Her Secret Read Online Free

him like this wasn’t fair. But what
else could we do? I kicked at a rock, and kept walking. I came to
the end of the field and kept walking into the forest, the dogs at
my heels. Who cared what time it was? I wasn’t ready to leave yet,
so everyone was just going to have to wait.
    Minutes passed. The bright sun, the dogs’
exuberance, and light singing of the birds slowly wore down my
anger, replacing it with calm. As I walked back through the forest
towards home, I admitted I was looking forward to seeing Danial
tonight. It might not be possible, but I hoped to have some time to
talk with him before the stupid Lust raised its ugly head...
    I looked up just in time to see Cavity coming
to meet us, his bulky frame walking slowly down the trail from the
barn. Ghost raised his head and suddenly charged him, Darkness
following. Cavity froze, then bolted.
    “Stop that!” I yelled. I took a step forward,
and a gunshot rang out.
    Not surprising, it was hunting season now.
There were bears around, and they had become so numerous that a
season had opened on them. Some other hunting seasons, like coyote
or rabbit, lasted year round. Yet the gun hadn’t sounded like a
shotgun.
    Terian appeared beside me, his gun out. “We
heard the shot inside. Theo said it was a rifle not far west. You
see anyone?”
    “No. It’s those New Jersey people,” I said
with a sigh. “They are getting ready for deer season. You know they
opened the county north of us for rifles this year. There are going
to be yahoos out there with 30 aught 6’s terrorizing
everything—”
    I took a step toward him, and another rifle
shot cracked in the air. Suddenly, something hit me with enough
force to knock me off my feet.
     

Chapter
Two
     
    I lay on the ground
disgruntled for a moment, then pushed up with my arms. “What the
hell?”
    “Sar!” Theo ran up to me and went to his
knees beside me, pulling my top half into his arms as he checked me
over for injuries. “Are you okay?”
    Ghost and Darkness were barking, and
circling, still protective despite their fear of gunshots. Terian
stood over us, gun in hand, scanning the tree line.
    “You’re fine,” Theo said, his words rough
with emotion. He poked my side gently. “But it was very close.”
    I looked over my shoulder to where he was
prodding me. A slug was there embedded in my bulletproof vest,
shining in the sunlight. The bullet had just caught the vest and
missed the elastic strap. It the bullet had been lower, it would
have missed the vest altogether.
    I sagged in Theo’s arms, hugging him. “I
didn’t see anybody—”
    “Track them down,” Theo growled.
    Terian disappeared
    I couldn’t get past the bullet gleaming there
in the sun. “Thanks,” I said weakly. “If you hadn’t reminded me,
I’d have a hole in me.”
    “You’re going to be sore later,” Theo
cautioned, helping me up. “Come on, let’s get you inside.”
    We were almost back to the house when Terian
appeared, blackness oozing out of him like oily fumes. His eyes
shone redly, his anger so powerful that the colored contacts he
wore were unable to conceal his demonic nature. “It was a hunter,”
he grated out. “He didn’t know he was so close to the farm, or that
she was walking here.”
    “Did you kill him?” Theo asked, as if it was
a given.
    “Of course not,” Terian said, making a sound
of frustration. The blackness surrounding him ebbed, and then
disappeared as if it had never been. “You can’t kill someone for an
accident, even if they deserve it.”
    Theo looked over at him steadily. “Did you
make sure he won’t have any more accidents like this one?”
    “I put the fear of ages into him. I told him
that he’d narrowly missed shooting me. I told him that we hunted
here, and if we caught him here again, he would probably be
mistaken for a deer. He won’t be hunting here again, and neither
will his buddies.”
    I took a deep breath. “Look, I’m pissed off,
too, Theo. But he’s right. We