“What… are you?” I gasped, my own fear taking hold of my bones and joints, pushing my instincts into survival mode.
“You can see… it?” The man gawked at me, blood trickling from his temple.
“Yeah, but, trust me, you don’t want to know.”
It was a weirdly freakish hybrid, a cross between an ape, an overgrown lizard, and a bat, and it was looking way too intensely at me. Claws as big and as sharp as the monster’s took hold of my heart as it let go of the man and smacked him over the back of his head with its tail.
He lost consciousness, and the monster moved over his body, its shadow nearly swallowing him. Every nerve in my body screamed for me to run. But I couldn’t leave the man to die. If our situations were reversed, I knew I’d want someone looking out for me.
Given the disgusting amount of drool, it was dinnertime for the beast, and the dude was its main course.
“Hey! Leave him alone!” I shouted.
Whatever this creature was, it wasn’t interested in meaningful conversation. The monster sneered at me, then shifted its focus back to the guy, its jaws parting with anticipation as it lowered its head for a bite. My fight-or-flight instinct kicked itself into fight mode.
I thrust my arms out to help concentrate my telekinetic powers. First, I had to latch onto it. For some reason, I needed a clear view and angle to “lasso” the target. Fortunately, given how preoccupied the thing was with its meal, that wasn’t hard. I curled my fingers, focusing all my energy into its throat. The creature stilled, then choked as my hold on it tightened.
I was panting hard. I’d never performed such a precise grab before, and certainly not with a target this big. Nevertheless, I latched on and pulled the monster away, swinging my arms up as I tossed it over my head. It snarled as it was forced to part with its prey, sailing through the air.
My breath stopped as I saw where it was going to land.
“My car. Not my car!” I blurted out, then latched onto the creature once more, waving it away from my beloved Daisy.
It missed my Mustang by inches, and crashed into the fence. Wood splinters flew outward, and the monster groaned from the pain, then lifted its head to glare at me. Its anger flowed through me like lightning. I’d really pissed it off now.
The guy behind me came to and gasped, as all he could see were the creature’s claws crushing the asphalt beneath it with each step it took toward me. Think fast, think fast, think fast!
The monster lunged at me, baring its fangs, its black eyes wide and filled with rage. I tried to swat it away again, but it darted to the right. I launched another mental lasso at it, and it jerked to the left. It had already figured out my telekinesis.
“Crap,” I muttered, desperately trying to think of another way out of this mess.
“What?” the guy behind me croaked.
“Run,” I breathed, as the monster veered toward me again.
I put my arms out, hoping I could at least nudge it away, but then a flash of fire exploded between us. The blaze pushed me back a couple of feet. It didn’t hit me, but it certainly got the monster, forcing it into a rough landing on its back.
“What the hell is going on here?” the guy cried out.
“Why do you keep asking me? How the hell am I supposed to know?” I shot back, genuinely exasperated.
It was bad enough that I could see the thing, and still had no idea how to stop it. On top of that, I’d just nearly gotten myself blown up, somehow. All I wanted was a hot bath and a slice of yesterday’s pizza. Was that too much to ask?
“Step aside, miss.” A somewhat familiar voice caught me off guard.
Behind me, a young man emerged from the shadows of the residential building next to the casino’s parking lot. The deep green eyes, the dark curls resting on his forehead, the smooth, dark blue silk of his suit—it was the electric dude I’d seen earlier during the poker game.
The monster grunted, shaking its ginormous head, then looked at us and let out a spine-chilling roar. The electric dude frowned at the creature, pursing his lips as if he were dealing with a smaller-sized nuisance, like a rat, and not the living nightmare slowly getting back up on its hind legs.
“You… You can see it, too?” the guy on the ground asked him.
“Seriously, why are you still here?” I rolled my eyes at the wounded stranger, then pointed at the end of the street. “Just run!”
“No, stay there,” the electric dude replied, his voice low and eerily calm in spite of the raging monster shuddering in preparation for another attack. “You’re a witness.”
“Who are you? And what the hell is this… thing?” I managed, trying to wrap my head around the many unknowns that had gotten between me and my leftover-pizza dinner.
“I’m Wade. Wade Crowley,” the electric dude replied, and only then did I catch the hint of an Irish accent he carried. “And that’s a gargoyle.”
I stared at him, then at the monster, for a couple of seconds, noticing the soot on its horrific face. The fire that had hit it earlier had burned through its thick skin, but hadn’t managed to inflict significant damage. What the heck was it made of?
“A what now?” I blinked several times, my brain left behind for a moment.
“A gargoyle. Not sure what wasn’t clear about that statement.” Wade raised an eyebrow at me, as if I was the idiot. As if I was supposed to just know what that thing was. He’d made it sound as though gargoyles were as common as sewer rats.
“Well, pardon me for not knowing that gargoyles are real and not just creepy statues!” I shot back, slightly annoyed.
Wade opened his mouth to say something, but the gargoyle’s sudden movements made him put his hands up. The ten rings on his fingers lit up in an incandescent orange, and, to my shock, flames burst from his palms, hitting the monster right in the face. The creature yelped and covered its head with its wings, then growled and darted to the side, dissolving into the darkness behind a small building flanked by a Jeep, just outside the casino’s parking lot.
The way the light fell over it made it difficult to tell whether the gargoyle was still there.
“Did you kill it?” I asked, craning my neck to get a better look, as the guy behind me got up and backed away slowly.
“Nope,” Wade replied, scanning the building. I couldn’t stop staring at his rings, which were still glowing a peculiar shade of amber.
The gargoyle jumped out and landed on top of the Jeep, the hood bending inward under its weight, as it snarled at us. It moved too fast for Wade to hit it with fire again, dodging the flaming balls as it zigzagged across the street toward me and the guy on my right.
“Stay down!” I shouted at him, then tried another telekinetic move on the gargoyle.
I managed to smack its shoulder but didn’t stop it, as it took flight and shot right at me. Light flickered across its face, and I ducked as Wade’s flames hit it hard. Whatever ability Wade had, it was similar to mine, but he was in much better control of his powers than I could even dream of being with mine.
The gargoyle landed on its side, but didn’t give Wade a chance to hit it again, and bolted toward me and the guy once more. This creature was really persistent about getting its dinner.
I put my hands out and managed to latch onto its right wing. It gave me a panicked look, and I slapped the asphalt in a sudden crouch, as it was the only way for me to bring it down, given its considerable size. I felt like the puppet master in charge of a giant white shark, my muscles straining.
Wade watched as I struggled to keep the creature down. I noticed his frown, and scoffed.
“A little help here, Wade?”
“I figured since you ignored my request to step aside, and you’re continuing to disrupt my operation here, I might as well see what you can do,” he replied sarcastically. “Clearly, not much.”
As much as I hated it, he was right. The gargoyle tossed and turned until it escaped my hold. Dammit, I need more practice!
“Your operation?” I snapped. “For P
ete’s sake, help me kill this thing!”
“No one’s killing anything tonight,” Wade replied, then brought his hands up again. The gargoyle dodged several fire pellets, then decided to deal with the source, directly.
In three wide jumps, it reached Wade and pounced at him.
“Don’t let him get away!” Wade shouted at me.
“Let who get away?” I replied, then glanced over my shoulder and saw the wounded guy trying to run off.
“If he gets out there, the gargoyle will go after him before I get a chance to catch it. Keep him here!” Wade grunted as he tackled the gargoyle with what looked like Judo moves.
What in the world is he doing?
Nevertheless, I caught the guy by his sleeve, pulling him back and farther away from the middle of the street, where Wade was struggling to get on top of the gargoyle.
“Just stay here. He says it’s safer if you don’t run. Let him do his… thing,” I said to the guy, then stared at Wade for a couple of seconds.
The beast got the upper hand and punched him so hard, Wade flew twenty feet to the right, then slid over the fence and slammed against the passenger door of my car. My heart hurt as I heard the metal dent on impact.
“My baby!” I gasped, as Wade quickly came to and frowned at me.
“Your baby?” he muttered.
“Ah jeez, not you! My car! Don’t scratch my car!” I shot back.
The gargoyle didn’t wait for Wade to get up. It rushed at him, and I knew that if I didn’t do something quick, my Daisy was going to pay the price. Fueled by fear itself, I sprinted forward and found the strength to clap my hands and do something I hadn’t done since I’d nearly destroyed the shed of my last foster home.
The friction of my palms coming together created sparks, and the adrenaline pumping through me provided the energy I needed to generate a thin sheet of fire, which I aimed directly at the gargoyle.
Wade froze, his eyes wide as he saw the blaze coming. Just as I’d manipulated the creature earlier with telekinesis, I employed the same arm movements to guide the fire sheet as it slipped right in front of Wade, prompting the gargoyle to come to a grinding halt, its knees scraping the asphalt.
“Hah!” I cackled, then brought my arms back, as if pulling two ropes, and the fire sheet moved closer toward the gargoyle. The creature scrambled backward as the flames licked at its back.
Wade jumped to his feet and ran around the beast, depositing small green crystals in a circle, before he stopped, dropped, and slapped the ground hard, muttering something. I stilled as the green crystals lit up from the inside, my fire curtain gone in a flash. Bright, greenish-white beams shot out from the gems, then became flexible and lashed around the gargoyle. The creature didn’t know what to do, scared by my fire and blinded by the strange, flashing ropes that stretched over it in a net-like pattern.
Wade got back up, casually dusting himself off, as the now-incandescent-green ropes tightened into a trap and knocked the gargoyle down, forcing it into submission. The creature struggled and growled, but whenever it tried to stand, the incandescent ropes burned into its thick skin, far worse and deeper than any of the fires that had been thrown at it earlier.
Only then, as I managed to catch my breath, my knees and arms shaking from both physical exertion and shock, did perfectly reasonable questions start knocking the air out of my lungs.
What was that trap? How did it work? How could light be bent like that? How come Wade could use fire the way he did? Did it come from those rings on his fingers? How did he know what a gargoyle was? Why had the creature tried to attack the guy? Where had it come from?
Of the many darting through my head at this point, I figured I deserved answers at least to these questions. I shifted my focus to Wade, understanding right then and there that (a) I wasn’t the only one with peculiar abilities, and that (b) he clearly had the answers I needed.
Answers that I’d been looking for since I was seven years old and first noticed how different I was from everybody else.
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Love,
Bella x
Read more by Bella Forrest
HARLEY MERLIN
(Brand new fantasy/romance/supernatural series!)
Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven (Book 1)
THE CHILD THIEF
(New action-adventure/romance)
The Child Thief (Book 1)
Deep Shadows (Book 2)
HOTBLOODS
(Supernatural romance)
Hotbloods (Book 1)
Coldbloods (Book 2)
Renegades (Book 3)
Venturers (Book 4)
Traitors (Book 5)
Allies (Book 6)
Invaders (Book 7)
Stargazers (Book 8)
THE GENDER GAME
(Action-adventure/romance. Completed series.)
The Gender Game (Book 1)
The Gender Secret (Book 2)
The Gender Lie (Book 3)
The Gender War (Book 4)
The Gender Fall (Book 5)
The Gender Plan (Book 6)
The Gender End (Book 7)
THE GIRL WHO DARED TO THINK
(Action-adventure/romance. Completed series.)
The Girl Who Dared to Think (Book 1)
The Girl Who Dared to Stand (Book 2)
The Girl Who Dared to Descend (Book 3)
The Girl Who Dared to Rise (Book 4)
The Girl Who Dared to Lead (Book 5)
The Girl Who Dared to Endure (Book 6)
The Girl Who Dared to Fight (Book 7)
A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES
(Supernatural romance)
Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story
A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)
A Shade of Blood (Book 2)
A Castle of Sand (Book 3)
A Shadow of Light (Book 4)
A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)
A Gate of Night (Book 6)
A Break of Day (Book 7)
Series 2: Rose & Caleb’s story
A Shade of Novak (Book 8)
A Bond of Blood (Book 9)
A Spell of Time (Book 10)
A Chase of Prey (Book 11)
A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)
A Turn of Tides (Book 13)
A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)
A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)
An End of Night (Book 16)
Series 3: The Shade continues with a new hero…
A Wind of Change (Book 17)
A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)
A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)
A Hero of Realms (Book 20)
A Vial of Life (Book 21)
A Fork of Paths (Book 22)
A Flight of Souls (Book 23)
A Bridge of Stars (Book 24)
Series 4: A Clan of Novaks
A Clan of Novaks (Book 25)
A World of New (Book 26)
A Web of Lies (Book 27)
A Touch of Truth (Book 28)
An Hour of Need (Book 29)
A Game of Risk (Book 30)
A Twist of Fates (Book 31)
A Day of Glory (Book 32)
Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians
A Dawn of Guardians (Book 33)
A Sword of Chance (Book 34)
A Race of Trials (Book 35)
A King of Shadow (Book 36)
An Empire of Stones (Book 37)
A Power of Old (Book 38)
A Rip of Realms (Book 39)
A Throne of Fire (Book 40)
A Tide of War (Book 41)
Series 6: A Gift of Three
A Gift
of Three (Book 42)
A House of Mysteries (Book 43)
A Tangle of Hearts (Book 44)
A Meet of Tribes (Book 45)
A Ride of Peril (Book 46)
A Passage of Threats (Book 47)
A Tip of Balance (Book 48)
A Shield of Glass (Book 49)
A Clash of Storms (Book 50)
Series 7: A Call of Vampires
A Call of Vampires (Book 51)
A Valley of Darkness (Book 52)
A Hunt of Fiends (Book 53)
A Den of Tricks (Book 54)
A City of Lies (Book 55)
A League of Exiles (Book 56)
A Charge of Allies (Book 57)
A Snare of Vengeance (Book 58)
A Battle of Souls (Book 59)
Season 8: A Voyage of Founders
A Voyage of Founders (Book 60)
A Land of Perfects (Book 61)
A Citadel of Captives (Book 62)
A SHADE OF DRAGON TRILOGY
A Shade of Dragon 1
A Shade of Dragon 2
A Shade of Dragon 3
A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY
A Shade of Kiev 1
A Shade of Kiev 2
A Shade of Kiev 3
THE SECRET OF SPELLSHADOW MANOR
(Supernatural/Magic YA. Completed series)
The Secret of Spellshadow Manor (Book 1)
The Breaker (Book 2)
The Chain (Book 3)
The Keep (Book 4)
The Test (Book 5)
The Spell (Book 6)
BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY
(Supernatural romance)
Beautiful Monster 1
Beautiful Monster 2
DETECTIVE ERIN BOND
(Adult thriller/mystery)
Lights, Camera, GONE
Write, Edit, KILL
For an updated list of Bella’s books, please visit her website: www.bellaforrest.net
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Bella Forrest, A Land of Perfects
(Series: A Shade of Vampire # 61)