Avery Tate Book Novels & Stories

"You've been quiet. Usually, when you're quiet, it means you know something we don't. Or you're planning to leave us to die." I finished my drink and set the glass down on a bookshelf. I walked into the light. "I am quiet because I am admiring the irony," I drawled. "We are trying to break a lock with a hammer, when we should be using a key." "We don't have a key," Tate said. She was sitting next to Vida, acting as the anchor, her hand on the witch's shoulder. She looked tired, her human fragility standing out in a room full of monsters. "Heriberto stole the book. The key is probably with him."

"Life is so full of unpredictable beauty and strange surprises. Sometimes that beauty is too much for me to handle. Do you know that feeling? When something is just too beautiful? When someone says something or writes something or plays something that moves you to the point of tears, maybe even changes you." - Mark Oliver Everett "Please don't fuck this up again." Arthur open the door in the dark garage where he parked the sleek black Lamborghini. Can you believe the answer to the make of the car was on the steering wheel all along. I didn't notice that before Arthur got out of the car.

But I knew some hill folk—especially a hoodoo man named Clive Hartley—who could read Latin, so I put it aside for later. I looked back into the box and of course, that’s when I found it. The book that’s caused all this trouble. The Way of Ah-Tzenul. Course, that’s not what’s printed on the cover. There’s a picture of some sorta tribal man squatting down with both hands raised to the sky etched into the cover and traced in silver. Otherwise, it’s a plain-looking book, all bound in pebbly black leather.

He slowly reached into his vest and pulled out the charred, heavy book. "We go to the solarium," Dante said, his voice trembling with a rage he couldn't hide. "But if you touch her, Arthur, I don't care about the explosives. I’ll rip your heart out through your throat." "I'd expect nothing less from a Vane," Arthur said. The line went dead.

I heard the television go off. "Tell me," he said. I told him. Brief and clear, leaving out the parts that were Avery's to tell or not. When I finished there was a short silence. "The lecturer who made my sister uncomfortable a couple of years back," Tate said quietly. "She described him as smooth. Very polished. Made her feel like it was her interpretation, not what he actually did." "Cross." "She never gave me a name. But it fits." Tate was quiet for a second. "What do you need me to do."

Nick growled out before tossing the paper back onto the table. Ava luckily hadn’t shown her face this morning. Having not stayed the night. Tate looked at him from her seat on his right. “I’m trying to rack my brain about who she could have been. I don’t know a Cindy anywhere in Ashwell.” Drumming her fingers on the table. Tate sat her chin on her other hand, staring out the window in thought. Tate was happy about the upset the mystery woman had caused Ava. She couldn’t grasp why Stephen found her appealing.

It wasn’t love at first sight, as I never saw him, it was on Adam4Adam (A4A) online we met. His name I was going from being Dalton as he has told over the chart, but his A4A name was naughtyJam69 and his displace photo was glamorous. No one will see a photo like that and didn’t direct message him, except me. My profile photo was a knockout. It was Dalton, who message me first by sending me a smile. I think it was the attraction our conversation mix with the photos that had caught me off guard. I didn’t think it would go any further than chat sex

Walking into Tate’s room, letting instinct take over like he didn’t know what that could do. This wasn’t the first time. Just the closest call. And now I had two problems under my roof. I exhaled slowly, let the heat bleed off my skin. Then I opened the laptop. Tate was there on the monitor—lying on the bed like he hadn’t moved. His shirt was still ruffled, his eyes locked on the door as if Eli might come back. He looked wrecked. But he was thinking. I could see it. That sharp mind of his didn’t shut off, even when his body begged it to.

I repeat for clarity. "Absolutely, Isabella. I promised." I'm not a fan of the sly look Avery flashes me afterward, but I decide to let it slide for now instead of probing further. "Get ready to eat your words, Carter," I tell her as I snatch her tablet away. "Don't count your chickens yet, Vega. You've got a long way to go. Did I mention that After is part of a five-book series? Oops." Now I understand what was making me uneasy before.

Her whole body shook with rage. The big man backed up as she stormed towards the door, but halfway there, she stopped. She turned around slowly, her glowing red eyes locked on me. "What’s your fucking business with this book, huh?" she growled, every word dripping with raw hate. My mouth opened slightly. The words were stuck in my throat.