Kill Switch (Blue-Eyed Bomb Book 2)

  Kill Switch - Blue-Eyed Bomb Book Two

  © 2017 Amber Lynn Natusch

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  ISBN-13: 978-1543242270

  ISBN-10: 1543242278

  Kill Switch is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Amber Lynn Natusch

  Cover by Regina Wamba, at Mae I Design

  Ebook Formatting by Pure Textuality PR

  Editing by Kristy Bronner

  http://amberlynnnatusch.com

  Table of Contents

  More by Amber Lynn Natusch

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Epilogue

  Coming Soon

  Author the Author

  More by Amber Lynn Natusch

  The CAGED Series

  CAGED

  HAUNTED

  FRAMED

  SCARRED

  FRACTURED

  TARNISHED

  STRAYED

  CONCEALED

  BETRAYED

  The UNBORN Series

  UNBORN

  UNSEEN

  The BLUE-EYED BOMB Series

  LIVE WIRE

  KILLSWITCH

  The FORCE OF NATURE Series

  FROM THE ASHES

  Contemporary Romance

  UNDERTOW

  More Including Release Dates

  amberlynnnatusch.com

  www.facebook.com/AmberLynnNatusch

  Sign Up For My Newsletter

  Dedication

  To my CAGED series characters,

  Without whom, the Blue-Eyed Bomb novels

  would not exist--literally.

  Prologue

  I heard the screams in the distance and knew that he had returned for another. This time I could not remain silent. This time he’d struck too close to home.

  “Helena!” I shouted, breaking through the gate to find her. I had to get to her before he disappeared. If he did, I’d never see her again.

  As I sprinted down the street, the buildings flew past in my peripheral vision. I shouted her name repeatedly, praying I wouldn’t be too late. The PC had failed to come to our aid when I called for them. It was up to me to stop him. I was the only one that could. Everyone else had already succumbed to his powers.

  Unfortunately for him, I wouldn’t.

  With arms and legs pumping, I rounded the corner that led to the abandoned grain refinery. I could see an unfamiliar car parked in front of it. A slick, fancy black sedan that had no business being in a town like ours. It was his; I was sure of it. Helena hadn’t yet been taken. I still had a chance to save her.

  I approached the building with care, knowing that he had already heard me coming. I’d been foolish to call for her, but I wanted her to know that she wasn’t alone. But in my silence, I became aware of hers. There were no sounds of a struggle. No more strangled cries. My chest tightened at the realization.

  With a quickened pace, I stormed into the building. Broken glass crunching underfoot did nothing but announce my presence, but I didn’t care anymore. I knew his magic wouldn’t work on me. I just needed to let him close enough for him to find that out. Then the madness would stop.

  Helena would be safe.

  “Looking for something?” A smooth and seductive voice called to me from the darkness.

  “My sister. You can’t have her!”

  “So young. So foolish.” I could see his dark form dancing through the shadows just out of sight. Just out of range. “I can have whatever I want.”

  “The PC is coming,” I said, my voice shaking slightly. “They know what you’re doing.”

  A flash of darkness whizzed past me, blowing my hair back from my face.

  “Do they now?” His voice was ice in my ear; it froze me in place. But not with magic. With fear. “But I have committed no crime…”

  I could feel the press of his words against me, but unlike everyone else, they did not settle upon my mind.

  “You have,” I said, inching my hand toward the blade tucked away under my jacket. “And it stops today.”

  With adrenaline surging through me, I ripped the dagger from its sheath and swung my arm around, aiming to hack his head off. I knew it would take more than one blow, but the first would be enough to stun him. I’d gladly finish the job after that.

  He parried my blow easily, wrenching my arm up behind my back at an impossible angle. The snapping of bone echoed through the empty building. Fear now replaced my adrenaline.

  “You are right about one thing, my little null,” he whispered in my ear. “It will end today. At least in this town. Perhaps you’ll find comfort in that. Pity that you won’t be alive to see the fruits of your sacrifice.”

  I bit down on my lip until it bled. My fate was sealed. I’d made sure of that when I’d underestimated him.

  “Helena!” I screamed one last time.

  Only silence answered my call.

  “I will take good care of her. I’m sure she’ll love Chicago,” he said, letting go of my arm. His hands clamped down on either side of my face, lifting it up to face the far side of the room where my sister stood, cloaked in the moonlight that shone in through the broken windows. Her empty expression met my stare. Then, in a blur of motion, the room before me flew past.

  A single, sharp pain shot through my neck.

  Then the world went dark.

  Chapter One

  The present slammed into me like a rogue wave.

  I scrambled back away from my brother Nico until I bumped into TS. While I tried to get to my feet, legs shaking, the two of them stared at me with wide eyes. Their disbelief, however, could not surpass my own. Whatever had just happened to me—whoever’s last moments I’d just relived—had blindsided me completely, leaving me a ragged-breathing mess in TS’ grasp.

  “What the fuck was that?” I asked, barely able to force the words out. The victim’s adrenaline coursed through me as though it were my own, leaving me in a state of fight-or-flight like nothing I’d ever experienced.

  “You tell me!” Nico countered, staring at me like I had three heads. His normally emerald green eyes
had gone black as night. “One second I’m touching a teenage corpse, the next I’ve got your hands on me and I’m seeing everything he did before he died!”

  “Did you think I knew that was going to happen?” His silence was answer enough. “Jesus, Nico. I’ve never done any of this shit before! I just wanted to see what you were doing and then BAM, I’m sucked into whatever hell that just was.”

  “That was the kid’s death, Phira.”

  I swallowed hard.

  “You mean that literally, don’t you?” He nodded, a grim expression overtaking his countenance. His normally olive-skinned face had gone pale.

  “You and Alek have your empath gifts,” he explained, coming to stand before me. “Mine has always been to see flashes of memory of the victim at the time of death, but nothing like that. Ever.”

  “Something happened,” I said, my voice soft and empty. “Something you didn’t expect…”

  He nodded yet again.

  “I’ve never experienced anything like that before. It was so real…like I was the victim.”

  “Me too,” I whispered. “I felt it all.”

  “I felt it too,” Alek, my other brother, said as he approached us. “But not the victim. I could feel the killer through the victim. Before today, I would get hints at a crime scene—residual energy left from the attacker. But now it’s like an energetic ID imprinted on my mind…”

  “Holy shit. This is insane.”

  “I think that your fully integrated abilities, Sapphira, now combined with your brothers’, have created an entirely new gift,” TS observed from behind me. “One that exploits your sibling connection.”

  “I feel like ‘gift’ is a bit of a misnomer,” I replied dryly.

  I looked down at the poor boy with the broken neck and wondered who had done this to him. He’d been so brave to go after his sister, a child against an unknown immortal. If it was true that he’d been a null, someone who could neutralize the supernatural abilities of others around him, then I knew we were dealing with a big bad for sure. Someone who would remain calm in the face of his powers being rendered useless. Unfortunately for the young boy at my feet, he couldn’t nullify his attacker’s strength.

  “We need to find his people,” Nico said, pulling me from my thoughts.

  “I will take his picture into town. It shouldn’t be long before we have an answer as to who he is. This is a small supernatural community. It would be impossible for him to go unknown here,” Alek said.

  “Unless he isn’t from here,” I pointed out.

  “Possibly, but that would mean his sister isn’t either, would it not?”

  “How did you—”

  “You were screaming her name. You said who she is—or the victim did, to be more accurate.”

  “Oh.”

  “It was difficult to watch you, Phira,” he added, his dark eyes narrowing. “When your head whipped around and you fell back, breaking contact with Nico, you just laid there for a moment as if you too were dead.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think I like this little gift of ours, brother.”

  “Agreed,” Nico chimed in, coming to stand beside me. The three of us hovered over the boy for a moment before TS found a piece of tarp to cover him with.

  The boys started to walk away, prepared to search for the family, but I couldn’t leave him. Not yet. The guilt I felt as I stared down at the filthy blue plastic covering the young teenager was too great to handle. He’d called for the PC to do their job and they’d failed him. Failed him because of me. I was the reason that boy was dead, and the anger that brewed inside me with that knowledge was hard to contain. If it hadn’t been for my newfound other half, I don’t think I could have.

  And that would have had dire consequences indeed.

  “Channel what you’re feeling, Phira.” I felt TS’ arm wrap around my shoulders. He pulled gently to pry me away from the carnage at my feet. “I know you. You blame yourself for this child’s fate.”

  “Shouldn’t I?” I snapped, wheeling around to face him. “Isn’t it my fault? The whole reason we came out to the Midwest was to investigate this community and we didn’t. Because of me.”

  “You had to take priority.” His tone was plain as he said those words, but there was a fire in his rich hazel eyes that didn’t match the indifference in his voice.

  “Tell that to his family for me, will you? I’d choke on the words.”

  I walked around him toward the door of the decrepit building. I needed space from him and our nameless victim. I could still feel the fear he had felt when he’d looked across the room to see his sister standing there, her hollow expression haunting him for the few seconds before his death. His guilt at his failure only compounded my own. It was then that I vowed to do everything I could to do what he could not: save his sister. I owed him that much.

  I looked back over my shoulder to find TS following me at a respectable distance. He knew what I needed in that moment. A lengthy lecture wasn’t it. What I needed was to get my wits about me and solve this homicide, and quickly. Whoever had committed this crime was about to get the reckoning of a lifetime. He’d fucked with the wrong girl when he’d so callously ended that boy’s life. He’d made this shit personal for me.

  A decision I’d make him regret.

  Chapter Two

  I did what I could to retrace the victim’s steps back to where he’d come from. I recognized the fence immediately, as did Nico. The two of us stared at each other in silence for a moment before pushing it open. Inside was a modest home with a sizeable backyard. A woman was there, hanging clothes on a line near the small ranch-style house. When she saw us, her eyes went wide for a second and she took a step away.

  “No need to fear,” Nico said, putting his hands up to show he wasn’t a threat. “We just have some questions for you.”

  “Do you have a son?” I asked, unable to refrain from blurting it out.

  She looked at me strangely before her expression softened. A calm came over her and her shoulders relaxed, her arms hanging loosely at her sides.

  “No, I don’t have any children. Does that help you?”

  My brow furrowed as I tried to make sense of why the victim had run from that yard. Had we gone to the wrong place? It didn’t seem likely that both Nico and I would.

  “Unfortunately it doesn’t.” I stepped toward her, pulling my phone with the morbid picture of the victim from my pocket. I didn’t want to have to show it to her, but if he wasn’t her child, surely she’d know who he was. As I neared her, I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. Something just beyond her had drawn my attention, and the sight of it made me break out in a cold sweat.

  Standing just behind the woman was the victim—or a ghostly version of him. He was pale and translucent, but it was most certainly him. He stared at me, then the woman. He said nothing, but continued to look back and forth between us until I started to see what he was getting at.

  “She’s your mother,” I whispered. As soon as the words left my mouth, he disappeared.

  “What did you say, dear?” the woman asked, looking at me strangely once again.

  “Sapphira?” Nico called, coming to stand beside me. “What’s going on?”

  “Didn’t you see him?”

  “Who? Who did you see?”

  I turned to find him looking at me with concern in his eyes.

  “The boy. He was just here.”

  Before he had the chance to inquire further, I rushed toward the woman and the basket of wet clothes at her feet. I started rifling through them like a crazy person. I could hear Nico calling to me, but I ignored him.

  “She’s his mother,” I repeated, tossing garments across the lawn while the woman stood by and watched with a horrified expression. As I neared the bottom of the basket, I started to get nervous, wondering if my idea hadn’t been such a great one. But then I came upon what I’d hoped to find. I pulled out a pair of jeans—the kind a teenage girl would wear. A pair far too small for her mother’s rou
nd body to fit into. I held them up in front of the woman, staring at her with angry eyes.

  “Are these yours? If they are, I doubt you’ve fit into them for a few years, so I’m curious why it is you happen to have them in your laundry.” She looked at me, utterly dumbfounded. She clutched her head while she tried to answer my question; the struggle she felt in doing so was plain in her expression. “You told us you don’t have kids, but these look like they’d fit a teenage girl, don’t they?” She nodded. “Whose are these?”

  “I…I don’t know.”

  I looked over my shoulder at Nico and TS. They appeared every bit as curious as I was.

  “We’re going inside,” Nico announced, storming toward the house. TS wasn’t far behind him. While they searched inside, I stayed with the woman, who was still confused and shaking. She pulled the pants from my hand and ran her fingertips along them. She looked like she was trying to remember something—like she wanted to make sense of what was happening to her—but couldn’t. In that moment, I took pity on her. I knew all too well what that was like. I didn’t envy her at all.

  “Phira!” TS shouted. I ran inside the home immediately. Once there, I found the reason for the call. TS and Nico stood in front of a wall of photos; a wall that had recently been edited. Pictures had clearly been taken down—a means of removing evidence. The three of us stood there, each wondering the same thing. What in the hell was going on in this small Iowa town?

  By the time we swept the entire house, it was clear that virtually every shred of evidence that two dependents had ever lived there was gone. Whoever was behind this disappearance was thorough, that was certain. Thorough and powerful enough to have pulled all that off as well as swept the mind of the victim clear of her memories. Memories of her own children. It would take some serious magic to make that happen.