Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle) (11 page)

Sarah
glanced out the side of the vehicle and
realized
that
they
were
only
a few miles
away
from
their destination. She
turned to look at him
as she
pushed
her
thoughts
into his
now
unguarded mind. When she
found his plan
Sarah
giggled at
the
mental picture of what Connor is going to ask Mark to do.

Sarah
turned
slowly to see Kara intently reading her
expression
s and trying to decipher
it
. “What was so funny?”

“
We
’
ll see how things turn out in the morning.
Then I might explain the joke.
” Connor
put in. He turned to look at Sarah
“Make s
ure your mind is guarded
. I don’t want to tip off either Jillian or Jack.
They’ve been good in that they’ve yet to touch my sister’s mind.
She
instantly erected a menta
l barrier of
the mark that was seared into
Connor
’
s
chest
.
Her
mind
became
closed
to all,
except to
Connor
.
“Thank you. Well
,
let’s visit them first
,
to keep off suspicion.
The only worry we will really have is if they read Kara’s mind. Mark will be unreadable to them
because he’s protected as a Changer
, but Kara is like an open book
for them
. It is a must that we keep them from jumping the gun, but especially from Jillian because she can tell that you are lying from a single glance.
”

“But she isn’t as good as you
are
in that department.”
He leaned in and gave her
a quick kiss on the lips, but it was
just
enough because Sarah
could
still fe
e
l the warm impression
of his lips
as if he w
ere still
continuing.

“Get a room!” Kara exclaimed while she turned around in her seat
,
looking forward.

“Remember he built a house
for her
instead
?” Mark added
,
rolling his eyes.

Connor fired back at them instantly “I can see that you two want to do the same. So why don’t the two of you get a room.” And they both went into silent shock after glancing at each other
’s red faces
in the front seat.

A few minutes later
they
arrived at
the
destination; Jenny’s home.

Their white house still looks the same as ever. The only difference
being
that since
t
hey
left
for the weekend
,
the front yard was cut and the driveway swept.

T
urning off the jeeps ignition
,
Jenny walked out
side
after hearing the motor’s
familiar
arrival
. She
remained
a
stunningly
beautiful middle aged woman who ha
s
a taut figure. She was wearing a blue shirt and grey shorts and walked through the grass barefooted. Her shoulder length
blonde
hair and dark brown eyes made her look quite young.
Connor and Sarah
were getting out of the back
of the jeep
when she asked “How was the camping trip
, kids
?
”

Kara quickly said “The weather was very beautiful, but Brother just had to find the colde
st stream for us to bathe in.” Sarah
saw her shudder involuntarily.
It really was a cold stream.

Jenny started laughing. “Anything exciting happed during the outing?”

All
eyes zeroed in on Kara to see what story she went with. Kara said
in a
giddy
way
“We did
see several tracks from wolves, but we didn’t get to see
what they looked like. Brother counted seven different tracks in the pack.
He said they had about seven in that pack.
”

I forgot about that.
When the four
of
them
we
re trailing through the woods they
discovered a pack of wolf prints and
Sarah
understood what the prints
now
meant. She
rea
ched for Connor’s mind because she
couldn’t wait to tell him
later
.
“Connor
,
when we found those prints you said that they were
either
chasing something or running away. Do you think that the grizzly ran them off?”

He didn’t let on that
they
were having a private
communication, but he di
d reply as he
pulled
out the
bags
from the rear
.
“A bear that big…
I suppose that they woul
d run away with a pack that size
… You have a point. Thanks
,
well that solves why the bear tracked us.”

“Why would
it
track us?”
Sarah’s
mental voice became confused
, but her
expression remain
ed
calm
.

“I noticed that the fruit trees, shrubs and most of the foliage was completely stripped bare. The bear was hungry and too slow to catch prey so it did the next best thing; it came after
some
careless
campers. To him
,
we would be an easy meal or
be able to
scare us away so he
could scavenge
for
any food we might have brought
with us
.”

Jenny caught Sarah’s
attention
by
asking
“… so did you have fun with everyone?”

“Yes I did
,
Jenny. It was informative.” Kara turned
to
offer
a tight lipped smile her
way.
Sarah
returned a smile back to her.
She really had relaxed from the
earlier meltdown.

“I’m just glad you were all safe
.” Jenny gave
her a loving smile. Sarah
could
always respect a woman who
raise
d
her kids as sing
l
e mother
and still have love to give
.
“
Did you learn anything new?” Apparently Jenny wanted some
more
details.

“Let’s see…” Sarah
tapped
her
bottom lip with
a
fingernail. “I saw how well the boys made a shelter and it was placed so that the night winds didn’t freeze us.”

“That was a smart idea.” She turned her head to the side to look at Connor.
She was up to something, but what could it be?
“Was there any trouble
that you aren’t telling me
about
?”

“Nothing Mark or I couldn’t handle
.” He said
nonchalantly
, wearing
his handsome s
mile while
Kara coughed
,
to cover up a
laugh.

“Connor
,
are you trying to give her enough information to figure what happened?”
Sarah
mentally chastised.

“Watch…”
and he was right. Jenny took Connor
’
s answer with a smile of reassurance and walked with Kara back into the garage.
“Mom knew something was going on between the four of us and I told her just enough to keep her satisfied and off our trail.
She is anything, but stupid.
”

Mark turned to Connor saying “That was
a
slick
comment
. I will have to remember that trick for the future.”
and
ended
up
smiling.

“Listen Bud, I think you should go home and do whatever you need to do for tomorrow. It might get a l
ittle…intense.
” Connor said
just enough to give
Mark
time
to fill in the blanks.

Now it
i
s time to prepare for the next
deadly
event.

Both Mark and Connor balled up their fists and pressed them together
. Mark turned and yelled to Kara and Jenny “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Jenny and Kara turned
,
waving goodbye and suddenly Kara tapped her temple while looking at
Sarah and she
took the hint.
“Sarah
,
tell Mark I will meet him at the backside of the house by Brother
’
s room.”
She
pulled Mark close and relayed
the
message
. W
hen
Sarah
finished the relay he turned and waved as he entered his jeep then he soon left.
He
left
for the day
.

“Are you two hungry?” Jenny asked
,
being a gracious host.

“Thanks Mom for the offer, but we have some things to do
before the day is done
.” Connor said as he hooked both his and
her
pack over each of his shoulders
,
with grace
.

“Ok then
.
I’ll see the two of you later.
Have a good night.
” She said
,
walking inside the front door to the house.

Connor turned to
her
and said “I’ll quickly run home and drop these off. I will meet you at your parent
’
s. I think later that we need to go into town and get some groceries.”

“Why? We should still have enough stocked at the house.”

“Tomorrow might get a little difficult and I think that we need to have enough stored
energy just incase we need to
keep the piece
.” Connor emphasized carefully.
She
could see how worried he was.
This wasn’t a game
to be taken lightly
.
His little sister’s life
i
s on the line and he wasn’t
taking
any chances.

“Better
to be
safe than sorry.” Connor nodded in agreement
with
her
words
as
they
walked across the street
,
to
her
parents.

The
electric
garage door
had already pulled the door up and Sarah
saw
her
blue car and
her
mother’s
ostentatious
red sports car
parked inside
. The log house had a new coat of red paint and it looked like
her m
other added some new
wild
flowers
in the flower garden
.
They did much during the weekend.

Connor quickly walked away from
Sarah’s side
and
took to
the tree line at the end of
her
parents property and suddenly vanished from
her
sight. Through
the
bond
Sarah
knew he was running at an unbelievable speed towards
their
home.