Catalyst (45 page)

             
"What? What Lily?"

             
"I
have to touch him."

             
He glanced at me and I
have no idea what I did;
n
odded, shook my head, just sat there. I was devoid again
,
but for good reason this time.

             
But then Lily…she touched them both at the same time and an arc of white light leapt from the Lighter's body to Merrick's, which jumped at the intrusion. It lasted all of ten seconds.

             
Was this a dream? Was it too much to hope that Lily had saved him even though he was gone?
What was she? She could take life from one creature and give it to another?
She looked at me and said, "Evil taketh
away
, good giveth
a
nother
day
.
Mrs. Twudy told me that.
"

             
Lillian had
said something about an old lady talking to Lily
… and I ha
d been having those dreams of Mrs. Trudy.
What was going on?

             
I was shocked,
confused and hysterical a
s I waited to see if Lily was going to bring him back. With my fingers fisted into his shirt to ground myself, I watched his face to see if he'd open those green eyes and tell my heart to beat again. I waited.

             
And then….and then…

The end for now.
.
.

T
he thank you
'
s could go on for miles.

First of all, my God and my family. The readers who have picked up this book and my others as well are the reason I do this. It’s been SO much fun getting to know all different kinds of people from all over the world who have read something of mine. It’s humbling in every sense of the word and I thank you for allowing me to be a little piece of your world. You guys are the best and I love to hear from you! You rock!

Be sure to check out the other books in the Collide Series

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Playlist

Song                      
              Artist

1.
The End Is Where We Begin : Our Lady Peace

2: Song For A Waitress : Jason Reeves (Cain & L's Song)

3. Called Out In The Dark : Snow Patrol

4. Angel : Jack Johnson (Sherry's Song)

5. Soul Meets Body : Death Cab For Cutie (Ryan's Song)

6. The City And The River : The Rescues

7. Room @ The End Of The World : Matt Nathanson

8. Hope You Found It : Jason Walker

9. In My Arms : Plumb (Lily's Song)

10. Edge Of Desire : John Mayer

111. So Close, So Far : Hoobastank

12. Lights : Ellie Goulding

13. Echo : Jason Walker

14. Many Shades Of Black : The Raconteurs

15. Chasing Cars : Snow Patrol (Merrick & Sherry's Song)

16. Hold You In My Arms : Ray Lamontagne

17. The Sound Of Winter : Bush

18. Everything : Tyler Ward

19. Rainy Day : Plain White T's

20. Shelter : Jars Of Clay (The Bunker Family's Song)

21. Something To Die For : The Sounds (Jeff's Song)

22. While We Wait : Jack Johnson 

23. Lose Control : House Of Heroes (Miguel's Song)

24. We Won't Give Up : The Afters

25. In No Time : Mutemath

26. All The Same To Me : Anya Marina

27. Everlasting Light : The Black Keyes

28. Angel In Disguise : The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (Merrick's Song)

29. Back Against The Wall : Cage The Elephant

30. Hero - Jars Of Clay (Cain's Song)

31. Destroyer : David Gray

- A group of independent Young Adult authors who are dedicated to
their craft
-

Tiffany King
, author of
The Saving Angels Trilogy

Abbi Glines
, author of
Breathe
and
Existence

M. Leighton
, author of the
Blood Like Poison Series

Michelle Muto
, author of
The Book of Lost Souls and Don’t Fear the Reaper

Fisher Amelie
, author of
The Leaving Series
Nichole Chase
, author of
The Dark Betrayal Trilogy
Laura A. H. Elliott
, author of
13 on Halloween
Amy Maurer Jones
, author of the
Soul Quest Trilogy

Wren Emerson
, author of
I Wish
Shelly Crane
, author of the
Significance
and Devoured
Series

Courtney Cole
, author of
The Bloodstone Saga
C.A. Kunz
, mother and son author duo of
The Childe Series

Please enjoy an exclusive excerpt of Prince of Wolves by Quinn Loftis, available now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Jacque Pierce
sat in the window seat in her bedroom looking across the street at her neighbors house; she wasn’t really being nosy she thought to herself, just curious. “Yeah,” she snorted, “only if you call curious sitting in your window seat eyes glued to your neighbor’s house like a hound on the hunt at ten o’clock at night.  I can call a spade, a spade tomorrow morning,” she told her conscience.

The Henry’s were having a foreign exchange student stay with them this year. They didn’t have any children of their own, though Jacque didn’t know if that was by choice or because they weren’t able to have children.  She had promised Sally and Jen she would get the nitty-gritty on the situation and call them.

So here she sat in her window,
scoping out the neighbors house
with her lights turned off and blinds cracked just enough to see and to top off her “James Bond” experience, she even had binoculars! Now if she only had the nifty back ground music to go with her shenanigans.  She had been sitting there for an hour already and was just about to give up when a black stretch limo pulled to the curb. Now isn’t this strange, she thought, a foreign exchange student arriving in a limo? She put the binoculars to her face and adjusted them to get a better look, settling them over the passenger door to see just who would emerge. She knew this was a little much but honestly in a town of 700 there just isn’t a whole lot of excitement and Jacque would take it where she could get it.

The driver got out of the limo to go around and open the back passenger door, but before he could get there the door was already opening, and the boy who stepped out of that limo had to be the most beautiful guy Jacque had ever seen,
and that was only his profile. Wow, I mean wow,
is all Jacque could think. Jacque couldn’t even imagine what his entire face must look like. He was tall, probably six foot one or so, his hair was jet black, it was longer on top and she could tell that he had bangs that fell across his face sweeping to the left partially covering that eye. He had broad shoulders and from what she could see of his profile, high cheek bones, a straight nose and full lips. She quickly realized her mouth had dropped open and she was all but drooling over the handsome human being who had emerged from the vehicle. She watched as he and his driver conversed, it all seemed very formal until the driver suddenly hugged the boy with obvious deep affection. He must be more than just his driver Jacque thought.

Suddenly, he turned as if he had heard what she was thinking and looked straight at her window, straight at her. Jacque froze, unable to look away from the mesmerizing blue eyes that held her in place. All her thoughts seemed to fade into the distance and she heard, or thought, she wasn’t quite sure which, the words,
“At last, my Jacquelyn.”
Jacque shook her head, trying to clear the haze that had filled it. After she came to her senses from the intense stare she recapped in her mind what his face had looked like.

She was right about the cheek bones; nose and lips, what she wasn’t prepared for was that his crystal blue eyes seemed t
o almost glow in the moon light. T
he hair that fell across his forehead and over his left eye o
nly added to his mysteriousness. O
ver all he had a very masculine, very beautiful face. The shirt he was wearing was black and thanks to her handy dandy binoculars she was able to see that it fit closely to his form and showed off a muscular chest and flat stomach. He had a black leather biker jacket on, but past that she couldn’t see because the car was in the way, but she imagined his legs were every bit as nice as the rest of him.

When she looked back at the street the mysterious guy was walking into the Henry’s house. As she saw the door close she heard the voice again say
“Soon.”

Jacque sat there for a few minutes more trying to get her brain to work again, everything seemed so hazy. After blinking what felt like a thousand times she pulled herself together, picked up the phone and dialed Jen’s number.

Three rings later Jen answered, “What’s the word?” she asked.

Jacque took a slow breath and said “I think you better come over.”

“I’m there c
hick, see ya in 5,” Jen responded
and then hung up.

Jacque grinned to herself as she thought about how great it was to have a friend like Jen who you could always depend on to be there when you needed her.

Jacque picked up t
he phone again and called Sally. She answered after one ring. S
he had obviously been diligently manning the phone, waiting for Jacque to call with details to the latest small town drama. “Jen is on her way over,” Jacque said. “I need you to come too, we need to talk.”

“Okay,” Sally said simply and hung up. 

Fifteen minutes later the three friends were gathered on Jacque’s bedroom floor, hot chocolate in hand, because naturally, how
can you have a girl powwow with
out hot chocolate? 

“So, fill it and spill it,” Jen said.

“Okay,” Jacque said taking a deep breath, “so I’m sitting in my window seat, shades cracked
lights off, binoculars in hand,
”