White Fire: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5
Read White Fire: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5 Online
Authors: Michele Callahan
Tags: #General Fiction
About
WHITE FIRE
Ajax, The Lost King of the Immortals, sacrificed everything but his memories. After the Time Crux, the loss of his beloved Queen, and a horrifying defeat at the hands of the Triscani horde in the war on Itara, Ajax’s loyal crew played a desperate gamble...to go back in time and try to change things. But they trusted the wrong man, and Ajax has spent the last seven hundred years locked in a prison with no key. The battle approaches at long last, yet he remains weak and tortured, a prisoner to his own dark power. He didn’t simply lose to the evil Triscani…he became one of them.
The Triscani spent centuries searching for Emma Lawson's soul. Their evil Hunters did everything they could to destroy her family's bloodline before she was ever born. They know who she is, so they hunt her. They know the power she yields, and they fear her. They know The Lost King will do anything to save her, and they would use his love to destroy him.
But Emma is human, not Immortal. She might be dangerously attracted to the newly freed Ajax, but her first priority is saving Earth from two warring Immortal races. Ajax believed himself in love with his Queen, but the woman he remembers no longer exists. This Timewalker will defy destiny, and she's not going to play by anyone's rules but her own.
Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5:
WHITE FIRE
by Michele Callahan
Copyright © 2014 by Michele Callahan
All Rights Reserved
Dedication
Mom.
There never was, and never will be another one like you. I miss you every day, and pray that you’re dancing with the angels. I was truly blessed because you were mine. You never said ‘NO’ when I wanted a book. You were my first and biggest fan, and that meant everything. Everything.
Thank you would never be enough.
I love you, mom. Always will.
Copyright
White Fire, Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5
Cover design Copyright 2014 by RomCon® and Cynthia Woolf
Photo Copyright: BigStockPhotos -
© Netfalls
First Edition. November 2014
Copyright 2014 by Michele Callahan
Published By Michele Callahan
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, people, places and events are completely a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental
.
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5:
WHITE FIRE
by Michele Callahan
Copyright 2014 by Michele Callahan
All Rights Reserved
Chapter One
Emma Lawson looked up at the renovated garage turned karaoke bar and hurried inside, eager to escape the night that had settled over Portland like a dark cloak. A chill raced over her skin that had nothing to do with the slight drizzle of rain or the fifty-degree weather sneaking up her skirt. No. She knew that cold.
I shouldn’t have come out tonight.
She should already be racing down the highway, halfway to anywhere else. But she’d never been much good at running. Not from fear or duty. And not from the monsters that chased her.
That cold meant a Triscani Hunter had found her. One of those scary alien creatures was in the city. Looking for her. Again.
She always knew when one got close, the Timewalker Mark on her ankle was her personal Triscani radar detector. She should have stayed home and kept her head down. Thrown the few things she had in her duffel bags, tossed them in her car and driven south to Las Angeles or Dallas. New city. New job. New life.
That would have been the smart thing to do. But she’d wanted one last night out with her new friends from the Daily Café in the Pearl, where she’d worked for the last couple of weeks. One more night of laughter and carefree fun as her innocent human friends partied and sang karaoke at one of Portland’s favorite bars. Her friends called it the Voicebox, and almost every night they gathered to drink, sing like tortured chickens, and laugh.
“Hey, girl! You’re late! Get a drink and get in here.” The oldest and most experienced karaoke goddess from the Daily, Holly, grabbed her elbow as soon as she’d cleared the door. “Hurry up.” She pressed a ten-dollar bill into Emma’s hand. “Get me one while you’re up there and find out if that hot bartender is single.”
“You’re married.” Holly and her husband were newlyweds, and so in love it made Emma’s heart hurt. Actually, most of the people who came in were older, settled, and just out for a good time. Which suited Emma just fine.
“It’s not for me. It’s for Jen.” Holly laughed and headed back to the karaoke epicenter, her smiling face covered by circulating blue, red and white splashes of light coming from a disco ball that hung from the wood rafters that made up the ceiling. Jen was busy belting out a pop dance tune that she needed another octave of vocal range to cover. When she missed a particularly high note, with gusto, Emma grinned. Definitely worth coming. The Triscani Hunter had only been in town a few hours. They’d been arriving regularly since she’d arrived.
She’d expected today to be her day off the Triscani schedule, but no such luck. Were they going to send one every day now? And did it matter? Not really, but it was dangerous to the unsuspecting people around her. She’d have to leave town tomorrow and start her own hunt for whoever had managed to trap her here.
She’d relocated to Portland three weeks ago. Other than when she was very small, before she’d learned how to jump through time and space, it was the longest she’d ever been in one place. And what happened? The Triscani had found her and forced her hand. The evil creature she could sense getting closer wasn’t the first Hunter they’d sent after her in the last three weeks, nor would it be the last.
Growing up in a house with seven younger brothers, and one precious, little sister, meant she was used to noise and chaos. The Archiver, Bran, had relocated her parents to Itara before she was born, supposedly to protect her. Her entire family had lived in a small town far from the nearest city. Bran wanted to keep her hidden from the Immortals that ruled there. And for as long as she could remember, the Archiver had spent at least one day a month with her as she was growing up.
He’d taken her back to Earth and shown her the cities, the vehicles, taught her how to get by and blend in. At home, he spent hours tutoring her on Itaran and Earthen history, political systems and rules. He taught her how to control her power to create portals and how to find her way back to any one point in time by finding the nearest anchor point, or by creating one of her own, which he’d told her was an extremely rare gift.
Bran had taught her many, many things, but the most important thing continued to elude her. He’d never been able to teach her to stop dreaming of a different life. She didn’t want the destiny he insisted was hers. Being the Marked Mate of a hot Immortal sounded okay, but she had no desire to be a Queen. She was human. A Timewalker, not an Immortal. The thought of ruling the Immortals on Itara was laughable at best, and terrifying at worst. But Bran insisted that being Queen was her fate. And he had remained true for many years as her personal tutor, mentor, and all around pain in her ass.
The man had more rules than a stack of law books and no sense of humor when it came to her. Zero.
Unfortunately for the oh-so-serious half-blood, she’d been young, powerful, and full of herself. She hadn’t truly understood the risks until it was too late. Way too late.
And now she was trapped here, on Earth, her home world that didn’t feel like home, and hunted by monsters. Bran was here, somewhere. She knew that. She’d had his Earthen cell phone number memorized since she was three years old. His smart phone
looked
like everyone else’s. She didn’t know exactly how his phone worked, but knew it was laced with Itaran technology, could highjack any carrier’s service, including piggybacking on satellite signals, and somehow, reached him on his ship. Whenever she’d explored Earth with him, he’d given her one to carry as well. She assumed all Itarans from the Archiver’s ship had the devices. She, however, did not. Not on this forbidden trip.
She should just call him. But she didn’t want to. She was taking care of herself for the first time in her life. No rules. No expectations. No bullshit time loop, Immortal war, Triscani time Crux scenarios. Just life, and coffee, laughing with friends her age and singing karaoke on Friday nights. She didn’t want to go home yet.
Someday? Yes. Someday she’d straighten her spine and do her duty. She was, after all, her mother’s daughter. But not yet. She could handle this Triscani Hunter. She’d done it before. She’d do it again. She’d take care of it, and then she’d leave to protect her friends. She was human, a Timewalker, and protecting humans was exactly what her mother’s people did.
Emma took off her rain jacket, folded it and hung it by the door with the other wet coats. Her knee-high leather boots gleamed, her black skirt fell just above her knees and showed just enough leg to tease, and the soft, hunter-green sweater she wore hugged every curve.
The shoulder-length brown hair of the wig she wore, colored contacts, and the diamond ring on her left hand would make sure no one would know who she really was.