Daniel.
I could still feel his lips on mine, the brush of stubble against my chin. I might even have a red mark on my face from it.
The kiss felt so passionate, I could have sworn it meant as much to him. But all along he’d been thinking of another girl, a girl who had been stolen from him by Nick. A girl who obviously meant so much to Daniel he’d actually try and woo someone he thought of as a monster in order to get revenge.
I felt cheap and used. Daniel couldn’t have hurt me more if he’d slapped me. Slapping would have been far kinder than kissing me. It was a kiss filled with passion, fueled by vengeance instead of love. Worst of all. I’d give anything to feel his lips on mine again.
Chapter Nine
I was so busy feeling sorry for myself that I didn’t even notice the taxi drive straight past the turn to my house.
“ Excuse me, you just went past my street.”
He didn’t answer, just kept on driving. Then the car picked up speed.
“ Hey! Slow down!” I shouted, because at the rate he was going we wouldn’t make it around the corner.
In fact, as the taxi rode up onto the curb, I realized he had no intention of cornering. Instead he carried straight on, driving straight toward a brick wall.
I screamed for him to stop, or swerve. Instead he put his foot down and the car lurched forward, seconds away from impacting with the wall.
With only moments before the collision, I reached for the door handle, figuring I had more chance of surviving a high-speed fall from a moving car than a head on collision with solid bricks.
The front of the vehicle hit. The driver did nothing to shield himself. He just waited for the crunch.
Suddenly a rush of air blasted me from above. A sharp point jabbed toward me. Despite the fact that I was about to become permanently joined to a brick wall, I still ducked. In split seconds Daniel’s sword sliced through the roof, before strong hands gripped me by the armpits, and then I moved up into the air.
As Daniel landed on a nearby roof, I watched the entire front of the taxi crumple into the wall, pulverizing the driver inside.
“ Stay here,” he said, before floating gently to the ground.
I didn’t really have much choice in the matter. The building was two stories high and my powers were completely silent. I couldn’t move if I wanted to.
Daniel returned minutes later.
“ He’s alive,” he said. “The air bag cushioned the blow, but the back of the car has him pinned.”
“ Do you think he’ll live?”
“ He’s got a heart beat, but I don’t think he’s breathing.”
I grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. “I can heal him.”
“ No.” He didn’t even have to think about it.
“ Why not, I want to find out who he is. Why he did it.”
“ More than likely it’s the Ink Sorcerer who’s going around mesmerizing people,” Daniel said.
“ Exactly, so he might remember them.”
Daniel frowned. He knew I was right. If I could save the guy, we could question him and find out who put him up to this. Still, he hesitated. It stung. Despite the fact he no longer believed I was the one trying to kill people, he still didn’t trust me.
“ Alright,” he said, finally, sweeping me into his arms.
Daniel didn’t recognize the driver as an Ink Mage, which meant the person who turned him into a killer puppet was willing to kill people outside of the group now.
I reached out with my hand, touching the guy’s face. Already he felt deathly cold. Ice prickled down my arm, spreading out my fingers. Ink raced across the dying man’s face, it poured down his open mouth like liquid. The tattoo shone brilliant blue, filling his eyes, making them glow.
His entire body was covered in spidery, blue tattoos. The light coming off him blinded me, and I heard Daniel gasp somewhere behind me.
The man’s eyes flickered open and closed and I didn’t know if it was the magic until he gasped. He took in big gulps of air, gasping and spluttering.
He grabbed hold of my
Colin Dexter
Margaret Duffy
Sophia Lynn
Kandy Shepherd
Vicki Hinze
Eduardo Sacheri
Jimmie Ruth Evans
Nancy Etchemendy
Beth Ciotta
Lisa Klein