Free Mystical Seduction: full-length sensual paranormal romance (The Protectors) by Dorothy McFalls Page B

them.
    Faith’s heart beat so hard in her chest she couldn’t seem to
breathe right. She scooted across the floor. Though her hands trembled, she
managed to pull her cell phone from the pocket of her discarded jeans. She
pushed her clothes in front of her as she quietly edged toward Horace’s office.
    No matter what Horace might think, she needed to involve the
police. Their lives depended upon it.
    Before she dialed, she slipped her green tunic on over her
head. If she’d thought there had been time, she would have pulled on her jeans
too.
    Though she’d spent most of her childhood with primitive
tribes with no qualms against nakedness, her parents had done a good job of
instilling a healthy dose of modesty into her upbringing. Public nudity made
her uncomfortable, especially when coupled with the chance she might be killed.
    She didn’t want to be found dead in the middle of the club’s
dance floor completely nude. A foolish thought, she supposed, to worry about
something like that. But she didn’t care.
    She simply didn’t want to die in the nude.
    “Be gone!” Stone shouted again. Talk about being foolish. He
needed to do something more than shout at the shooter. What did he hope to
accomplish with that? His voice echoed through the empty club. “Be gone!”
    Her phone sang a little tune as she switched it on. No one seemed
to notice. Letting Stone serve as a diversion, she quickly dialed 911.
    “You’re not on the list, Frank Stone,” Ballou said. The gun
clicked as he cocked it.
    “Hello? Police?” she whispered into her phone. Could the
operator hear her voice over the thundering of her heart? “I’m calling from
Club West. There’s a gunman—”
    Ballou suddenly swung toward Faith and, without even turning
his head, aimed the gun so that she found herself staring clear down its dark
barrel. He pulled the trigger.
    Time seemed to move at a snail’s pace after she saw the
explosive flash. She watched the golden bullet swirling toward her forehead,
heard Horace give an anguished shout, felt a great power leap out from Stone’s
upraised arms, and watched as a whirlwind surrounded Ballou and sucked him into
oblivion.
    Though the assassin had vanished, the bullet still hurled
toward her.
    “Stop!” she shouted.
    She closed her eyes and held out her hands, as if that would
do any good. It wouldn’t.
    It was too late for her.
    No one could stop a bullet.
    Instead of her life passing before her eyes, her future
paraded before her…a bright, beautiful future that, because she’d been too
stubborn to listen to Horace’s warnings to stay away, now would never get the
chance to unfold.
    She’d never see her parents again. Never get the chance to
make them proud by earning a Ph.D. of her own. Not to mention the whole
marriage deal. Dead at twenty-three. A spinster before her time. No husband to
mourn her. No children. She’d always pictured having at least one child.
Perhaps two. They’d both be scamps.
    But now, that would never happen. None of that would happen,
because she was dead.
    Dead.
    Dead.
    Dead.
    She covered her face with her hands and cried. Since it
didn’t matter anymore, she let go and wept loud, messy sobs.
    “Shhh…shhh…” A familiar, welcome hand rubbed up and down her
back. “It’s okay. It’s over, sweetie.”
    “Nooo,” she sobbed. “You-you don’t un-understand. I’ll never
have a husband to love me, or children to pester me. It’s all over for me.”
    Loving hands pulled her into a tight embrace. “Nothing is
over for you. You can still have a brood of children if you want. I promise.
Please, Faith, please just stop crying.”
    She sniffed and blinked up at Horace. He looked close to
tears himself. He brushed the pad of his thumb against her cheek, wiping away a
crystalline tear.
    “That’s my brave girl,” he said gravely.
    She carefully touched her forehead, expecting to find a
gaping hole. Of course, there wasn’t one.
    “How?” she asked.
    His gaze