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.
"Kory
Shrum's writing is smart, imaginative, and insanely addictive!
I
have begun to think of her books as my Kory Krack.
I
beg of you to pick them up. You will NOT regret it!"
-Darynda
Jones, NY Times Bestselling Author of the Charley Davidson Series
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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