How The Allies of Old began: (Novella) BORN Chapter Twenty-Six "The Matter of the Girl""

Painting in Acrylic by @therealpaul

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9

Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15

Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18

Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21

Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24

Chapter 25

For those of you who missed the post of the release, I briefly explained how the series began as an idea for a Young Adult novel, and that I had in fact written what amounts to a novella taking place the summer before REBORN begins, and I decided to release it here on steemit.

BORN

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Come on Will, it can’t be a coincidence, same girl both times?”

Will made a face, “Actually it can be a coincidence, it’s not that strange for a young girl to react like that to a violent fight. And we really don’t have time for this.” They were following the de-man-one of the many terms they used to describe the possessed-and it looked like it was headed for the exit. If they were lucky they would finally catch up when it was alone so they could take it out.

“But if she can see them…”

Will shook his head, walking faster. “The last line of female seers died out over a century ago, you know this.”

Josh sped up to keep pace with his brother but continued to argue. “Actually I don’t know this. It is possible that hunters lost track of a line, or even several lines for that matter. As thorough as our brethren have tried to be, people could have slipped by, the ability could have stayed dormant through generations allowing them to go unnoticed. And if she is Faerian, she’d be a healer Will. And the way things are going, we could use a healer right about now.”

“Damn it Joshy, she’s just a kid. Even if you’re right, do you really want to drag her into this life? It’s dangerous for us and we’ve been training since we were barely out of diapers. Do you really want the death of a teeny-bopper on your conscience?”

Josh pressed his lips together and shook his head slowly. “No. But it’s not as if we’d have to bring her on missions, we could just get her info so if we’re ever need of her healing prowess we’d know where to find her.”

Will stopped and swore under his breath as he watched the fucker jump into a cab. He memorized the license plate and took off at a run to where his car was parked. He could hear Josh’s footfalls just behind him and hoped that having to leave the area would settle the matter of the girl. No way was he pulling some cute chic into this mess of a life just because she could see them. Though he did feel a slight twinge of concern when he recalled the way she’d stared at the evil bastard. She shouldn’t call attention to her abilities, it was asking for trouble. Maybe Josh was right, they should at least have a talk with her. But it would have to wait until they’d caught this particular piece of trash.

He slid into the driver’s seat and Josh jumped in beside him. “Did you catch the plate number?”

Josh nodded, already on his phone making a call to a friend to get GPS tracking the taxi for them as Will peeled out of the lot and headed in the direction the car had gone.

Josh disconnected the call and Will filled him in on his thoughts about the girl. “You can find her, right, computer nerd that you are.”

Josh grunted. “Should be able to. At her age she’s bound to be on every form of social media. Just have to sort through all the people posting about Grassroots.”

“Good. Now get your head in the game, we’ll worry about that after.”

**

Anna and Austin walked through the grove of trees and apparently everyone had returned while they were busy with “therapy”. The canopies were crowded with people, the girls among them. Anna stopped suddenly.

“What is it?” Austin asked as he noted the strange expression on her face.

“I need to gather the girls and bring them over to your camp. Go back.” She ordered. Austin’s brow arched but he obliged.

Once under Austin’s canopy she took a deep breath and blurted, “I’m rich!”

This statement was followed by a confused silence, particularly in Austin’s case since he probably thought she’d decided to confess to them what she had to him.

“What…” he started to ask and she held up a hand.

“Sorry, I hadn’t planned on starting with that. I guess that’s what happens when you hold something in for days.” She smiled sheepishly then proceeded to explain.

“As you all know my mother’s parents died when I was little. Well it turns out they were ridiculously wealthy, and I was named as their sole heir. My dad told me this right after graduation but he didn’t offer many details. Just gave me a short speech about how he trusted I already knew what truly mattered in life then handed me a slip of paper with a name and phone number on it. He said it was for a financial manager my mother had hired to take care of everything and when I tried to ask him for further explanation he told me “Just call this Marty Jenkins”, and made it clear the subject was dropped.”

“Wait,” Holly interrupted, “you said you were holding it in for days, but graduation was weeks ago.”

Anna made a face, “Yeah, that’s because I didn’t call him right away. I felt weird about it. All I even knew about them was that they hated my dad simply because he wasn’t born into the right family and basically disowned my mom until after they’d learned I was born. And that probably wouldn’t have changed their mind either if my mom hadn’t been their only child. From the things my mom said the few times she even talked about them, I gathered they had been hoping she would “come to her senses” and leave my dad so they could have the marriage annulled and find her a “proper match”. But having a baby changed that because an annulment would have made their grandchild a bastard, which is apparently worse than her marrying beneath her station or some kind of nonsense.” Anna stopped for a moment and frowned, explaining all of this to them was bringing back to her full-force the reasons why she had waited so long to make the call. She was still pissed off at these people she realized. But still, she didn’t want the freaking government or some other kind of bureaucrat, or whoever, to get the money either. She…

“Anna? You there?” Macey teased.

“Yeah, come on Anna, you’re killing us with the suspense here!” Jenna admonished.

Buy Your copy of The Allies of Old: Reborn HERE-

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=linnet+mclaughlin

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