New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two

NEW
REV
ELATIONS: SECOND SIGHT BOOK TWO

Copyright: Heather T
opham Wood

Published:
October 9
, 2012

The right of Heather Topham Wood to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

To
Grandma,

My inspiration—

A day doesn’t go by when I don’t miss you.

Blood blanketed Kate’s body. It soaked through her tank top and t
urned the formerly tan shirt a
deep shade of crimson.
She had lost consciousness for an undetermined amount of time and knew she probably only had
minutes
left until she blacked out again.

Panic was setting in, she pushed it away. Her chest wound
was
bleeding the most
.
S
he attempted to use her hands to put pressure on it. Maybe if she could slow down the bleeding, she would have half a chance. She tried not to think about the possibility of
her attacker returning to make sure the job was finished. Kate hoped the sound of the car pulling into the driveway had scared him off.

The car door. Someone had arrived at the house before she passed out
, she realized with a start
. She had thought it was her mother, but she would have found Kate by now. As she tried to focus on her surroundings, she could barely make out a muffled voice calling her name from outside of the house.

Kate
tried to respond,
tears from
the pain ran down her cheeks.
The fear of death se
emed to be holding her frozen.
Her screams sounded like whimpers and there would be no way the sound would travel to her potential savior
from
her huddled form on
the kitchen
floor
all the way through the
front door. Her
own blood was choking her and the hopeless
ness
of her situation
threatened her grip on sanity
.
Kate was a pop
culture fanatic—
she knew that in the movies
blood gushing out of the mouth usually meant the character was a goner.

Kate summoned
the last of the
strength in her broken body and attempted to crawl through the
darkness towards the front of the house
. The kitchen floor was sticky with a mixture of blood and the Diet Coke she had dropped earlier. Her entire body cried out with each movement she made, but she forced herself to go farther. It felt like miles as she traveled
only
inches and she prayed that whoever was knocking at the door would not give up and leave.

Kate
made it as far as the doorway separating the hallway and kitchen. Her body collapsed and she whined as she realized that she was only a few feet from the front door. The doorbell rang again and the injustice of
her predicament set in. She was going to bleed out all ove
r her mother’s Persian carpet and wait
alone
while the
life slowly seeped out of her. Help was within reach, but still so far away. This was never the way she imagined she would die.

Kate Edwards looked at her boyfriend Jared Corbett across the table as he silently devoured the Thai food she brought over. Boyfriend, she almost giggled at the distinction. Who would have thou
ght the weird psychic girl who could easily spend
days on end in her pajamas would be dating a gorgeous detective seven years older than
she
?

It had been four weeks since the ill-fated night of her cousin
Jessica
’s wedding
.
The novelty of being together still hadn’t worn off and Kate
knew she was
falling hard for Jared. She loved spending time with him and was shocked at the fact that he seemed to reciprocate the feeling. Her trust issues were still there, clawing at the edges of her psyche, but Jared seemed intent on
pacifying
her fear of being hurt.
He was
living and breathing proof that good guys actually existed and weren’t mythical creatures
found only in fairy tales
.

Since
the Cori Preston
abduction
case was over and done with, Jared
returned to his normal detective duties and she
started
the fall semester at
her
local community college.
Si
nce her resolution to try and have a normal social life
last month, she had enrolled in classes held on campus instead of continuing to take courses online.

When Jared
wasn’t working
, they usually spent
time at his apartment.
A typical night might involve them watching a movie and her praying she didn’t stain his white leather couch while snacking on
chocolate
ice cream. Jared
actually enjoyed eating
dinner
at
her house as well, but Kate preferred to forgo her mother’s prying eyes
in case
she was in the mood to get romantic with her new boyfriend
. There was jus
t one thing standing in
the way of
Kate’s
perpetual blissful state.

“Kate, why are you staring at me? You have a glazed look in your eyes and to be honest, it’s kind of creeping me out.
” Jared’s gray eyes locked onto her from across his kitchen table. Unconsciously, she wiped at her mouth, hoping he hadn’t caught her drooling.

“Nothing, I was just thinking ab
out the surprise I have for you.
”
She tried her hand at her most seductive sounding voice. She was new to this whole dating thing and hoped she didn’t sound like she was trying too hard.

A slight smile played on his lips. “I’m hoping it’s not like the last surprise you had for me.”

The smug look on his
handsome
face made her want to throw her plate of food at him.
She visualized lo
mein noodles becoming tangled in his inky black hair.
“Do you have to keep bringing that up?
” Kate
demanded.
“
When I brought the kitten back, the people at the shelter were looking at me as though I
w
ere
mentally incompetent.”

A pet adoption stand had been set up at her campus a couple of weeks ago. Seeing the adorable kittens and puppies inspired her to adopt one for Jared.
Jared was her first boyfriend in two years and she wanted to buy him a present that would hint at the fact she hoped they would be together for a long time.
Her mother
would never allow any kind of pet
in her
impeccable colonial home, but
she figured Jared would be kee
n to give a little kitten a home
. He was all by himself and she could help him care for it. How was she supposed to know he was allergic to cats?

Her light brown waves fell across her eyes as she shook her thoughts away. Kate
pretended he
hadn’t mentioned it
. “Anyway, I’ll get my bag and show you.”

While Jared watched her across the room
, Kate
hurriedly grabbed her handbag
from the
couch in the living room
and made her way back into the kitchen. Pulling out her toothbrush
from the bowels of her pocketbook
, she called, “Surprise!”

He tapped a finger against his
sexy
lips.
“You bought me a new toothbrush? I haven’t heard any bad breath complaints from you.”

“Very funny. I fig
ured we could have a sleepover—
I brought some very cute PJs too,” she said enthusiastically. Noticing his grimace, she groaned and collapsed back into her chair.
Her hazel eyes glanced sideways towards him.
“Why do you not seem enthused?”

“Kate, we talked about this…”
his deep baritone trailed off as he gave her an indulgent look.

Cringing at his tone
, she sighed heavily. Jared’s damn nobility made her want to strangle him at times.
His parents had died when Jared was seven and he was raised by his aunt. Although she appreciated his Aunt Lizzie teaching him to treat women with respect, she wouldn’t mind him losing control now and again. Their kisses were passionate and filled her with longing. She had tried to tempt him more than once to whisk her off to the master bedroom at the rear of the apartment. Each time, Jared had
suggested they hold off from getting intimate
until the time was right
.

“I know, but we’ve been dating for almost a month. Shouldn’t you be spending every free moment you have trying to get into my pants? Not warding off
my
sexual advances,” she retorted
.

He pushed away his plate of food and rested his elbows on the table. He leaned towards her as he spoke.
“I’m tempted constantly, believe me. But ho
w can I drop you off at your mother
’s house the next morning? She likes me and I want to keep it that way.”

“Jared
, I’m not a teenager. I’m twenty-one
and I just happen to still live at home. But if it’s that big of a deal, I don’t have to sleep over. We’re alone right now, what’s stopping you?”
Kate
challenged.

If she was truly honest with herself, she was exaggerating her sexual
bravery
. The thought of sleeping with him both excited and terrified Kate. Her one sexual experience had been less than stellar and then
ended
with the guy dumping her the next day. A few months later, she was in a coma and awoke
as
the town freak. Even if she had wanted to date, she doubted anyone would’ve wanted to be seen in public with her.

“You’ve been telling me how much you hated your one and only time and how you wan
ted the n
ext time to be special,” he reminded her
. If Jared continued to listen to half the nonsense she was prone to spewing, Kate thought, she was going to definitely be more careful about what she said around him. His
eyes were stormy
as he demanded, “
What
? A
m I going to have my way with you and then kick you out afterwards?”

Kate
felt a little fluttery at his suggestion of having his way with her and decided to ignore the rest of his commentary.
Jared
looked particularly attractive that evening with his
black t-shirt perfectly molded to his muscular form and his boxers poking out of his low-rise jeans.
As she imagined the many different ways she’d like him to have his way with her, she felt a blush creep to her face. Her horm
ones were definitely spinning out of control
and she was getting frustrated that her super hot boyfriend was not willing to do anything about it. Looking up at him, she gave into a sly smile. The desire was clear on his face.