Shadow Flight (Shadow Riders 5)

If Nicoletta hadn’t been so far gone on Taviano, she would have been pledging the heavens that, like Pia, she would be having Kain’s children. He was awesome. His songs were beautiful. Lyrical. His body was ripped. Hot.

His mother was Ethiopian, his father Greek, and he got the best of both worlds when it came to his looks. His eyes were dark chocolate, his hair black and very curly, wild enough for some of the curls to drip down his forehead when he moved on the stage, which only added to his sexy appearance. He produced his own music, wrote his own songs and burst onto the music scene so fast, no one saw his star streaking to fame until he was already there.

His following began online, his concerts were sold out nearly the first hour the tickets went on sale and he was winning every award possible. Nicoletta knew he was only going to get bigger and bigger in the music industry. She liked that he was up-and-coming but still hands-on with the stage productions so that his vision of music and stage went together. It added to the feel of the music and the way it was presented, so that when you were actually there, the notes vibrated through your body as the lights dazzled your eyes and put you into the song with him.

She loved his voice. She loved the lyrics. She loved the actual rhythms and the guitar riffs, the drums, the way everything came together with the lights, and the energy of the crowd. Pia, Bianca and Clariss were gyrating and waving their arms, jumping up and down and dancing with the others.

Nicoletta found herself pulling more and more energy off the crowd, the stage, the singer and the incredible music. It fed her soul. Her body sang, feeling renewed and strong. She loved going to concerts. Lucia had been the first one to take her to a concert, and the moment the singer had come out onstage and all those things had come together—crowd, music and singer—something in her had reacted to that energy, and she felt a difference almost immediately. It was healing to her. Spiritual almost. She’d told Lucia, and Lucia had acted on it. Wonderful Lucia. Giving her everything and anything she needed.

She’d been to many concerts and then she’d discovered Kain’s music. He’d just been starting out online, but she played his songs over and over and danced in her room to them. When she couldn’t sleep and the nightmares were too close, she listened to them, sang the lyrics and let them carry the worst of her past away.

His concerts were incredible, lifting her, elevating her to another place. Unlike the other women in the crowd, who came for the sexy man and his voice—most of whom were young and well dressed, many of them actresses, models or even singers themselves, well-known celebrities who followed Kain now—she came for the entire package, including the energy of the crowd. It swallowed her past. Ate it up. Gave her back her life.

Pia bumped her with her hip. “Isn’t he amazing?” She shouted it.

“He is.” Nicoletta had to agree.

“I’m in love!” Clariss yelled.

“Me, too,” Bianca said. “You can have his babies, Pia. I’ll work and support you.”

Pia blew her sister kisses as the band swung into the next song. They were in the front. Naturally, Taviano had gotten them the best seats possible and they could dance right up to the stage where the bodyguards allowed them close. The lights played over them and cameras panned, throwing images up on the huge screens behind and on each side of the band. That way even in the far back, everyone could see Kain and the incredible sexy movements of his body as he made his way across the stage with his blend of hip-hop and R& B.

His music was at times elegant and dark, but always hypnotic. The atmosphere he created with his songs and voice was mesmerizing. When he added in his stage presence and lighting, the moody colors and pounding beats, he enthralled an entire audience from the moment he stepped on stage.

Nicoletta turned her face up toward him, arms reaching, basking in his magic, needing his dark, twisted lyrics that always spoke of the worst of times somehow finding their way to becoming right. The steps were long, the road rocky and painful, the losses heavy, but the agony was worth it in the end. She knew that road. She’d traveled it. She was coming out the other side.

She always felt as if Kain had journeyed similar paths, or how could he write songs so filled with the truth of exactly what it was like to suffer the worst that humans could do to one another and then give hope? He gave hope to millions of listeners through his lyrics. When she closed her eyes and just let his voice and the sounds of his band bathe her skin, flow into her veins, taking her further and further from those few short years when she lived in New York with her three step-uncles …