(Nikki Michael, #2) Hearts in Darkness by Arthur Keri

Author:Arthur, Keri [Arthur, Keri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Paranormal, Fiction, Fantasy, General, Romance
ISBN: 9780345538710
Publisher: Random House LLC
Published: 2013-08-27T07:00:00+00:00

NIKKI SCRAMBLED TO her feet. Michael was hurt. She didn’t know how or why, but she had to find him. Help him.

She reached for the link. Pain pulsed, a red-hot glow that burned through her. She bit her lip, her gaze sweeping the night. He was in the left-hand alley—right where the evil was.

She ran. Her footsteps echoed across the night, a rhythm oddly in tune with the thumping beat of the music coming from the bar. She rounded the corner of the building and slid to a stop.

A pair of hands hovered above the ground, seemingly unattached to anything but the night. Lightning arced from them, leaping across the darkness, and a ragged, blue-white streak of energy hit Michael in the chest and threw him backward. He hit the wall with a crunch and slid to the ground.

He didn’t move.

He was alive—he had to be, because she still was. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t seriously hurt. That didn’t mean he couldn’t die. No, Nikki thought wildly. No. Energy surged, burning through her, crackling at her fingertips, sparkling like fire through the night as she hit the shadows that hid Randolf Cordell with everything she had. The hands disappeared into night and something heavy hit the trash cans, scattering them.

Pain seared through her brain, almost blinding in its intensity. She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood, but energy still tingled across her fingers despite the fire in her brain. She watched the shadows and waited. The hands appeared again, ghostlike in the night. She hit them kinetically, flinging Cordell away.

For an instant, a figure appeared, sprawled across the sidewalk—a long, lanky body above which a flame imp rotated. It looked washed out, gray, as if every ounce of energy had been sucked from it. And maybe it had. Maybe that was where the lightning had originated. Or maybe he was using the power of the imps to become mobile. How else could a wheelchair-bound man be walking around, if not by magic?

The shadows closed in again, concealing Cordell. She clenched her fists and waited for an attack, be it physical or magical, but nothing happened. The sense of evil that characterized Cordell had dissipated, and the night became benign once more.

She heaved a sigh of relief and ran to Michael. Kneeling by his side, she touched his face, his neck. His color was abysmal, even for a vampire, but his pulse was steady and strong. Relief surged so fiercely that tears stung her eyes, blurring her vision.

“Michael?” She brushed the midnight strands of hair from his closed eyes. “Michael? Can you hear me? Are you okay?”

She felt his thoughts stir. Pain bloomed, followed quickly by anger. “Did you get the number of that truck?” he muttered, holding his chest and wincing slightly.

“What happened? Why did you show yourself?” She quickly undid his shirt, noticing with a slight smile that he was still wearing her cross around his neck.

“I didn’t. He obviously sensed I was there because, when I came out the door, he was waiting for me.

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