Echoes (48 page)
Authors: Erin Quinn
The man moved, not giving her time to mourn. He had a mission. She'd forgotten that he was there for reasons of his own.
They were back in the valley. Danni followed him as he strode away, a tall dark figure in a world painted with shades of obscurity. Their time was nearly at an end. She could sense it, feel it in the crackling air. It would turn again and the vision would be over.
Towed in his wake, Danni trailed the man to a mound of dirt amidst the lush pasture. Silently she waited by his side, once again aware of something huge casting a shadow on them, but unable to turn and face whatever it was.
They'd stopped beside a shallow grave, freshly dug and unmarked. The bitter scent of tilled earth mingled with the damp fishiness wafting from the sea. She could hear waves crashing furiously against the rocks below.
Her stranger wore an expression of inconsolable remorse as he looked upon the open hole gaping in the oasis of green. Danni swallowed painfully, more afraid than she'd ever been. The grave was an ominous symbol in this vision. Or was it real? The muddied ground at her feet seemed to call out to her. It coaxed her closer. It promised sweet and seductive rewards.
Danni slowly leaned forward and looked into the hole. There were two bodies sprawled at the bottom, as if they'd been carelessly tossed in. One was an adolescent boy and some shadowy part of her mind said his was the body she'd seen in the cavern. He was gangly-limbed and hollow-chested. His legs were twisted beneath him in an unnatural position and his face turned away. Crumpled beside him was a woman wearing leggings and an oversized t-shirt—an outfit reminiscent of the eighties. Her long golden-brown hair lay in a fall over her shoulders and against the boy's chest. Half of her face was concealed, but the other half . . .
Danni gasped and stumbled back, her mind fighting what her eyes displayed as truth. Once again, she was face-to-face with herself. The woman in the grave was Danni.
The man beside her stared at the bodies for another introspective moment. Then he looked to the distance at the stark precipice that plunged down to the turbulent sea. Danni felt his grief and anger mix and grow until it burned like the whipping wind. She felt the power of it consume him, drive him to a point as perilous as the cliff's edge.
Then suddenly he turned those desperate eyes on Danni. He reached out, as if realizing for the first time that he might touch her. She waited for the contact with a biting combination of terror and anticipation nipping at her insides.
Visions couldn't touch, couldn't feel . . . .
He brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers and his warmth was electric against her cold skin. She stared at him, stunned, seeing her own astonishment mirrored in the glittering silver and green of his eyes.
He touched her again, settling his palm against her jaw, cupping face—both hands now. Both hands warm and rough and undeniably real. Transfixed, she stared at him, catching her breath when his gaze shifted to her mouth. He was going to kiss her.
Her hands came up to the muscled wall of his chest, feeling it rise with his deep breath, grappling with the feel of his heart beating beneath her palms. Her fear knotted with the rush of sensation and became a ball of heat in her belly, a longing that smoldered and sparked. She waited as his head bent, his lips moving closer to hers. But the air was turning—she could feel it coming. Even as his mouth hovered over her lips, his breath a hot whisper, a seductive secret she couldn't quite hear, he began to fade.
She tried to stop him, tried to hold back the air even as it hissed away. In an instant, the man, the grave, the steel wool sky . . . all of it became a mist that floated just on the surface. Beneath, Danni's kitchen waited for her to come home.
She felt a ripping sensation as it sucked her back to where she'd begun. She sagged against the counter, drawing in deep breaths of warm air. Her cup sat just where she'd left it, coffee not yet cooled, though it seemed hours should have passed. She couldn't stop the shaking in her legs or slow the pounding of her heart. She sank to the cold tile and curled in on herself.
She didn't understand what the vision meant, who the man was or why she'd seen the mother she remembered only from the single photograph she possessed. She knew one thing, though. The green-eyed stranger was looking for Danni and when he found her, she would have to make a choice. Go with him and answer the beckoning grave, or deny the call of her mother and everything she'd wished for her entire life.
Erin Quinn ebooks published by Books We Love Ltd.
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About the Author
Erin Quinn (also known as Erin Grady) is an award winning author. Her titles include the Berkley Mists of Ireland series HAUNTING BEAUTY, HAUNTING WARRIOR, HAUNTING DESIRE and HAUNTING EMBRACE (Oct 2011.). Her books have been called “riveting,” “brilliantly plotted” and “beautifully written” and have won, placed or showed in the WILLA Award for Historical fiction, the Orange Rose, Golden Quill, Best Books, Book Buyers Best, Booksellers Best, Award of Excellence, and Readers Crown. Book four in the Mists of Ireland series will be in bookstores October 2011.
She lives in Arizona with her husband, two daughters and three dogs (all of whom have made debuts in her stories—the dogs, that is, not the husband and kids.)
Contact Erin Quinn, sign up for her newsletter or enter her monthly contest to be automatically added and eligible for free books at www.erinquinnbooks.com
Note from the Publisher
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