Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) by Joyce Robles Page A

of him she aimed the Remington
directly at his skull, pulled the trigger, and nothing happened.
    "Damn-it!" She pumped the Remington and aimed again, pulled the trigger, again nothing.
"Jesus," she quickly checked the chamber for rounds, found it loaded so pumped the shot gun again
and aimed, only this time her dead man was up to meet her. She didn’t get a chance to pull the trigger
again, his mangled body tore the shot gun from her grasp and tossed it back behind them both
somewhere. She didn’t have to worry about going after the weapon, before she could react he had her
by the throat and tossed her after it. She landed dangerously close to the edge, coming to her senses in
time to see the dead man leap straight from the end of the building they were on to the next. She took
the time to wipe blood from her nose and reached for the Remington. She impatiently pumped the shot
gun again, if it didn’t work this time she’d have to waste time reloading the Beretta’s. She took aim at
the figure scrambling like an injured beast on the roof across from her and fired. When the round hit its
target it shrieked like he had every time she hit him, but he didn’t stop. She pumped the shot gun again
and threw it back over her shoulder to take chase after him. He was moving a hell of a lot slower than
he had been before she shot him as many times as she had.
    ‘ Look before you leap. It’s too far for you to make it. ’
    "So says you, I don’t have a choice," she didn’t have time to delay, she just charged and threw
herself at the next building with as much momentum as she could get. She fell a few inches short of
landing directly on the roof. Instead she slammed into the ledge of the building, the edge of the roof
catching her right under the ribs and stealing the air from her lungs. She struggled to hold onto the roof
and by the time she could breath again she was dangling from her fingertips. She didn’t know how far
of a fall it would be if she did happen to slip, she didn’t think she wanted to find out. Her right arm
spasmed when she tried to pull herself up and she lost her grip with that hand entirely She couldn’t
keep herself from crying out as the right hand slipped away from the ledge and for a moment she
dangled by only her left. Pain shot through her remaining arm holding her weight but she suppressed the
whimper that tried to slip past her lips.
    ‘ You’re doing to be just fine, you made the jump. Push the pain back and pull yourself
up.’
    Some of the calm had drained away from the voice, like perhaps whoever it was might be just a
little worried she was about to fall to her death. She felt like she’d heard the voice before, but this was
the first time in her life that a voice this clear had ever been in her head and she couldn’t place it from
anywhere else. The voice wasn’t telling her anything she wouldn’t have eventually told herself when she
got over the throbbing agony pulsing through her right side. But she’d experienced debilitating pain
before, had nearly died on countless occasions and survived, this was no different.
    Jennifer clenched her teeth and forced her right arm to respond with every ounce of self control
she possessed. Even with both hands she couldn’t find much use for the right in its damaged state. It
was there and it helped to lift a little but the left took most of the weight and exertion. She shouted with
the effort, but before her right arm could give out she rolled unto the roof safely. If she’d had time she
would have lain there and let her arm get feeling back. Instead she grabbed the Remington, and past
the loss of feeling aimed and fired at her enemy again. He didn’t look back this time, didn’t even jump
to another roof, just fell, his cry echoing as he tumbled over the edge of the building. She cursed
herself, pumped the shot gun and ran for the side where he’d fallen. She was ready to fire again when
she reached the edge of the building but she