Through the Veil: The Complete Series

Chapter 1

“Isee dead people.”

Callie Brooks wasn’t really a fan of horror movies, though she’d sit through them if she had to.

Suspense flicks, too. She didn’t like to be scared and couldn’t understand why people put themselves through that on purpose.

But when Mitch settled on watching last year’s biggest hit for movie night a couple of weeks ago, she’d been too tired to argue for her choice.

She’d rented Bring it On from Blockbuster, so glad to have snagged the last copy, but Mitch came home with Sixth Sense and she reluctantly agreed.

After all, she argued for Coyote Ugly over his choice of American Psycho last time. It was his turn this go-round.

To her surprise, she actually got into it—mainly because she felt for the poor kid. I see dead people... Callie knew exactly what that was like. Change dead people to faerie creatures and that could be the tagline for her entire life.

Shoot, even the child psychologist part was dead-on. Except, you know, for her doctor not being dead. Dr. Forrest was no Bruce Willis, and while the old dear tried her best to help Callie with her visions, she didn’t understand.

No one did.

Which was exactly why, one day, Callie just…

stopped. She stopped reacting, she stopped being afraid, and she stopped telling her parents about the things she saw.

So long as she acted like she couldn’t see them, the creatures left her alone.

Her parents backed off with the doctor appointments.

And Callie could pretend that she was normal.

Pretend, of course, being the key word there.

It seemed to work out so far. Callie was twenty-two now, living in the city, working as a budding photographer.

Well, she processed and developed film at Buster’s Photo, but her boss—the infamous Buster—let her hang up some of her prints and she even sold a couple.

As far as Callie was concerned, it counted.

Hey, she might as well use her sight to her advantage. When she could see things that no one else did, it showed up in her work, making her photographs something unique—and she wasn’t just saying that. Even Buster admitted that she had the sight.

Whenever he said that, Callie laughed. Poor guy. He didn’t know the half of it.

While her favorite types of shots were candids, unless she got her subjects to sign waivers, she couldn’t put them up for sale. That was fine with Callie. She was able to shoot photos just for herself—considering it practice—while using her photographs of scenery to pull in some extra cash.

People in the city really got a kick out of her nature shots.

She figured it had something to do with being surrounded by asphalt and skyscrapers and trucks belching black smoke everyday.

The lush green of the grass, the vibrant blue sky, the towering trees…

her customers loved it, especially when she told them that each picture was actually taken inside of the city.

Not too far from Buster’s, and within walking distance of her apartment, there was a park that Callie considered both her haven and her sanctuary.

It was a total tourist spot, but she didn’t mind.

She’d grown up in a happy home with her parents and two older sisters and, now that she was basically on her own, she liked to be a part of the hustle and bustle of the community while still being able to return to the quiet of her apartment after.

While she considered her roommate her closest friend, Mitch was also a workaholic.

Callie worked full-time hours for Buster, but her hours were early: from six am to one pm, five days a week; she was a morning person, and sometimes even went in an hour earlier with Buster’s permission to process her own film off the clock.

Mitch, though? He worked more than fifty hours in an office, doing some kind of dot com thing that she didn’t understand.

Good thing she didn’t have to know what it was he did for Mitch to pay his portion of the rent on time.

Recently, he kept telling her that he was working toward a promotion.

The new job would come with a huge pay raise.

That, coupled with Callie’s occasional sales, might mean they’d finally be able to get a better apartment as the two of them started to make it big in the city.

And, sure, Callie knew that Mitch was trying to one-up his older brother—who happened to be married to Callie’s sister, Ariadne—but so long as they had a roof over their head, she was totally fine with that.

Fine… that was a pretty decent way to describe Callie these days.

Just fine. Content, too, if she was being honest. It had been an adjustment, leaving the suburbs behind for the city, especially since she caught sight of far more other beings mingling in the city crowds than she ever did back home.

The way she saw it, though, it was just further practice for her to keep on acting as if she couldn’t.

Most of the time, she pulled it off.

And then there were times like now…

It was a bright summer afternoon, and Callie had already finished another full shift at Buster’s.

It was a good one. She had a line on a sale: one of Buster’s buddies who seemed drawn to a photo Callie had taken of a particular tree in her preferred park at the beginning of spring.

Between the dandelions sprouting in the dew-covered grass, the faint shadow falling behind the tree that highlighted its strange shape, and a robin caught mid-flight, it epitomized the previous season.

He had promised he’d have an answer for her during her next shift, and if he leered a little as he kept her hanging, Callie just managed to hold onto her smile.

He wasn’t the first customer to flirt with her or imply that he’d throw money at her for one night in her bed.

She was a pretty young woman who knew it, and who also made no apologies for it.

She drew the line at taking money for something that wasn’t for sale—when it came to bed partners, she was choosier than her sex drive probably appreciated—but if he kept her on the hook, it only seemed fair that she could do the same.

Especially when the older gentleman mentioned in a completely not off-handed way that he might know someone willing to give a young photographer a shot at her own showing—and all because he saw something in her stunning spring photo.

And if he liked the spring photo…

Callie patted her camera bag as she strode through the local park.

Now that it was summer, she thought she might make a series of it.

The tree itself was in an unusual spot. Set apart from most of the much taller oaks that bordered the park, this one was half the size, a totally different species that Callie hadn’t been able to identify.

Maybe because it was blackened and twisted, nature turning it into something other than it was supposed to be.

Kind of like Callie.

A single bench was perched catty-cornered from the tree.

In the spring and the fall, it was often occupied since there weren’t any others nearby, but that changed when the weather did.

In the colder months, the wind blew right through anyone sitting out in the open, while the summer sun left anyone daring enough to take a seat blistering in the heat.

Callie didn’t mind. In fact, she was grateful to find it was empty again when she arrived since that gave her plenty of space to set down her camera bag and set up her supplies.

Besides, knowing this was her plan, she covered her fair skin with sunscreen, leaving her long, white-blonde hair to settle over shoulders as she sat down on the edge of the bench before glancing over at the tree across the way.

She needed to make sure that none of the other park goers had laid their blankets beside it or were sunbathing near it, blocking her shot.

A glance, and then a double-take.

The grass was empty. But next to the grass? In a bright patch of sun, lurking at the edge of the park, stood the most beautiful man she’d ever seen before in her life.

No, she corrected an instant later. Not a man—a male. Because while he appeared human, he most definitely wasn’t.

He was other.

It was only fitting that he was standing in the sunlight since he seemed to absolutely gleam.

With skin the color of rich bronze, he had a tan that must’ve been ingrained all the way down to his bones.

The long, silky-straight tawny hair falling like a sheet down his back made his skin seem even darker. And his eyes…

They were sun-colored too, a striking golden shade that almost flashed as his head cocked in her direction.

It was that flash that made her so sure that his unearthly irises would appear so shiny.

She’d never seen this particular male before, but she’d caught glimpses of a few of his kind over the years—and she’d never been able to stop her instinctive reaction to get the hell away from them.

Stunning, but dangerous. A perfect predator—

A lump lodged in her throat right as her eyes locked on his.

Uh-oh.

—and she was snared in his trap.

For the first time in years, Callie forgot her number one rule: don’t let the faerie folk know that you can see them. She learned long ago that it was easier that way, and it kept her both safe and sane… until she undeniably met his gaze.

Hoping he hadn’t noticed the way she stared, she ripped her gaze away from him, unsettled that it took more of her willpower than it should. She moved her camera bag closer, fiddling with the zipper, ducking her head while she dared to peek back up at the tree.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the male faded from sight, leaving behind a vaguely hazy patch that, now that she had seen it, she could no longer ignore.

He was standing by the tree, but now he wasn’t. From the recognition low in her gut to the gleam of his sun-colored eyes, she knew instinctively that he’d never been in the park.

He hadn’t even been in her world.