by Ranae Glass
“Oh, I think you know.”
I circled, trying to get between him and the door, as he watched me curiously.
“If I had to guess,” I said, “I’d say angel?”
“I’myour guardian angel, to be exact.”
That stopped me. I grabbed a thick, old book off the nearest shelf and chucked it at his head.
He dodged it narrowly. “What was that for?”
I threw another book. Again, it just missed the target. “Are you freaking kidding me? I was possessed, knocked out, locked in a trunk with a dead body, tied to a tree, possessed again, and almost killed. And that was just this month!” I threw another book. This one landed, nailing him in the stomach.
“Stop throwing things at me, you crazy woman!”
“And are you drunk? What kind of crappy angel are you, anyway?”
“Hey, I saved your life.”
“You mean, dropping that branch? Hell, the police thought I did that. I almost went to jail! Oh, and he was running away!”
He huffed. “You have a real problem with gratitude, you know that?”
I walked up and slapped him hard in the face. To my surprise, he just stood there, absorbing the blow.
“You can’t hurt me.”
I laughed. “But I can have a lot of fun trying!”
He grabbed my wrists. “That’s enough.”
“So,Mel, why is it you are showing yourself to me now?”
He paused, glaring at me. “I didn’t do it. You did. Something happened while you were possessed. You must have come very close to crossing over to have been able to see me.”
“Oh sure, like it’s my fault. Typical.” I put my hands on my bustle. “So what do you want? Or are you just here to angel stalk me?”
“You are incredibly disrespectful.”
I sighed. “I’m just tired. My life was supposed to be normal. Yet here I am, living with a dead guy, recently possessed, talking to my lazy-ass guardian angel. I have officially run out of patience with all of it. So whatever you’re here for, you best spill it now before I walk out of that door and never look back.”
He shifted, backing up against the wall and leaning on it. I couldn’t see his wings under his brocade coat, but I knew they were there. It should have given me pause, made me feel reverent, but all it did was piss me off. It was confirmation there was a God, and that he didn’t give a crap about me.
“That’s not true. You are very important to Him.”
I threw my hands up. “Oh, and you can read minds too. Great.”
“Isabel, I’m here because you are about to come up against something very dangerous, more so than anything you’ve ever imagined. I’m here to help you beat it.”
Somewhere inside, the hysterical urge to cover my ears and chantI can’t hear you bubbled up. All I could do was double over with gasping laughter. He stepped forward and put a hand on my back. Instantly, I felt a rush of warmth spread through my body. It was like a strong shot of whiskey, tingling as it moved through me. Steadying my nerves. I up-righted myself, brushing down the front of my corset.
“Sorry. I had a moment.”
He smiled, blue eyes shining. “You deserved it.”
I tilted my head side to side, cracking my neck. “So what am I up against?” I asked, one hundred percent sure I didn’t actually want the answer.
He lowered his chin, the humor vanishing from his face. “What do you know about Devon Savage?”
SHANE
"Richard, you called?” Shane hollered as he carefully sidestepped a pile of loose paper between himself and the workbench where Richard sat hunched over a microscope.
Richard’s head snapped up, waving him over. “You gotta see this, man. It’s amazing. I replicated the original formula from the notes. There was an amino missing.”
Shane frowned. “You mean, you got it to work?”
Richard pointed to the eyepiece. Shane looked through the lenses, unsure what to expect. Half a dozen reddish-blue cells shook like tuning forks, and then exploded into smaller black cells, which began to penetrate and replicate in the red cells, making them shake and explode. After a few seconds, everything on the slide had died and crystallized.
He looked to Richard, who was smiling grimly with a hand stuffed in a box of cookies.
“Wha—? Richard, are those Girl Scout cookies?”
He nodded. “You can order them online and they send out delivery girls.”
“Richard, you didn’t eat the delivery girls, did you?”
He looked indignant. “I sent them home a few pints low, but no worse for the wear. What are you, my sponsor?”
Shane arched an eyebrow. It was hard to tell if Richard was telling the truth or not.
“But the slide—the reaction is fast and devastating because the two samples have no… buffer so to speak. It needs a third compound.”
“What kind of compound?”
“Something resistant enough to keep the compound from eating itself. I had a thought about that. Follow me.”
Richard led Shane down the stairs to the main computer hub. There were at least a dozen screens, some live traffic cameras, one security feed into the Playboy mansion, and a few others on various news stations. One was paused on level seventeen ofModern Warfare 3. Richard picked up a wireless keyboard and switched from the Playboy feed to the security feed from inside the Conclave.
“Richard…” Shane whispered slowly.
He waved him off. “It’s fine. Untraceable. But look at this.”
He flipped through a few rooms until he settled on a bedroom with a pink canopy bed and wall-to-wall stuffed animals. In the middle of the room, Xavier sat across from a blonde-haired girl hosting a pretend tea party. Xavier smiled as she poured him a cup of invisible beverage, and he pretended to take a sip. She hurriedly tucked a tiny, pink napkin into his shirt just under his chin. He grinned, and she pecked him on the cheek.
“That’s Marlowe’s daughter,” Richard explained. “The one Xavier thought he turned. But she’s not a vampire. From what I can tell, she’s aging just like a human. She still needs blood, but there’s no bloodlust. And she’s practically indestructible. A few weeks ago, she broke one of those midget dishes and sliced up her hand trying to clean it up. She didn’t even cry. She just held up her hand, and it healed in three seconds flat. Faster than a vampire orwere.”
Shane stared at the screen, transfixed. “You think she might be the key to making the serum work?”
Richard nodded, switching off the feed. “I’ll need a sample of her blood to test, but I think it’s possible.”
Shane shook his head. “How am I supposed to manage that? She’s under constant guard.”
“She also has monthly doctor appointments. Odds are they’ve got a sample of her blood already. You just need to steal it.”
Shane puckered his lips. “Xavier would kill me if he finds out. I’m already on thin ice with him.”
Richard flopped down onto the sofa and picked up his controller, resuming his video game. “Your call, man. But if you really want to be with Isabel, you’re going to have to find a cure for yourself.”
Shane stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets. “I know.”
As with any book, it took a team of highly skilled professionals to deliver this into your hands. I’m forever indebted to the amazing team at Crimson Tree Publishing. They make publishing fun. I’d also like to thank my family, always with great love, who supports and encourages me every day. Especially my husband who lets me bounce crazy story ideas off him, and lock him in trunks, suit cases, and occasionally duck tape his hands together, just for the sake of research.
I’d also like to thank my writers group, The Tuesday Muses, for always being willing to help me come up with wild plot twists and who are always ready to help me hide the bodies (on paper, of course).
Mostly, I’d like to thank the readers, who invest so fully in the worlds that live inside my brain. Reading makes you 500% sexier. That’s just s
cience, people.
~Sherry
A southern girl at heart, Ranae loves feeding people, gardening, and sweet tea. She hails from Oklahoma and lives with her family out west. She is the author of the Dark of Night novels from Crimson Tree Publishing.
Chasing Daybreak
Chasing Midnight
Chasing Dawn (2016)
Chasing Nightfall (2017)
Ranae Glass is the pen name for a popular YA author. She uses this name for her NA and adult novels.
https://www.facebook.com/ranaeglass
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28