Collateral Damage by Jessica Wayne
After a spell left him frozen in time, Timothy McGinley swore off all things magic and accepted that he was destined to walk the earth forever. But when a witch saves his life, he discovers he is facing his own mortality for the first time in two centuries.
Paislee Adams was stolen from everything she knew because she possessed what one man craved: power. After she escapes, she dedicates her life to honing her magic in an effort to destroy the man who owned her for so much of her life.
Fate brings these two together and as they race against the clock to stop the man who has a deadly obsession with them both, Timothy and Paislee are both forced to face the demons of their past in an effort to secure a future they weren’t sure they deserved.
Not everyone gets their happy ending, sometimes a persons soul is too dark for that.
$0.99 SALE! DAMAGE
COLLATERAL
A TETHERED NOVEL
JESSICA WAYNE
Limited time only!
Also available on Kindle Unlimited
Excerpt
The darkness enveloped him as he leaned against the door and puffed on his cigar. There was nothing in the world like the taste of a fine cigar as the tobacco seeped into your system.
The calming effect it had on him was one he’d failed to find anywhere else. The chill in the air had the puffs coming out even more defined than usual, and Timothy was enthralled by them as they faded from view.
It wasn’t until he was half done with his cigar that he saw the shadow lurking in the corner.
“Can I help you?” he asked easily, and the man stepped from the dark. Timothy straightened when he saw the gun in his hand. “No need for that, tell me what you want, and I’ll be sure you get it.” Timothy wasn’t overly worried; the man couldn’t actually kill him. But damn, gunshots hurt like hell. He should know since he’d been at the receiving end of one too many times to count.
The man stepped close enough Timothy was able to see the glint of amusement in his eye. Timothy had only ever seen that madness once before, and that man had been responsible for two innocent deaths and the root reason as to why he was trapped.
His back straightened, and he gave the man before him his full attention. “What is it you want?” he asked again.
“I want to see you bleed,” the man said with a smile and pulled the trigger.
It was the pain that hit him first, that sharp tearing of skin and flesh as the bullet forced its way into his body. He fell to the ground, cigar falling next to him, and clutched his abdomen. No matter how many times he’d been shot, stabbed, punched, or even on occasion-burned—over the years, the pain was not something he ever got used to.
The coldness came next and was something Timothy had not been prepared for. His wounds, no matter how severe, had always healed themselves before the numbing fingers of death gripped him as they were now. How was this possible? He thought to himself. What was happening to him? He tried his best to move but found his body had gone completely numb as he lay there in the pool of his own blood.
And as his attacker knelt next to him, he felt for the first time, as if he wouldn’t survive the night.
“I knew he was wrong about you.” The man smiled. “Oh well, I suppose it was worth the trouble. There is just something about having the ability to snuff out the light within someone’s eyes.”
“Hey!” a voice screamed, and the man stood.
Timothy wasn’t sure what happened next, but where it had once been dark, a light appeared, and his attacker was thrown away from him. He watched as the light faded, but not before he got a clear picture of the one who had saved him.
A woman, with hair the color of fire, and kind blue eyes, ran to his side and knelt in the blood that poured from him.
“Cait?” he whispered. Was he dead? Was she sent here to usher him into what waited beyond this life?
“You’re going to be alright,” Cait said as she closed her eyes and pressed her hands to him.
It would always be the pain he remembered first, but the surge of power that came next would be impossible to forget.
Leave a Reply