FALL (The Senses) Read online

  FALL

  By

  Cindy Paterson

  Published by Cindy Paterson

  Copyright © 2013 by Cindy Paterson

  Toronto, Canada

  ISBN: 978-0-9917327-1-5

  Copyright © 2013 Cover design: Mark Paterson

  Edited by Kristin Anders, The Romantic Editor

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  *This book contains offensive language and sexual content.

  Author’s Books

  JUMP - Book 1 in the Senses series

  STEP - Book 2 in the Senses series

  FALL - Book 3 in the Senses series

  Author’s Note: FALL may be read as a stand-alone, however there is a lot of history between the characters that is discovered in Books 1 and 2.

  Dedication

  Finding your passion in life and being able to do it every single day is the most incredible feeling. God, I love waking up and writing, it’s like I’ve found my purpose in life.

  But writing the story is only half the journey. Editing is the other half and it is not my purpose in life.

  During the writing of FALL I found an editor who compliments my vision and falls into that niche perfectly. Kristin Anders has risen above and beyond, offering the most creative, supportive and damn right amazing advice. I’d be lost without her. Fall is here because of her. Fall stands on its own spine because Kristin helped strengthen it.

  You’re reading FALL because Kristin saw my passion for the story and together we brought it to life.

  Thank you Kristin, you’re the best. Don’t ever leave me!

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Meeting

  Anguish

  Lost

  Waleron

  Found

  Goodbye

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  End

  Glossary of Terms (alphabetical order)

  CWO: Center World Other. Numerous organisms that survived the Ice Age. For thousands of years they remained unknown and hidden, until three hundred years ago when they began emerging to the surface in the form of insects. They were intelligent and figured out how to link themselves to human bodies, possessing the humans’ bodies and souls. The possession takes seven days. Each species has unique qualities, depending on what insect they are. They have shields that make them immune to the Wraiths’ powers. Best guess is that the minerals and heat from the center of the Earth protect CWOs from the elements of nature.

  Dreamstep: Dreaming with another person. A Senses can lead another in a dream, being able to manipulate it. Dreamstepping is best done when linked together by touch, however if a connection between two people is strong enough they can meet in a dream without touching. One can die and/or fall into a coma-like state during dreamstepping.

  DS: Deep Sleep. A state where one can be put into sleep for short periods of time. It can only be done by a Taldeburu.

  The Goddess: The Goddess Enid who created the Senses from witches in 1610.

  GQ (CWO): Derive from the cockroach. No scent (which makes them difficult to locate). They are arrogant, determined males that use their good looks to lure women to their beds. Tend to dwell in the city areas. They survive by sucking air from the lungs of humans, which gives them a week of life. They heal within seconds, therefore must be decapitated.

  Healers (Senses): Rare and always women, they are capable of healing other Senses with the touch of their hands, but healing comes with a price. Healers will feel the pain of the injury and see how the injury occurred. This can be severely traumatic and cause temporary weakness. On occasion, a Healer is capable of healing humans, animals, and other entities. Have telepathy.

  Lilac (CWO): The Lepidoptera insect. Lilacs are always women and striking, even if they take over the body of an unattractive woman from a grave. Lilacs go through metamorphosis, just like the Lepidoptera insects that turn into butterflies, gradually over days becoming more beautiful and younger until they are at their full potential of beauty. Lilacs are deadly, considering they trap men in cocoons in order to feed off of them until the men die. They have a powdered substance on their skin and smell like lilacs. Lilacs shoot webs from their fingers to trap their prey.

  Long Necks (CWO): Derive from the beetle. Long Necks are followers. They sometimes link up with Vamps in order to eat bodies that Vamps kill. Unusually long necks, bad crater-like acne, hefty and muscular, therefore slow moving. Very foul smelling—often compared to rotten garbage.

  Maite: A Senses husband or wife. However, if a maite breaks any of the Senses laws and are found guilty by council then the maiting is considered void. A Senses doesn’t have the right to be a maite is he/she fails to uphold the laws.

  Pests (CWO): Derive from the mosquito. They come from wet, swamp-like areas where graves are near. Always wear sunglasses to hide their yellow eyes. Amazing eye sight. Can be heard by Sounders by a distinct buzzing sound. If you touch their skin it makes you extremely itchy. Fairly harmless.

  Realm: The home of the four Elemental Wraiths. It is considered a fantasy land and what you see is not always what is. It is where council meets to make decisions and judgments regarding all Senses.

  Reflections (Senses): Have strong empathy towards emotions. Some Reflections can take in emotions and alter them, however this can weaken them and cause them pain. They have the strongest telepathically.

  Rest: A coma-like state where a Senses dreams their worst memories repeatedly. Only a Taldeburu can put a Senses in Rest for a predetermined amount of time. However, council can vote for a Senses to be put to Rest.

  Scar: The Goddess Enid embedded an ink drawing on each Senses. The Tattoos come alive when called upon by their Senses in need. Scars must stay within a certain distance of their Senses and will weaken their master. Scars are fierce and some even deadly.

  Senses: The Senses originated in 1610, in a Navarre town called Zugarramurdi, Basque Spain. Witches would gather in a subterranean cave cut through by a river called the Inferukeorreka, “Hell's Stream.” The Spanish Inquisition came to the town and accused men, women, and children of being witches. After weeks of torture, those who confessed to the Inquisition were exonerated. However, twelve of the accused refused to admit any guilt and, as a result, were burned at the stake.

  The Goddess Enid later approached a handful of pardoned witches and made them a covenant; in exchange for their sworn fidelity to protect civilization, they would have immortality with extraordinary abilities that derive from the five senses—vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Most Senses have the ability to sense others’ emotions, however a rare few can manipulate emotions and/or change them.

  Sounders (Senses): Can detect high frequencies. They must learn to block out sounds as very high pitches ca
n cause them severe pain. Have telepathy. Excel at telekinesis.

  Sublymns: Children living in the Realm that have died horrible deaths on Earth. The Wraiths have a play land for the children and they can eat anything they want as their bodies don’t require nutrients. They live in perpetual happiness.

  Talde: Group of Senses.

  Taldeburu: A leader of a Talde.

  Tasters (Senses): Distinct tastes occur to let them know of what others are feeling around them. Telepathy (poor ability). Telekinesis (poor ability).

  Tracing: The ability to teleport from place to place. Can only Trace to destinations he/she has already been to. Cannot Trace if severely wounded, except to the Realm. Usually cannot Trace with others. Wraiths can Trace anyone to and from the Realm.

  Trackers (Senses): Able to track shed skin cells, making them highly valuable. Telepathy. Telekinesis.

  Transition: The state where an individual is turning into a vampire.

  Solitary: A Senses that is not part of a Talde, but instead chooses to live on his/her own.

  Visionaries (Senses): Able to see through certain objects. Some have the ability to use their eyes to burn objects and/or read in hyper-speed. Telepathy. Telekinesis.

  Wraiths: The four Elemental Wraiths were created in order to assist the Senses in protecting mankind from darkness that walks the Earth. They each have the ability to manipulate their element. Wraith of Earth, Fire, Air, Water.

  Maitagarri,

  You are the air to my lungs, the blood to my veins, the anguish to my soul when we are apart. Without you I am empty—you give me life. I can’t survive without you. Know that I will never let you go for all eternity.

  I giveth this gift.

  A drop of your blood within me. Touch within a moment. Give me the power. A life to breathe and follow. Together. As one. Change as I hold her close. She is mine.

  I love you baby.

  Prologue

  Prologue

  Toronto, Canada 1987

  “You bloody well won’t give him up, will you?”

  Delara let go of the balcony railing and spun around. The breeze caught the jagged strands of her hair, drifting them across her face. The moment she saw his reddened cheeks and clenched fists, she knew what was to come. Her fingers curled into her bathrobe and she stepped back, but the railing impeded any further escape. “Tarek? What are you—”

  “Waleron!” he shouted. Tarek’s attractive face twisted into a distorted monster—smooth, pale skin filling with crevices and lips pressed so firmly together that they nearly disappeared. The sound escaping his throat was a mix of a lion’s roar and an eagle screeching in misery as if caught in a trap.

  He smashed his fist through the glass French door and blood dripped from the cuts in his skin. He didn’t appear to notice. “He’s dead. Dead, damn it.” The glass crunched beneath his feet as he came towards her. He grabbed her by the shoulders, fingers digging into her flesh. “I’ve done everything for you. Everything!” Tarek shook her so hard her teeth clanked. “Yet, still you love him.”

  How could she deny it? She couldn’t. There was no point fighting Tarek when he was like this. She’d learned that long ago.

  He shoved a crinkled piece of paper into her face. “Explain this.”

  She glanced down at the familiar handwriting and gasped. Oh god, he’d found it. Before he could react, she grabbed the letter from his hand and curled it in her fist, hiding it away from the tainted hand of anyone who dared to read it. But Tarek had. He’d found it within the folds of the pages in her book on her nightstand.

  “I always wondered why you opened that same book every single night before you went to sleep. You were reading it.” His voice was garbled with rage and saliva spewed from his mouth. “His words. In our bed.” His bloodied hand slapped across her cheek with such force her head whiplashed backward. If he hadn’t been holding her shoulder the momentum would’ve sent her over the balcony. “I loved you! I cared for you.”

  I can’t survive without you. Waleron’s words. Words he’d written to her.

  “He never loved you, Delara.” She winced as he shoved her in the chest and the bone in her spine crushed against the metal railing. She hooked her arm in the rails then quickly glanced over her shoulder, looking down the three stories to the pavement below.

  “I did.” Tarek said, “It’s me you should love.” He leaned forward and his whisky-soaked breath gusted into her face. “I won’t stand for it any longer. I won’t be made a fool of.”

  Fear smothered her. His last words were calm, deliberate, and in that instant she knew this would be different from his usual punching bag sessions. “Tarek, please. I know he’s gone. He—”

  Tarek grabbed her arm, fingers bruising her flesh as he yanked her towards him. “When you make love to me, do you think of him?”

  “No Tarek! It’s not like that.” She tried to pull from his grip, but he raised his elbow and slammed it into her face. Her body flew back and she would’ve fallen if he hadn’t been holding her.

  Her scream of agony was cut off by another blow to the head, this time causing her vision to blur. She coughed and choked as blood streamed from her broken nose. Tears swam with the blood, dripping onto her robe then onto the floor. She had to breathe out of her mouth, short gasps of air mixed with cries of pain.

  She tried to keep from passing out by focusing on her training. Remember what Waleron taught you. Years she grappled with him, her vigilant lover making certain she could outmaneuver any species that came at her. What he hadn’t taught her was how to live after he died.

  Tarek’s fist made contact with her cheek again, making a resounding smack. She heard the crack of her cheekbone the same time as sharp, jarring pain rushed through her face. “I did everything to make you love me, but still you think of him. Still want him! You fuckin’ ungrateful bitch. He’s dead, damn it. Dead!”

  “Please,” she sobbed. “Tarek that’s not true. Don’t do this. Why are you doing this?” But she knew why. Jealousy. Tarek had always been obsessed with her and she would’ve seen it, if she’d cared. That emotion disappeared the day the Lilac killed Waleron. Now, she survived. Breathed. And often used her knife to cut her skin to try to take away the emotional pain.

  “If you won’t have me then you will have no one.”

  Body broken, spirit eaten away over the last sixty-one years of misery, Delara thought she’d welcome death, but the fear of what Tarek would do to her gnawed into her flesh like termites. “Tarek, please—”

  He punched her in the gut and air was forced from her lungs. She bent over in agony, holding her stomach. She spit the saliva that tasted like iron from her mouth while she gasped for breath.

  Tarek grabbed her arm and jerked. He dragged her through the bedroom to the top of the staircase. Without warning, he pushed her forward with a hard shove to the small of her back. With a choked scream of surprise, she tumbled head first down the flight of stairs to land in a heap on the ceramic-tiled floor. Debilitating pain pounded into her back and neck, while her twisted right leg felt as if it had been trampled by a herd of buffalo.

  Footsteps thudded down the stairs.

  She choked on a cry as she tried to crawl to her feet and get away, but he was already on her. His fist curled into her hair as he pulled her on her back across the floor to the living room. Her scalp screamed and she tried desperately to ease the pain by holding his wrist and pushing with her feet, but her right leg refused to function properly.

  He lifted her up by her hair, forcing her to stand. A cry wrenched from her throat and she stumbled and nearly fell to the floor. Fresh tears swam in the lids of her eyes.

  “Tarek.” Her breaths hitched. She noticed his wavering pupils, the twitching in his cheek—he wasn’t going to stop. He was going to kill her. The crazed look sheathed his usual striking appearance, making him unrecognizable. Whatever she had to do it had to be now, because Tarek was going to make certain she never saw another sunrise.

  She a
verted her eyes and relaxed her limbs, hoping her submission would lower his guard. The moment he loosened his grip she reacted, whirling and slamming her fist that held the note into his broad-width nose. She heard the distinct crunch and his roar of fury at the same time.

  She raised her knee as he bent over screaming something about how he’d make her suffer and jerked it into his face. She collapsed to the floor as her bad leg gave out. She crawled a few feet away and used the couch for leverage to pull herself up.

  She had no clue why she was fighting when she’d been dead inside for years, but something inside her screamed for her to live. Tarek wouldn’t stop until her last breath this time. This wasn’t about submission or punishment any longer. It was control. Possession. Worst of all it was madness.

  Delara limped to the foyer while Tarek yelled incoherently, holding his shirt to his broken nose.

  “You bitch!”

  She banged into the door and undid the bolt only to yank on it and have nothing happen. She pulled and pulled, using her physical strength and her mind against Tarek’s telekinesis, but he was stronger and there was no way she could win against his power.

  She turned, breathing heavily, heart pounding, as Tarek approached. Blood was smeared across his face and his nose sat at an odd angle. She judged the distance to the bay window in the den and wondered if she could make it before he caught her. Could she jump through the glass? Would it break on impact? Did it matter? If she didn’t get away, he’d make certain she suffered before dying.