Title: The Sinister Silhouette
Author: Alex Grayson
Cover Design: Cover Me Darling
Image: JW Photography
Model: Amanda Renee
Release Date: May 25, 2018
“Luca….”
She whispers
my name at night, filling my dreams with her haunting beauty.
Her tormented
amber eyes beg me for something I don’t understand, and her agonizing pain
becomes my own.
For years,
she’s come to me, calling my name.
For years,
I’ve never known who she was.
Until now….
“LUCA….”
The willowy
feminine voice comes from behind me. I slowly turn my head first, then the rest
of my body and look for the source.
Blackness.
Pure and absolute. That’s all I see. Except for the tiny twinkling lights.
There’s a shit ton of them. It reminds me of the times I would spend the
summers with my aunt and uncle out in the country. As a kid, I would always
sneak out at night and lie on the roof when the sky was clear and the moon
wasn’t visible. It was my favorite time of the month, because everything was so
dark, except for the stars. I’d lie out there for hours and just watch them
twinkle, every so often catching one that soared across the black sky.
These aren’t
stars, it isn’t a moonless sky, and I don’t fucking like this. These tiny
sparks of light float right in front of me, all around me, almost like glowing
specks of dust.
“Lucccaaaa….”
Warm air
whispers across my ear, and I spin, expecting to find someone behind me, and
still see nothing but those damn flecks of light. Squinting, I try to look past
them and the darkness to see something. Any fucking thing.
Frustration
grows in my stomach when nothing appears.
“Who in the
hell are you?” I yell, anger deepening my voice into a growl.
My ears strain
as I listen closely. All I hear is my own breathing and the slight pounding in
my ears from my heartbeat. The beat only gets louder with my mounting
aggravation.
“Luca.”
This time, the
voice sounds rushed. It’s still whispered softly, but not the slow calling of
the other two times. It’s urgent. There’s an echo too. It comes from behind me,
but the echo drifts around me from every direction.
I tip my head
back and snarl to the… ceiling? The sky? I have no fucking clue. “What in the
hell do you want from me?”
Not expecting
an answer, because I didn’t get one to my previous question, I’m surprised when
the voice comes again. It’s close. So close, it almost seems like the words
aren’t spoken out loud, but are just somehow in my head.
“I need you.”
My brows slash
down into a frown. There’s pain in the softly spoken words, and for some reason
I don’t like the emotion coming from the voice. Something sharp pierces my
chest, like a dull blade slowly being sunk into my sternum, taking my breath
away. I rub the spot, not understanding why the pain is there, but knowing it’s
caused by the agony in the woman’s voice.
“Where are
you?” My tone is gruff from the stinging ache.
“Here,” she
whispers.
I whip around
and still see nothing but the twinkling lights. I reach out, hoping that even
if I can’t see anything, I can feel something. It’s so dark I can’t even see my
hand in front of me, only the tiny lights floating by in a rush at my hurried
movement.
One catches my
eye off in the distance about fifteen feet from me, and I hone in on it. It’s
slightly bigger than the rest. I take a step forward, then stop when it begins
to grow. It doesn’t get brighter; the luminosity stays the same. It’s just the
size that changes. Actually, it looks like the light is dimming the bigger it
gets. Like it’s no longer a light, but a fog-like substance. It stretches
longways, getting greater and greater. I start moving toward it, but no matter
how many steps I take, the same distance stays between it and me.
Something
starts to form in the white haze. I squint, not really sure what it is, because
it’s almost transparent now. It’s still growing, but the bigger it gets, the
more it loses its solidness.
A face.
I can barely
make it out through the white haze, but it’s a woman. Her features become
clearer, but the more the face forms, the more it fades as well.
I take a
couple of steps forward, then jerk to a halt when I remember it does me no
good.
“Fuck,” I
mutter.
What in the
hell is this shit?
“Lucaaaa….”
The voice
whispers again, and I know it’s from the translucent vision, but the lips don’t
move.
The face
becomes a face and shoulders, then face, shoulders, arms, and torso. Her hair
flows around her, moving slowly, like it’s floating in water.
She looks at
me, and the stark pain in her eyes almost has me staggering back with the force
of it.
I really don’t
fucking like that look. And I really don’t fucking know why. I’ve never seen
the woman before. She doesn’t even look vaguely familiar. Why in the hell would
her pain be my pain?
“Who are you?”
I demand.
Again, her
lips don’t move, but I still hear the voice inside my head. “Come to me, Luca.
I need you.”
Before I have
the chance to react to her words, something happens. I tense as swarms of the
nearby glowing dust infuse the white mist of the woman. Her crystalline
appearance starts to solidify. Her face and the upper half of her body become
more visible. Her hair, which up until that point was colorless, is a deep, rich
brown. It’s long, flowing to the middle of her back. Her eyes are light brown,
but not an ordinary brown. They’re an unusual golden amber. I’m not sure if
it’s because of her noncorporeal appearance or if that’s their natural color,
but they seem to glow.
More specks of
dust penetrate the woman’s form, and the more that rushes in, the brighter she
gets.
She lifts her
arm, as if reaching out to me, and before it registers what I’m doing, I reach
out to her.
When I take a
step closer, the light surrounding her shimmers brighter. This time I’m able to
shorten the gap between us. I take another step, and it seems to glisten even
more. I’m tall, so when I take my next step, there’s only a few feet separating
us. But the brightness is now almost too much to bear. I have to squint from
the sheer brilliance of it.
There’s only
inches between the tips of her fingers and mine now. The pain resting in my
chest intensifies the closer I get, but it’s as if there’s a force that’s
pushing me toward her. Like if I don’t, the pain would be a thousand times
worse. I don’t know why, but something inside me says I must go to her.
I hold my
breath as the tip of my middle finger touches the glowing tip of hers. Several
things happen at once. A low growl resonates deep in the back of my throat, my
fingers curl into a fist and my arm drops to my side, and the fierce pain I was
experiencing in my chest turns so excruciating I’d swear my heart is spilling
out onto the floor at my feet.
The trifecta
of feelings happens because the instant my fingertips touch the woman, her form
disintegrates. The thousands of pieces of dust that make up her form fall away
into space, leaving me once again in complete blackness.
I tip my head
back and an angry, pain-filled roar leaves my lips at the loss of something so
important.
Alex Grayson
is the bestselling author of heart pounding, emotionally gripping contemporary
romance including The Jaded Series, The Consumed Series, and two standalone
novels. Her passion for books was reignited by a gift from her sister-in-law
intended to distract Alex and help her pass the time while her husband was away
for work. After spending several years as a devoted reader and blogger, Alex
decided to write and independently publish her first novel in 2014 (an endeavor
that took a little longer than expected). The rest, as they say, is history.
Originally a
southern girl, Alex now lives in Ohio with her husband, two children, two cats
and dog. She loves the color blue, homemade lasagna, casually browsing real
estate, and interacting with her readers. Visit her website,
www.alexgraysonbooks.com, or find her on social media!
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