Eluding Nirvana (The Dark Evoke Series Book 2)

BOOK: Eluding Nirvana (The Dark Evoke Series Book 2)
13.27Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Copyright

Eluding
Nirvana:

(
The Dark Evoke Series, #2)

By V.L. Brock

Copyright 2014 V.L. Brock

Licence Note

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyments only. This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and you did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for supporting and respecting the hard work of this author.

 

This is a work of fiction, names characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

The author acknowledges the copyright and trademark owners of any brands/stores/establishments, which are used in the book, and that I do not claim ownership to.

 

Cover Design by: Sprinkles On Top Studios.

https://www.facebook.com/SprinklesOnTopStudios

http://sprinklesontopstudios.com/

Edited by: Brittani Pritchard
.

 

Dedication

To my Nan:

16 years without you

, and yet it still seems like yesterday that I was holding your hand, listening to stories of WWI and WWII, alongside married life in the olden days, while eating a chocolate animal bar.

You were the first strongest woman that I knew and loved; I was and still remain in awe of everything you had experienced. My love for you is unending.

To my mother:

You were the second strongest woman that I know and love. You’re a Stevens…you’re your mother’s daughter. You’re a fighter…you got out while you could. I love you.

 

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, and confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

––Melody Beattie

 

Contents

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgement
              8

Prologue
              10

Chapter One
              11

Chapter Two
              20

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten
              70

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Epilogue

Bonus Scene:

Transcending Nirvana:

About the Author

Silver Series by E.J. Shortall

For Nicky, A Torey Hope Novel Book 1 by A.D. Ellis

Because of Beckett, A Torey Hope Novel Book 2 By A.D. Ellis

MaryAnn Jordan

The Shifting Series (Books 1-3) by Andrea Michelle

MJ Nightingale is an Indie author to watch out for!!!

M.L. Steinbrunn

Sandra Love

Diamond Davenport

S.M. Phillips

 

 

Acknowledgement

Firstly, to my readers. They say that a writer merely begins the story; the reader is the one to finish it. Without you, these stories would be left incomplete. So from the bottom of my heart, I thank you. I thank you for journeying alongside the characters, experiencing the emotions which come hand-in-hand with that journey, and taking the time to get engrossed in a world in which I have created.

To my fellow IEZ ladies. Where do I even begin? We laugh alongside each other, we cry alongside each other, we twirl and pick each other up if we get a little dizzy and fall, and for that, I thank you. The IEZ isn’t just a group of Indie Authors, it isn’t just a group of friends…it’s a family, and I’m honored to be a part of that. I don’t know where I would be without our chats, videos, or words of encouragement. I love you, all. You ladies rock!

My
besties and beta readers: Samantha Ulysses, Charlie Chisholm and Brittani Prichard (who is also my kickass editor). The amount of faith you have in me, and the amount of times you have shaken some sense into me is bountiful. I can’t thank you enough. When I’ve doubted my abilities, you were there, when I doubted the direction of the story, you were there, and when the emotions ran too high on certain scenes, you were there to reason with me. The love I have for you all is out of this world. You were my first angels, my first readers, my first fans, and I thank you for that.

To my Street Team, Vic’s Angels: Justine
McFadyen, fellow author S.M. Phillips, Lora Lynch, Renee Craycraft, Sam Pixiebelle O’neill, Karen Shenton, Angie Cooper-Jenkins, Lorraine Lilly Wickson, and all the other members, thank you for your pimping skills and spreading the love of not only Walker and Kady, but also Hayden and Samantha from Impulses. Let keep it up. #WalkerLove #Impulses.

Kaprii
Dolphin and Lorraine Lilly Wickson who make up the fabulous Two Ordinary Girls and Their Books, I have two simple words:
you’re amazing!
Your continued support and enthusiasm towards The Dark Evoke Series will always warm my heart. Thank you for hosting Eluding Nirvana’s Cover Reveal alongside the Release Day Blitz. And not forgetting the many other blogs which participated in the event also: M&D’s have you read book blog, Sarah and Kirsty’s Book Reviews, A Girl Who Loves Books, Best of Both Worlds: Books & Naughtiness, Ms. ME28, My books and Me, Author Sandra Love, Books and Friendz, This Girl Loves Books, 2 Girls a book & a Glass Of Wine, Just Another Girl and Her Books, Naughty Girls of Romance, Sassy Southern Book Blog, Beautifully Broken Book Blog, S.M. Phillips, We Stole Your Book Boyfriend, Bookland, Bad Boys Bedtime Stories, Book Nook Nuts, Words Turn Me On, Little Shop of Readers, Steamy Book Momma, This Mommy Loves to Read, Eye Candy Bookstore, Confessions of a Book Whore, Cover to Cover Book Blog, Musings of the Book-a-holic Fairies, Inc. Randy Raunchy Romantic Book Blog, My Book Inspired Ramblings, Glass Paper Ink, Sweet N Sassy Book A Holics, Girl with Book Lungs, Book Blogs For Book Lovers, Fictional Mens Page for Book Hos, LBM Book Blog, Fictional Boyfriends, The Literary Gossip, Literary Lust, BJ’s Book Blog and Luscious Literature.

To all of my reviewers: thank you for taking the time to read, rate and review. I know family and life can interfere with reading schedules and I am so thankful that in between those commitments, you could read something new by someone new.

Lastly, to my husband and my munchkin. You see me at my best and at my worst. You see the downside and my upside, but regardless of that, your support is unending. The ample times of doubt are cast into oblivion when you restore my faith. You bolster me and my vision, you remind me of what I want to achieve, of why I am doing this. You help remind me that anything is possible when you fight and work toward it. For that, I can never repay you. I love you both until the end of time…The moon and back is a no-go.

Prologue

Spying through the bay window, Liam was pacing in the living room, the phone to his ear as he flexed his free hand.

Two weeks I had been seeking clarity, enlightenment…nirvana. And right then, Walker’s words haunted my mind. ‘
If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make damn fucking sure you remember’
.

As I stood staking out my home from the safety of the sidewalk like some abused little woman, I felt myself spiraling rapidly down the rabbit hole without any brakes. The quandary which I came to accept back when I was laying in the hospital bed, about the doctors and medical personnel being unable to hook me up to some device like in a sci-fi movie, and travel the tunnel of past memories, was now very much tangible.

And it took Walker and everything I had seen and felt that night to instigate it.

Sparks fired. Memories unlocked. Nirvana was found.

Fuck…

 

Chapter One

December 2010
.

Two and a half years
before the accident…

The warmth and softness of the velvet backrest left my body feeling cold as I shifted to the edge of my seat, practically folding myself over the romantically
dressed, table for two. I was staring at the man before me, a man who was fiercely passionate in both work, and his relationship. A man who was never dealt his cards; he was the one who dealt them.

He
was pretty much as haughty and as confident then as he had been, the night I agreed to go on a date with him. And so there we were sitting, in the heart of the most romantic Italian restaurant in Boston, amongst high-class lovers swathed in golden flickering candlelight, in the exact place, right down to the exact table, where we had our first date, celebrating our two year anniversary.

I drew in my lower lip
and clamped my teeth down gently. He knew my game. He saw it in my eyes. The way they glimmered and darkened as I held my head low and coquettish, casting him with my scandalous, ‘I want you to fuck me, and I don’t care if you take me over this very table with the clientele watching’, look.

Liam DeLaney could read me like a book.

It was a shame the skill wasn’t mutual.

“Happy Anniversary, Kady
baby,” he muttered on a small smirk. His tie was held flush against his black shirt when he swiftly rose from his seat opposite to avoid catching the flickering, golden flame of the candle in-between us. Bestowed with a chaste kiss on my lips, Liam left me humming in both profound appreciation and objection, when he drew his skillful lips away from me.

“Happy anniversary, Liam,” I whispered
back. I could feel the creases fanning out from the corners of my pale blue eyes as my once demure smile, broadened with the merging of his warm, soft hand as he tenderly cradled the side of my face.

If I had known that the moment
he lowered himself back into the seat opposite, that my stomach was going to free fall and the smile on my face was about to vanish with the husky, deep beckoning of a certain name, I would have kept Liam him there for a little longer.

“Raven?”

Craning my head to the source of the voice, I was met by a tall, coffee-skinned man, whose head was reflecting the muted, romantic glow of the restaurants lights, making a beeline to our table. “Jerome,” I gasped. What the fuck was he doing there? Damn fucking timing.

When a warm, friendly hand
lightly crashed down onto my shoulder, Liam did a fantastic job of making damn sure everyone knew he was pissed. Looking at him wasn’t necessary. I could feel his green and blue speckled eyes hardening into emeralds and hear his jaw tightening with the shadowed sound of grinding teeth. The gust of air he ousted in an angry sigh, pasted itself to my forearm.

“Hey, girl, I didn’t expect to see you in here.”

Other books

Bone Valley by Claire Matturro
Drowning Barbie by Frederick Ramsay
The New Rakes by Nikki Magennis
Murder Goes Mumming by Charlotte MacLeod
Crime Beat by Scott Nicholson
Grendel by John Gardner
To Charm a Naughty Countess by Theresa Romain
High Season by Jon Loomis