Prologue
The
thunder sounded like an angry god cracking his whip, and although Madison
O’Riley had done nothing to provoke the wrath of any higher beings, it felt
personal.
Despite
the blast of the storm, she hastened up the ladder onto the roof, intent on
fixing the leak, refusing to surrender to a little rain. Okay, a lot of
rain, she thought as the sprinkling turned to torrents.
The
old clapboard house perched on a hill at the outskirts of town, and from this
height, she could see the entire valley pulsing as silver lightning blossomed
in the spiteful, pewter sky. Gritting her teeth, she pulled herself onto the
roof one-handed, the fingers of her free hand like a sprung trap around the
caulking gun.
Her
feet slipped on the slick shingles but she maintained her footing,
walk-crawling up the pitched roof, proud of her stick-to-itiveness.
Half-blinded by the rain and nearly deafened by the overhead holocaust, she
scrambled and scurried, searching for the fissure. Between two shingles a few
feet from the brick chimney was a small crack. It didn’t seem big enough to
account for the amount of rain that now pooled in her living room. “Seriously?”
The
sky, as if letting her know that, yes, it was quite serious, flashed and pealed
out another crash. It was closer than she’d thought. This probably wasn’t a
very good idea. But she’d just had her oak floor re-finished and couldn’t
afford the thousands of dollars of damage the rain would do. It needed to be
fixed now.
She
eyed the tube of roofing tar, recalling the instructions the clerk had given
her. She placed the nozzle near the fissure and squeezed the caulking gun’s
trigger. A blob of black goop oozed out and she covered the crack. “Perfect.”
Her dignity intact, she stood.
Madison
hadn’t prepared to be a homeowner. It had been thrust upon her when her mother
signed over the house and business to Madison and left for Las Vegas to spread
the word of God. Homeowner duties had been learn-as-you-go and she was pleased
that patching the roof wasn’t beyond her abilities. Much easier than
installing the koi pond. She’d gotten in over her head with that one - but
she’d triumphed. She glanced down, saw the pond was nearly flooded and was glad
she’d taken the time to lay a stone edge around it as Bart Aberdeen from the
pet shop had suggested. All she needed now was koi.
A
tine of lightning ripped across the sky. Thunder boomed, crashed loud enough
that she felt its echo in her teeth - then trailed off, growling like a starved
dog protecting its bone.
The
seal looked to be holding and, under the advisement of the skies, Madison
headed for the ladder. Stepping down the sloped roof, her shoes lost traction
and her feet shot out from under her. The caulking gun flew as she windmilled
for balance. The gravelly asphalt raked her elbows as she came down hard on her
tailbone. A sickening thunk! resounded and a flash of white blinded her
as the back of her head smacked the brick chimney. Pain bit her, crippled her,
and she rolled down the slope, a tattered rag doll. Though barely conscious,
she felt the roof disappear beneath her. Then she was freefalling.
Help
me! she thought, unable to scream, to
speak.
In
the dream-like instant of her descent, the sky flashed - not lightning, but a
shooting star streaking toward earth.
She
plummeted into the koi pond below.
Icicle-cold,
the water stole her breath. She panicked, tried fighting, but body and mind had
parted company. She sank, paralyzed as blurred ribbons of blood rose and eddied
around her. Like a failing bulb, her vision flickered and went out.
She
was not aware of any time having passed. As if waking suddenly from a
nightmare, she shot from the water, gurgling and choking, her lungs starved of
oxygen. Splashing, writhing, her nails bit into bare shoulders and with the
sound of rusty brakes, she sucked in a deep lungful of air. The black world
resolved, and she glimpsed the face of a man, a stranger - no, not a stranger,
not exactly. I know you, don’t I?
She
gagged, clawed for purchase. Water gushed from her nose and mouth in explosive
bursts as her lungs purged themselves. She locked onto the stranger, her
fingers like anchors in his bare arms. Seconds later, she was on the sodden
earth, on her back. She coughed, vomiting water. Hands clutched her head,
turned it to the side, and water spilled from her mouth and nose like
unspooling ribbons. More gurgling, more body-wracking gasps. Her vision came,
dissolved, settled midway between blindness and sight.
A
mouth covered hers, blew, and Madison’s lungs expanded with borrowed breath. As
if the man were blowing on dying coals, warmth glowed inside her, spreading and
swelling through her solar plexus, expanding, reaching her limbs, bringing heat
to her skin and clarity to her mind. She could breathe, she could see, and what
she saw was the stranger’s face.
Handsome.
Full lips, strong cheekbones, eyes she couldn’t yet fathom. Close-cropped,
golden hair backlit by a near-blinding halo of light. Yes, she knew him from
somewhere - but where?
The
warm buzz swam through her. Her fingers and toes tingled. She was losing
consciousness again, but she didn’t care; the panic was gone. As the world
pulsed in and out, the man leaned over and blinked black-lashed silver eyes at
her. Not gray, but silver. Bright and shining, like disks of polished steel.
The light behind him swelled and brightened just before the world relapsed
into black and nothingness wrapped itself warm around her.
I like the cover
ReplyDeleteCover is very creepy
ReplyDelete