Page 94 of Touched By Moonlight

I could feel Lavender’s grief at losing her plant, her horrified sense of betrayal at Kallan’s duplicity. Her own sense ofhelplessness.

Her shock atdying.

Kallan siphoned out her magick. Her life force. It sailed into his open mouth. A purple glow ringed his body, pulsing like a neon sign. The hollows of his cheeks filled out, his dark hair now mixed with whitegold.

The white gold of a powerful FionnFae

Lavender was dying, her cries becoming feebler. Her skin seemed to collapse and then she fell to the ground, a Lavender skinsuit without blood, bone orsubstance.

An eye blink later, what was left of her body turned to purple ash. Kallan belched, poked a bare foot at the mess. The purple glow faded from his body, but he looked more muscular, solid.Dangerous.

“Excuse me. Such bad manners, but such a delightful meal she made.” The smile widened as he tapped a finger against his plumper cheek. “Hello Sienna. You lookwell.”

A fingernail now gray, instead of black. I could have destroyed him when he was weak. Blew it. Now he was powerful again and any energy I exhibited, he would absorb and use to weaken me and killKara.

Desperate, I fought to control my power and my emotions. Kallan fed off negativeenergy.

“Sienna, let’s go.” Kara grabbed myhand.

My feet turned into concrete blocks, my body immersed in ice. I could not even utter a word, faced with the worst horror from my nightmares standing beforeme.

Kara had no such terror. She shifted into a dragon the size of a pony, a beautiful silver dragon, scales glittering like diamonds beneath the harsh fluorescentlights.

The dragon roared and blew fire at Kallan, who laughed and vaporized into water, extinguishing theblaze.

But she bought us time. Kara shifted back and all but picked me up and ran for theexit.

We’d barely cleared the landing when a motorcycle burst through the glass lobby windows, skidded to ahalt.

“Get on, Sienna!” Graysonroared.

Kara! I turned, but Kara had already bolted out the broken window, shifted into a dragon once more and flewaway.

I climbed on, wrapping my arms around his waist and Grayson gunned the engine, jumping the bike through the window. We landed hard on the pavement, the bike turning, but he balanced it right side up and we roaredoff.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Kallan leap out of the broken window and dissolve into gray fog. Clouds blotted out the thin sunshine, and the sky turnedindigo.

Aw damn. I knew what thismeant.

“Better find shelter, now!” I screamed at Grayson. “We have to getinside!”

No matter where we went, we’d put the human element in danger. They would die because of me in Kallan’s ruthless quest to tap into mypowers.

No more innocent blood on myhands.

“We have to keep going,” Grayson yelled back at me. “Can’t riskstopping!”

He drove down a side street, riding parallel to the main street. As he passed a group of buildings, the sky turned black with fatrainclouds.

The sickly sweet smell of ozone filled the air. As Grayson went to make a turn on another street, a flash filled the air. Out of nowhere, a lightning bolt slammed into the brick building. The wall exploded. The bike skidded and went sideways. I threw up my arms to protect my head. Grayson righted the bike again and we toreoff.

“You can’t outrun him,” I yelled. “He has the power of changing the weather. Of being the damnweather!”

“Watchme.”

“There’s a park off route 30. We can hide there. Headthere!”

People might be there, but it was better than ducking into a crowded restaurant. The park had plenty of room to roam. It was late enough in the day that not many children, or families, would bethere.