Duncan’s never kissed me like this before, not in all our tender, soft practices where we were more focused on learning how to be together instead of just being. My eyes flutter closed as he slides his arms around my waist, his hands holding me to him and inviting me closer. He’s kissing me like he wants me, and for the first time I truly get the sense that there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for me.
The world disappears, dissolving into swirl of color behind my eyelids as my lips match the pattern of
Duncan’s, moving in sync to a tuneless melody only two matched people like us could understand. The sunlight beaming down from the autumn sky is heavenly and warm, like it’s a sentient spotlight preserving this moment. My skin feels like each nerve is awake and singing as I tangle my hands into his hair and press myself against him. Kissing Duncan has always been good, but I didn’t realize he was holding back until now. Amazing…
It feels like a long time before we break apart, and when we do, everything else is silent. We’re still very close together, holding on as we study each other like it’s the first time. Duncan looks as awed as I feel, his eyes on fire with an emotion I must be mirroring.
“Wow,” I whisper, my face warm as Duncan brushes his lips against the tip of my nose. “I think I love you.” Duncan grins handsomely, his eyes crinkling at the corners. My reflection is mirrored in his eyes: flushed cheeks and lips still damp from our first real kiss.
“Yeah, I think so too,” he quips.
When I break his gaze and look around, everyone is staring at us with a variety of expressions, and the
babble of conversation swells like a balloon about to burst. Thea van Asch drags her news crew our way, and behind her I glimpse Lyle glaring at me with something like hate in his icy lion eyes.
Everyone else must be too stunned to react, I think, deciding that I won’t step away from Duncan as Van Asch finally reaches us.
“You!” She calls in a surprisingly masculine voice. “Are you doing this as a protest—”
BANG.
BANG.
I don’t understand why she didn’t finish her question, or why Duncan’s arms have tightened around me so that I can barely breathe. My ears are ringing strangely, and someone seems to have pushed the slow motion button for my surroundings. Thea stares at me in horror, looking to where Duncan’s hands press on my waist. Then she’s gone, shouting and screaming at her news crew to chase down a boy who’s carrying something small and black and running in the opposite direction. I catch a whiff of ocean-scented cologne…
“What happened?” I ask, shouting to be heard over the uproar that the entire student body has erupted into. The ringing in my ears won’t go away after the shots, and everything seems layered in fog. Abruptly, I realize I’ve fallen down, or been knocked down to the ground.
Shots… I’m slowly putting it together.
“Sierra!” Duncan calls, and he’s staring at my waist as well. I look down too, my heart nearly stopping as I see blood covering Duncan’s hand.
No… I’ve never seen blood before, not more than
Wade or Eisen might have spilled in a fight. That was a small amount, and Duncan’s hand is sticky with the red substance. My stomach turns as my heart races erratically with panic. Duncan! Was he shot too?
“Are you okay?” I ask stupidly, but the fog thickens, and my voice sounds like it’s echoing through a tunnel. Duncan responds, his face the brightest thing in my world, but I don’t understand him. I feel myself folding, collapsing. He lets me down gently, holding me tight, and my eyes lose the fight to stay open.
Duncan, I think as the chaos around me melts into murky fog.
Acknowledgements
I published Vixen for the first time in 2014. I was still in college, and writing between school and work wasn’t easy. I’m publishing this new and improved edition of Vixen in 2018, and while everything was said in the acknowledgments of the previous edition, I have a few new people to thank.
First, to Daniel: you’ve been supportive all the way through, whether I’m skipping dinners or leaving the house a mess so I can write, and I can’t thank you enough. Also, thanks for the cover design assistance. I couldn’t have done it without you. When I wrote this book for the first time, we were only dating. We’ve married since then, and you know I love you and all of that.
Next, to everyone who supported my somewhat failed previous writings and even now still manage to show interest in whatever I happen to be working on next. Every comment counts, and I’m grateful for your uplifting messages.
To you, reader, I wish you the absolute best. In its own way, this book is for you.
Catherine Labadie
About the Author
Catherine Labadie lives in the mountains of the picturesque Carolinas with her husband and her two hellhounds, Fannie and Heidi. Vixen was her debut novel, and her next novel will be released late 2018.
Follow Catherine on
http://authorcatlabadie.wixsite.com/catherinelabadie
Don’t miss Catherine’s next novel!
Long Grows the Dark
Before
Glenna, court sorceress in service to Princess Jael, struggles to hide her feelings for her best friend’s betrothed. Yet even as the realm approaches its golden age, an unforeseen enemy rises to corrupt the princess and take power for himself. Fate may lead them all down a path too painful to contemplate, but are Glenna’s choices enough to dispel the inevitable darkness set to veil their future?
Now
Gwendoline Hallewell, a Starford University student in a land where magic is commonplace, has always been unusual. When her casting book summons a man from the past to intervene with her dangerous new present, she has no choice but to trust him. As she and her friends Colt and Everleigh reconcile what happened before with what must happen in the present, Gwendoline must decide what it means to make her own choices, suffer her own consequences, and if free will is really within her grasp.
Vixen (The Fox and Hound Book 1) Page 33