The Succubus Gift
BR Kingsolver
The history of the Clans, called the Sidhe by the Irish, stretches back to antiquity. The Goddess blesses Her people with 25 Telepathic Gifts. In addition to Telepathy, the Gifts include command over Air and Fire, Telekinesis and Teleportation. In over 2,500 years, She has never bestowed more than 15 Gifts on a single person.
Brenna Morgan was orphaned at eight when her parents were killed in a plane crash. Through one foster home after another, she carried the ornate, carved wooden box her mother had left with her, keeping it always a secret. Then one night she stumbles over a man who claims her as family.
Brenna’s life isn’t the same after she discovers her unusual and mysterious heritage. In addition to being a telepath, Brenna learns she has the Succubus Gift.
That’s just the beginning of her problems. Someone is stalking her. Then there’s the tall, dangerous woman who shadows her and hints a Goddess has linked them. And what is she going to do with a handsome, charismatic, womanizing man she knows she should avoid
Some days a girl just wants to pull the covers over her head and stay in bed -- with a willing young man of course.
The Succubus
Gift
We have been burned at the stake, locked up in asylums, drugged into a
stupor. We are secretive for our own protection. - Seamus O’Donnell
She noticed the young man immediately when he walked past
her, head down and in a hurry, but not only because he was so good looking. He
had no thoughts, no mental activity, and that grabbed her attention in a way
nothing else could have.
Following him, she stepped into a shop doorway when he
stopped and looked around. She didn’t need to keep him in sight. She could feel
his emotions, so strange coming from someone with no thoughts she could read,
different than all the other people on the streets. Checking her mental shields
to make sure they were as tight as she could make them, she followed him around
a corner. He didn’t look back, seemingly not aware she was there.
Moving closer as he turned another corner into an alley, she
stopped when he hesitated at the other end. He looked about before stepping out
onto the street, but he never looked back. Realizing he couldn’t feel her, she
closed the distance between them.
Scanning the area with her mind, she discovered two other
men, farther away, who also were mentally shielded. Their emotions were
completely different than his, and she shivered at the malice radiating from
them. Every time the first man changed direction, the others soon followed.
Although they couldn’t see each other, it was almost as though they could feel
each other, just as she could feel them. Through the maze of streets in
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor area, they danced across the city in the summer
twilight.
He walked into a bar just a block off the water. She knew it
had entrances on two different streets, and rather than follow him, she walked to
the corner, out into the street, and stood in front of one of the unusual old
triangular houses in this part of town. From her vantage point she could see
both entrances.
Coming out the other side, he walked in the opposite
direction, away from the harbor. He was doubling back, hoping to lose his
pursuers, but they weren’t tracking him by sight or sound. She watched a man
hesitate in front of the door the young man had used to enter the bar, stop,
and then turn around.
He was walking faster now and she was forced to break into a
run to keep up with him. He stopped in a small park, in a dark area near a
building, turning and waiting for her.
“Why are you following me?” he asked as she approached him. He
was tall with brown hair and blue eyes in his early twenties.
“Those men are following you. Do they want to hurt you?” she
asked, looking up at him. “They don’t feel the same as you do.” His blue eyes
widened. “They’re coming. They can feel you.”
“I can’t feel you, and I doubt they can either,” he answered
with a puzzled tone in his voice. “You’re an O’Neill.” He took a step toward
her. “Who the hell are you?”
She felt the other men at the edge of the park. “Why are you
afraid? Are they going to hurt you?”
“I don’t know. They
might try,” he answered, smiling nervously.
She covered him in her shield and saw his fists clench as
the other men approached. The sense of menace radiating from them increased as
they drew closer, moving stealthily. In the darkness, she couldn’t see them
clearly. Large men, even bigger than the young man she was following, they had
a rough look. One passed within only a few feet. He turned and looked directly
at them, but continued on. She could see he held a pistol close to his body.
“Holy Mary,” the
young man breathed when they were well gone.
She stepped close to him, out of the shadow, and looked up
at his face. It was the first time he could see her clearly. His eyes widened
in shocked surprise.
“Who are you?” she asked. “What are you? Do you know what I
am?”
He stared at her pale face wreathed in black hair. His mouth
opened, then closed. He swallowed and shook his head.
“Please,” she said, her voice cracking, “can you help me?
I’ve been alone for so long. Are there more people like us? Do you know where to
find them?”
*************
BUY THE FIRST BOOK IN THE TELEPATHIC CLANS SAGA, "THE SUCCUBUS GIFT", ON:
Follow BR Kingsolver Online...
