only a single stool and its occupant stood between us. The male bartender took her order and she turned sideways to wait for her drink. Her eyes met mine. She smiled briefly, then stared out onto the dance floor.
Horror washed over me in a devastating wave of intuition. My throat closed. I choked on a scream of terror. My glass slipped from my hand and shattered on the floor. The redheaded dancer squealed and jumped back as ice-cold soda splattered her, me, Nash, and the man on the stool to my left. But I barely noticed the frigid liquid, or the people staring at me.
I saw only the girl, and the dark, translucent shadow that had enveloped her.
“Kaylee?” Nash tilted my face up so that our eyes met. His were full of concern, the colors swirling almost out of control now in the flashing lights. Watching them made me dizzy.
I wanted to tell him … something. Anything. But if I opened my mouth, the scream would rip free, and then anyone who wasn’t already looking at me would turn to stare. They’d think I’d lost my mind.
Maybe they’d be right.
A Soul Screamers Novella
Tod Hudson was a typical teenager. He liked girls, sports, food and tolerated his younger brother, Nash. In fact, he had his whole life in front of him—and due to his bean sidhe heritage, it was going to be a very long life indeed. And then the car accident occurred.
Suddenly Tod's future wasn't so sure, and he had to make a choice. Life… Death… or something Between….
The world spun around me.
Nash flew forward and his head smacked the windshield. My seatbelt punched the air from my lungs as the entire dashboard lurched toward me.
Then everything went still.
The only sound was the soft hiss of something ruptured. Every breath hurt, and my neck was so stiff I could hardly turn my head. I exhaled slowly and closed my eyes, stealing a moment in the near-silence to appreciate my pounding heart, and the fact that it continued to beat.
Then I twisted in the dark to face my brother.
“Nash?” He was slumped in his seat half facing me. His eyes were closed, his head steadily dripping blood from an injury I couldn’t see in the dark. My relief bled into dread as I pushed my door open and the interior lights came on. “Nash?” I said again, but he didn’t answer.
He wasn’t breathing.
To all the readers who've asked for more of Tod,
I couldn't be happier to oblige!
Staring down at the man on the bed, I couldn’t help but suspect the coincidence. What were the chances he’d be brought in on my first day at the hospital? Levi was a shrewd little bastard, and the man on the bed—practically gift-wrapped for me in a hospital gown, terror dancing in his eyes—was proof of that. I was no angel in life. Why should that be any different in death?
“Okay, I’m heading out…” Mom slid her purse over one shoulder on her way through the living room. “There’s leftover lasagna in the fridge. And there’s some bagged salad.”
I nodded absently and flipped the channel to VH1 concert footage from one of the kids’ networks—where I was not trying to catch a glimpse of my ex-girlfriend Addison, who’d dumped me for a chance at stardom when she was cast in a pilot.
“Tod.” Mom sat on the coffee table, right in front of the television. “Did you hear me?”
“Yeah.” I leaned to the left and she mimicked my movement. “Lasagna. Salad. Got it.”
“I’m serious. Eat something green, okay?” She snatched the remote and aimed it over her shoulder, and a second later the screen went dark. I started to complain, but then I noticed how tired she looked—the beginnings of lines on a face that would look thirty years old for the next half a century—and came up with a grin instead.
“Do Skittles count?”
Mom rolled her eyes. She never could resist my smile. “Only if you save me the purple ones.” She handed me the remote, but wouldn’t let go when I tried to take it. “You’re staying home tonight, right?”
“What am I, a leper? It’s Friday night. I have plans.”
She sighed. “Change them. Please.”
“Mom…”
“I need you to keep an eye on Nash.”
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” I tried another grin, but this time she wasn’t buying it.
“Tonight, you’re his warden. It doesn’t do me any good to ground him if I can’t keep him at home.”
“Then why bother grounding him?”
She leaned closer and lowered her voice, bright blue irises swirling slowly in dread and frustration, and the fact that she let me read her eyes was my first clue how serious she was. Humans wouldn’t have been able to see it—only a fellow bean sidhe—banshee, to the uninformed—would be able to read her emotions in her eyes, but she usually hid them from us too.
“Because he snuck out in the middle of the night and drove to Holser House on a license still warm from the lamination! And an ineffective consequence is better than no consequence at all. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.” She raked one hand through her hair, then met my gaze with a worried one of her own. “He’s not like you, Tod. Aside from a couple of notable exceptions, you tend to think things through, but Nash is ruled by his heart—”
I nearly choked on laughter. “I think the organ he’s ruled by is a little farther south, Mom.”
She frowned. “My point is that he’s not taking this separation from Sabine very well. I thought some time apart would help…cool things down between them. But it seems to be doing the opposite.” She let go of the remote and gave me a wistful smile. “You and your brother could not be more different.”
“Because he thinks he’s in love, and I don’t believe in faerie tales?”
“Love isn’t a faerie tale, Tod. But it isn’t child’s play either, and it makes me nervous how intense they are together.”
“You just don’t want to be a grandmother,” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.
“That’s definitely part of it,” she admitted. “My future grandchildren deserve better than teenage parents could give them. But beyond that, it isn’t healthy, how wrapped up they are in each other. Relationships like that burn bright, but when they burn out, they leave everyone blistered. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“You’re condoning my playboy lifestyle, right? Because I’m your favorite.”
Mom laughed out loud. “At least Nash doesn’t get bored a month into
