Prologue
Jesse stumbled wearily along an abandoned street in the bad side of Westchester, New York. The 12-hour ride from Treegap had drained his energy, and he had left his motorcycle by a parking meter somewhere. He vaguely remembered that it wouldn't be there, though.A cop-or had it been some other official?-had confiscated it when Jesse had failed to put his last few quarters in the meter. But it didn't matter, he'd never use a motorcycle again...oh, that's right. He couldn't die. What a joke. Life was a big, shammish joke without her. Without Winnie.
Jesse's thoughts whirled around in his head, his eyes barely wide enough to register the dirty, cracked pavement, the random litter, trashed vehicles, the cigar smoke wafting from an overhead window. His love was gone, he'd come too late, why couldn't he just go, why, why, why, why...?
He never saw the fist coming before it slammed into his jaw.
Chapter 1
Jesse staggered backward, his jaw throbbing from the blow. A thug in a red ski mask stood in front of him, gun cocked and eyes wild.
"Wallet. Now"
Jesse just stared down the barrell of the pistol, wishing that he could die when it fired...
And suddenly the thug was gone. Jesse blinked, his sapphire eyes fighting the haze of smoke that suddenly flooded the alley. A boy- a boy, stood up from the shadows, revealing the thug's limp form lying on the acohol-soaked pavement with a small stream of blood running from his mouth.
Jesse blinked again, and barely had time to see the face of his underaged rescuer before he blacked out. But he had time to seethe eyes...
...and he realized they were yellow.