Free Until Next Time The Angel Chronicles Book 1 by Amy Lignor Page A

rolled in. Nothing felt the same. Her brain seemed to be guiding her through gray clouds, while a heavy weight sat in the pit of her stomach. Liz felt like an invisible force lay deep inside her, trying to escape.
    She stifled a scream when her eyes focused on Daniel standing in a pool of blood. On the ground was Billy, severely beaten. She felt nauseous when she saw Daniel’s hand hovering in mid-air, a knife in its grasp. Her heart leapt in fear as she ran to him.
    “Daniel! Stop!”
    He turned. “Liz! Stay back! He’ll kill you!”
    But Liz kept running. She had to stop her friend from committing the ultimate act of violence. Liz thought she heard a faint female voice begging her to turn around, but she kept going.
    In a split second, Liz knew she’d made the wrong decision. As she moved closer to the horrible scene, she saw a gun in Billy’s hand. The black iron glistened as lightning illuminated the sky. The vile man was grinning as he aimed the barrel right at her head. Liz saw the bright red stains on Daniel’s shirt which the rain had turned a sickening tint of pink.
    Now that she was closer to the scene, she could see the reality of the situation. Daniel wasn’t harming anyone. He was simply defending himself. Her presence was now putting his life in danger. The bullet flew from the chamber. The metal shot whistled as it flew through the air, slamming against Liz’s shoulder as it passed by.
    The drunken coward had missed.
    Liz focused on Daniel, and her heart exploded in her chest. She wasn’t alive because of Billy’s bad aim caused by his intoxicated state—it was because Daniel had saved her life. He’d gotten behind Billy thrusting his knife squarely between the inebriated man’s shoulder blades. He committed murder so that Liz could stay on earth—the one place she didn’t want to be.
    She couldn’t breathe as she stared at her blood-soaked hero, a boy who’d suddenly grown into a man because of her mistake. Because of her, he’d made the horrifying decision to take another human life.
    She sank to her knees, as Daniel raced to her side.
    “He attacked me. Not the other way around,” he cried.
    Liz stared at Billy’s lifeless form.
    Daniel continued, “I would never have…I never thought I would…I was just trying to get him away from me.”
    “I made you kill him,” Liz whispered into the storm. “I’ve ruined your life.”
    “No,” Daniel stated. “He was going to kill one of us, I made a choice. You didn’t make me do anything, Liz. You know I would do everything in my power to keep you safe.”
    She shuddered. “I’m so sorry. I thought I was going to stop you from doing something you’d regret, and now you have to live with…”
    “The only thing I would ever regret is losing you.”
    Liz held him in her trembling arms, as her heart drowned in guilt. Her mistake had cost Daniel his innocence. One man had died and the other would face painful nightmares that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
    “Go, Daniel. Go home, and get someone to look at that wound. It needs to be taken care of,” Liz said, standing up against the howling wind.
    Daniel stood beside her as they stared at Billy’s lifeless body laid out in the mud. “I’ve committed murder,” he whispered. “They’ll never understand this. If the town doesn’t kill me—my mother will for the shame I’ve brought down on her house. We have to hide him.” He turned to Liz, his face a mask of desperation. “It’ll be our secret.”
    She stared into the eyes of the boy she no longer knew. “What?”
    “Go home, Liz. We’ll figure out what to do about it in the morning,” Daniel said as he pushed her in the direction of the cabin.
    Without thinking, Liz ran away from the ugly scene and her part in it.
    A force welled up deep inside her. A strong power took over her body making her race toward the white mist in the distance. It promised warmth and shelter—a place that would offer safety from this