Lightning Rider - Excerpt Only

Lightning Rider (Excerpt Only) - Chapter 1

LIGHTNING RIDER

Andie dies in a lightning strike and is miraculously healed and brought back to life. But now she's sharing her body with an alien — the same alien who rode the lightning bolt that killed her.

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Copyright 2012 by Maree Anderson

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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 Dedication

This one's for my Wattpad fans who're patiently waiting for me to write the sequel to Freaks of Greenfield High: I hope Lightning Rider will keep you entertained until I finish up my next project and can clear the decks to write Freaks 2!

And for my husband, Rob: thanks for another gorgeous cover!

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LIGHTNING RIDER

by Maree Anderson

PROLOGUE

Karylon called the lightning to her. She wrestled with the volatile energy. And while it bucked and shied, testing her for weakness, she immersed herself, bathing in its heat, feasting on its power. Energy seared through her particles, renewing her, enticing her. As it surged and boiled around her, she steeled herself to defy its siren-call and hold a tiny part of herself separate from its embrace.

The immense energy swelled, approaching flash-point. And then, a micron before it would have overcome her, Karylon unleashed it. She rode the lightning, slashing across the sky, painting the roiling blackness with swathes of light and heat and pure, unadulterated energy.

This was what her kind had been created to do. And as she danced with the thunder and communed with the almighty forces of Nature, she embraced the possibility that next time, the lightning might prove too powerful to control. Next time, it might consume her.

She couldn't bring herself to care. For now, there was only light and heat, energy and power. The thrill of the ride.

The bud of knowledge the Keeper of Portents had transmitted to Karylon's alien brain flowered, informing her that the potential Host's death was imminent. She should have exulted in that knowledge. For a Lightning Rider Elemental, a Host's death was an opportunity, and the body it left behind a husk to be used and eventually discarded. She should not feel guilt or remorse that she was about to use a sentient being's death to prolong her own life. She should not feel anything at all.

But unlike the rest of her kind, Karylon had evolved. And so, as she waited for her lightning to strike, she wondered whether she deserved another chance to prolong her life. And whether she would ever be worthy of such a sacrifice.

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CHAPTER ONE

What woman with a pulse could resist sneaking another look at that magnificent, shorts-clad male butt? Not Andie Brennan, that's for sure. She paused, supposedly to ease her aching legs, and let him go on ahead. After all, there was nothing in the rules that said she couldn't look her fill.

And look her fill, she did. Jake wasn't just easy on the eye, he was ruggedly gorgeous. They'd only met a couple of days ago but she'd instantly connected with him. To be honest, as the weekend had progressed, she'd gone way past mere "connection" and headed straight for teetering on the edge of falling for him big-time.

It was unlike her to be all giddy and bubbling over with happiness that couldn't be contained, acting like some schoolgirl crushing on a boy. A smile tweaked her lips upward as she watched his progress.

Nope. She couldn't regret a single second of this weekend. And damn, but she was glad her parents had pushed her to sign up for this tour instead of lounging 'round the family home, bickering with her sisters, and trying to figure out why she was so damn miserable when she had everything she'd ever thought she wanted. Great apartment, well-paid job, rich boyfriend....

Her smile dissolved and she heaved a sigh that brimmed with regrets and what-ifs and might-have-beens.

If things had been different, she and Jake—

No "if" about it. If things had been different, she knew exactly where this weekend would have ended. In bed. Draped all over him like a blanket.

Her shoulders slumped. It was going to be tough saying goodbye to him. But dammit, she wasn't going to ruin their last day together by dwelling on how much it'd hurt to never see Jake again. She was simply going to enjoy every last second of being with him.

She tucked a stray lock of hair back into her ponytail and pasted on a smile, determined not to let what she truly felt show on her face. But despite her resolve, the thought of severing all contact and trying to forget Jake, resuming her life and pretending everything was peachy, made her stomach roil and her chest tight and achy.

Jake glanced back over his shoulder and bellowed, "Andie. Quit gawkin' at the scenery, sugar. We need to find shelter, STAT."

A thunderous rumble punctuated his words.

Andie glanced up at the rapidly darkening sky. A flash seared her eyes. Whoa. Jake was right. Time to take cover. "Be right with you," she called.

His reply was drowned by a boom so strident that it rolled through her body, reverberating through her sternum. Yikes. That sounded close. She hopped on her mountain bike and pedaled for all she was worth.

In the distance, a dazzling flare of lightning lit the hunched forms of the rest of Andie's tour group. Another discordant grumble of thunder spurred her to even greater effort. In her haste, she shifted gears while free-wheeling and threw a chain. On cue, the lightly pattering rain swelled to a downpour.

"Shit." She dismounted to peer at the rear wheel of her bike. The rain tormented her, mocking her efforts to realign the chain. She swiped a hand over her face and blinked water from her eyes. When she glanced up, she could just make out Jake and the other members of her group huddling in the lee of the towering rock spires.

Lightning crackled. Vivid, sizzling bursts of color outlined the terrain, transforming the previously muted terracotta palette with lurid otherworldly tones.

"Andie!"

Jake's shout sliced through her. She instinctively dropped into the lightning crouch. But curling her five-foot-five self into a smaller package, didn't fool a billion volts traveling at two hundred thousand miles an hour through the air, looking for a convenient place to earth.

The lightning struck.

In one searing instant, Andie died.

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Andie crumpled to the ground and Jake instantly reacted, exploding from the shelter and sprinting toward her with his heart in his mouth and desperation pounding through his veins.

And then he reached her, discovered she wasn't breathing and her heart wasn't beating. The scorched rags of her clothing horrified him but he shoved all emotion aside. He was too darn busy compressing her chest, breathing for her, willing her to live, to fully comprehend that the woman of his dreams had fallen victim to a lightning strike, that she might die before he could tell her he loved her.... Or who he really was.

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Copyright 2012 Maree Anderson

www.mareeanderson.com