Dark Reality 7-Book Boxed Set

by Jennifer and Christopher Martucci

  Chapter 30

  Melissa spotted Gabriel immediately as she emerged from the Harbinger Falls Police Department. He had received medical treatment shortly after officers shot the creature that saved her. His face was badly bruised and swollen but remained handsome nevertheless. His arm dangled in a white sling and his ribs had been taped in place. He looked battered.

  She quickly closed the distance between them eager to be at his side despite the stiffness she felt in her back, an injury incurred from being thrown into Alexandra’s Mustang.

  “Melissa,” he breathed. “Look at you. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. It looks worse than it feels,” she lied and touched her fingertips to an angry welt on her cheekbone.

  “I’m not sure I believe you,” he said and leveled his cerulean eyes at her. He regarded her with such concern, she believed he was not looking, in fact, but gazing into the depths of her psyche and drawing from it truths she would have rather concealed.

  She felt her face blaze with warmth and was certain her pallor was replaced with rosiness. “All right, if you must know, it feels every bit as bad as it looks. There. Does that make you happy?”

  “Not at all. This is all my fault,” he said.

  “Damn fuckin’ straight it is,” Alexandra announced from the top of the police department steps. “If it weren’t for you, none of this would have happened.”

  “Alex!” Melissa admonished. “Please!”

  “Please what? You know it’s true. But we like him, so we put up with monsters chasing us, almost getting locked up for murders we didn’t commit.”

  In the shadow cast by the sodium vapor street lights outside the police department, Alexandra’s face was obscured. Melissa could not be sure whether her friend was joking around or being serious. She hoped for Gabriel’s sake, Alexandra was kidding.

  “Alexandra, I’m so sorry for getting you involved in all this,” Gabriel began.

  “Oh save the cow eyes for her,” Alexandra gestured to Melissa. “I was involved as soon as that Eugene creature came into my house and scared me shitless. I was glad to see him die. I could’ve done without all the blood and gore of it but therapy will help, I’m sure. And seeing old Miss Harriet dead and Eric was pretty horrifying, also.”

  “I’m so sorry; for all of it,” Gabriel said earnestly.

  “No apologies, seriously. Besides, I never would have met that pain in the ass,” Alexandra said and gestured to Yoshi as he walked through the glass doors of the building and began descending the concrete stairs.

  Melissa was sure her friend had intended for him to hear the compliment; that Alexandra enjoyed toying with him. If it were anyone else, she would believe there was flirtation between them. But Alexandra was not a flirt. When she liked a boy, she was anything but shy about it. Furthermore, Yoshi was unlike the boys Alexandra usually showed interest in. Every guy, regardless of his age, showed interest in her but she was very selective with whom she bestowed her attention. Yoshi, who was completely unaware of Alexandra’s preferences or patterns, beamed unabashedly and absorbed any attention she offered. Melissa could not help but smile at whatever may or may not be going on between them.

  “How’d everything go with you?” Yoshi asked Gabriel.

  “Everyone seemed really freaked out. They seemed to be under the impression something monumental had occurred here, that what they killed was an alien or something.”

  “Ha!” Alexandra laughed. “Are you sure it wasn’t an alien?”

  “I wish it were that simple,” Gabriel replied cryptically.

  “That thing was one of that Terzini guy’s creations?” Alexandra asked.

  “Yes,” Gabriel answered. “And that’s where things get complicated with the investigation.”

  Melissa watched and listened as Gabriel returned their conversation to the matter at hand, deferring any further discussion that may delve into the nature of Terzini’s work until a more appropriate time.

  “They have no proof that any of us were involved of course; only suspicion. They can’t hold me, just like they can’t hold any of you.”

  Melissa had already heard everything Gabriel had just said. Only when it was explained to her by the police officer questioning her, a far different spin had been put on the story. During her interview, the officer seemed intent on extricating some elusive key piece of information from her and of convincing her that she was nothing more than a pawn in an elaborate murderous plot. Melissa resented every implication. She did retain crucial information but vowed to die with it or rot in jail in its company rather than offer it to the authorities.

  “They have no reason or evidence to hold any of us,” Melissa agreed.

  “Eugene also had a dead cop stuffed in his trunk and the cell phone that placed the 9-1-1 call in his pocket,” Gabriel stated.

  “And the massive bruises on the dead bodies at your old house were all consistent with his fists,” Melissa added.

  “Thank God for forensics, right?” Alexandra offered.

  “And we all kept the same story, that Eugene was responsible for everything,” Melissa said.

  Melissa noticed that Yoshi remained silent as they discussed their separate interrogations.

  “Yoshi, how did you do?” she asked.

  “I just acted like I didn’t understand a word they said.”

  Alexandra laughed, “Ha! You’re a funny little bastard, you know that?”

  Melissa and Gabriel laughed as well but neither she nor he offered profanity-laced praise.

  “No one tried to get you an interpreter?” Melissa asked.

  “They tried. They got a Korean guy, then a Chinese woman but my dialect is obsolete. No one speaks the dialect but the Monpa people from my village.”

  She watched as Alexandra nearly doubled over with laughter. She exchanged a worried glance with Gabriel and tried to nonverbally communicate her fear that her friend was unraveling. He returned her concerned expression with a shrug and a sly smirk. Melissa was about to nudge him when she noticed Alexandra’s signature hair flip. The gesture was reserved solely for those she wished to flirt with; it supported her suspicion that her friend was flirting with Yoshi.

  Inspired, Melissa tipped her chin up to Gabriel and looked lovingly at him. Far too much time had passed since she felt his lips against hers. After all they’d been through, all of the death they had witnessed and encountered, she longed for normality, for a semblance of warmth and affection.

  Once again, Gabriel seemed to read her mind simply by looking into her eyes. He leaned forward and gently touched her lips with his. The tender skin of his mouth barely grazed hers, his reluctance an obvious result of his injuries. She knew that bending was a challenge for him, that twisting was torturous. She did not wish to cause him anguish. Instead, she stepped in front of him despite her back that complained with each footfall. She cupped his bruised face in her hands and kissed him carefully.

  Melissa felt the pain and madness of the days leading up to the moment her mouth met his seep from her. She did not fret about the police or her father’s early return from his poker tournament. She did not worry about impending punishment. Horrific memories were purged from her mind’s eye for just a moment. And she felt euphoric.

  “Ahem,” Alexandra cleared her throat exaggeratedly. “Okay, break it up you two or I’ll have to get a hose or something.”

  Melissa reluctantly released Gabriel’s face from her hands and slowly backed away from him. Only slightly embarrassed as opposed to utterly mortified, she scowled at her friends. Yoshi laughed loudly. Alexandra chuckled and smiled coyly at him.

  “Well lovebirds, what do we do now?” Alexandra asked.

  “Let me guess, you have to leave again or else Terzini will send something else after me,” Melissa heard herself say and immediately regretted the infantile tone of her voice and biting nature of her words.

  “I’m not leaving you again,�
�� Gabriel assured her, ignoring her juvenile accusation.

  “Then what do we do?” Melissa asked.

  “We only have one choice really,” Gabriel replied.

  “And what is that?”

  “We have to find Terzini,” he began. “And kill him.”

  No one spoke immediately. Melissa processed the notion of a premeditated killing. She gathered her friends were considering the gravity of what Gabriel proposed just as she did.

  “I just hope I can do it this time,” Gabriel added.

  No one seemed to fully understand what his words meant; Melissa certainly did not. She assumed it was information he would disclose when the time was right but guessed it had more to do with Terzini and the fact that he was engineered in a very deliberate fashion that it did with moral rectitude.

  “I’ll do it then,” Yoshi surprised her by declaring. “I will kill Terzini.”

  “And I’ll help,” Alexandra announced.

  “Guys this isn’t your fight,” Gabriel said quietly.

  “He’s tried to kill all of us, so it is our fight; all of us,” Melissa said.

  “Shit yeah!” Alexandra rallied. “But should we really be talking about offing the scumbag on the steps of the police department?”

  “Yeah, that can’t be good,” Melissa said in a near-whisper.

  “How do we find him?” Yoshi asked.

  “I don’t know, but we are going to have to figure it out, fast, before it’s too late,” Gabriel concluded.

  Melissa looked at Gabriel; there was no denying the truth of what he said. She knew they had to find Terzini before he had a chance to send another of his creatures after them, that their lives were at stake. If they failed at stopping Dr. Franklin Terzini, their fate was all but sealed.

  About the Authors

  Jennifer and Christopher Martucci hoped that their life plan had changed radically in early 2010. To date, the jury is still out. But late one night, in January of 2010, the stay-at-home mom of three girls under the age of six had just picked up the last doll from the playroom floor and placed it in a bin when her husband startled her by declaring, “We should write a book, together!” Wearied from a day of shuttling the children to and from school, preschool and Daisy Scouts, laundry, cooking and cleaning, Jennifer simply stared blankly at her husband of fifteen years. After all, the idea of writing a book had been an individual dream each of them had possessed for much of their young adult lives. Both had written separately in their teens and early twenties, but without much success. They would write a dozen chapters here and there only to find that either the plot would fall apart, or characters would lose their zest, or the story would just fall flat. Christopher had always preferred penning science-fiction stories filled with monsters and diabolical villains, while Jennifer had favored venting personal experiences or writing about romance. Inevitably though, frustration and day-to-day life had placed writing on the back burner and for several years, each had pursued alternate (paying) careers. But the dream had never died. And Christopher suggested that their dream ought to be removed from the back burner for further examination. When he proposed that they author a book together on that cold January night, Jennifer was hesitant to reject the idea outright. His proposal sparked a discussion, and the discussion lasted deep into the night. By morning, the idea for the Dark Creations series was born.

  The Dark Creations series, as well as the Arianna Rose, the Planet Urth series and the Hunter of the Light series, are works that were written while Jennifer and Christopher continued about with their daily activities and raised their young children. They changed diapers, potty trained and went to story time at the local library between chapter outlines and served as room parents while fleshing out each section. Life simply continued. And in some ways, their everyday lives were reflected in the characters of each series.

  As the story line continues to evolve, so too does the Martucci collaboration. Lunches are still packed, noses are still wiped and time remains a rare and precious commodity in their household, but it is the sound of happy chaos that is the true background music of their writing. They hope that their work, though penned for a young adult audience, will be appreciated by the young of every age, and that all enjoy reading it as much as they enjoyed writing it.

  Books by Jennifer and Christopher Martucci:

  The Dark Creations Series (A YA paranormal romance series)

  Dark Creations: Gabriel Rising (Part 1)

  Dark Creations: Gabriel Rising (Part 2)

  Dark Creations: Gabriel Rising (Part 1&2)

  Dark Creations: Resurrection (Part 3)

  Dark Creations: The Hunted (Part 4)

  Dark Creations: Hell on Earth (Part 5)

  Dark Creations: Dark Ending (Part 6)

  The Arianna Rose Series (A paranormal romance series)

  Arianna Rose (Part 1)

  Arianna Rose: The Awakening (Part 2)

  Arianna Rose: The Gathering (Part 3)

  Arianna Rose: The Arrival (Part 4)

  Arianna Rose: The Gates of Hell (Part 5)

  The Planet Urth Series (A YA science-fiction series)

  Planet Urth (Book 1)

  Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2)

  Planet Urth: The Underground City (Book 3)

  Planet Urth: The Rise of Azlyn (Book 4)

  Planet Urth: The Fate of Urth (Book 5)

  The Hunter of the Light series (A YA paranormal romance series)

  Hunter of the Light (Book 1)