Leaping (20 page)
Authors: J Bennett
Gabe will resist at first, but I know I can get him to
understand. Tarren…in the end he is ruthlessly practical. Once he realizes that
he can’t stop it, he’ll see that this is a new tool we would be foolish to
overlook.
“This is going to change things,” I say to Rain, when what I
really want to say is, “I love you.” Those words are playing on my tongue, but
I won’t let them go. Because Rain deserves a girl who will lay her head in his
lap and let him dapple her with kisses.
Rain nods. “The public will find out. They have to.”
“But not today.”
“You look…” his hand reaches out and strokes my leg. The
crackle of his aura sends pins and needles through my skin. I watch his fingers
and wish I’d shaved my legs before I’d set our meeting.
Beautiful, lovely, amazing,
I wonder.
“…tired,” he says.
“Long day. Long month,” I sigh. Our words are cardboard. The
real conversation is his fingers. His mouth quirking up. The wash of deep
purple soaking through all the other colors in his aura. For some stupid reason
I think about his soul. That shining beacon inside of him won’t give up no
matter how clumsy and bad at hunting he is. We all – me included – thought he
was a complete screw-up, but this plan of his… Hell, it may save us all.
I know that Tarren is right. I am a danger to Rain Bailey.
It is selfish of me to even contemplate a relationship with him. Not fair at
all to him. But Rain doesn’t give up. He finds solutions to intractable
problems.
I need to leap.
“I love you,” I blurt.
His fingers stop. I can only see half of his face, turned
down, eye looking at my prickly leg. I feel ice in my stomach. Cold terror.
What have I done?
To him?
To me?
To us?
His hand travels up to my hip, my shoulder. Flames of need lick
my skin. Lust and hunger wrap themselves like twin barbs around my bones. His
fingers find the back of my neck, and it feels like such a good fit. My whole
body is tense, humming as I strain for control.
Rain grins. “Promise not to kill me?”
“Promise to try not to,” I sputter. That’s all I can give
him. It’s taking every bit of control I can manage just so he can rest his hand
on the back of my neck.
“I’ll take those odds,” he says and smiles. “I believe you
owe me one thousand chocolate shakes, but can I trade them for a kiss?”
It’s obvious that he practiced the line, but I find it
unbearably charming anyway. I laugh, despite the strain of his aura. “Deal,” I
whisper and tilt my face forward.
“I love you too,” Rain says as he leans in for a kiss.
I wonder if I’ve doomed us both, but when his lips meet mine,
all my worries melt away.
I hope you enjoyed LEAPING. Whew! The tension is really
mounting for the Fox family and their Totem allies. Their enemies are rapidly
growing in number and the threat of a big, public reveal seems to get closer
every day. On top of that, War is alive and well and promising his growing cult
of angels a leading role in the end times.
And what’s with all these secrets floating around? Why do
Tarren and Lo need a live angel? What are they up to behind the door in Lo’s
lab? Is Tammy alive? So many questions!
The answers are coming in the final book in the Girl With
Broken Wings series, FLYING. I pinkie swear!
LEAPING was a joy to write. In this book, we see very
clearly that the small, insular war that the Fox brothers have been fighting
all of their lives has grown beyond their control. They push themselves to the
brink using old tactics that just aren’t enough anymore. It is time for them to
adjust and adapt and trust others to join the fight, which is exactly what Rain
figures out at the end of the book. In FLYING we will get to see how his idea plays
out in the field.
In LEAPING we also find out that the connection between Maya
and Rain that started simmering in RISING has turned into a full blown
relationship (kinda, sorta). Maya’s feelings for Rain are undeniable, but
throughout the book she holds herself back, always afraid that her angel nature
makes her unworthy of him and terrified of giving her heart away to someone who
could easily end up a casualty of their war with the angels. Rain’s brush with
death only convinces Maya that love is too painful to pursue, until she finally
(FINALLY!) realizes at the end that Gabe was right. Love is worth the risk.
Tarren and Gabe were also busy in LEAPING. Tarren is cooking
up something in the lab. Is this a game changer? Could it possibly be a cure?
We will find out soon enough. We also know he isn’t being completely truthful
about what happened to Rain. Gabe’s journey is an inner struggle to distance
his soul from an ugly endless war by pretending it’s more fantasy than reality.
So far, he’s been able to protect himself by putting all angels into the “bad
guy” category, but Maya challenged that belief in this book. He met Fiona and
Raven, two angels who don’t fit so well in his bad guy box. Now, Gabe must come
to terms with the idea that the war he’s been fighting his entire life may not
be so simple.
Stay tuned for FLYING. It’s going to be bold and bloody. The
members of the Fox family are going to be confronted with incredible challenges
as the war with the angels teeters on the brink of exposure and a bloody
conclusion. It will be exciting, explosive, and tragic, always with a twist of
dark humor to get you through the tough parts.
As always, thank you so much for being a part of this
series. If you enjoyed LEAPING, please take a few minutes to write a short
review on your platform of choice. It would mean so much to me and help LEAPING
appeal to more readers.
Keep In Touch
Wait, don’t go! Please
come by and say hello if you have time. My website includes a few special
extras for my extra special fans (you are extra special, aren’t you?). Find me
at:
Email:
[email protected]
Works by J Bennett
Girl With Broken
Wings Series
Falling
(Book One)
Coping
(Novella, 1.5)
Landing
(Book Two)
Rising
(Book Three)
Recovering
(Novella, 3.5)
Leaping
(
Book Four)
Flying
(
Book Five, Coming 2016
)
The Vampire’s
Housekeeper Chronicles
<<
Employment Interview With A Vampire
(Short Story, # 1)
The
Vampire Hunter Comes To Call
(Short Story, # 2)
Duel
With The Werefrog
(Short Story, #3)
When
Vampires And Ninjas Collide
(Short Story, #4)
Death
in the Family
(Short Story, #5)
Apprenticeship With A
Vampire
(Novella, #6)
***
About J Bennett
J Bennett lives and writes in San
Diego. Her writing partner is a bunny named Avalon who contributes to each
manuscript by trying to eat it. His adorableness is his primary strength as a
writer.
J Bennett is a professional
copywriter and an author who loves asking that oh-so-dangerous question – “What
if?” She currently writes a paranormal adventure series,
Girl With Broken
Wings,
and a tongue-in-cheek vampire humor short story series,
The
Vampire’s Housekeeper Chronicles.
Contact J Bennett at
[email protected]
.