Illumine (19 page)

you were dead or alive."

A smal, tentative knock came from across the room.

Ursula stepped in, visibly uncomfortable, and handed Kayden a

coffee. She gave me the faintest of nods before promptly turning

around and exiting faster than girls moving in on sale items.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked in a clipped tone, then

immediately thought of Leo. "Is Leo-?"

Kayden nodded, his expression turned grim. "He was just

one of a dozen or so that were gravely injured and kiled, yourself

included. If it wasn't for," he trailed off, eyes looking back to the

door frame. "If it wasn't for realy good timing, you wouldn't be

alive right now."

I thought about Jayson dressed in his Sunday best, sobbing

over my casket, and shuddered. One of my hands reached up to

touch the pendant that stil hung around my neck. "He said he was

my Watcher," I tried to not let my voice break. "That it was al

coming back to him just before the circus performance. What if he

was?"

He looked down to the ground below to advert my gaze.

"If he realy was, then it means you'l die. Not today or tomorrow,

but soon."

My stomach sank even further. "There's only one way to

find out," I said with a hard face. "I'l have to check my birth

certificate for the time on it. Here, help me out of bed."

"Uh, how about no?" He stood up and gently pushed me

back down onto the bed. "You've stil got poison running through

your system. Healers said it would take another day of rest before

your system. Healers said it would take another day of rest before

it would al clear from your blood."

I sat up again, pushing against him. "Look, I so do not

want your pity party and sympathy bulshit. The fever was worse

than this." I swung both legs over to the side of the bed and did a

test wiggle of the feet and toes before I made an attempt to stand.

"You know he's right," a male voice said from the

doorway. "You could re-draw the venom back into your system if

you keep that up. Then it'l go back down to having only one

Nephilim on the planet again."

Kayden and I both looked over at the same time, no doubt

to say something rude, only to stop. The man in the doorframe

looked around my age, maybe a little older. His hair was a bright,

briliant platinum blonde identical to Ursula's, and his teal colored

eyes instantly reminded me of a stormy sky. Dressed in a brown

leather jacket, jeans and a oil smudged t-shirt he looked like

someone who came in with the tumbleweeds and stepped out

kicking ass and taking names.

"Wait a minute," I held up a hand and bit back a wince.

"Did you just say Nephilim?"

A raw, edgy smile came to his lips. "Yes ma'm. It's about

time I found you, Essie. My name is Ari, and we're the start of the

army."

First and foremost, I'd like to say thank you to my family for

holding onto the dream that I might actualy finish 'that book she's

always writing' one day! (See, Mom? I can do it!) I absolutely

have to say thank you to my original RPG buddies; Katie, Sammi,

Amanda, Alex, Karen, and Kely, I think I've put you al through

hel by constantly replying to your posts by the minute and always

thinking up new drama for our characters to endure more than

once.

To my BFFF Stephanie, I love you so freaking much for letting me

vent every problem I had along the way with this. I hope al the text

messages in caps was worth it in the end.

I hold a huge surge of gratitude to the people on Writingforums.org

for their support when
Illumine
was stil in its first blush of life and

probably sounded like it, too.

Without my huge and completely unrelated list of authors who have

inspired me I never would have finished this or hit the 'submit'

button either, so thank you Jonathan Stroud, Libba Bray, J.K.

Rowling, and Eoin Colfer for creating worlds I was eager to get

sucked into, and thank you to writers like Addison Moore, SM

Reine, and Amanda Hocking for showing me that it's okay if you

take the hard route, sometimes it's much more worth it.

And finaly, thank you to my loving boyfriend of almost two years,

Tim. Thank you for the 4am phone cals where I screamed that

nothing made sense, that I would never finish this and probably be

nothing made sense, that I would never finish this and probably be

better off hiding in a hole in the desert, for every draft you read

between here and the beginning. You are my rock, and like the one

volcano said to the other, I lava you.

About the Writer

About the Writer

Alivia Anders was thirteen when she fell headfirst into the world of internet fanfic

and RPG-forum board sites that showed her the 'back door' into the world of

writing. Four years and many hours spent glued to a computer screen later she

found her true calling in writing.

Alivia currently lives with her family in her hometown of Coopersburg, PA. She

frequently admits that if she wasn't so intolerant to dairy she'd live at her local ice

cream shop called The Inside Scoop.

You can keep up-to-date on her new releases on her blog:

http://aliviaanders.blogspot.com

Or on her Twitter handle @aliviaanders