CJ Lyons - LUCIDITY

LUCIDITY

CJ Lyons

PRAISE FOR CJ LYONS:

"Adrenalin pumping." ~The MysteryGazette

"Riveting." ~Publishers Weekly Beyond HerBook

" Smart and intriguing, andher character development is so incredible that she leaves meliterally breathless waiting to see what will happen next."~ Becky Lejeune, Bookbitch.com

Lyons "is a master within the genre."~Pittsburgh Magazine

"Breathtakingly fast-paced."~Publishers Weekly

"A winner!" ~Romantic Times, Top Pick

"Simply superbriveting dramaa perfect ten."~Romance Reviews Today

"Characters with beating hearts and threedimensions." ~Newsday

"A pulse-pounding adrenalin rush!" ~LisaGardner

"Packed with adrenalin." ~David Morrell

"Engrossing, intriguing..." ~HeatherGraham

"An adrenalin rush and an all-around greatread." ~Allison Brennan

"Harrowing, emotional, action-packed andbrilliantly realized. CJ Lyons writes with the authority only atrained physician can bring to a story, blending suspense, passionand friendship into an irresistible read." ~Susan Wiggs

"Simply exceptional. The action never letsupkeeps you on the edge of your seat." ~Roundtable Reviews

"Explodes on the pageI absolutely could notput it down." ~Romance Readers' Connection

"A perfect blend of romance andsuspense. My kind of read." ~#1 New York Times Bestsellingauthor Sandra Brown

This book is a work of fiction. Anyreferences to historical events, real people, or real locales areused fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidentsare the product of the authors imagination, and any resemblance toactual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirelycoincidental.

Copyright 2010, CJ Lyons

All rights reserved, including theright of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Library of Congress Case #1-273031561

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for yourpersonal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or givenaway to other people. If you would like to share this book withanother person, please purchase an additional copy for each personyou share it with. If youre reading this book and did not purchaseit, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you shouldreturn to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you forrespecting the hard work of this author.

LUCIDITY

CJ Lyons

CHAPTER 1

Wrestling with Angels

Operating Room 6, case 3, to follow

Surgeon: Helman

Patient: Moran

Anesth: Warden

Procedure: temporal lobe biopsy

Equip: cranio tray, Lucidine protocol

Most of us only die once.

Death is something we fear, we avoid, westruggle against, denying its inevitability. Not so for GraceD'Angelo Moran. For Grace, dying held no fear.

Rather, it offered hope.

She had danced with Death, cheated Death,even stolen from its all-consuming greedy grasp. Now, finally,Grace knew her time had come. She was Death. Why else the paralysisof her limbs, the eerie disconnected feeling as if she floatedoutside her body?

She heard Jimmy's voice and began tostruggle, impatient, desperate to return to him. All those years ofher taunting Death, it should come as no surprise when Death choseto return the favor.

As always, it was Jimmy who provided her withmuch needed patience and solace. "Our love," his voice rang throughher mind, his Irish lilt as crisp as fresh-bloomed jonquils, "willlive forever."

He had used those same words, in both Englishand Gaelic, when he toasted her on the night they became engaged,drinking Guinness from champagne flutes, their glasses meeting witha sparkling chime.

"Promise?" Grace had asked, reaching her handwith its new shimmering emerald to wipe foam from his lip.

"Promise. Our love's too strong to die."

That had been four and a half years ago. NowJimmy's voice rang clear once more, pealing like church bells onEaster morn.

And so Grace struggled. Where washe?

Grace fought. Harder than she ever had inlife.

She gagged and retched, struggling with theunseen forces keeping her from Jimmy. She felt pain. First it wasfaint. Distant pins and needles in her toes. Then a stabbingspiraling into her chest as she tried to force her lungs toexpand.

If her head had been less muddled, she mighthave remembered that corpses don't fight to breathe.

But her entire being was focused on findingJimmy. It had been so very long. His voice was so clear in hermind, he had to be near.

As a final cacophony ricocheted through herhead, she wrestled her eyes open, anticipating being greeted byJimmy's wide grin.

A bright white light flooded over her,drowning her in its brilliance. Grace did not close her eyesagainst the radiance. Damned if she would. Not after fighting sohard to get here.

"What the--Eve, get her back under!" A man'svoice thundered through Grace's awareness, shattering thesilence.

"I'm working on it, Dr. Helman." Thesilhouette of a woman's head eclipsed the light filling Grace'svision. "It's a reaction to the Lucidine. Give me a second."

Grace's body bucked as an invisible forcedrove air into her trachea just as she was trying to breathe out.Her throat spasmed against the sneak attack. Tears seeped from hereyes.

Corpses didn't cry.

The woman turned toward her, revealing deepgrey eyes above a surgical mask, wisps of blonde hair escaping fromthe paper cap that covered her head.

"Hurry up! I'm drilling into her brain forchrissakes!" The unseen man's voice roared like a lion, dissolvinginto nonsense syllables as it penetrated the mists shrouding Grace.He sounded nothing like Jimmy. Where was Jimmy?

"You're at Angels of Mercy Medical Center,"the woman told Grace in the chipper tones of a disk jockeyannouncing top ten hits. Her hands flew in and out of Grace'speripheral vision, revealing fluttering glimpses of shiny glassampules. "I'm Dr. Warden. I'm going to put you back to sleep andwhen you wake up again everything will be all right."

Grace no longer fought the tears. She closedher eyes, surrendering the light.

The woman lied. Jimmy was dead. And she wasstill very much alive.

Everything would not be all right.

CHAPTER 2

The Escape

"Grace Moran. Thirty-two-year-old whitefemale presenting with new onset seizures. Yesterday, biopsyrevealed a fast growing, high grade glioma originating in the righttemporal lobe," Dr. Jonas Helman, Chief of Neurosurgery, was sayingwhen Vincent Emberek entered the conference room.

According to Vincent's watch, he was right ontime for the Tuesday afternoon Neurosurgical Case Conference, butobviously his watch and Dr. Helman's did not agree. Vincentshuffled his stack of files and sidled toward the rear of the room,hoping to go unnoticed.

The six neurosurgery attendings, each flankedby their own residents, surgical fellows and medical students, allturned to stare at Vincent as if he trespassed on hallowedground.

"Can I help you?" Helman asked in a frostytone, obviously irritated at having his presentationinterrupted.

So much for a low profile. Helman was thelast person Vincent wanted to piss off, not now when he needed thesurgeon's support. "Dr. Emberek, Pediatric Chief Resident," Vincentintroduced himself. "I was invited--"

"Right, the pygmy doctor."

Vincent ignored the insult. Helman probablywould have called him a "flea" if Vincent had introduced himself asa Medical Resident. What would the neurosurgeon call him if he knewVincent had completed both residencies? He was saved from replyingby the entrance of a smiling blonde who breezed in with noapologies for being late.

"Vincent, you made it." Dr. Eve Wardengreeted him with enthusiasm, taking his hand and leading him to achair. "Jonas, you remember Dr. Emberek," she called to Helman,ignoring the surgeon's glower. "I invited Vincent to presentKatherine Jellicle's case."