Page 24 of The Mating Need
A blonde woman carrying a baby came onto the porch, and headed for the sandbox. She placed the baby on the sand, and pushed a green plastic toy truck at him. The baby, who looked about a year old, babbled as he picked up the truck and wavedit.
“Don’t eat the sand this time, Hunter. Stay here and I’ll be right back after I check on those pies for tonight’sdinner.”
The woman, Hunter’s mother she assumed, ran back into the house. Hunter looked around and babbled again. Then the baby pointed at the tree where Jennyhid.
She stepped out. “Got me, kid. Can you tell me why this nasty thing is hanging around your house? I should tell your mama. I bet she wouldn’t leave you out here alone if she knew whatlingered.”
The child’s eyes widened. He pointed again to the tree. Interesting. Jenny turned and examined thetrunk.
Rugged beneath her fingertips, the maple tree bark seemed ordinary. But then she felt a slight indentation, as if a woodpecker had drilled inside. Jenny backed away and studied thehole.
The phosphorus green glowed from inside. Now was not the time to shirk her odd powers. Culling them together, she stared at the hole, willing whatever was inside to come out. Jenny felt her mind reach into the trunk and yankhard.
Her heart raced as a small black stone floated in the air. The baby babbled again and leaned away, as if he knew this was not a goodthing.
Especially next to hissandbox.
The stone floated into Jenny’s outstretched palm. The silvery sheen covering the blackness glinted in the sunlight. It looked like a crystal, but beneath the stone glowed green. It stunk of the miasma of evil permeating thisarea.
What the hell wasit?
The baby began to wail as she bounced the stone in her palm. Jenny turned as the back screen door slammed and the blonde woman rushedout.
She took a few paces back as the woman grabbed thechild.
“Stay back. I don’t know what this is, but I found it in your tree and it’sevil.”
Expecting the woman to castigate her or run away, she was surprised to see her nod. “Finally, someone found the source. Can you destroyit?”
A loaded question. Truly, a peculiar one as well. “Why do you think Ican?”
“Because you’re the only one who found it and we’ve been searching for days, so you must have some abilities my mate and I don’tpossess.”
The woman stuck out a hand. “I’m Samantha, and this is our son,Hunter.”
Jenny ignored the obvious question in the woman’s voice. She wasn’t about to share any personal information and names werepersonal.
“Get back and keep the baby safe. I’m not sure if this will work and I don’t want anyone to gethurt.”
Samantha went into the house and returned without the baby, watching from the porch. Jenny turned her back and looked at theforest.
The stone burned in her palm, making it itch beneath her skin. And yet she felt a surety with this, knowing what it was and what must be done. Once she had been a terrified Lupine caught in a cascade of bullets hailing from a helicopter. Now she felt in her gut that she had the power for a reason, and needed to use it. No, she must useit.
Destroyit.
Jenny closed her eyes, pulling on every molecule of magick in her body, envisioning it as a grayish white streak of pure light. She flung the stone into the air and opened her eyes, directing the light streaming out of her fingertips into the stone’scenter.
The crystal exploded, then disintegrated into powder and suddenlyvanished.
“Amazing,” Samantha criedout.
Shaken, she dusted her hands. Never before had her powers manifested themselves with suchforce.
She had the magick within her to obliterate solid matter. Who ever heard of a Lupine possessing suchpowers?
It felt as if she’d opened the lid to a dangerous chest. Pandora’s Box, but instead of releasing evil, it vanquished it. She had no desire to use this power for her own gain ormoney.
Instead, she only wanted to retreat back into theforest.
