Dying Light
Jesse Sullivan
Book Four
Kory M. Shrum
Genre: Contemporary/Urban/Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Timberlane Press
Date of Publication: November 2nd
ISBN: 0-9912158-9-3
ASIN: B014GMBV28
Number of pages: 220 Kindle/ebook
Number of pages: 465 paperback
Word Count: 79,000
Cover Artist: John K. Addis
Book Description:
In the wake of her handler’s death, Jesse has never felt more alone. Her best friend is distracted by a new love. Her mentor Rachel is missing and her boyfriend Lane isn’t returning her calls.
Worse, a Necronite with the ability to heal any wound wants to kill Jesse and absorb her power of pyrokinesis.
With little to hold her to Nashville, Jesse agrees to work as a freelance agent for Jeremiah Tate, a pharmaceutical tycoon in Chicago. Together they plot revenge against Caldwell, the mastermind responsible for the genocide of over 100,000 Necronites worldwide.
When Jeremiah fails to dominate Jesse and her pyrokinesis, tensions escalate, dividing her from her allies.
Then Caldwell gives Jesse an ultimatum she cannot refuse.
Excerpt:
Chapter 1
“Come on,” I wail. “Jumping out of a burning
building is not the craziest thing we’ve ever done!”
“If you hadn’t
panicked, the building wouldn’t be on fire,” Ally snaps back. She tucks the
bundled laptop under her arm and starts yanking open desk drawers. Post-it
notes of every color fly through the air, followed by pens, a stapler, paperclips
and a Kleenex box.
I search the
open office space for another door. Nada. Only one way in and out.
“I had to do
something.” I thought firebombing the bad guy was my one good idea on this
mission to retrieve a laptop for Jeremiah. “If I hadn’t, we’d still be stuck
with him.”
We both turn our
gaze to the locked door twenty feet away. A row of unoccupied desks rests
between us and where we entered. The office is spacious, with rows of silver
tabletops running the length of the room. Spacious—but not spacious enough with
a homicidal maniac just on the other side of the door.
Something large
slams into the locked office door, rattling the walls. Ominous black smoke
seeps through the cracks and the smell of campfire wafts in. That smell is
surely going to cling to my hair until I wash it.
“Just because
we’ve been reckless before doesn’t excuse it now.” Ally slams a desk drawer
shut and yanks another open. Her disheveled blonde hair hides most of her face,
revealing only terrified eyes. She gives up trying to find a weapon in the desk
drawer and hurries to the window. Her gaze falls on the street below. “God,
Jesse. No. We’ll never survive a fall from this height.”
I shrug and
pucker my lips. “It’s fine. I’ve fallen from higher. We’ll be fine.”
She blinks at me.
“You’re
forgetting about my shield thingy.” I’m talking out of my ass here, but there
is no way I’m letting him come in here and hurt her. He can trade punches with
me all day if he wants, but not with Ally. I’ll have to find a way to break the
window, jump out, and shield her on the way down.
The door shakes
for the fourth time and a thick crack appears to the left of the jamb. A
thicker plume of black smoke rolls through the crack and floats to the ceiling.
The white popcorn tiles disappear beneath the black fog.
I go to the
window and look through the glass beside her. The glass is cold under my palms
and my breath fogs on the surface despite the growing heat of the room. Down
below, tiny cars cut corners around buildings. One could easily be mistaken for
a child’s toy.
Shit, it really
is far down.
I meet Ally’s
eyes and shrug. “We don’t have a lot of options.”
Sweat forms at
my hairline and in the folds where my coat sits snug against my body. Chicago
shines brightly around us, each pinpoint of light from the buildings and
streets illuminating the dark sky.
My gaze flits
from building to building, from illuminated window to illuminated window, but I
don’t see salvation. We aren’t close enough to another skyscraper to signal for
help. No scaffolding or window-washer platform is available to carry us to the
safety of solid ground or to the roof above, where we were supposed to meet
Jeremiah.
The coms in our
ears buzz incoherently for the billionth time. Ally sighs in irritation. As the
coms stop crackling she mashes the speak button flat with her thumb. “For the
thousandth time, we can’t understand you. Something is wrong with our signal.
If you can hear us, we are on the 34th floor of the Jensen building and we’re
trapped. Send help.” A look of resolution solidifies on Ally’s face. “Jason’s
going to kill us.”
“No.” I squeeze
her arm. “So what if he’s like a hell-bent terminator with unlimited healing
ability.” I snort, trying to hide my panic. “I’ve got this.”
She cocks her
head. “It’s great you have firebombs and shields but we have to be careful. We
don’t know the repercussions of your powers yet.”
“And getting
ourselves locked in burning buildings with raging madmen is playing it so
safe.”
“You know what I
mean.” She steps away from the window and shifts the laptop in her arms. She
yanks open more office drawers.
I arch an
eyebrow. “A paper cut isn’t going to hurt him.”
“Paper cuts
hurt.” She forces a smile. “But we need something to slow him down. And you’re
not helping.”
I throw my hands
up and pick an aisle of desks. After uselessly searching two drawers, I lift
one of the office chairs and immediately know this flimsy, ergonomic piece of
crap won’t be able to break a window. I throw it anyway. It bounces off the
glass and comes back at me with a vengeance, clipping my knee.
“Fuckity fuck!
Ow. Ow.”
Ally looks up
from the drawer and scowls at me. “Injuring yourself before he even breaks into
the room is not what I had in mind.”
I give her a
hard stare, rubbing my throbbing knee and stumbling to another desk.
I have half a
mind to remind her that it wasn’t my idea to come to Chicago. I was happy in
Nashville. Sure, my boyfriend Lane—ex-boyfriend—wasn’t talking to me, but
everything else was okay. The first time Jason, the insta-healing terminator
tried to rip my head off, Ally had a fit. Jeremiah capitalized on it, of
course.
Come to Chicago
where it’s safer. We have more people and more power there. And Caldwell is up
to something in the city. We could really use the extra hands.
I just wanted to
stay in bed and mourn Brinkley, the man who’d given his life trying to kill
Caldwell. Everyone else keeps acting like I’m supposed to be working here.
The crack in the
door widens and I see an angry eye fix on me. Jason screams as if the very
sight of me enrages him.
Gabriel appears
at a desk two rows up from the one I’m searching. He flickers in and out,
unable to hold his form with another partis—a weirdo with powers like
me—nearby. He’s crystal clear when I’m alone, but when there’s two or more
partis, I’m lucky if Gabriel can materialize at all. This is real inconvenient
given that I need him most when the others show up looking for a fight.
“Here.” Gabriel
points at a giant rock sitting on top of one of the desks. “Use this.”
No, not a rock,
I realize. I place my hands on the massive stone. It’s an amethyst the size of
a grapefruit. Beside it sits a little note: Don’t touch me. Please. You’ll
change my energy.
I look up, but
Gabriel’s gone.
I lift the rock
off the desktop. It sinks into my palms like dead weight, the purple spikes
poking my flesh. “Sorry, but I need your energy to club this fucker.”
I meet eyes with
Jason again as he inches his fingers through the crack and starts swiping at
the locking mechanism we latched behind us.
“Get over here,”
I shout to Ally.
Ally makes it
halfway across the room before the door explodes. Splinters the size of my leg
fly at my face. I duck behind the desk, clutching the gigantic stone to my
chest.
I peek over the
tabletop and see Jason standing in the flames. His body smolders. His blistered
arm melts from burnt to scabby to pink. He spots me behind the desk and we lock
eyes. His face twists into a murderous grin.
“Stop hiding,”
he calls out. “Let’s do this.”
In my peripheral
vision, Ally darts to another desk, staying low.
Jason takes a
step toward me. “Just think, this power could be yours if you’d challenge me
already.”
“Fighting is
such a commitment.” I stand slowly, but keep the desk between us. I’m hoping it
buys me time if he does anything crazy like lunge for my throat. “You have to
get close. You have to touch people. Sometimes, like you, they smell. No, thank
you.”
Jason’s face
goes perfectly smooth. Was it something I said?
A flash of black
wings catches my eye. Gabriel’s still here, even if he can’t materialize. The
scent of rain overtakes me as Gabriel dials up my power. My muscles contract
and my body warms. My skin starts to itch around the collar of my shirt and
across my belly. I feel like I have to pee.
I try not to
squirm. “You know who else is in the city? Caldwell. Why don’t you kill him
instead?”
Jason’s face
twists up in fury again. “After I’m finished with you.”
“Why does
everyone keep saying that?” I would put my hands on my hip if not for the giant
amethyst. “Don’t you think I’m a badass?”
“You’re smaller.”
My temper
flares. “You’re trying to kill me because I’m short?”
Ally coughs on
the smoke filling the room and I jerk my head toward the sound. Jason doesn’t
hesitate.
“Jesse!”
Gabriel’s voice booms in my head.
My soul rips
open, power exploding from my center in all directions. It’s like someone is
yanking my intestines out of my belly button. I’m so overwhelmed but I can’t
stop the power from flooding out of me or even slow it down.
Fire and smoke whoosh away from me as if blown
by a great wind. The air around me shimmers like pavement on a hot day. Blue
flames roll over the surface of my body, suspended about three inches above my
skin before erupting outward toward Jason, the office around us and anything
else in its path. The only object that is safe is the amethyst cradled in my
hands.
The walls and
ceiling shudder under the force of my firebomb, raining dust and plaster down
on our heads. One minute the windows shatter, and glass spills out into the
night air. The next minute cold winter air is sucked into the room.
I open my eyes
and find Jason sprawled on the floor, unconscious. My power blast knocked him
out, burned his skin, but didn’t kill him. Damn.
I come around
the desk, or what is left of it, and peer closer. His flesh is already healing.
I try to use my
breath to slow my heart rate. I need to calm down, but my head is throbbing.
“Ally?”
No answer.
“Ally!”
“Here.” She
pulls herself to standing in the middle of a cluster of desks that had
obviously been pushed together in the blast.
She shakes glass
out of her hair and checks the laptop in her arms for damage.
“Kill him,”
Gabriel says in my ear. The weight of the amethyst doubles in my hands. “Kill
him.”
The idea of
killing Jason and taking his healing powers appeals to me. Instead of having to
die in order to heal myself, I could simply stay alive, and after a few
breaths, be as good as new again. Wasn’t that a hell of a prospect? Less pain.
Less wasted time. Less danger for myself and the people around me.
I lift the
amethyst, my eyes fixed on his skull.
“Jesse.”
I lift the rock
a little higher as a strange calm washes over me. No, more than calm. Peace
tinged with excitement. Oh god, I want to kill him. I don’t think I’ve ever
wanted to kill anyone.
“Jesse.”
Ally’s face
appears in front of mine. Eye to eye, she blocks my view of Jason. “Baby.”
She’s whispering. “We need to get out of here.”
Her voice.
Something about Ally’s voice seeps into my mind and untangles my thoughts. The
cold hand inside me, the one delighting at the idea of peeling Jason open and
stealing his ability to heal, grows warm. Its hold on me slackens as her brown
eyes come into focus. I can’t murder someone in front of Ally. What the hell am
I thinking?
My muscles relax
and I let the amethyst slip from my fingers to the floor.
“Come on.” Ally
squeezes my shoulders. “Maybe we can crawl down the hall a little bit and find
the stairs.”
“No we can’t go
that way—” I don’t finish my thought. The smallest movement steals my attention
and I turn just as Jason snatches up the amethyst and throws it at Ally.
“No!” I scream
as the rock sails through the air. “Gabriel!”
My shield goes
up around Ally. The shimmery purple light envelops her from head to toe. The
rock ricochets off the force field, shoots through the broken window and out
into the night. Jason screams and runs at me, head down as if he might tackle
me like some football player.
“Fuck this.” I
sidestep Jason and grab hold of Ally. Her shield falters just long enough for
me to wrap her in my arms and yank her forward. Before she can process what is
about to happen, I shove her out the big window and don’t let go.
Her shriek is
muffled by the wind whipping around us, tearing at our hair and clothes.
I suppose this
is a perfectly natural reaction to your friend shoving you out of a high-rise
building.
“It’s okay.” I
squeeze her against my chest. “The shield will hold.”
“Right?” I ask
Gabriel.
“What about you?
What about you?” Ally screams.
“You will not
survive the fall.” He plummets with us, his wings folding back to embrace the
drop. “You must shield yourself.”
“Ally lives, not
me. We have a deal.”
“You must shield
yourself also.”
“I don’t know
how. You have to help me.”
“Envision it.”
Gabriel’s wings open, lifting him up into the air. “See it grow larger.”
The field shines
about an inch or so above Ally’s skin, it touches parts of me, but it sure as
hell doesn’t cover anything important.
“Hurry,” Gabriel
says. “See it around you.”
I close my eyes
and see us falling in my head. The building rushes past us. The freezing air
tears at our clothes and hair relentlessly. Lights shine from windows in a blur
as we pass. I picture my shield bigger. I picture it around me and Ally,
covering us both from head to toe.
“Good. Do not
stop now,” Gabriel says.
I peek my eyes
open to see purple has crept over my arms and shoulder, the shield half
devouring my body—until pain erupts through my legs, my back, and the whole
world goes black.
About the Author:
Kory M. Shrum lives in Michigan with her partner and a ferocious guard pug. She has dabbled in everything from fortune telling to martial arts and when not reading or writing, she can be found teaching, traveling, or wearing a gi. She is the author of four books in the Jesse Sullivan contemporary fantasy series. She is also an active member of both SFWA and HWA.
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1 comment:
Awesome! Love the first chapter preview!
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