Unveiled: A Paranormal Urban Fantasy Novel (The Dark Skies Trilogy Book One) Read Online Free

at the strange green smoke growing thicker and thicker by the second. "Maybe it gummed up the engine or something."
    “I think we should get out of here,” Phoebe suggests. “Before we get burned up alive.”
    “Yeah, let’s walk down to my house and call for help,” I say, feeling very nervous.
    “The fire is gone.” Ruby’s just staring at the red glow of the SUVs’ taillights. They’re just about to vanish into the green veil-like smoke about 100 yards down the fire road. “I think we should follow them. They wouldn't be here if there wasn't something good going on back there.”
    She’s right. The fire seems to be gone. It seems like this whole area should be engulfed in flames, but there's no visible sign of flames. However, the sickly green smoke continues to drift out from somewhere down the fire road.
    "You're not actually following that scary line of SUVs into a fire?" Phoebe replies.
    "What fire?" Ruby smirks, daring us to do something. “Look around. It’s gone.”
    “Wait. What? You’re right.” I roll my window down. The fire that was blazing back in the canyon a moment ago appears to be out. "So if there’s not fire then where's the smoke coming from?"
    "Only one way to find out." Ruby pops the door open and slinks low out of the driver's seat. "I'm going to find out what's happening."
    For a split second, I can't decide what to do. It doesn't seem safe. But I'm more than a little curious to see this meteor up close. Especially, if it's going to be responsible for me moving again.
    And now that I know my uncle is all safe and sound back at our house, I don’t mind postponing the inevitable lecture I’m going to get when I go home.
    I glance at Ruby, my best friend, as she fumbles with her phone, and feel a sudden pang of sadness. I don't want to be uprooted again. I don't want to be the new kid for the 11th time in 12 years.
    I want to stay here in warm, sunny Central California; a place I like, with real friends, a place where I feel like I belong.
    "Wait!" I call after her, even though I'm pretty sure I’m going to regret this. "I'm coming with you."
    "You guys are nuts," Phoebe spits out, defiantly crossing her arms. "You crazy people go get yourselves all burned up, arrested, and shot if you want. I'm staying right here."
    "Fine," Ruby shrugs as I catch up to her. "You and your precious car can just wait here by yourself."
    The good news is there really doesn't seem to be any fire in sight. The bad news is the SUVs are quickly fading away. We edge into the shadows after we pass through the yellow gate.
    Squinting through the fog, I can just make out the fuzzy lights of the SUVs parked down the road.
    “If we don’t walk a little faster, we’re going to lose them,” I say, trying to speed Ruby up a little.
    But she's busy trying to keep her smartphone steady to videotape through the fog. “How can we lose them? There’s only one road.”
    Then, all of a sudden, the weirdest thing happens. We cross some invisible boundary and somehow the fog completely vanishes. We’ve stepped inside a perfect circle of crystal clear air surrounded by a perimeter of green smoke.
    It's like we're inside of an enormous invisible dome of clean air.
    "What the what?" My jaw drops as to Ruby as we dart off the road, now feeling vulnerable in the clear air.
    “This is getting good,” Ruby grins, adjusting the screen of her phone as she records.
    “What should we do?” I say, looking back over my shoulder.
    “We should keep going,” she replies, creeping onward through the brush without waiting for me. I have to hustle to keep up now.
    Parked in a semi-circle, the SUVs seem to be using their headlights to illuminate a clearing in the canyon. We edge forward to the dark perimeter of the lit area.
    "Whoa!" Ruby grabs my sleeve with one hand and gestures with the hand that holds the phone. "Check that out."
    And then we see it. The meteor.
    The size of a small car, it rests on a bare patch of earth