Dark Series, The Color of Seven and The Color of Dusk (Books We Love Special Edition) (62 page)

Her flowing sleeve rippled slightly as her arm moved. She’d never appear in public again without long sleeves. The burns left by the flaming kindling had left mottled, puckered scars which, having been inflicted prior to her transformation, would never disappear. She’d carry them forever, just as he carried the white ropy scars of Cain’s knife cuts on his chest.
Battle
trophies.

She punched the car’s cigarette lighter and he grinned as they sped out towards unknown destinations. They’d go wherever the wind blew them, to whatever town took their fancy.

As the old protective circle of Sadie and Everett, of Tamara and Joshua, had closed around Paul in the first days of his new existence, so had the new protective circle, the circle of Charlie and Liz Knight, Johnny Bishop and Dennis Billings, closed ranks behind their departure.

Ria lit her cigarette and impatiently shook back the cuff of her long sleeve.

“Bastard,” she observed mildly.

“What did I do now?”

“Not you. Cain. My arms. I’ll never go sleeveless again.”

“I don’t mind.”

“I know you don’t.”

“You are so much stronger than I was,” Paul said suddenly.

“How so?”

“Three weeks and look at you. Took me months to get that far.”

Ria smiled. “But it has nothing to do with strength. I have you. Oh, look darlin’!”

She pointed to the golden orb that was pulling out onto the night sky over the tall stands of trees crowning the low hills.

“Moonrise!”

* * *

In the depths of the silent, shrouded world of departed spirits, Tamara stirred restlessly. She didn’t know what was disturbing her. She’d cast her vision out through the veil on the night of Ria’s change and spoken to her boy, offering assurance that destiny waited for the birth of another dark angel.

He had his wife now, the one she’d foreseen in his palm years before, whose line paralleled the line representing Chloe but stretched, unbroken, all the way across his palm and circled back around. She’d never told him of his coming bride but it had been a source of great comfort to her, this knowledge that her beloved dark angel wouldn’t always walk alone. But now something was disturbing the cosmic peace and she couldn’t return to her placid rest. Something. But what?

Suddenly lightning shot out from the spirit world, cracking wildly in the night sky nestling the earth. The men had done their jobs well. Cain’s bones, what remained of them, rested in a weighted croaker sack, lying on the murky bottom of
Lake
Sinclair
, sunk in the deepest part of the lake. His skull rested in another croaker sack, a half-mile further down.

But Justin. They hadn’t waited for the transformation before staking his body.

Transformation must be complete. Otherwise the body, furiously engaged in healing itself to a state of physical perfection, would slowly push the intruding stake right out of the heart muscle, knitting new tissue as it did so. The presence of the stake would slow the process down. The vampire wouldn’t rise in one night, not even in two or three.

But he would rise.

And in the depths of the black lake bottom, in the deepest center of water between the stretching shores of
Lake
Sinclair
, the tip of a stake finally squeezed itself from a headless body shrouded in a croaker sack. The wood trembled in the water and then floated momentarily before dropping to the bottom of the rough material.

Two hands ripped the burlap apart and impatiently pulled the gaping split open as the body emerged. The hands began their slow, blind groping over the floor of the lake, looking for their head.

The End.

Gail Roughton has spent over thirty years in a law office as a legal secretary/paralegal. During those thirty plus years, she raised three children and quite a few attorneys. She kept herself sane by writing books, tossing each completed novel in her closet. The children are grown and she decided it was time to clean out the closet. Now multi-published, she still maintains she couldn’t have this much fun for free doing anything else.
She sends special thanks to Stuart, possibly the biggest fan the
Dark
series will ever have, both for the title of the first novel in the series,
The Color of Seven
and his absolute rock-firm belief in the power of these books. Special thanks as well to
Jude and Jamie
for Books We Love, Ltd. Fortunate is the writer invited through its doors.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

We hope you have enjoyed your reading experience. Books We Love and the author would very much appreciate you returning to the online retailer where you purchased this book and leaving a review. 
Happy
Reading
, Jamie and Jude

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