A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

Mindy.
    Earth’s embrace
lightened, and Mindy felt the footsteps of a man nearby.  Too close. 
Watching.  Earth whispered, “Wake up Mindy. Warn your sisters.”
    Mindy’s eyes
filled with tears as they often did when she had to leave Earth’s warmth.  She
pushed herself up and staggered to Raven whose eyes were closed as she fiercely
concentrated on something in the sky.  Mindy didn’t know Air. She was a passing
acquaintance to Mindy.  Sometimes the breeze would kiss her cheek and sometimes
she would hear a whisper from one of the winds, but Raven belonged to Air and
Air belonged to Raven. 
    Mindy grabbed
Raven’s arm and shook her violently, shouting, “Stranger. Stranger.”
    Raven jerked,
yanking herself away, “Mindy, you scared the sunny clover out of me.”
    “Help. 
Stranger,”  Mindy pointed to the woods where she had felt the man’s feet upon
Earth, an unclean man, not in the physical sense, but spiritually filthy, a man
whose intent was to hurt.
    She felt him
leaving, tracking his evil footprints across her Earth.  She wanted Raven to
feel him, to believe her.  Jade always believed her.  Only Jade. Not even Mom,
but Mindy thought Mom just pretended not to believe her sometimes to fool the
other girls.
    Mindy pointed
again, “Air watches too.”
    Raven shook
herself and Mindy could see that she understood.  While Raven tried to see the
man, Mindy crept to the water.
    “Claire? 
Stranger. Come in now,” Mindy knelt near the water, not too close.  Mom and
Jade told her exactly how close she could go, so she put her knees on the line
and leaned as far as she could get to call for her sister.
    The water bubbled
near the bank.  Mindy called again, “Claire!”
    A fountain of
water burst from the creek, the spray drenching Mindy. Mindy stood as the cold
water soaked into her princess sweats. 
    “Nooooooo,” she
wailed.
    Mindy ran from the
water, frightened.  Water didn’t speak much to her.  Water scared her, mostly
because it belonged to Claire.  If Claire hated her, maybe Water did, too. 
Mindy couldn’t trust it.
    Raven opened her
eyes and said in a strangled voice, “Claire, Mindy, get in the house now.”
    Mindy, still
sputtering, had already run to the porch of the rambler and was standing
huddled and looking miserable as she dripped onto the wood. Claire was coming
up out of the water, her head forming first.  Raven ripped off her leather
jacket, annoyed that it was about to get wet.  For a moment she almost thought
the jacket more important than her sister’s dignity, but Air remonstrated her,
giving her the scent of the man watching.
    Raven asked Air to
send a swirl of dirt and leaves into the man’s eyes.  Air complied. As Claire
stepped out of the water, Raven moved to block her from the stranger. Raven
wrapped her coat around Claire.  “Run to the house and keep that coat wrapped
around you.  Get inside. I’ll get your clothes.”
    Claire’s clothes
were strewn along the grass a few feet from the bank.  Bertha and Mom had
planted grass all the way to the edge of the bank.  It stopped with an abrupt
drop of a couple feet into the water. Raven felt a sick fear as a strange image
rose in her mind.  It was the image of her father burning. The memory played
over and over in her head as she picked up Claire’s trainer bra, her underwear,
her t-shirt.  Raven knelt on the grass, her stomach heaving. 
    As her stomach
revolted, she remembered the flesh melting, the stench.  She tasted toast and
jam as they came back up, spewing across the grass while tears streamed down
her face.  Her whole body shook with the memory. 
    Mindy, soaking wet
and shivering, ran across the back yard to Raven.  She put her hand on Raven’s
shoulder.  “Stranger.  Come home, Raven.”
    Raven trembled as
she grabbed Claire’s shorts. Mindy tugged on her sleeve.  Raven seemed to wake
up out of her flashback as Mindy said, “Cold. Raven.”
    With a hand on
Mindy’s shoulder,