Revolution (Collide, #4) by Shelly Crane
Acknowledgments
As always, my husband: Axel, you're amazing beyond words.
My boys: J & N, you keep my brain full of imaginative ideas. This job keeps Mom a little busy sometimes, but you guys are so good about it. I love you and couldn't imagine doing this without your daily inspiration of Cartoon Network commentary, Harry Potter and Phineas & Ferb jokes, and your hilarious accents of our Scottish Schnauzer dog, Scrappy. He is totally Scottish, don't EVER let anyone tell you that he's not!
My Hellcats and the most awesome group of authorly girls ever: M. Leighton, Amy Bartol, Georgia Cates, Quinn Loftis, Samantha Young, Rachel Higginson & Angeline Kace. You've made my life author enormously easier. Thanks for listening and all of your support!
My gals and bloggers: Jennifer N, Gloria G & Amanda C (Globug & Hootie), Mandy A (IReadIndie), Heather R (Supagurl), Donna (Passion), Jackie (Sated Faery), Books Books Books, ReadersLive1000Lives, Haley (Ya-aholics), Ellen (Always At The Heart), Mary (Booknerdsacrossamerica) and all the bloggers that I didn't mention, you guys rock my face off and I still credit you with lots of author success. It's totally true.
Where It All Began
Chapter 1
Merrick
I rode in the passenger seat of the busted Chevy truck. The man beside me smelled of musk and cigar that had long saturated the seats and his clothes. We bounced along the road and I tried to calm myself as I took in my surroundings and not think about the reality that I was going to meet Sherry for the very first time. And Danny, too, of course.
The pain in my chest was palpable to a human's heart attack. It was unreal the amount of terror that seethed its way through my guts in a rampant way, hell bent on destroying me at my very core.
Why?
Because I had waited and watched as the world was destroyed and taken over by the Lighters for far too long. We always waited until we could wait no more. Sometimes they just wanted to cause a ruckus, start a war or end a dynasty and then they'd leave and go back to where they came from. But every now and then, they'd come and a Taker would make its way into their ranks. When that happened, we could no longer sit back.
The Taker was here, and now so were we.
I almost broke every rule I've fought years to keep and come the other night to Sherry's rescue. Matt, such an idiot. If Sherry hadn't slammed the door on him, I would have been there in a heartbeat, jumped in the first corpse I could find and strangled him with my bare hands. But she always could handle herself and now, with my heart beating in a human chest, I felt ashamed for the first time in my life for not trusting her more. She was this incredible creature that had worked her way into my life without her knowledge and without my consent. And now, here I was, hitching a ride in a broken down pickup truck making a swift ride to her. Right to her door.
My hands shook on my lap and I stared at them in fascination. The human body was marvelous and annoying. I was…anxious. My body shook with almost a strange fright, and it did it against my will. That part I didn't like at all.
I asked the driver to turn into an abandoned parking lot and thanked him for the ride. He waved, bored and uncaring, and drove away with a sputter. I peeked through the shrubs just as Sherry's little Rabbit beat its way into the parking lot. I could barely see her through the glass because of the glare of streetlights, but her silhouette was enough to throw my heart into a pace that hurt and made me clutch this human chest. And when the door creaked open and I knew I’d see her for the very first time in real life with human eyes, I actually thought I might expire right there. My heart raced unhealthily and my eyes blurred…and then there she was, right in front of me. She fought and fidgeted with the items in her hands and I ached to help her, hold her, sweep her into my clumsy arms and take her away.
So even though Danny was my priority, or was supposed to be, I found my feet being propelled forward by nothing but the sheer need to see if her skin was as soft as it looked.
I stepped by the shrub and stopped so as not to scare her. I scolded myself, hearing my breathing loud and unnecessary to my body's function. It was a miracle in itself that she wasn't alerted to my presence from that alone.
She turned to me and stopped cold. Her eyes saw me for the first time and even though she was obviously scared of me, some strange man in her parking lot at night alone, I still couldn’t wait for her to speak.
But she said, "Matt?" and stiffened.
I felt my eyebrows bunch in confusion and then it all clicked into a horrified reality. How had this happened? I was in Matt's body? I looked at her face and knew she was about to bolt. I did the only thing I could think to do. "Sherry, don't run. Don't be afraid."
I inwardly cringed at hearing Matt's voice come out of my mouth. She cringed, too, and leaned back a little. It hurt to see her retreat from me. This was not going how I had imagined, though I wasn't really sure what I thought she'd do. I was still a stranger to her, no matter than I knew every detail of her life.
"Matt, what are you doing here?" she asked me, jerking me from my thoughts.
“Sherry, listen, please. I know you’re scared of me and I know this sounds crazy, but I need you to open your mind and just listen to me for a minute, ok? I need you to come with me.”
We went back and forth and eventually, with wasted time strangling me with worry, I decided to lay all of my cards on the table, so to speak. "You don't have to fear me. I'm not…Matt."