by Casey Lane
Stacy left after Skye practiced on her some more. The compulsion thing was kind of cool, but she really didn’t like the thought of using it to get rid of some pervert who’d come here and paid to sleep with her. Just the idea of that gave her the shivers. She sat on the edge of the bed and waited. He was on his way, according to the two rings Stacy had given her phone. It was the signal that he’d arrived at reception. Now Skye’s nerves were frayed.
“He’s human,” she whispered to herself. “He can’t do anything to me.”
Still, she shivered. Her flat-mate’s boyfriend had been human, and look what had happened with that. She shook it off. She was being paranoid. This was different. Stacy had known what she was talking about even if she hadn’t been able to quite bury the terror in her eyes.
The knock was hard, solid. She got to her feet. Stacy had given her precise instructions on what to will him to do. He’d head back up to reception and demand another vampire, one who knew how to pleasure a man properly. She steeled herself as the door opened.
Her jaw dropped when she saw her creep boss enter. Her skin was crawling the instant he stepped into the room, the smarmy smile on his moustached face making her fight back shudders.
“Well, Skye, it seems we won’t need that trip to get closer now, will we?”
She frowned at him as he moved closer, his wide eyes taking in every inch of her. She seriously wished she wasn’t wearing something that showed her lower legs.
“Stop,” she said, locking his gaze the instant he tore it from her body.
He froze in place, and she smiled. It was working. This was going to work. She was going to…
He reached out and grabbed her wrist, smiling back. “I don’t think so, vampire. You think I wouldn’t come here prepared? What kind of idiot do you think I am?”
She pushed him away, trying again. “Stay back!”
He grinned. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”
Her heart sank. He had some kind of protection against her compulsion. She glowered at him.
“Just as well compulsion’s not my only trick,” she told him, feeling her face change and noticing her nails sharpen too. Slashing his throat sounded good right about now. Even more so when he lunged at her, attempting to push her onto the bed. She steadied her feet on the ground and slashed at his face. He avoided her attack, mostly down to how quickly he stumbled to his knees when pushing her onto the bed didn’t work.
There was rage in his eyes as he got to his feet. He whispered something under his breath and she shuddered violently, shifting back to human and staring at her hands, no longer lethal weapons. She tried to shift again, to pull out the vampire, but it wasn’t working. He’d done something. A spell!
“Get the fuck away from me.”
“I’ll give the orders around here,” he said, grinning. “Lie down on the bed, Skye.”
She gasped as her body followed his order while she fought against it every step of the way. This couldn’t be happening. She had to stop it.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Theo bit down on his lip until it bled and then he spoke the words Brody had to reverse his spell. As soon as he made sure Skye was okay, he was going to make sure his ill-intentioned friend knew how he felt about what he’d done. No one was going to stand between him and protecting the girl who’d made him want to live again.
He ran back to the room, hoping it was where she still was. The world rushed past him as he moved, losing precious seconds to get back to her and hoping against hope that she was okay. He rushed into the room, breaking the locked door with his thrown body weight. The sight of the man on the bed with his hand creeping up Skye’s leg jolted him straight into action.
“Get away from her,” he roared, grabbing fistfuls of the creep’s clothes and hauling him on to the ground, slamming him into the floor and pinning him there.
The guy was breathing heavily, attempting to say something. He slammed his fist into his face. Once wasn’t enough. The blood didn’t stop him, nothing could now. He beat the guy into the ground until he stopped breathing, stopped moving. It was only then that his rage was sated enough to move away.
He turned to Skye and she moved quickly to him, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. He held her close. “I won’t ever let anything happen to you. I won’t.”
The phone started to ring, and he ignored it. Whatever this meant for Brody, for the brothel, he was done with it. All he cared about now was getting Skye out of there, taking her somewhere they could live without fear.
“We should probably get that,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.
It wouldn’t stop. He refused to let her go. She took his hand firmly and moved towards the phone. He followed, not certain he wanted to know who was on the line. There was no one in this place right now that he wanted to talk to. His free hand tightened into a fist just thinking about it.
She picked up the receiver and he listened in.
“Thanks for doing me this favour, Theo. I would have taken care of it myself, but I can’t get my hands dirty if you know what I mean. You should leave town now. Not everyone will be quite so pleased about this.” Brody’s father hung up as soon as he’d said what he wanted to.
Skye dropped the receiver and looked at him.
“He wanted you to kill him.”
Theo nodded. “That’s what it looks like.”
She sighed heavily. “Can we just get the hell out of this damn town already?”
He pulled her in and kissed her briefly. “Trust me, I was already planning on it. Come on, we’ve got some packing to do.”
The End
Awaken is set in the same supernatural world as the Gallows Novels urban fantasy series. You can read Liv & Brody’s story in the standalone paranormal romance, Twisted Magic.
www.sharonstevensonauthor.com
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About the Author
Sharon Stevenson lives in Scotland with her husband. She spends her spare time creating entertaining fantasy worlds full of strange creatures and unconventional characters. The bestselling Gallows series follows twin demon trackers Shaun and Sarah Gallows through fictional Scottish towns as they come up against various supernatural threats while their biggest problems are caused by their own personal demons. The Raised series is a magical take on zombies, set in Edinburgh and Las Vegas, and following the after death adventures of twenty-three-year-old Pete and his friends.
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Steam
Lynn Tyler
Steam © 2016 Lynn Tyler
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Steam
He’s broken. She thinks she’s crazy. Together, they need to save the world.
Sunny Kerrigan has never quite figured out what was wrong with her. After being raised in a series of foster homes, and even a stint in the local psychiatric unit as a child, it’s not until she’s visited by two strange men that she finally gets some answers about her past. She’s a witch. A fire handler, to be specific.
Sloan Shirer, the MacAlister water handler, has never gotten over the deat
h of his wife. But the arrival of the new fire handler, with a personality that matches her name, shakes him to the core. Suddenly, he’s feeling things he’d thought died all those years ago with his wife.
Sunny and Sloan struggle to find their way as the prophesied battle looms ever closer in this steamy new series.
Chapter One
Sloan Shirer laughed at the sight his wife, Dara, made dancing in the rain, arms spread out and face tilted skyward. “It’s beautiful, Sloan,” she called, twirling around.
“You’re beautiful,” he called back. He made the drops swirl around her, just to hear her laugh.
“Sloan,” Raven shouted. “I’m glad you’re having fun, but we’re training.”
Dara giggled and pointed at Sloan. “Yeah, Sloan. You’re supposed to be training,” she teased.
He stuck out his tongue at his wife and focused on his task again. As the water handler for the MacAlister clan, the water was his to manipulate to his liking. If he wanted to create a whirlpool in a pond, it was easily done. If he wanted to manipulate a lake into one giant wave, he could. And if he wanted to create the perfect storm, he could.
Well, maybe he couldn’t create the perfect storm on his own. But if he combined his magic with the magic of the clan’s three other handlers, they could do just about everything. “Anna,” he called. “Can you increase the wind?”
He couldn’t hear her response, but her husband, Addison, flashed him a thumbs up. It took a few minutes before he felt the breeze increase and a quick glance in the air handler’s direction showed him she concentrated fiercely. Her intense focus didn’t surprise him. Anna had only come into her magic a couple of years ago and was still learning how to manipulate it to her liking.
As soon as his magic collided with Anna’s the intensity of the storm increased until it raged around them.
Raven, the MacAlister clan leader, appeared in front of him. “You’re doing well, Sloan. The dragons are impressed.”
Sloan felt his chest puff out. The dragon queen, her son, and a small contingent of their guards had joined them that morning. They had been allied with the dragons for a few years and their queen seemed to be fascinated with their magic. Her son, Prince Gareth, was her second in command, and had taken to accompanying her on her visits. To be complimented by such ancient beings was a huge honor.
Once the storm was sufficiently large enough, it was time for the other handlers to join in. The earth handler added her power first, making the ground rumble and shake under their feet. She was skilled enough to stop the ground from shifting under his feet and he smiled his thanks at her.
The fire handler shot a stream of fire directly into the heart of the storm, heating the rain until it exploded into a boiling downpour. “That would cook anyone who wandered by,” Sloan shouted with glee.
He wasn’t bloodthirsty. He didn’t want to kill any innocents. But the tensions between the MacAlister clan and the Keita and Takahashi clans, the two other witch clans, were increasing at a rapid pace. The handlers had to get their powers in sync or risk heavy casualties when the battle finally broke out between the three clans.
Leith MacAlister paced the perimeter of the storm anxiously. His long blond hair whipped around his face and his mouth was turned down in a frown. It wasn’t unusual for Leith to be frowning. In fact, Sloan sometimes thought Leith’s face would crack if he tried to smile. The pacing, however, was unusual.
He didn’t have a chance to ask Leith what was wrong though. It was getting harder to control his magic now that the three other handlers had mingled their powers with his.
Cupping his hands, he began shaping the rain into a water funnel. If he could master holding the water funnel during a storm of this proportion, he could do anything. Anna’s magic tugged against his before merging with it.
The sensation of combining their magics was mildly unpleasant. The power buzzed up his arms, adding to the strength of his own magic until it was almost impossible to hold, but it wasn’t the most uncomfortable thing about the whole experience. For some reason, every time he succeeded in joining his magic with that of another handler, all his walls seemed to fall away. He could feel Anna’s presence in the back of his mind, like a silent observer to his every thought and emotion.
Of course, it went both ways. Once they’d established their connection, he could clearly see her determination to create the storm. He knew she feared they’d fail and disappoint the clan. Her nervousness of performing such a feat in front of spectators was so acute, he could have sworn it was his own feeling.
He tried his very best to remain ignorant to any of her feelings that weren’t relevant to what they were doing, but apparently, she and Addison had had a particularly satisfying night in bed.
Barely keeping the amused grin off his face, he concentrated on the task at hand. The addition of the wind created a funnel more massive than he had expected. “Awesome!” he shouted.
Raven and Leith started waving their arms in the air. He could see their mouths moving, but the wind whisked their words away. It looked like they wanted the handlers to end the storm.
It was easier said than done. Pulling back that amount of magic into his body would be excruciating. He resigned himself to an uncomfortable evening and started absorbing his power into his very cells.
It was slow going. The earth handler had ceased the earthquake and the fire handler had extinguished the flames. It would be harder for him and Anna to stop their storm, since their magic had been let out a lot more.
Finally, he had the rain slowed to a drizzle. He looked around for his leader to question the sudden decision and was confronted with his worst nightmare.
The ground was stained with blood. Raven, Leith and the other handlers were surrounded by the enemy and were engaged in a battle to save their own lives.
Everywhere he looked, there was another Takahashi or Keita witch or one of their allies. Werewolves were snapping their jaws and lunging at everyone they considered an enemy, and vampires were busy tearing out people’s throats.
How had the other clans figured out what they were doing?
He summoned a single, massive jet of water and used it to knock a werewolf off Raven and a vampire away from Leith. He swiveled his head around frantically, searching for Dara in the chaos. All he could see was Anna, who had conjured a funnel cloud to blow the other witches, werewolves, and vampires away from the MacAlister clan.
The dragons had shifted and clawed at the vampires, who seemed to be concentrating their attacks on them, blowing fire at them.
He sent another jet of water out, this time directly at a Takahashi handler, who hurled boulders left, right and center.
A searing pain shot through him and he collapsed, landing on his hands and knees. He struggled to his feet and had almost made it when another lightning shaft of agony bolted through his system, followed by an empty chasm in his soul. He’d never experienced something like this personally, but he’d heard whispers about it from the earth and fire handler. Just as he had felt Anna come into her magic two years ago, he keenly felt the death of at least two of the MacAlister handlers.
Fighting through the pain, he forced himself to his feet and noticed the wind still blew. Anna must be alive. Which meant the earth handler and the fire handler were dead, their magic now transferred to two unborn MacAlister children.
They were hopelessly outnumbered, and now that two of their handlers were gone, they didn’t have much hope of surviving the battle. He hoped Raven had enough time to get back to clan grounds and set the evacuation plan in place. If he didn’t give the order for the clan to disperse, they would be easier to kill than fish in a barrel. The clan would be decimated.
He shook his head, trying to clear it of the lingering pain, and focused on drawing up as much water from the soil as possible. Maybe he could create a giant wave and flood the attackers out.
A scream pierced the air, and Sloan spun around to find Anna kneeling on the ground. He made a mad dash
for her. If the MacAlisters had any hope of surviving at all, they needed both him and Anna. They couldn’t be down three handlers. It wasn’t until he skidded to a halt next to the fallen handler that he realized she wasn’t screaming because she was hurt.
The air handler cradled her husband’s head in her lap. Addison’s eyes were open but his stare was empty. Blood trickled from both his nose and his ears. Sloan pawed at the man’s neck, searching for a pulse. “It’s no use,” Anna said in a dead voice. “I turned around and he was holding his head before he collapsed. It had to one of the damn Takahashi handlers. One of them must have gotten into his head when I wasn’t paying attention.”
Sloan bent over the fallen witch. His pupils were blown wide and the whites of his eyes were bloodied. It certainly looked like a psychic attack.
“When I started running toward him, I blinked and realized I was back where I started. The Keita handlers stole some time from us.”
Fuck. It was no secret the Keita clan handlers could manipulate time. If they had reversed time, even for a few seconds, there was no telling what had happened. Everything he remembered from the past few minutes could actually never have happened. He needed to find his wife.
The battle still raged around him, but Sloan risked a quick glance around, locating Dara, who was using her magic to strengthen Raven’s.
Reassured, he turned back to Anna, only to find her pressing a kiss to her dead husband’s forehead. She eased him to the ground and rose to her feet. Her eyes flashed and the wind increased dramatically. Suddenly, a funnel cloud appeared. Anna screamed, a sound of pure fury, and sent the tornado racing toward the Takahashis.
Sloan watched for a few seconds, stunned by the sheer power behind the wind funnel, before spinning around to run to Dara. She could help him bolster his magic so he could wash these fuckers away.