Blood Promise (A SkinWalker Novel #4) (A DarkWorld SkinWalker Novel) by T.G. Ayer

game with colored balls set up on the playing surface. Not a single pool cue in sight.
    A girl stood by the side rail, her short aquamarine hair tipped with bright green, her slim form covered in silver-studded leather that matched the dog-collar around her neck.  
    She leaned over the table, swayed her butt from side to side drawing a few whistles and more raucous laughter. I got the sense it was all good-natured because she smiled, rested her elbow on the side rail, aimed, and sent a burst of energy at the eight ball. The eight ball hit the black with a crack and then both of them spun over the playing surface and into the far corner pocket.  
    As shouts roared through the room, cheers and jeers alike, a taller, spiky-haired man drew closer to her. Smiled a sensual smile.
    "Are they all here?" His silvery eyes were oddly colored and didn't mesh with his olive skin.
    The strangest this was I could see each individual feature and yet when I tried to get a picture of his face, it just blurred, as if the viewer had gone cross-eyed.
    The blue-haired girl tilted her head and looked over the man's shoulder as another couple of people entered from a shadowed back door. "Now they are."  
    She pulled her attention back to him and tipped her head to study his face, a frown creasing her smooth brow. "So what was it you wanted us all here for? Something you wanted to tell us?"
    He nodded and looked around at the gathered people.  
    There were about a dozen young adults, a mix of races, but I sensed all paranormal or fae. The girl used energy. At the back a short Asian boy bounced lightning in his palm while his friends nudged him to stop. A second girl, reed thin and pale, glowed a soft blue.  
    It was only then I registered that my view of the room had adjusted. I'd become one of a crowd shifting toward the rest of the group as instructed. From where I now stood, I could look the silver-eyed man in the face.
    He gestured for the girl to join her friends and though she frowned she obeyed. She hadn't even turned around before he straightened to his full height, locked his knees, he drew his hands forward, palms out and then flung a bolt of energy directly into the crowd.
    Screams shattered the air around me, ripped the insides of my ears. Pain ripped my flesh and eyes. I smelled ozone and fire, and white-hot power.
    And then it all went black.

CHAPTER 15

    I ROCKETED TO MY FEET , gasping for breath, my brain throbbing with the drumbeat of my pulse and my mouth tasting of metal and vomit. I wanted to run but I was surrounded by mist and shadows. Surrounded by enemies. Blind. Helpless .
    "You are safe," said a calm voice from the mist. "Breathe."
    Nerina.
    "Breathe," she said again. "Slowly, Kailin. In. Out. In . . . "  
    I breathed, wrapping an arm around my midsection, as if the mere gesture would encourage my churning gut to settle.
    A few moments passed before my vision cleared enough for me to recognize the hazy blotch in front of me as Nerina's face. She must have jumped off the sofa when I did.  
    She seemed unaffected by the vision. I, on the other hand, was a twisted, confused wreck.
    "What the hell was that?" An inane question. I had a pretty good idea what I'd witnessed.  
    Nerina took my shaking hand and guided me back down to the sofa cushions. "I apologize," she said when we were both seated. "I know what it feels like to see such a thing for the first time."
    I wasn't troubled by the vision itself, just the content. "Why couldn't I see his face? I know what he looks like, even his eye color, but his face . . . It was indistinguishable."
    Nerina nodded. "We also found that strange. We think it may be a type psychological block. Perhaps Kira blocked it out. The trauma . . ."
    "Did they all die?"  
    Nerina nodded. "We were able to see what happened in the room well after what you were shown. Death talkers have a greater awareness of the world, even after death, giving us greater flexibility with what we can see.