Tony helps me to my feet and I try to charge into the mess but he holds me back. "We need to look for them first, you can't see them out in the middle of that blood bath!" He tells me.
I search the crowd frantically looking for any sign of my mom and dad. There are too many people, which makes it impossible. The scene laid out in front of me is so intensely crazy that I can't even register everything that is happening. People run past us into the trees. We watch them with their faces filled with fear. Here and there, I can see the change of a person's eyes. Nobody understands the abilities and some go invisible, some run through others and some crumple to the floor holding their hands to their ears. Of all of the new gifts to have, hearing thoughts and feeling emotions has to be the most debilitating in this situation.
I know I need to find my parents but for the mean time, all I can do is try to help. I see a girl around twelve, fall to the ground a few feet from me. She balls into the fetal position and cups her hands over her ears. I run to her with lightning speed, scoop her up and deposit her a little ways into the forest where some others have gathered. Tony is at my side with a woman in a similar condition. He places her on the ground and we silently run back. We run back and forth helping people, who can't help themselves, to safety.
Returning to the clearing on my fifth trip I come across a Reaper kneeling over a young girl. The first thing I notice about the little girl is her red hair. "No!" I yell in a high pitch voice realizing that the little girl is Connor's sister, Lilly.
The Reaper put's his hand on the Lilly's head. "Stop!" I yell at him. Not waiting for a response, I pull the gun out of my back pocket, aim and shoot.
The Reaper falls down on top of her. I shove him off and work on picking Lilly up into my arms. She's passed out and fear for her overcomes me. I can't let anything happen to Connor's sister so I hold her tightly to me doing my best to protect her from the war around us. Tony comes to my side with another victim in his hands.
When we turn to take them to safety I see him standing in my path. Our eyes lock and his head cocks to the side. He eyes me with a cool, dangerous stare. I watch as the colors in his eyes twist and turn like a small tornado surrounding his pupils. My stomach clenches when a crimson red shadow overcomes the colored twisters, filling half of his eyes with the tint of blood. The shock of the sight nearly makes me drop Lilly.
Tony jumps in front of me in the next instant ready to attack him. His hands are empty, except for a gun.
"Hello Willow." The man says coldly, looking over Tony's shoulder, into my eyes.
The fear in my voice doesn't even sound like my own when I say, "Hello Zack."
To Be Continued....
Eye Colors and Their Meanings
Dark Green- Ability to read minds and hear thoughts. (Willow's first gift. Willow's original eye color: brown. Willow also absorbs other people's gifts when she is around them for a certain period of time. They still don't know how this is possible but some believe it's because she has a bit of Reaper in her. However, there is one major difference between Willow and a Reaper: Willow is still in touch with her humanity.)
Dark Blue- Ability to heal. (Alec's gift. Alec's original eye color: Emerald Green)
Hazel-yellow/green- Ability to compel people and make them do or believe what you tell them. (Zack's gift. Zack's original eye color: light brown)
Purple- Ability to turn invisible (Claire's gift. Claire's original eye color: icy blue)
Brown- Ability to change molecular structure and walk or pass through objects. (Connor's gift. Connor's original eye color- black)
Light Blue- Ability to see through people's abilities or see when someone is using a gift. (Candy's gift. Candy's original eye color: light brown)
Neon Yellow- Ability to possess great strength, speed, agility and immunity. Rarely, if ever, does someone with this ability get sick. (Willow's mom whose name is Alice, Sebastian and Tony's gift. As well as everyone else in the first compound. Alice and Sebastian's original eye color: Baby Blue. Tony's original eye color: Hazel Green.)
Copper Orange- Ability to see visions of the near future. This is an ability that is new to everyone. Nobody know's how far in the future this ability will allow its posseser to see, but currently Willow's dad has only been able to see a few minutes and no more than an hour ahead of time. In addition, with the knowledge of what lies ahead, they have been able to change the future outcome. For example, Willow didn't die during the attack on the hotel like the dad forsaw. (Willow's dad: Henry's gift.)
Black- Ability to read other people's emotions and intentions. In addition this ability allows the possesor to control the emotions of others. (Erik's gift.)
Red- Reapers, steal other people's abilities and drain their life from them. Not a lot is known about this power. Some believe that once a Reaper takes from someone that they only posess the ability for a limited period of time. This requires them to continually search for abilities to consume or in other words to help them power up. Because the process of reaping takes a lot of energy and a few minutes to completely drain a person, they don't bother using their powers on the people with yellow eyes. After all, the Reapers currently possess this ability since it was their first gift before they took the red shot that was supposed to cause instant death. Instead that shot caused the death of their humanity.
Acknowledgements:
Wow, God has blessed us to be able to do something that before had only been a pipe dream. We had no idea when we started on this adventure that we would finish one book, let alone four books. We are extremely grateful for the success he has granted us and for his biggest blessing of all, our Lord Jesus. (Philippians 4:13)
We appreciate all of the support we have received from book blogs, our favorite Facebook pages, our family and friends and most of all from our fans. Your encouragement kept us writing. All of your Facebook posts, Goodreads comments and emails that told us that you loved our books, made our hearts soar and made us want to write even better for you. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review our book and thank you to everyone who continues to read our work. A shout out to Mandy Buchanan with LEO Editing for making our words look pretty by editing the heck out them and for helping us keep our story line in check.
To Marya Heiman with Strong Image Editing: Can we just say that you totally rock our socks?! No words can express how much we appreciate and value the beautiful covers that you have created for each of our books. Your covers are the icing to our cake. If the icing didn't look beautiful or taste delightful, nobody would try the cake. You make our book look yummy to the tummy! <3
Last but not least: a giant thank you to our Awesome Sauce Street Team who are out there on the front lines helping us spread the word about our books. We love you all! Alexandra Louk, Alicia Guest Hall, Amy Stogner, Ashley Wood, Belinda Gallant, Bella Belikov Colella, Brittany Willis, Cassie Chavez, Cassie Hoffman, Colleen Reilly, Heather Garrison, Heather Heslip Alexander, Heather Piantanida-pipes, Irayda Quezada, Jaime Cross, Jamie Miller, Jenny Bynum, Jovhanna Caltzontzi, Karissa Stephens, Kristin Scearce Kim, Kristy Hamilton, Krystal Marlein, Lori Decker Fenn, Mayra Arellano, Melanie Martin, Melanie Newton, Michele Skinner, Natalie Walker Idrogo, Nikki Archer, Pam Mandigo and Samantha Truesdale.
Personal acknowledgements:
"Thank you Adam for being an amazing husband and for putting up with my 'cave' time while I plug away on my dreams. Thank you for listening to me talk for hours on end talk about our books. Your advice on weaponry and knife etiquette should be quite amusing to some of our female teen readers. I know it was to me when you first handed me back a knife and told me I handed it to you the wrong way. LOL! Thank you for walking me through the gun scenes and giving me the technical terms to use so I didn't just say gun and thing-a-majig. I lava you so much! <3 Thank you Trinity and Aiden for being the best kids ever. Trinity- Have I mentioned that you are my favorite daughter lately? Aiden- I know you know that you are my favorite son! Mom- I love you, thank you for listening to
me talk about books and I hope I didn't freak you out too much when I was talking about the Reapers. Have I told you that you are my favorite mom? I love you dad, thank you for being the first person in my family to read my books! Wow, when I look at my family I have to say that I am so blessed to have a family that keeps me on my toes and paints my life with such beautiful colors." *Smiles really big* ~Rebecca Gober
"To my family, the loves of my life, thank you for being you. My husband Kevin, thank you for putting up with my shortfalls as I strive to become the 'Proverbs 31 wife'. And a big thanks to my three beautiful children: Cameron, Chloe, and Kaleb, you guys are my constant in life and I cannot express in words how much y'all mean to me. To my mother, who is my biggest cheerleader, thank you for being all the parent I need. You showed me the joys of life from an early age and I'm so thankful for you always believing in me and instilling in me a stubborn heart to know never to give up. Thanks to Bob a.k.a. Pappy for having a heart bigger than Texas. We had a rough start but I'm so glad God brought you into my life. You are an amazing man. You always put a smile on my face when I hear your cheery whistle. ~Courtney Nuckels
About the Authors:
Rebecca and Courtney are downhome country girls powered by chocolate and other random late night cravings. Coined in southern twang they bring new meaning to the word y’all. BFI’s since the 6th grade, with a knack for getting into sticky situations, has resulted in countless ideas to write about for years to come.
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Courtney: http://www.twitter.com/nuckelsc
Rebecca: http://www.twitter.com/midnitebeckie
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Finding ELE (ELE Series #2) Written By: Rebecca Gober and Courtney Nuckels Page 20