Come Hell Or High Water by Michele Bardsley

Author:Michele Bardsley [Bardsley, Michele]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Vampires, Fiction, Fiction - Romance, Romance - Paranormal, Paranormal, American Light Romantic Fiction, American Science Fiction And Fantasy, Occult fiction, Romance & Sagas, Demonology
ISBN: 9780451228789
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Published: 2010-01-04T09:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Connor looked at me with a terrible longing, and I felt a similar yearning unfurl within me. Oh, no. I'd hit the edge of the precipice, and if I wasn't careful, I'd tip over. And fall. And fly.

Connor stepped back and aimed his fingers at me. Red magic weaved around me, and soon I was wearing another pair of clean black jeans. My top had changed to black as well, and my short-waisted jacket now had silver accents. My weapons were still well hidden.

"If the world were simple, lass," said Connor softly, "and I had choices still, all I would want is you. No denyin' that the prophecy is why I sought you, an' I'm glad for it. I'm glad for you."

The horror of what he said was that I knew it was true. It rang clear in his words, in his expression, and in my own fickle heart.

It broke me.

I turned blindly and strode away. He didn't follow me, and I was relieved. I liked having my nervous breakdowns alone.

I didn't want Connor to have an honest emotion, because then I would have to admit my own feelings, which weren't all anger and loss and lust. There was tenderness, and understanding, and want, and... argh!

I thought of Danny, and of Connor. One I loved because he was my child, and the other... Oh, I couldn't profess to love Connor. I wanted him. He made me ache in a way no other man ever had.

I didn't know why my feelings were so intertwined, so confused. My father was long dead, and my mother had taken her life. Even Aunt Alice had passed away last spring, even though we hadn't done much more than exchange Christmas cards since my mother died. Briefly, Jackson had been mine, and then finally I had a forever person, or so I had thought when my son was born.

I'd clung to him because he was mine. The one thing I would never have to give up or lose.

Had I been wrong, or what?

I walked down the sidewalk, past the diner with its tired green sign and sooty yellow building. I stopped at the end of the sidewalk, considering which way to cross. I leaned against the telephone pole, my gaze falling onto a crisp "Missing" poster. The girl in the photo was thirteen and had gone missing yesterday. She had long brown hair and thickly lashed blue eyes. She wore a billowy gold shirt in a style that seemed too old for her, and a sparkly butterfly barrette that seemed too young. In this photo, she was forever caught between what she'd been and what she would become.

It should've been no surprise that this was the face of Ella Marian Freeman. She'd last been seen outside her middle school. Somewhere between leaving school and the bus line, she'd disappeared.

Nowhere was safe.

Except maybe Disney World.

"Lass."

I turned around, not exactly startled, since I knew Connor wouldn't let me go far. "You're like a demonic GPS."

Connor stood behind me, hands in his pockets, his expression inscrutable.

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