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THE
LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER
AND HIS WIFE ,
from "The
Mammoth Book of
Paranormal
Romance, RUNNING
PRESS,
MARCH 2009
ISBN-13:
978-0762436514
Excerpt.jpg)
She
placed her hands on the
man's face. He lay
still, his flesh cold,
giving
the impression of
death. But the
Sorceress knew better.
Beneath the chill flowed
warm blood, just waiting for
the moment to spark into
life. His eyelashes
flickered. She began
to chant the words of
waking, her voice soft at
first and then rising,
growing louder and louder
until it echoed about the
high-vaulted cathedral.
The incense-laden air
vibrated.
His
eyes opened, one as dark and
shining as jet, the other
dull and sightless.
There was a scar running
down his cheek where the
ship's wooden spar had
caught him, blinding him and
tearing his flesh. He
should have died in the
storm that wrecked his ship,
rather than later, when he
was the lighthouse keeper,
trying to save drowning
passengers from a sinking
steamer.
"Why
have you woken me?" Zed
asked, his voice ragged from
disuse.
"Because
you have work to do,"
the Sorceress said sternly,
her blue eyes burning
bright, her long red hair
loose about her face.
He
struggled to sit up.
His dark hair was tied back
in a seaman's pigtail, his
skin tanned from all
weathers. This was a
man who'd spent his life
outside in the wind and the
sun, and who relished
pitting himself against the
elements.
He
knew who she was: the
Sorceress, the ruler of the
between-worlds otherwise
known as purgatory. It
was her practice to choose
certain mortals, those she
considered had not reached
their full potential during
their original lifetime and,
when the time was right,
return them to the living
world for a second chance.
"I
am sending you back to the
mortal world," she told
him now. "You
must put right the wrong.
All those lives lost.
You must save them and at
the same time help me to
capture the monster
responsible."
He
looked up at her, his one
good eye glittering in the
candlelight, the other dead
and empty. She waited
for him to argue with her,
tell her he couldn't
possibly do any such thing.
But he surprised her.
"If
I am to help you, I want
something in return."
Anger
flashed in her eyes.
"I am giving you a
second chance at life and
you ask for more?"
"There
is someone I have to find.
My wife,Isabel. I long
for her. I ache for
her. Will you help me
find her again?"
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