Warm liquid slipped down my lips, continued to my chin, and slid off. I grew dizzy. Nausea roiled in my stomach. And my arms continued to falter ever so slightly.
Exhausted, I couldn’t hold myself upright any longer. The jet of energy and fire that I slung at Darius evaporated. My arms fell at my sides and I hit the ground. I watched as a fiery form fell toward the ground, still kicking and releasing an ear-curdling shriek.
Ten feet before reaching the audience, a loud explosion erupted and dust filtered over the crowd.
The music stopped.
The crowd grew silent. I lay on the ground, gasping for air, barely able to see straight. Nonetheless, I was overcome with joy that Darius had died…and no one in the audience had gotten hurt.
After a few seconds, the crowd burst into applause: clapping, whistling, shouting, and screaming.
I saw dark forms hovering over me. My bandmates?
Through cracked eyelids, I saw Nolan fall to his knees beside me. One hand caressed my cheek, while he placed his other palm across my forehead.
Knowing that removing energy from my almost depleted body might result in my death, I struggled to get away from him, but I sensed that I barely moved my limbs.
“Hey!” Brandon shouted. “What are you doing? You’ll kill her!”
Nolan said, “Trust me.”
I saw Kendall get down beside me. I felt a gentle hand on my left shoulder and another against my right rib. I tried to yell at her to push Nolan away from me. Had he finally given in to his demon side? And why weren’t Kendall and Brandon protecting me?
A moment later, my headache disappeared, and the haze in my mind began to clear. It became easier to breathe. My nausea subsided. Strength replaced my exhaustion. I sat up. Nolan and Kendall removed their hands.
The applause rose to a feverish pitch. The audience jumped up and down and shook their fists in the air. Everywhere I looked, I saw their smiling faces.
I got to my feet, shocked that the pain in my knee had vanished. I turned to Nolan. “What happened? What did you do?”
“I took a chance,” he said.
Confused, I shook my head. With every passing second, my body felt even more rejuvenated than the moment that preceded it.
“Before now, I’d always drained you of strength, but I thought…what if I could give you my strength. So that’s what I focused on.”
“You could have killed me!”
“Yeah, but if I didn’t try it, you might have died anyway.”
I couldn’t argue with that logic. A grin spread across my face. I felt myself gravitating toward him.
“I’m afraid to try it again.”
He pulled me into his arms and looked deep into my eyes.
“We better not touch again,” I said, shocked that I felt as lively as I had before the show. “You might start stealing life again, instead of giving it me.”
“Mmm. Giving it to you…I like the sound of that!”
I giggled, ecstatic to have cheated death, only to end up in Nolan’s embrace. I glanced down and saw his forearms resting against my hips. “So are you gonna? Give it to me?”
One side of his lips lifted in a half smile. He leaned in and pressed his soft but insistent lips to mine.
I knew that this kiss might remove time from my life, but he’d saved my life, so I didn’t care. I melted against his chest and slid my arms around his shoulders.
“Hey, guys,” Brandon said. “I think Scrap Mettle wants to take the stage.”
I broke away from Nolan and started to laugh. “They can kiss my…” But having parted from Nolan, I felt a little weaker than I had before we’d locked lips, so even though I desperately wanted to return to our make-out session, I didn’t want to return to the lifeless woman I’d been a minute ago. Besides, I now felt incredibly uncomfortable standing in front of over one thousand strangers kissing someone who’s touch (and kisses) stole time from my life.
Did I regret our kiss? No way! I treasured all eight seconds of it, and it only made me that much more determined to permanently disable Nolan’s mysterious curse.
My thoughts returned to my unexpected victory. I’d killed a master vampire. And since Zephora wouldn’t regain full-strength until sometime tomorrow, at the soonest, I wanted to enjoy this victory for as long as possible.
Overwhelmed by the applause, I looked at the crowd and smiled. Their applause raised a notch. I saw Nolan and Kendall on either side of me. I grabbed their hands and raised them in the air. I looked down to be sure that Brandon had joined in and, finding that he had, we all bowed.
The cheers went ballistic. We bowed again.
When we lowered our arms, Kendall hugged me tightly. “I’m so glad…” she whispered, but her voice hitched in her throat. “So glad...you didn’t die.”
“Me too.” I laughed.
“But I was supposed to kill Darius,” she said. “I needed to kill him. The way I see it, you owe me a favor. A big one!”
Saving your life wasn’t good enough?” Seeing her tortured expression, I knew she wouldn’t let the issue die. I couldn’t deny that I’d stolen her chance for payback. Darius had taken her humanity. She deserved the opportunity to even the score. “Okay. I owe you a favor.”
She pulled away from me. Tears glistened in her eyes, and she blinked to offset the moisture. She let out a loud sigh. “Now, go on. Wrap up the show.”
I nodded, stepped up to the microphone, and said. “Thank you, Chi-town! We are…Salem’s Curse, and we’ll see you next time!”
Thank you for reading Silverthorn. If you enjoyed my novel, I’d be extremely grateful if you left a review on the site where you purchased it. Word of mouth is crucial for any author’s success, and even a one or two-line review is an enormous help. Thank you!
Bloodstone, the next adventure in the Echoes of Eternity series, will be released in mid-2016! For updates, contests, book release news, and more, please sign up for my email list at www.sydneybristowauthor.com
Also by Sydney Bristow
Urban Fantasy
Nightwish
Contemporary Romance
One Step Away
One Last Promise
One More Chance
Romantic Suspense (Historical)
The Flame of Eternity
Soul of the Wind
Lost in the Shadows
Streets of Broken Hearts
The City of Broken Shoulders
www.sydneybristowauthor.com
Silverthorn Page 29