Ignite (Midnight Fire #1)

Prologue

Kira watched as he languidly stood, flexing his muscles as though he had just awakened from a long dream. He stretched his arms over his head and cracked the bones in his neck before finally settling his gaze on her. She hardly recognized him, the boy she had fallen in love with. Where minutes before there had been light and emotion in his eyes, now there was only a black hole, a seemingly endless abyss. Kira had never seen him look at her that way, like less than food, like vermin, even since the first time they met.

"Aren’t you going to run?" he asked with sinister humor coloring his words. The smirk on his face may as well have been a knife cutting through her heart. The darkness had always called him, but Kira thought that being with her would be enough to keep him from crossing over. She saw now that he had surrendered to his nature, and for the first time, she felt real fear when he looked at her.

Kira stepped backward on shaky feet, trying to digest the question. She didn’t have an answer. How could she turn her back on him and run away? The man she loved was trying to kill her. There were no options. Could she forget it all—all the nights they had shared kissing and swapping secrets—and fight to kill? Or would she run and admit that there was no hope he would return to her?

Kira said his name and reached out her hand, searching one last time for the man she had lost.

"Yes, honey?" The words hit her like a slap in the face as they rolled off his tongue, drenched in sarcasm.

Kira looked up at the sun, still hidden behind the shadow of the moon, and sprinted into the tree line behind her. She couldn’t give up on him now. But when the eclipse was over, maybe she would finally find the strength to fight.