Wingless by Shelley Martin
sensual paranormal romance novella (approx 29000 words)
ISBN# 978-1-938257-26-1
cover art by Valerie Tibbs
April doesn’t want to acknowledge she has a terrible illness eating at her mind, and she doesn’t want her best friend to know Luke, the man she fell in love with years ago, only lived in her dreams. She’d do anything to get Luke back. Even die.
Nathan doesn’t want his girlfriend to think he might be going crazy, but he keeps seeing a strange ghost-like man named Luke around April. Luke intends to get April back, and Nathan won’t let that happen. April’s his and he’ll do anything to convince her that she belongs with him.
Buy direct from Pink Petal Books
EXCERPT:
As they wandered into the theater he let her pick out the movie and the soda. He handed her a ticket as he grabbed the tub of popcorn. “It’s busier than I thought. Why don’t you go save some seats while I get the straws and napkins.”
“Sure.” She happily weaved her way through the crowd as he grabbed a handful of napkins. He practically had to fight to get the straws over the gathering people. Next time I’ll do an evening, weekday show.
As he turned, he started. Luke was staring at him, just a few feet away. “What the freak, man? You followed us to the movies?”
Luke silently shook his head. With a lowered chin he pointed into the crowd, the same direction April had gone.
Nathan shrugged his popcorn laden arms. “What do you want, guy?”
Blood drained from Nathan’s face as a couple walked right through Luke, as if he wasn’t there. Nathan’s lungs burned as the distorted image of Luke came back to full view once the people passed. With a pounding heart and racing pulse, Nathan turned and ran. What the hell? What just happened? They just walked right through him! Nobody else can see Luke but me?
He bumped into person after person as he tried to get away from the frightening image. Before turning the corner he looked over his shoulder to see that Luke had disappeared again. His pace slowed, and he remembered April. He headed for the ticket-taker when he caught her leaning up against a wall.
His feet skidded to a stop beside her. “I think something’s wrong with me.”
She stared at him wide-eyed. “I agree. There’s something wrong with me, too.”
“What, huh?” He tried to slow his breathing. Her reply threw him off. “What’s wrong with you?”
April was silent for a moment. “Well, I think I’m having an amnesia attack.”
He swallowed. How is that possible? Amnesia’s pretty rare. She must be messing with me. “Yeah? What did you forget?”
“Well,” her forehead creased as she thought. “I don’t know where I am, for one.” She giggled. “I mean, I know I’m at the movie theater, obviously.” She nodded to the passers-by as they handed their tickets out to be torn. “But I don’t know what city I’m in.”
They hadn’t even left town. As far as he knew, she’d lived there for at least four years. He watched her closely. Wait, she is messing with me, isn’t she?
“Oh, but I know my name is April. And you’re Nathan, right?”
He stared at her, not sure if he should laugh or be concerned.
Her innocent eyes blinked up at him. “Um, we’re not married, are we?”
“What?” He took a step back. “No.”
“Sorry,” she laughed. “But that’s a good thing. That would suck if I’d forgotten all the years with the guy I was married to.” She bit her lip. “Okay, let me try something.” She began spouting off numbers. “’Kay, I know my phone number. And March fourteenth is my birthday. Let’s see, do I know my address? No. Huh. I wonder why…”
Nathan shoved his problems to the side. There was definitely something wrong with April. She was laughing about not remembering, but her hand holding the soda was shaking like a leaf. She was frightened.
“Hey, April.” He tucked the napkins under his elbow and touched her arm. “Is there anything I can do for you? Should we get out of here? Will that help?”
April looked over the crowd and shrugged. “I don’t know.” He watched her stare at the floor for a moment, then her hand stopped shaking. But, when she looked back up again, her face was positively red. “Um, can just we pretend that the last five minutes never happened?”
Nathan sighed. “Are you okay?”
She nodded vigorously. “I’m really sorry. That happens sometimes. But it never lasts very long.”
Nathan locked his gaze onto hers. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
She waved her hand as a dismissal. “Yes, yes. I’m fine. Just embarrassed. Look, if my amnesia attacks scare you then we can just go.”
His gaze slid over her petite frame. She seemed fine. Her stance was stronger, and she even looked a little irritated with him. “No, I’m good. If you say it’s nothing to worry about, then I believe you.”
Her jaw relaxed when she finally realized he wasn’t going to leave her. “So, uh, yeah. Like I said, can we just erase the last few minutes and start over?”
Luke came to his mind. His helpful illusion. First the hallucination fixed his computer, then it told him to go to April when she was in need. Well, at least the guy didn’t resemble Hitler. But no one could ever know about this. If they did, he’d get sent to the loony bin. Amnesia was one thing, but seeing people that weren’t there was a completely different story. “Yeah, I’ll agree to that. The last five minutes have officially been erased.” He opened the straw and pushed it into the drink she was holding.
“Oh my gosh, you said there was something wrong with you, didn’t you?”
Nathan shook his head, then caught the view of the poster behind her. “I was just worried because my picture is up there, but I don’t remember making a movie.”
April drew her brow together and turned around. A movie poster of Brad Pitt’s next flick stared back at her. “Ha, ha, Mr. Brad Pitt look-alike. We better get you into the dark movie theater before your screaming fans come after us.”
He smiled. “Yeah, let’s go.”
