The white sweatshirt and blue sweatpants were torn beneath the broadened frame of the body, but even without the clothing, Lilah would still recognize the man beneath the beast. The eyes were all she needed to identify her love. The ripple she had seen come across his face that night on the couch. This was it. It was the wolf inside of starting to appear. That was what she had seen that occupied her mind for so long after wondering what it meant.
Slowly and without realizing she was doing it, she lifted her hand to the side of his face. Just before she made contact, a voice screamed from behind her with an urgency that suggested it wasn’t the first attempt to catch her attention.
“Lilah!” her Uncle Todd yelled.
It snapped her to her senses, and she dropped her hand as she turned to see the people gathered on the top of the stairs. Her uncle and Eloise were well known to her, but the man standing between them she had only seen one other time when she left her body and visited him while he was being held against his will.
The last thing she saw before she passed out was the gaze of Fire staring deep into her eyes filled with concern and something else she couldn’t quite make out at first. ‘Gratitude,’ she thought as darkness took hold and she collapsed.
Earth
The Elementals: Book Two
Available May 2020
“Did you hear me, Everleigh?” Judd asked.
She opened her eyes, and tried to say, “No.” It came out as a hoarse whisper.
“I said it’s time. I’m going to lift you to the wheelchair. The nurse insisted I not carry you all the way out.”
“Okay. Go ahead.”
Judd leaned over and carefully lifted and carried her to the wheel chair that was waiting by the door. He did it so effortlessly one might think he was a health nut and a regular at the gym if they didn’t know better. He removed the brakes from the wheels and started pushing her down the hall. “You really did give me a scare,” he whispered to her as they headed toward the exit.
That couldn’t be right she thought. She was the one who had feared for her life. If she was alive, it didn’t bode well for what might have happened to Jackson. In the state he was in, there would be very few options to tame him. The most logical was also the most permanent.
The automatic doors opened, and Judd stopped, putting the brakes back on the wheelchair before coming around to lift her again. Everleigh laid draped over his arms while he walked her through the parking lot as easily as a person might carry a folded umbrella.
“Where’s Jackson?” she mumbled, but there was no answer.
Judd walked to the side of Jackson’s pickup truck and still holding Everleigh easily with one arm, he opened the passenger door with his other hand then glided her onto the seat. Making sure she was completely inside before he closed the door, he told her to sit tight, and she’d feel better in a minute.
He opened the driver’s door and climbed up in the cab. “Ready?” he asked her.
Everleigh thought he meant was she ready to leave, so she nodded then fastened her seatbelt. When she looked up, Judd was extending his right arm exposing a freshly bit wrist dripping in blood in front of her face. She clamped her mouth shut and squirmed against the back of her seat trying hard to get away from it, but he only inched closer. Tears fell down her cheeks. This was the last thing she wanted.
“Look,” he told her sternly. “The only reason we came here instead of doing this from the start is because the neighbors heard you scream and called the police. I had barely hid Jackson’s body before they showed up. There you still were on the floor of the garage unconscious. Hell! They gave me an escort to the hospital!”
He had dropped his arm away from her, and she could see the wound was almost healed. “I don’t want to, but thank you for offering,” she told him politely.
“For offering?” he cried out. Putting both hands on the steering wheel, he took several deep breaths. “I know, Everleigh. I know why you don’t want to drink.” He sighed and looked at her. “But I am not sending you home in your condition. I am not facing the wrath of your grandmother.”
He bit into his wrist again, and held it out to her. “Please.”
Still she hesitated.
“Please don’t make me do this the hard way,” he told her sternly.
Everleigh nervously leaned her head forward to his wrist.
“That’s it. You only need a few drops. It doesn’t have to be much.”
She parted her lips, and he brought his wrist to her mouth. The bitter taste of iron covered her tongue immediately, and she started to gag.
Judd pulled his arm away. “That’s enough. You’ll be healed before we get home.”
The last thought she had before the hallucinations set in was she might be physically healed that quickly, but the effect of the blood in her system would take most of the night to fade.
About the Author
Jennifer Lush is a mother of three from central Illinois where she has lived her entire life while dreaming of grander things. Aside from spending time with her children and grandchild, writing and traveling are her two main consuming passions. Luckily, they are mutually beneficial.
Writing has always been in her blood even if it took her longer than planned to get it accomplished. One of her earliest memories of longing to be an author happened in kindergarten when she told her parents what she wanted to be when she grew up. There was a long list of careers including book store owner, and she planned to write books in her free time. It took close to four decades, but she has finally made that childhood dream come true.
Jennifer is an entertainer at heart who is always putting a smile on the faces of people around her and making them laugh. She can turn any mundane event into a story worth repeating with flair. Inspiration for her fictional worlds comes from any and everything. There are more ideas floating through her mind than she has time to write, but she is determined to finish as many as possible.
Air: The Elementals: Book One Page 28