Seer's Promise (Book 2 of The Seer Trilogy) - Excerpt Only

Seer's Promise - Excerpt (Chapter Five)

SEER'S PROMISE (BOOK TWO OF THE SEER TRILOGY)

By Maree Anderson

CHAPTER FIVE

Romana's stomach loop-de-looped. The people she'd glimpsed coming up the driveway worried her. It was their clothes. They didn't fit in. They looked like they'd walked off some movie set or something. And it was the "or something", and her suspicion about what the man was carrying over his shoulder, and the fact Maggie didn't respond to her questions, that made her pulse ratchet and prodded her to run down the last flight of stairs and through the open the door to the lounge.

She skidded to a halt.

The woman standing in the middle of the room looked to be in her twenties. She had thick waist-length reddish brown hair. She was beautiful, Romana noted, but her clothes were even more eye-catching. Their style was like nothing she had seen before. Dress, jacket and boots were all made of blood-red leather edged with black oval designs that looked kind of like eyes.

The woman smoothed her hair back from her temples, revealing a tattoo that could have been a stylized eye on her left temple. And Romana realized something even more strange. The woman's eyes were gold. They raked her from head to toe, absorbing every little detail, stripping off the veneer of teenage self-assurance that Romana clung to and seeing right to her heart. She shifted uneasily. "I'm Romana."

"I know," the woman said, soft and gentle but with an undercurrent of something strong and raw that made Romana even more uncomfortable.

"Oh. Um, do you know Maggie?"

"Yes. But I'm here to see you."

"Oh." She tried to think of something intelligent to say but the awkward silence intensified along with the woman's alien golden gaze, until Romana couldn't take it any longer. Her glaze darted away and fixed on a figure lying on the couch.

Unconscious? That couldn't be good.

He was big—strong-looking. And his features were exotic. High cheekbones, full lips for a man, olive skin. His longish dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her gaze swung back to the woman standing patiently in front of her. So familiar. Both of them. Why?

Recognition came with a sensation like a punch to the stomach that made her take a lurching step backward. No. It couldn't be. She sucked in a breath. And then another. A part of her mind screamed for her to relax but it was too late. The wheeze built deep in her chest and she stumbled toward the kitchen door. "Need... inhaler. Can't... breathe. Maggie!"

The monster inside her took full advantage of her weakness and tried to possess her. Her spine stiffened, fingers curling into claws. Sweat beaded, slid down her skin.

"Romana!"

The woman's voice cut through her growing panic and Romana found herself turned around again although no one had physically touched her. She glued her gaze to the woman's face, focusing on those strange golden eyes.

Let me help you, Romana.

The woman's lips hadn't moved but her voice echoed in Romana's mind. And then she heard, Please.

She nodded, feeling something—an upwelling of certainty that she could trust this woman. Her mother. And the instant she gave in and put herself completely in her mother's hands a warm glow centered in her diaphragm and spread quickly through her torso. Her breathing calmed and the tensed muscles of her chest and abdomen relaxed. Somehow she knew it would be okay. This time it would not win.

That's it. Good girl. Now let me join with you to fight this thing inside you. Let me in, Romana.

"Okay," she breathed. And felt a slight pressure behind her eyes, not uncomfortable, but insistent. All her barriers dissolved. Her mind felt like it had expanded, as though long unused neural pathways had suddenly flared to life. And the thing inside her roared to life.