Free The Other Side of Life (Book #1, Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy) by Jess C Scott Page B

nine. Tell Julius my…mom, went
to the hospital. Tomorrow, I’ll tell him it was just a
scare.”
    Anya crossed her fingers that wouldn’t come
true. Chloe had been admitted before, from health problems due to
alcohol poisoning.
    Leticia nodded. “Do you need me around?” she
asked Anya. “Would it make you…feel better?” She paused, thinking
it over. “I can meet all of you at The Gilbreth. I should be done
by midnight.”
    “ Don’t worry about it.”
Anya didn’t want Leticia to feel bad, although she would have liked
her to be there. If only for moral support. “The less people to see
me sweating over the break-in, the better.”
    Leticia laughed. “Just call
or text me if you really, really, need my help.”
    Just then, Leticia had a call on her cell.
“Jule!”
    Anya wondered if she would float away to
“the man in her life,” if she did have one. Leticia would drop all
plans for a date with a boyfriend. People always seemed to be glued
to “the other person” in their life.
    While Leticia was chattering and gushing
over the phone, Anya went to her room and brought out a handful of
DVDs from her collection. She glanced at the clock, settling in for
an afternoon of TV-watching and pigging out on ice cream, to get
her mind off what she’d be embarking on in the evening.
     
    * * *
     
    Anya jolted up off the
couch when Lady Lala’s “I Will Survive (Lady L’s
100 th Remix)” started blaring—it was the ringtone on her cell
phone’s alarm setting. She had half an hour to meet Nin at the
stone church.
    “ Dammit,” Anya cursed. The
ringtone had just interrupted a dream she had been having of Nin.
Something…sweet. Bittersweet.
    Anya noticed some leftovers Leticia had left
for her, on the table. A packet of Chinese food—chop suey—along
with a fortune cookie, by the side.
    Anya cracked open the cookie first. She read
the message on the slip of paper inside:
    A kiss is not a kiss, without the
heart—often, you think of somebody.
    Anya gave a wry smile. She hummed a random
tune, as she tried to recall drifts and drabs of her dream, as she
stumbled toward the bathroom to freshen up.
    He had been holding her hand. He was
teaching her how to ice-skate. Snow was gently falling in the air
surrounding them, and the trees weren’t bare, but covered with
little silvery leaves, which shivered in the breeze.
    “ When the ice dragon
breathes…” Nin said to her, “he breathes ice…”
    “ Why don’t I feel cold?”
Anya asked.
    Nin looked across the frozen lake they were
standing on, then shyly looked away. “I don’t feel cold
either.”
    Anya gazed up at him, a smile forming on her
lips. It made her feel radiant—she could feel it, in the dream,
whilst her human body was asleep—and drawn to Nin. His warmth, his
heart, his…
    He turned to her. His gaze fell upon her
lips, his hand resting on the inward curve of her back, as he
leaned in…
    Before a bright light caused him to
flinch—Anya raised an arm to shield her eyes against a sudden,
illuminative flare…
    She saw an archer in the distance, with a
bow and arrow—the arrowhead was a dull shade of gray—made of
iron—
    “ NIN!” she screamed—her
throat felt like it had been lacerated by broken glass—as she
lurched forward, pushing Nin out of the way, who had been the
target of the arrowhead...
    And she felt Nin catch her, his eyes wild
and wide open—had the arrow hit her?
    Her vision began to blur. Were her eyelids
closing shut, forever?
    3…2…
    Anya gave a sharp exhale,
snapping herself back to reality. Her heart was thumping, fast. She
felt like she had almost really died, and been on the way to crossing over to the
other side.
    The Other Side of
Life. A chill ran through her, as she
recalled the words from one of the poems on the
parchment.
    She tried to rationalize. The ice dragon.
What was that about? Had Nin ever said anything about an ice
dragon?
    Anya splashed some water on her face, before
scrutinizing her facial