The Mediator #6: Twilight
Chapter One
I found the stone exactly where Mrs. Gutierrez had said it would be,
beneath the drooping branches of the overgrown hibiscus in her backyard. I
shut off the flashlight. Even though there was supposed to have been a
full moon that night, by midnight a thick layer of clouds had blown in
from the sea, and a dank mist had reduced visibility to nil.
But I didn't need light to see by anymore. I just needed to dig. I sunk my
fingers into the wet soft earth and pried the stone from its resting spot.
It moved easily and wasn't heavy. Soon I was feeling beneath it for the
tin box Mrs. Gutierrez had assured me would be there....
Except that it wasn't. There was nothing beneath my fingers except damp
soil.
That's when I heard it-a twig snapping beneath the weight of someone
nearby.
I froze. I was trespassing, after all; the last thing I needed was to be
dragged home by the Carmel, California, cops.
Again.
Then, with my pulse beating frantically as I tried to figure out how on
earth I was going to explain my way out of this one, I recognized the lean
shadow-darker than all the others-standing a few feet away. My heart
continued to pound in my ears, but now for an entirely different reason.
"You," ... read full excerpt from: The Mediator #6: Twilight ebook
