The Reckoning (34 page)

“On it.” Stella’s headset began blinking. “I’ll have our allies do the same.”

Ava folded her arms and stared down at us. “I think just maybe, with a lot of damage control, we’ll be okay.” Her sense of relief was palpable. Finally the mortals knew. Eventually, they’d understand the stakes and support our cause.

“You know,” Jace said, “if we survive this, we might just become in high demand. Employers won’t have to waste so much time training and finding new employees or have to pay medical or dental insurance. Different abilities will be sought for different reasons. People will be willing to pay.” He brightened. “I might even be able to get a date.”

“I think maybe we’d better leave the whole ability thing out of it,” I said. As it was, I was unsure how we could avoid an eventual caste system from forming, especially if people learned the truth about some of our gifts.

“Agreed,” Ritter said.

Stella looked up from her laptop. “That’s what I’m hearing from everyone. We already have enough challenges ahead. Walker has made some statements about abilities, but he doesn’t really know enough to make trouble—and I doubt any of us will fill him in. It will all become apparent eventually, but meanwhile we don’t need people scanning the sky for Superman.”

I glanced at Keene, because I’d been wondering if changing atoms could make levitation possible for him. He met my gaze, but when he spoke it wasn’t about abilities. “I think,” he said, “that it’s time to go home.”

EVERYONE DID GO HOME. EXCEPT
Ritter and me, who upon our arrival in San Diego at midnight, drove to the tallest hotel in the city and rented a corner room with a double balcony. We had an impressive view of the city lights from one balcony and a fabulous, dizzying view of the ocean from the other. I couldn’t get enough of it. I felt free, as if I were flying. Stella’s nanites were at work, there was no Delia between Ritter and me, and I felt ready for anything.

I did have an occasional flash of memory that I knew came from Delia memories, but I was sure that was because of what I’d seen in her energy stream rather than any psychic residue. Memories, just like those I’d gathered from other people. They might become useful one day.

Ritter approached me where I stood at the balcony railing, the slight breeze from the ocean whipping my sheer nightgown around my thighs. It was a little cold, but it was so breathtakingly beautiful that I didn’t want to go inside. He wrapped his warm arms around me and kissed my neck. I rotated toward him, loving the shudders he sent up my skin and throughout my body. As I kissed him deeply, he responded, dropping his mind shield. Everything we had become to each other was apparent in his touch, in his thoughts. Together we rode a wave of emotion.

Abruptly, he stopped kissing me and pushed his face into my neck. “I thought I was going to have to kill you,” he said, his voice low and tortured. “Permanently.”

“I know.” I lifted his head so I could see his eyes. “I would have rather you do that than let her control my body.”

He nodded. “That’s why I would have done it.”

We were silent a moment, until I said, “What now? The world has gone crazy.” We weren’t in hiding anymore, but every sign told us that it was going to be rough for a while—a long while.

Ritter’s fingers trailed over my back. “Now we pick up the pieces.”

“We’re getting pretty good at that.”

“Right now, I only want to be good at one thing.” He lowered his mouth to mine. “I’m going to make love to you all night. All week. Maybe every day for the rest of my life.”

I wrapped my arms around him. “I know.”

THE END

NOTE FROM TEYLA BRANTON:
Thank you for downloading this book and for spending a little time with me in my world! If you enjoyed
The Reckoning
, will you consider leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads? The more positive reviews I receive, the less time I’ll spend trying to sell random people my book and the more time I can spend writing sequels. Yes, there are a few more sequels and short stories in store, so thank you for any help you can give me in spreading the word. I promise to make it up to you! Meanwhile, I have a brief outtake in the next section for your enjoyment, and if you like contemporary romantic suspense, you can read a bonus preview of
Tell Me No Lies
,
a novel I wrote under the name Rachel Branton. You can learn more about me and my books in the
About the Author
section following the sneak peek. Be sure to
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TeylaBranton.com.
THANKS!

Ritter’s philosophy

RITTER WAS NEVER WITHOUT AT
least a dozen weapons, except during training, and he insisted we all remain constantly ready with our own weapons. If he had his way, he’d arm teachers, mothers, fathers, and every other responsible citizen in the entire nation, and train them. That way, the next time a drugged-up youth appeared in a school to shoot innocent kids or opened fire in a mall, the victims would be able to defend themselves. That went double for any attack by the Emporium. He believed—and I agreed—that a nation who allowed itself to be disarmed by its leaders was asking for domination.

END OF OUTTAKE.
Please continue to the next page for a bonus preview of
Tell Me No Lies.
Or continue to the
About the Author
section to read more about Teyla’s books.

Bonus Preview
Tell Me No Lies
by
Rachel Branton

Chapter One

I
blinked to hold back the tears, stunned by what I was hearing.
No! I don’t believe it.
But I did.

Hurt followed the disbelief, growing to an agony that urged me to physically lash out at Sadie, my best friend and bearer of the terrible news, but I was frozen in place, as though my heart had stopped pumping blood to my suddenly useless limbs.

Besides, it wasn’t Sadie’s fault.

Oh, Julian. How could you?

Sadie put a hand on my shoulder, but the sympathy in her eyes did little to comfort me. “I’m sorry, Tessa. I really am. I didn’t want to tell you, but . . .” She sighed and continued in a whisper, “I would want to know if it were me.”

Her words released me from my mute state. “I need to be alone.”

“Of course. I understand. Call me if you need me.” Sadie stepped close and hugged me while I stood without moving. I barely noticed her departure.

My eyes wandered the room of my childhood, only recently familiar again since I’d come home to Flagstaff to prepare for the wedding. Mother had insisted on dinners and celebrations, and because Julian and I planned to live in Flagstaff, where he would work in his family business, it only made sense for me to leave the job at my father’s factory in Phoenix several weeks early. I missed the job and my friends the minute I’d left, but Julian and I were ready to take the plunge into matrimony—or so I’d thought.

The door to my walk-in closet was open, and I could see the wedding dress I was to have worn in just over forty-eight hours. Bile rose in my throat, and a tear skidded down my cheek. I brushed it impatiently away. I wouldn’t cry for a man who had betrayed me.

Since tonight we were having the rehearsal dinner, last night had been Julian’s bachelor party. Sadie’s brother had been at the party and had told her all about Julian disappearing early with a woman whose hands had been altogether too familiar with a man who was about to be married.

I slumped on my bed, covered with the homemade quilt my grandmother had made, my eyes still locked on the white satin dress. Drenched in lace and small pearls, it had a sweetheart neckline and a gorgeous chapel train. The dress cost seventeen hundred dollars and had taken three weeks of daily shopping to find. My mother had been with me every one of those days, which had been a torture in itself.

I bit my lip until I tasted blood.

I’d met Julian Willis when I’d come home to visit for the Christmas holiday, though if the truth be told, my visit had more to do with my horse, Serenity, than seeing my parents. At my mother’s insistence, I’d tagged along on their invitation to attend a party thrown by the Willises. I hadn’t minded going, once I met Julian. If his blond good looks and toned physique hadn’t won me over, his attentiveness and charm would have. After countless trips to Phoenix on his part and numerous weekends home on mine, the inevitable had happened: we’d fallen in love. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes.

Two weeks later, my father and Julian’s had negotiated a business arrangement to take effect after the wedding. The Willis family owned a huge frozen food conglomerate, and my father produced a line of breakfast cereals, where I managed the swing shift. With the help of the Willises, our business would expand to new markets my father had never before reached. I wasn’t sure what the Willises were getting out of the deal since our business was stable but not growing. Maybe they would simply have in-laws who were up to their standard of living.

Not that we’d ever been poor in my lifetime—thanks to my grandpa who’d worked himself into an early grave to create that first bowl of sugar-coated cereal. I still missed him terribly.

What am I going to do?

The awful thing was that a part of me wasn’t all that surprised. Julian was attractive, thoughtful, and a big flirt—a hit with ladies of every age. Half of the marriageable women in Flagstaff had chased him at one time or another, and before we’d met he’d had a bit of a reputation—one he’d assured me was complete fabrication.

I won’t marry a liar and a cheat.
Every woman deserved better than that. I wondered if I’d purposely been blind or if he’d been good at hiding things. Perhaps his betrayal had been a momentary lapse, but if so, what did that say about our future? If I couldn’t trust him now, how could I trust him for the next sixty or more years?

Maybe it’s all a mistake.
I latched onto the idea. Yet in the next minute I had to discard it. Sadie had been my best friend since kindergarten, and I’d trust her with my life. There was no way she would have spoken unless she was certain it was true. More likely she hadn’t told me everything she knew, not wanting to hurt me further.

A knock on the door startled me from my thoughts. “Who is it?”

“Your mother.”

“Come in.”

Elaine Crawford didn’t so much as enter a room as sweep into it. She was the epitome of grace and elegance. Even at eight o’clock on a Thursday morning, her hair was styled in an elaborate twist that was both attractive and left her beautiful neck bare.

“My, Sadie was in such a hurry this morning. I’ve never seen her run off so quickly. Did you two have a disagreement?”

I shook my head, unwilling to trust my voice.

My mother’s eyes didn’t leave my face. “What happened? We can’t be losing your maid of honor at this late date.” She smiled to show she was teasing, but there was a warning under the words.

“Sadie and I are fine.”

“Wonderful.” She walked to the closet and peered inside. “You’re going to look like a princess in this dress. Even without you in it, I could stare at it all day. Julian won’t be able to take his eyes off you.”