face. “I know what I am, and I can’t help that. I chose this life. I chose to let Khanae turn me because of something terrible that happened long ago that I felt I needed to right. I vowed that I would never let that happen to anyone else, and damn it, I’ve done my best. I’m sorry that you hate me so much, but I really hope that in time you can learn to accept me.”
“I don’t think that I hate you anymore. Well, not entirely at least,” I said with a smile.
I saw him grin a little, too. “Good. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think life would be infinitely boring from here to eternity, now that I’ve experienced the sarcasm and witty retorts of the one and only, Miss Kailah Marie Clark.”
“Um, hello? I’m still back here, ya know,” Amanda said. I’d forgotten about that during the terror of facing Khia again. “Make out later. Answers now.”
What? I hardly think so. Not only would I never flirt with a Vampire, especially one that so easly gets under my skin, but I seriously doubted that he would want to flirt with something that could so easily injure him when angry.
Thinking of his wounds brought them back to my attention. I looked over and saw that a lot of them had started to heal. I shook my head in disbelief. Yes, I’d seen a lot, but there was always something there to catch me off guard. It’s one thing to know that someone is a Vampire. It’s quite another to see what that means.
“Yeah. I think I’m finally ready for some orientation,” I said.
The Eternal Gift Vol. 2
Releases: 3/21/17
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13:17
Time of Death series book 1
Chapter One Preview!
Chapter One
Stop it…
Please, for the love of God, stop the beeping!
Hello? Anyone?
Wait. Was that out loud? No… Try again.
Hello!
Gah! Nothing. I didn’t understand and the blackness was maddening.
Excuse me! To whomever it may concern, you’re a moron. Good effort trying to stop noise. Now it’s broken and just one very long, incessant beep. Scream, really.
“She’s gone,” a man said.
Huh? Who’s gone? Why can’t I move?
“I’m calling it. Time of death – 13:17,” he said then.
Death? Whose death? Hello!
“Such a shame. She’s just a twenty-two-year-old kid. A good kid at that. Her tox screen was clear and she looks healthy. The only bad decision she’s made was choosing a friend that would put her in a situation like this.”
Who are they talking about?
I heard something clanging around. It wasn’t overly loud. More like the sound of tossing a small wrench in a pile of others the same size. Metal on metal. I listened for someone to say something else, but there was nothing. Only the sound of my thoughts.
“We need towels. A lot of them,” someone said.
I heard a door close before silence filled the area. My body was numb and my eyes may as well have been glued shut. They felt so heavy that I couldn’t open them. I’d have sighed, but my body wasn’t doing anything that I was willing it to. It seemed as though I’d laid there for hours, but I had no way of knowing. I felt like I was floating. I couldn’t feel anything from bones to skin.
Oh, God.
I was wrong.
So, so very wrong.
Pain completely took hold of my body. My lungs suddenly began burning as sharp pains ripped through my chest. My head felt as though it would explode. Was I breathing? I couldn’t tell if I was moving at all. Not only was I in horrible, agonizing pain, but my muscles were somehow numb. How could a person be both?
The pain was proving to be too much for me, and then – it stopped. Blackness enveloped me and there was nothing.
~ ~ ~
My eyes open and the light in the room overwhelmed me. It was like looking directly into the sun. I fought to study my surroundings with squinted, watery vision. My lungs burned for oxygen, but I was unable to breathe. As I struggled to inhale, I felt the rattle of something against my teeth. My mouth was held open by hard plastic and it extended down my throat.
I began tossing my head back and forth as I tried to free myself. There was a sharp sting across the left side of my mouth that felt like tape ripping away. My eyes opened once more and I was again blinded by the intense light. My body began shaking, convulsing even. Was I having a seizure? No… surely not. How would I have been able to think through that? I wasn’t completely sure that someone couldn’t, of course, as I’d never had one, but I imagined not.
I tried to pull the plastic from my mouth, but I was unable to move because my arms were strapped down. I pulled and tugged with everything that I had as I tried to break free. I needed to yank that thing out of my throat. My chest felt as though it had been torn apart. What the hell was happening to me?
Finally!
&nb
sp; The bonds snapped and my free hand immediately went to my mouth, pulling a long tube out of my throat. I could barely breathe around it, but I wanted the sweet release of breathing on my own. The tube ripped free, and “ripped” was an understatement. I coughed several times as action scraped and tore at my trachea, nearly puking as the pain of my action combined with a sudden sharp intake of air triggered my gag reflex. I fought it, having bigger issues to worry about.
I tossed the object off to the side and into the floor, straining my eyes to see. They were starting to focus, but the light was like the fucking sun burning into my retinas. Within moments I had the other hand pulled free. Some straps they were. I was able to break them rather easily. Then again, I was much more alert for the second one than I was for the first.
Instinct drove me to sit up, but that quickly turned into a bad decision.
The pain…
So much pain.
My hand wandered to my heaving chest, my breaths coming so fast and so harsh that I wondered if I’d ever calm down. What I felt shocked me. Mortified me. I wanted to scream, but I was too terrified. Something metal was embedded inside my chest. The entire cavity was splayed open as my fingertips brushed my heart.
My HEART!
I felt it. Warm. Wet. Beating.
I was, in fact, alive. I was alive in a hospital, to be exact. There had to have been a surgery. What was I thinking? I was split in two! Of course, there was a surgery! What had that doctor meant by pronouncing me dead?
“Time of death – 13:17.”
The words echoed in my mind. What did he mean? I could feel my actual heart and it was beating! Why did they leave me open on the table? What kind of an asshole just leaves a patient wide open on a table?
I felt around, terrified to stand up for fear that my heart would fall out. I wasn’t an anatomy major. I didn’t know how that shit worked, nor was I certain of what had been done inside my chest while I was out.
A metal object held my chest wide open. What was that called? Damn it. I’d seen a ton of medical shows and it seemed to be failing me, but that wasn’t real life. Mine was very real and that thing was keeping my vital insides completely exposed.
