The Deadening
Table of Contents
Synopsis
Praise for Yvonne Heidt’s Work
By the Author
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
About the Author
Books Available from Bold Strokes Books
Synopsis
Shade Stewart is a member of the Sisters of Spirits paranormal investigative group and a self-proclaimed necromancer. Renowned for leaving a trail of broken hearts, she walks between darkness and the light, searching to ease the emptiness in her spirit with women and whatever else might ease the pain. After an explosion leaves her in a coma, Shade is trapped in a place between this reality and her nightmares, fighting for her life and her soul.
Raven Sanchez, a fiery generational witch, is the newest member of SOS. Instantly attracted to Shade and the power she possesses, Raven pursues her, ignoring the darkness that surrounds her. Blinded by her desire, she uses her magic in an attempt to win Shade’s heart, setting in motion forces beyond her control.
Third in the Sisters of Spirits Trilogy
Praise for Yvonne Heidt’s Work
Sometime Yesterday
“Sometime Yesterday kept me glued to the pages! Ms. Heidt has written a spellbinding novel of love, loss, tragedy, and triumph!”—Bibliophilic Book Blog
The Awakening
“Oh my goodness and be still my beating heart, a book completely immersed in parapsychic phenomena with potent female talents. Best of all, the handling of the psychic elements is wonderfully believable, incredibly detailed, and delightfully balanced with friendship, love, and multi-dimensional sexual heat. Not to be lost in the mix is the satisfying police procedural elements and a host of subsidiary characters who probably deserve their own book one of these days. In short, there was practically nothing missing from this brilliant book!”—Rainbow Book Reviews
The Quickening
“These characters, their world, and the enormity of the tasks placed before these three women is simply spellbinding. As much as I loved, laughed, and was enchanted, I found the heat, intensity, and thrilling battle with a terrifying and stupefying villain completely breathtaking. This is a winner!”—Rainbow Book Reviews
The Deadening
Brought to you by
eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com
eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.
The Deadening
© 2015 By Yvonne Heidt. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-62639-300-4
This Electronic Book is published by
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, New York 12185
First Edition: February 2015
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editors: Victoria Villasenor and Cindy Cresap
Production Design: Susan Ramundo
Cover Art by Shanina Conway
Cover Design By Sheri (GraphicArtist2020@hotmail.com)
By the Author
Sometime Yesterday
The Sisters of Spirits Trilogy
The Awakening
The Quickening
The Deadening
Acknowledgments
I don’t know why the Universe put Sandy and me together—but I am blessed for each marvelous minute of every day that she’s in my life.
Thank you, Radclyffe and Bold Strokes Books. I am grateful your belief in my imagination kick-started this wonderful journey.
It’s been an amazing ride writing The Sisters of Spirits series. I’d like to extend my appreciation to my readers for their encouragement, kind words, and the occasional poke (and more) to get me back on track! I’m still in awe when I read your notes and e-mails.
Thank you to all of the outstanding women at BSB who work specifically with me behind the scenes and manage to effortlessly make me look good. Cindy, Sandy, Ruth, Toni, Kathi, Sheri, and Stacia. I sure hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. According to the rules in Vonnie-Land, I’ll remember after I turn this in.
Shelia Powell, thank you for your friendship, knowledge, and compassion. What started out as a phone call to a stranger several years ago has turned into a cherished and unforgettable sister-bond.
I am so blessed to have met so many incredible women this year while attending the Golden Crown Literary Society’s conference in Portland and the Lone Star Literary Society in Austin. Thank you for making me feel so special. I wish I had room to name all of you!
Mom and Papa, I’m still making it up as I go along.
Special shout out to my awesome buddy, Jove Belle. Thank you for knowing me—and my things—well enough to know when to use encouragement—and when to kick my ass. I’m so glad that you are in my life.
Love to my kickass editor Victoria Villasenor. Who knew we’d get here together? Your dedication to my writing is so appreciated. Your friendship—even more.
A big curtsy to Suzie Krelle, my underpaid (read: as-in-none) big sister, publicist, and cheerleader. Your support and love are appreciated more than you could ever know.
Andi Marquette, R. G. Emmanuelle—thank you for your confidence and friendship. I wouldn’t trade knowing you both for anything (Well, except maybe a million dollars, I might have to reconsider!) Laydin Michaels for her early thoughts on Shade, her willingness to be there for me, and a beautiful pep talk when I needed it most.
Connie Ward, Shelley Thrasher, Sandy Thornton. You make my heart smile. Thank you for that. Any room I walk into always feels better when ya’ll are in it.
Andrea Bramhall—for the freaking story board. I kicked, bitched, and threw a hissy fit, but hey, it worked. I guess you can teach an old femme new tricks!
Shanina Conway, for her beautiful cover art. I stumbled upon her work, instantly fell in love, and gained a new friend on the other side of the world.
Stephanie Keeler, Sisters of Spirits Ninja. Thank you!
Last, but never least, I’d like to thank my tribe of women in Bremerton, Washington. Ya’ll know why!
Dedication
For Maralee,
Who knows every damned one of my secrets and loves me anyway.
Prologue
A cold, fetid wind blew out of the closet Shade was frantically searching. She shook with the power of her anger. The blood curse Tiffany’s dead ex-husband had left in their daughter’s room stank of evil. She knew it was here. She could feel the angry buzz along her nerve endings. Shade could hear his spirit talking from the corner behind her, and she prayed Angel didn’t see him the way Shade did, with half his head caved in by the baseball bat Tiffany had swung after he’d kidnapped her, with the intention to kill her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kat, Tiffany’s partner, attempting to protect them by keeping her body between the bed and the closet.
Angel’s sweet voice was calm. “No, Daddy, you have to go to the light now.”
Mark had been a cursed time walker, holding his memories after scores of reincarnations, his sole purpose to destroy Tiffany and all who were connected to her by infinite love.
The curse he left in Tiffany’s house should have died with him, but the energy of a sadistic serial killer amplified his power as a dark witch. The box she was looking for would contain a mass of blood and hair, filled with malevolent energy.
She could feel the force of it crawl along her scalp, and she knew she was close.
Tiffany screamed. “Leave her alone, you bastard! Get out!”
Shade tripled her effort, throwing stuffed animals, plastic toys, and boxes of outgrown clothes over her shoulder, digging her way to the bottom corner.
“But if you don’t feel good, the light will make you better,” Angel said. “I promise.”
Shade kept her panic at bay while Angel continued to talk, but Mark’s voice was now blocked from her, leaving only a one-sided conversation that was freaking her out.
“I can’t go with you now. Next time, maybe.”
“Oh God,” Tiffany said. “Shade?”
Shade’s fingers closed around the small wooden box. “Found it.” She rose from the floor, clutching it to her chest and away from them. “I’m leaving. I’ll take care of it.
Tiffany nodded. “Please hurry.”
“S’okay, Mommy,” Angel said. “Daddy says he won’t bother us anymore. He’s almost done.”
Mark’s bloody face appeared in front of Shade, blocking the exit. “Your choice, necromancer.” His teeth were jagged and broken. “I’m taking one of you with me tonight. And you know I can do it.”
His power was stupendous, and she knew without a doubt he would choose the baby. Shade telepathically answered instantly and without hesitation. “Then it’s me, asshole.”
The doorknob turned before she touched it, and she ran down the hall.
Kat pushed past her to open the front door. “Be careful.”
Shade thought about how much she loved these women, this child, and their images played a frantic slideshow in her mind as she silently said good-bye to them. She was grateful her chosen sisters had found love, and she knew that Jordan and Kat could, and would, protect them.
Shade was the expendable one.
Her heart cracked with each step she took away from the porch. She turned to look at Tiffany and Angel one last time. “Good-bye, guys. I love you.” Her words felt stilted and robotic because her throat was already tight with grief. Knowing they would find each other again in another life wasn’t any consolation.
She shook her head as though to dislodge the thoughts. Where did that finality come from? Fuck that. She would fight whatever was coming, and she would kick ass.
She opened the driver’s door, stood on the sideboard, and watched Tiffany blow her a kiss before she put one knee on her seat, pivoted, and leaned into the van to place the horrible box behind the passenger seat.
In her mind’s eye, she saw the bomb at the exact moment she heard the horrifying click of the device’s trip wire.
She had a millisecond to register the tremendous blast that hurled her body back through the open door and into the night.
Chapter One
One week ago…
Shade opened her eyes in the dark and sensed she wasn’t alone. She encountered warm skin when she pressed her hips back and heard a woman’s soft sigh. Who did I pick up last night?
Does it matter?
She was still buzzed, and the electric energy of sex lingered in the room. For the next hour or so, she could forget that tomorrow always comes, right along with generous side helpings of despair and loneliness.
The woman’s name still escaped her, but images of sliding against the woman’s hot skin the previous night returned in a rush, filling Shade with a desire for more.
She turned and crushed the woman against her. Warm skin burned against Shade’s own, the softness of full breasts heated her chest. A tangled mass of long hair spread around her, and Shade entwined her fingers in the curls to draw her partner forward. She followed the soft sighs to seek her mouth and lost herself in a deep kiss.
Shade nudged with her knee, and her thigh was accepted between smooth legs. She inhaled sharply when heat shot through her clit, causing her to shift forward, closer to the source, while never losing contact with the dizzying kiss.
Shade pushed her hips against the warm body under her. She felt the sharp sting of fingernails scrape down her bare back, and the pain drove her to a quicker pace. The sounds of the woman’s heavy breathing increased until it became a steady whimper for release, stimulating a burning urgency of her own.
This was the place she could forget the darkness within the darkness. Her loneliness could be forgotten in this space where her heart beat in rhythm with her pumping hips, leaving no room in her mind for stray thoughts. The woman under her whispered words Shade couldn’t quite understand. She felt completely flesh in the moment, entirely focused on the friction against her swollen clit. The thigh between hers became hot and slippery. The temperature and tempo increased, became a battle of dueling hips and warring tongues. Time stopped in this moment where no rational thought existed. It might have lasted two minutes or two hours, Shade didn’t care.
This respite from reality was rare for her, and she welcomed it as she would a long lost friend.
When she reached her orgasm, her muscles strained with delicious tension until Shade thought her tendons might snap with the force. She came several times in succession while the woman shook and trembled beneath her. Shade dropped to her side on the bed, feeling the erratic pulse beating in her throat. She considered trying to speak, but didn’t want to break the moment with awkward words. She kept her eyes closed and focused on trying to take full breaths. The energy in the room coiled and snapped with an intensity she hadn’t felt in so long, she’d wondered if it even existed anymore.
She felt a thundering heartbeat behind the soft breasts pressed against her back while an intoxicating mixed scent of sex and earthy spice surrounded her.
Shade felt guilty she couldn’t remember the woman’s name, but didn’t want to break the silence to ask. Before she could consider whether she needed to know it, she slid back into a deep sleep.
*
Fuck. She was late for work.
Again.
It didn’t keep Shade from grinning. When she’d woken up for the second time that morning and rolled over, the sheets were still warm. That elusive earthy scent continued to surround her and invaded her senses. She stretched and waited for the morning-after crash that always followed within the first few moments of opening her eyes.
When it didn’t appear and her spirit didn’t twist in turmoil, she was shocked. Her muscles didn’t bunch up around her neck and shoulders, her head didn’t hurt, and—what is that fucking fragrance? It tickled along her nerve endings, evading description but invoking a deep sensual response.
Shade tried to remember how last night started, but all that came forward was the sensory experience she’d experienced a couple of hours ago. The feel of her movements within and against separate beautiful body parts, attached to a woman whose face she still couldn’t recall.
She braced herself on her elbow and looked at the empty side of her bed. Several long, dark strands of straight hair lay on the pillow. That gave her pause. Blondes, whether natural or from a box, were her attempt to replace what she’d lost. She knew it wasn’t logical, but after the liquor, or whatever else might be handy, hit her bloodstream, she could usually pretend until the next morning.
She picked up the hair and inhaled, rubbing the strands between her fingers. When the woman’s face didn’t appear, she tried again and attempted to read the energy signature left behind. The
only image she caught was a large black bird soaring in a stormy sky. When she didn’t feel any more answers forthcoming, she shrugged it off and then headed for the shower.
She carried that good feeling all the way to work, a sensation both foreign and welcome.
When she arrived, Shade slipped into the building quietly to avoid detection.
Sunny had too many damn questions lately. At least she’d had some reprieve when Tiffany and Kat were on their extended, well-deserved vacation after Tiffany’s horrific stalking nightmare. Shade knew they worried where her nocturnal activities were leading her. Even if their nosiness came from a loving place, it bugged the shit out of her.
Her habits, her problem.
Both Tiffany and Kat were far too polite to hound her. Shade had become somewhat of a regular at their house for dinner, and although she knew they wanted to pressure her about her life, they respected her boundaries.
Although Sunny wouldn’t push, she would get that familiar look of disapproval on her face, and Shade was tired of always coming up short. A little acceptance from them would let her keep up the illusion her life was just fine.
From her position at the bottom of the stairs, she saw a new receptionist on the phone, but her mass of long dark hair kept Shade from seeing her face.
Aura’s replacement. Shade sighed. Sunny’s mother was the one who kept them all on schedule and grounded. Plus, if they ever ran into something they couldn’t handle, she’d always been readily available for help or advice. Shade hated social niceties, they made her uncomfortable, but she supposed she should go talk to the new girl. She usually left such things to Sunny and Tiffany. Now they were sweet. Me, not so much.