“Well, it would completely freak them out, for one.”
“Yep, it would freak them out, enough that they’d be even more likely to shoot you full of holes.”
“Finn! Mom wants you to come in for lunch!” yelled Holly, leaning out the sliding glass door.
“Tell her Dave’s here for lunch, too!”
“Okay!”
“I can’t believe that you actually wanted a sister!” said Dave. “I’d have given you one of mine if you’d asked. They’re just a pain in my ass.”
I gave him a hand up and said, “Naw. Holly is really cool. We get along really well. It’s like she’s always been a part of the family.”
“Just wait till the honeymoon period is over. You’ll regret this. Mark my words.”
I laughed and said, “Not going to happen. She’s got a big chunk of me in her—only in her it looks good.”
We walked into the kitchen through the glass door. My mom had us sit down with Holly while she made a sandwich for Dave as well.
While we were sitting there chatting, my dad came in from the front door with a cage holding two chickens. He came into the kitchen with a cheery hello to everyone.
“Jack! Birds are filthy. Take those into the garage.”
He gave his owl-eyed look to my mom and said, “Well, I was told that it is too hot out in the garage so I was going to take them down to the basement.”
“Oh, that is so not going to happen, Mr. Morgenstern. Get those birds out of my house. You can put them in the shade in the backyard until you get a coop built for them.”
My dadpausedand then obediently took the birds through the kitchen into the backyard.
Dave laughed and said, “What is your Dad going to do with two chickens?”
“Don’t ask… No, seriously, don’t ask.”
My mom chimed in, “He’s on a special diet, Dave. Only fresh ingredients.”
Dave seemed to take this at face value. He and my mom got along famously. They chattered away as I sat quietly chewing my tuna sandwich.
I was still thinking what I was going to do with a million dollars when my iPhone announced another message. I pulled it out of my pocket and grimaced.
“What’s wrong big brother?” asked Holly.
“Nothing, it’s just Dr. Anderson again.”
“What does he want?”
“He wants me to come work with him. I told him I’d never touch another shadow, but now he wants me to try and teach his patients how to stop them like I do.”
“Aren’t you going to do it?” Holly’s face became stricken.
Uh oh. “Uh, no. I don’t want anything to do with those monsters.”
Holly’s voice became strident. “But you have to!”
“But Holly—”
“You have to help those people! You don’t know what it’s like!”
Oh yes we do, said Spring.
We certainly did, but I hadn’t told my parents about that part. That limited my responses.
“Listen Holly—”
“No! You have to help them!” Holly’s eyes filled with tears. She ran out the kitchen crying.
Ah crap. “Holly wait!”
I looked for help from Dave and my Mom. There was none to be found. Neither of them truly comprehended how right Holly was, nor how much she meant to me.
I squeezed my eyes shut and muttered surrender. “Crap.”
I texted my response to Dr. Anderson and headed up to tell Holly the “good” news.
You are an idiot. You know that right?
Yeah, Spring, I know.
***
A Note From Me
Thank you for reading The Shadow's Touch. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Love it or hate it, please help me out and post a review on Amazon.com or GoodReads.com or whatever sites are important to you. With over 3000 books being released every month, it's tough to get the attention of the readers. If you did enjoy this story and would like to see more of Finn, please let your friends, connections, and followers know about it.
Check out scenes from Finn's next adventure—The Templar's Legacy below. Look for more books by me at your favorite booksellers.
Excerpt From The Templar's Gift
Surprise
No one ever wants to be attacked in their sleep, but I've found it can be uniquely stimulating—especially when you share your brain with a dryad. The last time it happened, I awoke just in time to get punched in the face and fall onto a dance floor, so this time, when the call came, I was ready. Heh.
Finn! Wake up! Spring yelled right into my mind while she simultaneously jabbed a metaphysical finger into my adrenals. I shot up straight out of bed and shouted. “I'm awake!”
I landed gracefully on my butt beside my bed, still half covered in bed sheets. I groggily poked my head up and looked wildly around the room to find the threat. The sliver of moon and the twinkling Ohio stars cast practically no illumination, but it was enough to highlight the dark figure escaping through my window. To my second sight, he was surrounded by almost no aura.
I yelled, “Stop!” and put some force into the command. The intruder froze. I smiled in self-congratulations. I could really get used to these Jedi mind tricks that my Caduceus—my magic piece of black driftwood plundered from the corpse of a monster at the bottom of a burial mound—let me perform.
Still buzzing from the adrenal surge, I bounced around my bed and grabbed the stalker's shoulders. His aura pulsed bright violet, he twisted in my grip, and a poorly seen fist flew at my face. I tried a Krav-Maga style elbow block-attack designed to stun my assailant while simultaneously protecting myself, but I mostly failed. His fist connected with the side of my head and rang my clock good. I fell back, pulling the ninja-wannabe backward into the room—on top of me.
Happily, he landed on my up-thrust elbow. His explosive exhale of air was followed by a gasp for breath. I grappled with the slim figure and was immediately distracted by some oh-so-interesting soft and squishy bits in my hands. He—was a she—and that discovery shorted my brain. In my defense, I was a horny 18-year-old boy, and my gonads frequently overpowered my higher cognitive functions. Anyway, her gender stunned me more than the blow to my head and stopped me long enough to allow the slender and very female attacker to spin in my grip and stab me in the chest with the knife I hadn't seen in her hands.
Let me tell you, that can really ruin your evening. There was little pain at first. I didn't even realize that I had been stabbed when she tried to grab the caduceus from its permanent place, tied on a string looped around my neck. I grappled with her for possession momentarily before the lights to my room turned on and my dad yelled wordlessly in alarm.
The light caught us both by surprise. Her eyes were all that was visible of her face behind her standard-issue black ninja-hoody-mask thing. They were wide, and the pupils were hugely dilated. The tableaux held for a long split-second before she leaped off of me and was out the window with the flowing grace of a mongoose. As she went up and through, her bright violet aura now accented her slender legs and shapely derriere. That compelling, and oh-so-enticing, combination seemed very familiar. Unfortunately, I was distracted from the pursuit of that thought.
As I possessively clutched the caduceus in my hand, the pain in my chest finally made it through the ultra-dense gray matter that composed most of my brain. The pain flared through me like white-hot fire. I looked down in shock to see the handle of the knife sticking horribly out of my chest.
Freaking out and panicking, I had to get that knife out of me. I grabbed it and pulled it out just as my dad was yelling at me to leave it in place.
My dad tossed my double bed out of the way, so he could get to me. It crashed against my room's door and slammed it shut.
I looked up at my dad in shock and dropped the bloody knife. I then related the most important fact about the attack. “Dad! It was a girl!” I looked back down at the spreading blood and unnecessarily added, “
She stabbed me!”
The pain in my chest doubled when I tried to inhale, and my brain ejected everything else.
I panicked and struggled to sit up, but my dad forced me back down.
“Lie down Finn! Don't move!”
When I flopped back down, I exhaled and a fit of coughing exploded from me. Specs of blood spat out from my mouth onto my dad, myself, and my room. My cough got harder until I had no air left in my lungs. I raggedly tried to inhale again. Some air came in through my mouth, but the hole in my chest made a sound like the one you get when you are slurping the last of your milkshake through a straw—I still hate that sound.
I started feeling light headed as I tried to breath. This time, not so much blood came out of my mouth, but I managed to blow blood bubbles through my well-ventilated chest. That is seriously disturbing.
It seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn't get enough air into my lungs and damn it hurt!
My dad pressed his hand on my chest causing more pain. He yelled to my mom. “Helen! Call 911, and then bring me some duct tape!”
I really wanted my dad to stop pushing on the knife wound, but every time I tried to talk, I ended up trying to cough my lungs out, so I gave up and tried to concentrate on my dad's voice.
“Finn, you have a sucking chest wound, do you understand?”
That sounded bad. Fear thrilled through me and my panic stepped it up a notch, but then it felt like someone poured a bucket of calm over my head, which then flowed through my entire body in a cool wave. The pain didn't go away but became distant and less important. My constant struggle for breath didn't go away, but my fear did.
I relaxed and concentrated on breathing. My coughing stopped, and while I still felt short of breath, it didn't really bother me any more.
As I calmed down, my dad's controlled panic became more obvious to me. I found I could now focus on what he was saying.
“Stay with me son. I've got you. You're going to be okay. That's it, just relax and breath.”
I nodded and tried to reassure him. I pushed the words out between my breaths “Got it...dad... I'll be...fine.”
My dad gave me an odd look, and then my mom pounded on the other side of the bedroom door.
She sounded frantic. “Jack! The doors blocked! I can't get in!”
My dad grimaced and then met my gaze. “Finn, I've got to go let your mother in. When that happens, I'm going to have to let go of your knife wound. I need you to put your hand on your chest here, can you do that?”
“Sure dad.”
My dad took my hand and slid it under his. It was really painful, but I didn't mind. In fact, I was feeling pretty good. I lifted my head, spit a gob of bloody phlegm at the floor and studied the intricate pattern it made on the hardwood while my dad jumped up and over to the bed. With one quick shove, he pushed it away from the door and let my mother in. She was followed by my little sister, Holly
As he did this, I sat up by sort of shimmying my back up against the wall and panting heavily. When my dad turned, he let me know what he thought of that. “Finn! What the hell are you doing? I told you to stay on your back!”
I smiled and waved weakly at him with my free hand and said, “S'okay dad...I'm feeling better.”
He didn't believe me and forced me back down. Back on my back, he used my sheet to get as much of the blood as possible off me and then ran a strip of duct tape over the knife wound. He followed that with several more until I had a big duct tape bandage covering a third of my, fortunately hairless, chest.
I thought to myself, Wow, that is really going to hurt when they pull that off. That struck me as funny, and I started to giggle. What the hell was wrong with me? Who laughed at a sucking chest wound?
Spring answered that question.
Finn! Stop laughing. I'm releasing endorphins to control your pain, but you are going to hurt yourself if you keep laughing and moving around. I'm trying to encourage healing and I don't need you tearing it all up again. Your lungs are in bad shape. There is fluid in the left lung, and a pneumothorax is preventing it from fully inflating.
Spring, how do you know all these medical terms when I don't even know them?
I have to do something to while away the night—now that you won't let me go dancing.
Spring, the last time you took me dancing, I got smacked in the head, and several people ended up injured from the stampede I caused when I lost it!
So, now we stay home all night while you sleep. Tell me, how's that working out for you?
Damn, you're cranky late at night.
That seemed even more funny, and I felt another laugh bubbling up, until I noticed my mom kneeling beside me, stroking my head. I had no idea how she got there, but she looked terrible. Her face was white with tension, and her eyes were full of fear and brimming with tears. Behind her, Holly was standing stricken with her hands over her mouth.
I tried to lift my hand to pat my mom's face, but my dad and Spring both growled at me. Instead I misquoted Monty Python to her, “It's okay Mom, it's just a flesh wound. I'm feeling much better now. I think I'll go dancing.” I turned my attention to Holly. “Don't worry sis. Big bro's gonna be fine. Spring's got it all under control. She's fixing me.”
Aren't you?
Spring growled in my brain. I'm working on it. You can help by not talking so much.
Okay! You don't have to be such a grump.
My dad looked seriously at me—thinking through what I had just said. While he did that, he was unconsciously licking the blood from his fingers.
“Dad! That's just gross.”
When he realized what he was doing, he actually blushed and snatched his fingers out of his mouth. “Oh! Sorry Finn. Just a bad habit.”
In my dad's defense, I have to say that his condition was my fault. It's a long story, and I don't want to repeat it here, but the short version is that I had inadvertently turned him into some sort of ghoul or something. Now, the only thing that would sustain him was living flesh and the magic acorns that had grown when Spring was, uh, sexually harvesting me for her tree.
It was only a short time before the paramedics showed up, but it was plenty of time for me to think about my growing hunger. This always happened when Spring supercharged my body's healing with power from the caduceus.
I knew they wouldn't let me up, so I asked my mom. “Mom?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“I'm starving. Can you make me a fried bologna sandwich?”
It seemed like a good idea to me, but she obviously wasn't expecting it. Her surprise was so comical that it almost started me giggling again.
A spear of pain stabbed deep into my chest and all desire to laugh went away. I gasped.
Now stay still! Spring's satisfaction with my immediate attention came through loud and clear.
When the paramedics showed up, they made approving noises over my father's field dressing, and then they moved me carefully to the stretcher and took me down to the waiting ambulance. All the while, I kept up a steady stream of happy chatter which I don't remember. They were pretty bemused by my good mood, but I had the time of my life looking at all the cool toys they had in the back. Unfortunately, I can't recall much of what I saw or said.
By the time they brought me into the emergency room, the euphoria was wearing off, and I was starting to feel sorry for myself. Everything had been looking so good. How could it have gone south so bad? First there were two murders and then mysterious figures spirited Colette away in the night—and I'd only got to kiss her that one time!
I missed her. Her kinky brown hair, dimples and ready smile. Her beautiful violet aura...
And, she had just stabbed me…
That bitch! snarled Spring from where she sat somewhere inside me auditing my thoughts. She's not a spy. She's an assassin!
I seriously doubt it Spring...
Oh yeah? You still think she didn't kill Richard?
Well...
Remember how we found her?
&nbs
p; Of course I do!
She had been alone in the room with the gun that had killed him—her gun. Which probably meant that she was the one who had killed Pietro too. After all, she did admit to me that she had a history with both of them.
I wondered if it also meant she didn't actually like me.
Gee Finn, ya think?
Damn it Spring, I really liked her!
I'd say your taste in women is pretty pathetic, she retorted.
Oh yeah? Well I really liked you too.
Beginner's luck.
Damn it!
A Note from the Author
Thank-you for reading The Shadow’s Kiss. I hope you enjoyed it. But, whether you liked it or hated it, please help me improve my writing and take the time to review this book on http://www.Amazon.com, or http://www.Goodreads.com.
If you did like it, the only way I can continue writing is if people like you spread the word, so please go and tell everyone you know about this book.
Titles By R. Scott VanKirk
Available at Amazon.com and other fine booksellers.
Ancient Enemy
New Adult Urban Fantasy
#1 – The Dryad’s Kiss
#2 – The Shadow’s Touch
#3 – The Templar’s Legacy
Maxwell Faust
Weird and twisted tale of damnation and redemption
#1 – The Devil Made Me Do It.
Loser’s Paradise (With Randall Armour)
Science Fiction/Space Opera
#1 – Loser’s Legacy
#2 – Loser’s Retreat
#3 – Loser’s Paradise
Princess Courtney
Magical Stories for children for ages 5-12
Princess Courtney’s Bad Day (short)
Princess Courtney and the Treasure Room (novella)
Princess Courtney and the Dark Simmons (novella)
Princess Courtney and the Niggles (novella)
The Shadow's Touch Page 32