by Wendi Wilson
I look over and Celine and Bran are standing nearby, smiling. Bryce moves to stand between them, wrapping his arm around his mother’s waist. Celine dabs at her eyes with a handkerchief.
“And Adrian, of course.”
“You knew about this?” I say as Adrian steps forward. “I suppose Ana knew, too,” I accuse, realizing this must be the secret they were keeping.
“I apologize for the deception, Kai, but His Majesty wanted to keep it a surprise.”
“You don’t know how long I swam the waters around this island, waiting for Adrian or your mother to take a swim. You came out plenty of times,” he says, patting my cheek, “and almost caught me a time or two. Finally, on one of my many breaches of the surface, Adrian and Ana were walking on along the shoreline. I got their attention and, as they say, the rest is history.”
His word choice dulls my excitement. “Speaking of history, aren’t you breaking like four laws right now?”
He laughs and hugs me again. “No, Kailani, I am not. I rescinded the laws and have been working diligently to sway the minds of my citizens. It will take time to change their way of thinking completely, but I have made great progress.”
“How long can you stay?”
“Only a week, this visit.”
“This visit?” I ask, hope blooming in my chest.
“I plan to visit often. These,” he lowers his voice, “witches have placed the spell on me that allows me to change back and forth between Mer and human whenever I want.”
I look at my mother and see my happiness reflected back on her face. I let my eyes travel around, looking into the eyes of everyone else surrounding me. My dad, love for his family shining in his eyes. Celine and Bran, smiling at us from beneath glassy eyes. Ana, the best friend anyone could ever ask for. Adrian, a steadfast supporter, the reason most of us are even here. Bryce. My true love, my partner, my soul mate. And now, taking a permanent position in my life, my grandad.
These are my people. My world. My family. I remember Bryce’s words from so long ago. He was right. We really are going to live happily ever after.
Thank You!
Thank you so much for reading Resurfaced! I really hope you enjoyed the book and would love to hear your thoughts! If you have a moment, I would greatly appreciate an honest review. Reviews are the life’s blood of Indie Authors, so a few words describing your opinion of the book would be amazing!
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Thanks again!
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Keep reading to see a snippet of my next book, Persuade: Blood Persuasion Book 1
Persuade: Blood Persuasion Book 1
Chapter 1
He silenced me with a look. The torrent of insults ready to spew from my mouth caught in my throat as my heart began to pound. He bumped into me, causing me to drop my books, my papers flying everywhere, and he deserved to be flayed by my infamously wicked tongue. But I couldn’t get a single word to pass my lips. One look into his silver-rimmed gray eyes and I knew. It was totally obvious what he was, though I’d never met one before. He was my first. He was a vampire.
Okay, so he wasn’t a real vampire. He couldn’t have been. Vampires don’t exist. He was an Alt. Homo Altiorem was the scientific name for his kind. It meant higher human. Yeah, as in, higher on the food chain.
A flash of fear zipped through me at the thought. I didn’t know if it flickered in my eyes, or if he heard my miniscule intake of breath, or hell, maybe he could smell it. It could have been any of those. But if the look of satisfaction he shot me before stalking away was any indication, my apprehension gave him great pleasure.
“Jerk,” I mumbled, dropping down on all fours to gather my things.
“Excuse me?”
The voice poured over me, deep and rich like molasses. I looked up, disbelief making my mouth drop open. He was half way down the hall one second and looming over me the next.
“Wh-what?” I said, flinching. I hadn’t stuttered since I was a kid.
I forced my feet beneath me and pushed myself up. No way was I going to talk to my first Alt on my hands and knees. My eyes narrowed against my will. I still had to look up at him. He was tall, taller than my own lofty height of five-foot-ten.
“I wondered what you said to my back as I walked away. It sounded suspiciously like an insult,” he said.
Okay. My mama didn’t raise me to be stupid or reckless, but she did grace me with a notorious southern temper. It always reared its ugly head at the most inconvenient of times, and I could feel my blood warming beneath his condescending stare. He was trying to scare me, and that pissed me off.
“I was only callin’ it like I was seein’ it, buddy,” I said, exaggerating my southern accent and poking a finger into his chest.
His eyes widened and he took a small step back. I took advantage of his momentary shock and turned on my heel. I stalked away, my back rigid and my head held high. I had to fight myself with every step, forcing my eyes to remain straight ahead.
Do not look back. Do not look back, I chanted over and over in my head. But as I turned the corner to head down the hall to chemistry, I just couldn’t resist. I had to see.
I flicked my eyes in the direction from which I had come and bit back a gasp. He was there, only a few feet behind me, walking slowly in the same direction as me. I picked up my step and whipped around the corner, but not before I got a look at his face. He was smiling. It was a real smile, bright and genuine, and it was devastating.
I fell into my desk and let my warm cheek rest against the cool wooden surface. I had no clue what I was thinking. He was an Alt, for Christ’s sake. I pivoted my head and banged my forehead against the desktop until Mr. Gillespie cleared his throat and called the class to attention.
I stared out the window, unable to concentrate on his lecture. I couldn’t believe we had an Alt at our school and I hadn’t heard anything about it. Well, it wasn’t really that big of a stretch. I didn’t really have any friends to gossip with. Everyone else in school probably knew before he even stepped foot on campus. It had to have had everyone buzzing. An Alt. At our dinky little school.
A couple of decades or so ago, these scientists at a lab up in New York thought they had discovered the fountain of youth. Not literally, of course. They developed a serum called XRT-90 that was supposed to slow the aging process, keeping its user young and healthy for many years. At least, that was the theory.
They ran trial tests on a group of one hundred twenty-somethings, but things did not go as the creators of XRT-90 had hoped. The test group got sick. Really sick. A few of them actually died. None of them stopped aging. It was a complete and utter failure.
An unexpected side effect occurred in the female test subjects. Their fertility rate flew off the charts. They were getting pregnant, fast, with many of them giving birth to multiples. But there was something off about the babies. They were always sickly, not accepting of their mother’s milk or baby formula in a bottle. A few of the babies starved to death before a pediatrician in Buffalo figured out that one of her patients needed something different.
She had ordered blood tests, discovering that he was highly anemic and had an extremely low hemoglobin count. The doctor ordered a blood bag to be delivered straight to her office, rather than referring the family to a hospital. She attached an IV and left the baby in a bassinet while turning back to explain her care plan to his parents. When they wrapped up their discussion and turned back to the baby, they were horrified with what they found.
He had somehow detached the tube from the needle in his arm and was sucking the blood from the tube into his mouth. He was peaceful and content, probably for the first time in his short life. He drank and drank and, when he was full, looked at his mother and cooed softly before falling asleep. That’s how it was discovered that Alts needed blood to survive instead of food. Just like a vampire.
It wasn’t until the babies started to grow into toddlers that the other stuff came to light. Persuasion. That
’s the official term because it doesn’t sound as sinister as mind control. Once the oldest of the babies were developed enough to make decisions, they were able to exert their will over their own parents. All they had to do was make eye contact and the adult was theirs to command. They didn’t even have to speak the words aloud. When the news broke out about this development, the entire world was terrified.
And the teeth, sharp enough to take what they needed if—
“Savanna.”
My entire body jerked and I was yanked back into the present. “Yes, Mr. Gillespie?”
The sound of several students snickering met my ears, causing my face to heat up. I hated being the center of attention.
“If you are done daydreaming, I’d like you to give us the chemical formula for glucose.”
“C-six, H-twelve, O-six,” I said, my voice just barely loud enough to be heard.
“Very good,” he said, before moving on with his lecture.
I forced all thoughts of Alts, and one in particular, out of my mind for the rest of the class. At least, I tried not to think about those gray eyes, rimmed with bright silver. They were strange, seriously eerie, and more than a little intimidating. They were also completely and absolutely unforgettable.
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If you want to continue reading, order Persuade on Amazon today!
Other books by Wendi L. Wilson
The Shadowed Series
Shadowed Strength
Shadowed Instincts
Shadowed Ascension
Shadowed Truth- A Prequel Novella
The Complete Shadowed Series Boxset
The Suppressed Series
Suppressed
The Blood Persuasion Series
Persuade
Acknowledgments
Thank you to everyone who read Suppressed and waited patiently for its conclusion. I had some health issues that delayed the writing of Resurfaced, and I appreciate your understanding.
Thank you to my husband and kids for being supportive through this process, living with a messy house and a distracted mama.
Thanks to Samantha Britt, Kat Stiles and Megan Swanson for being my sounding board, reading the book and giving me ideas for improvement. I couldn’t do this without you guys.
Thank you to Molly Phipps for creating the amazing covers for this series. They are truly beautiful!
And last, but not least, thanks to my beautiful sister in law, Sylvia, who’s drive, determination and success drove me to follow my dreams.