Hope(less) (Judgment of the Six) Read online

  Hope(less)

  By Melissa Haag

  Hope(less)

  Copyright: Melissa Haag

  Published: March 3, 2013

  ISBN: 978-0-9888523-1-0

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without express written permission from the author.

  Sneak peek at the end of this book!

  Read Chapter 1 of Book 2 of the Judgment of the Six series

  (Mis)fortune

  by

  Melissa Haag

  Prologue

  Since as long as I could remember, I could see the locations of the people around me as if my head came equipped with a giant fish finder. Instead of blips on a radar, when I focused, a vast darkness opened in my mind. Within the infinite void, tiny sparks of light shimmered matching the location of the people in the area around me. The colors of the light, always a yellow center and dark-green halo, never changed… except for me. My spark had a vibrant orange halo, making me unique. Alone.

  Along with the ability to see those life sparks, I also had a certain pull on men. From adolescent to grandparent, they couldn’t seem to ignore me. The degree in which I affected them varied. Some just studied me like a puzzle that needed solving, ready to forget me as soon as I disappeared from sight. For others, I became an obsession.

  I learned at nine, when I entered foster care, to keep my secrets to myself and use my sight to avoid people whenever possible. For several years, I drifted from home to home, never staying long after my foster dad, or brother, or uncle, or whatever started noticing me.

  By fifteen, I’d resolved myself to the shuffle and began counting down the days until I turned eighteen, the age of freedom, always wondering why I was the way I was.

  Chapter 1

  Walking my usual path through the park at dusk, I cautiously stretched my senses to check ahead. No yellow-green sparks decorated the darkness. Tired from volunteering at the hospital after school, I didn’t at first notice the abnormality, a pale blue light with a bright green halo, lingering at the fringe of my sight, near the pond.

  Having never witnessed any color variations before and unsure what to do, my steps slowed on the path. With the spark far to the left, I could keep walking through the park and go home, and whatever the spark was would never know I saw it. But I didn’t walk away. Too curious and hungry for answers, I stepped off the path to investigate, feeling safe since no people lingered nearby.

  Perhaps this new color meant I could see something other than humans, maybe animals. As interesting as that would be, the idea of my sight suddenly changing worried me.

  The lawn muffled the sound of my approach. Near the edge of the pond, I spotted a shadow moving subtly. I crept further ahead still scanning the area, perplexed at the absence of a yellow green spark since the shadow was much too large for an animal. I moved closer to the pond, away from the lights along the path, and hid in the darkness, watching.

  The shadow continued to move and in an instant, I identified the shape and froze in shock.

  A man stood close to the water’s edge removing his clothes. His undressing didn’t freak me out as much as the missing yellow-green life-spark. In its place shimmered the oddly tinted spark. I’d found a person that had a uniquely color life-spark like me. Excitement built even as caution reined me in. What could this odd coloring mean? I’d never run into any variations before. Stay or run? Investigating a color I’d thought could be an animal was one thing, but a strange person in a dark park? Not the best idea… but my curiosity burned.

  I moved closer, nearing the grove of trees, and recognized the older man. I’d bumped into him, literally, a few days ago at the hospital. I’d been leaving a patient’s room and hadn’t used my sight to check ahead in my haste. With kind brown eyes, a friendly smile, and grey hair, the man had apologized for bumping into me and continued on his way unaffected by my pull.

  The man sat to remove his shoes and socks. What was he doing stripping down in the park? Given his age, perhaps he suffered from some type of dementia. Maybe he thought it a good place to take a swim.

  When he stepped behind the trees for a moment and reemerged completely naked, I began to think he might have more serious issues than dementia.

  Still debating whether I should call out to him, I gasped when his silhouette collapsed in on itself. I automatically moved forward thinking he had injured himself, my feet covering the distance between us as he dropped into a low crouch, his fingers touching the ground. I drew near enough, just a few feet away, to see his skin in the dim light and then skidded to a stop, tearing up grass beneath my feet.

  His skin moved, rippling like sand in a current. Immobilized, I watched his body contort, folding in on itself in some places and stretching in others. Was he sick? Something contagious? I couldn’t make myself move away and run in the opposite direction. If he was hurt or sick, he might need help.

  Then the sounds started. His knuckles cracked and popped, and his thumbs shrank back from the rest of his fingers. I took a step back and then another. Other joints began popping in earnest. It sounded painful. My heart began to beat rapidly, and I eased another step back.

  From this distance, his eyes appeared closed. His ears shifted higher on his skull, which had started to change its shape. His skull grew larger, longer than it was high, his nose and mouth extended with it. A grey down began covering his skin growing into thick fur.

  Through it all, he remained silent, twitching and jerking as his body rearranged itself.

  Unable to move, I watched his slow transformation from human to large canine. He shook out his fur when it completed.

  I gaped at the creature. What did I just see? Oh, my god… Oh, my god…Oh, my god…

  When his head swung in my direction, eyes glowing eerily from the distant lights, my paralyzing shock left me and I ran. Scared of what I’d just witnessed, I gasped for breath after four strides.

  The park entrance beckoned in the distance. Thanks to my second sight, I watched him rapidly closing in on me. I would never make it.

  Rather than being attacked from behind, I spun to confront the big, grey beast bearing down on me. One well-placed kick to its throat… that’s all I needed to get in before it could maul me to death. Yeah, I was going to die. I braced myself.

  As soon as I turned, the beast slowed to a trot. Within ten feet, it slowed to a walk. My breath still tore through my throat in ragged terrified gasps.

  A yard away, it sat on its haunches and I stared at him poised to run again. His intelligent blue eyes watched me. For several long moments, neither of us moved. A debate raged within me. What did it want? Do I run or do I wait to find out?

  Holding his gaze, I started slowly sliding my left foot behind me. Before I could shift my weight onto that foot, he stood again. I froze, heart hammering.

  He kept his gaze locked with mine as he began slowly circling me. I pivoted, following his progress. We made a slow dance of sorts. He stopped circling when he had positioned himself between me and the north side of the park - the way home - and then began to stalk forward, backing me toward the pond. My breathing spiked again. I didn’t want to go back to the darker area of the park.

  Just about to bolt back toward the well-lit bus stop, he sat down again halting his advance. I stood with my back to the pond, but could see we hadn’t yet made it to the darkest shadows. In the relative dark, stars faintly sparkled in the night sky just on the outskirts of my peripheral vision.

  He yipped once at me, nearly giving me a heart attack, scaring the breath right out of me.

/>   Having a uniqueness of my own, I didn’t doubt what I saw. My mind screamed werewolf even as it denied the possibility. Werewolves were legend, myth. Found in stories dating back before the 1500’s and even in the popular childhood tale ‘Red Riding hood’. Never had anyone reported seeing one, unlike the elusive Bigfoot.

  Standing in the shadows of the park, I tried to come up with a better, more logical, explanation for what I had just witnessed.

  I managed to pull in a ragged breath, and as if that breath had been the signal he’d waited for, he trotted around me to his pile of clothes. There he morphed back to the man he’d been before. Without perversion, I watched him dress still too stunned and afraid to look away. I thought about running away, but couldn’t ignore the fact that he and I shared a connection. Unique life sparks. I feared what that meant for me.

  When he finished dressing, buttoning his shirt slowly, he looked up at me and met my wide gaze. I tried to calm down. Was he like a real canine? If he smelled my fear, would he attack? I’d been afraid since he’d changed into his fur and he hadn’t attacked me, so I supposed he wouldn’t now either.

  My rationalizing thoughts fled when he paced toward me with his hands in the pockets of his kakis. I tensed to bolt.

  He removed one hand from a pocket and held it up, palm out, signaling I should wait. Right…

  “My name is Samuel Riedel, but calling me Sam suit’s me just fine. I know what you just saw seems unreal, but it is real. And showing you was the only way for you to believe.”

  Believe I’m crazy, I wondered. Done and done. Calm down, Gabby, I thought to myself as I tried a few steadying breaths.

  “Why did you show this to me? What do you want from me?”

  I fought hard to keep my breathing under control. My mind continued to race.

  Sam smiled and nodded toward a bench set near the edge of the water before walking toward it. Sitting in the dark with a man who’d just changed into a dog large enough to pass for a pony, didn’t inspire any feelings of safety in me. I stayed where I stood, in the not yet dark shadows by the evergreens.

  Speaking as he walked, he said, “You’re different, but not as different as I am.” He sat, keeping himself turned so he could watch me.

  His comment grabbed my undivided attention and I began fidgeting with the strap of my dark brown messenger bag, debating. He could have the answers I needed, an explanation for the lights in my head, or why men acted differently around me. While the lights puzzled me, the pull I had on men bothered me. I couldn’t pin it on anything about me physically.

  I had straight, shoulder length ash blonde hair, a medium complexion, and hazel eyes like a million other girls. My nose fit my face well enough, neither too wide nor too long, and my mouth wasn’t so generous it’d give a guy dirty thoughts. No, it had nothing to do with my looks. Something else pulled them and I wanted to understand what.

  There was also the possibility that he knew nothing of my gifts, perhaps knowing something completely different from what I already knew. The temptation of learning something, anything, kept me there. But I couldn’t afford to give anything away.

  Determined not to lose an opportunity, I asked, “What do you mean I’m different?” I had to be sure we were talking about the same thing before I could say or ask anything more.

  He sat in deep shadows making it hard to see his silhouette, but I could see the glint of his eyes, when he answered, “You smell different. You’re not exactly human, but you’re not a werewolf either.”

  “Werewolf,” I whispered, stunned. Having him say it aloud made my suspicions less real, not more. How could werewolves be possible? Duh, how could I be possible? Keep it together. At least, I now knew I wasn’t a werewolf like him.

  I stood exactly where I’d been, feeling like the entire world had just changed while the crickets continued their night song.

  Sam chuckled and said, “For clarification… no, I don’t need a full moon… no, I don’t eat raw meat, although I do enjoy medium-rare steak on occasion… and, no, silver bullets won’t kill me any better than regular ones will.” He shifted, moving over on the bench, making plenty of space, and patted the empty expanse invitingly. “You, dear, are not a werewolf,” he repeated.

  I blinked at the absurdity of his invitation to sit with him. Though the messenger bag weighed heavily on my shoulder, I planned to stay standing, thankyouverymuch.

  Instead of acknowledging his invitation, I asked, “What do you want from me?” I still didn’t understand why he’d shown me at all.

  Keeping his gaze locked with mine, he said, “You may not be a werewolf, but you are still special. How old are you?”

  At five feet five inches, with a slight build and few curves to speak of, I looked young. The freckles sprinkling my nose didn’t help me look any older either.

  “Sixteen,” I answered absently. “How exactly am I special?” I shifted the bag to the other shoulder.

  “I was drawn to you. You have a certain scent that calls to my kind. I couldn’t name the smell for you other than to say it’s interesting, unlike anything else you’ve ever smelled.”

  That was the second time he’d mentioned the way I smelled. What if I’d been born with more pheromones than the average person? I’d learn about them in biology. Pheromones attracted the opposite sex. It would explain the pull I had on men and why it’d grown stronger as I matured. It didn’t explain the lights though.

  “Is that why guys don’t leave me alone?”

  He sat forward too quickly for my comfort, and I eyed him warily. “What do you mean? What guys?” he asked. When he moved like that, he looked a lot younger than his grey hair and weathered skin indicated.

  Although he kept his tone light, I remained cautious. “Guys under sixty and boys over ten.”

  He settled back with a laugh, but didn’t try to coax me to sit again. “Well, you’re young and pretty so I’m sure it’s not unusual for men to be attracted to you, dear.”

  He’d said it easily and without infliction, as if he’d make an observation and stated a fact, not that he found me attractive. I’d noticed that about him when I’d bumped into him at the hospital as well. That meant, if he didn’t already know about my gift, he may not understand. Part of me deflated a little. Should I try explaining it? If I smelled different to his kind, it might still relate to my gifts. Explaining further might be worth the risk. Besides, he could hardly run around telling people that I had special abilities when he’d just turned into a wolf in front of me.

  I took a step closer and said earnestly, “No, it’s more than that…” I paused trying to gather my thoughts for the best explanation. “A boy in school, extremely shy, picked on by jocks to the point of physical cruelty, nudged past those same jocks to wait by my locker to ask me on a date. A man shopping with two kids stopped me in the grocery store to ask if I’d consider dating an older man once I turned eighteen. The eighteen bit he threw in after my foster mom gasped in shock.” I inched closer, becoming more animated as I spoke, trying to make him understand. “When I turned him down, he went back by his kids, red faced and whispered to them that he’d just been asking for grandpa who wanted to date again. I knew that wasn’t true.

  “Those are just examples of what happens to me every day.”

  Sam studied me for a moment with a serious expression. “What’s your name, dear?”

  I knew he’d read my name tag at the hospital the day we’d first met, but introduced myself again anyway. “Oh, um, Gabrielle Winters, officially.”

  “Well, Gabby, I don’t know why men act the way they do around you, but I’d like to help you figure it out. Few people would believe what I’ve shown you tonight, and I ask that you not try talking anyone into believing. I revealed myself to you because you’re special and worth the risk.”

  He stood and slowly approached me. With the pond reflecting dimly behind him and the warm breeze ruffling our hair, I knew that memories of this night would stay with me for a long time. r />
  When only a few steps separated us, he said, “There is so much about werewolves that you don’t know. The first is that I’m not the only one.”

  My heart sank. I didn’t like the sound of that.

  He stuffed his hands into his pockets and rocked back on the heels of his brown-laced shoes. “I’d like to meet your foster parents and I’d like to get to know you better, to be there for you if you ever need anything.”

  Even though I didn’t like knowing more existed, it made sense. Was there ever one of anything? “You said that I smelled good to your kind. Does that mean I’m going to be run down by other werewolves?” The prospect scared me, but I managed to keep any tremor from my voice.

  “It’s unlikely, but precisely why I would like to be involved in your life.”

  He waited quietly while I thought it over, watching him closely. I liked that he maintained eye contact. A refreshing change when the majority of conversations with men occurred while they tried to discover, visually, what about me attracted them.

  He offered me an opportunity. With his help, maybe I could find out the reason behind my abilities. And given his condition, I felt certain he’d be able to keep my secret if I decided to tell him about the lights. Could I trust him? Not blindly, but I could start small.

  “I’m willing to get to know you better, but I’m not ready for you to meet my foster parents.” And I wasn’t sure if I ever would be. I wanted to protect Tim and Barb Newton from what could be a monster. They were the first set I had that I actually liked.

  He nodded in agreement.

  If I wasn’t willing to bring him home, then just where would we get to know each other better? Dark nights in the park were out, and I had more brains than to suggest his place. He still scared me. Did I think he was going to hurt me? No... he had plenty of time to try to hurt me tonight and hadn’t, but I barely knew the man so anything was possible. Safety in numbers. Somewhere public. He already knew I volunteered at the hospital thanks to our run in.