Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle) (75 page)

After
each
family
received
the
cash
reward, Sarah and
Connor
went home.
Sarah showed
him
the stallion
he
made a few years ago
for
his
sister
and she placed it on top of the mantle over the fireplace.
“Kara gave it to me. S
he said that if ever you weren’t around
,
it would comfort me.”

“She is right. No matter where I’m at, I’ll always be yours”
He
was hungry and Sarah was glad to cook
right
along with
him
.
N
ot long after
the meal came to an end
,
he
received
his
real
Welcome Home
.
Connor
became
tired from such a stressful weekend and
an exhausting
workout with Sarah.

They both
soon
fell
asleep.

The next morning they
arrived at
the training grounds read
y for some fun.
They
walked up to
sa
y
hello
,
when Kara stood up suddenly wearing a
goofy grin. Her mood was surprisingly refreshing on this morning.
Kara had an announcement. “Since I’m a Bone Changer, I’ve learned a new ability
that you guys
have
got
to see!
”
Connor
stood behind a shirtless Mark while everyone decided to stand shoulder to shoulder.

Kara stood wearing
only
her new leather gear.

Kara’s eyes began to glow
fiercely
. Then came the sounds of bones snapp
ing in her left arm. S
kin
began
moving
and it seemed
as if
something was trying to crawl their way out
on both sides of her forearm. Then the moving
pink
skin
stretched and
became white.
Connor
realized that it was both her radius and ulna breaking
the skin
through
the opposite sides of
her wrist. They both started
to bow out in opposite directions.
The
white bones
kept growing until
everyone
recognized the shape. She made her bones
develop
into a longbow. What she used for a drawstring was priceless. She used her right hand and brought
around
her shoulder
a thin string of long hair
that went beyond her waistline
.
H
er eyes still glowed and the strands of the longer hair become a tight and fused braid.
E
ach end of her hair were
forming
small loops
to attach to the top and bottom of the bow
. Suddenly
,
she tore the strand from the fused braid
with a sharp thumbnail
.
The entire demonstration took no more than eleven seconds
, but felt
longer
while watching
.
As she
began
looping the ends of her hair to the ends of the bow she asked “What do you think?
I call this my Bone Bow
…
”

Jack spoke first
, but was obviously distraught
. “First what is a Bone Changer and second what are you doing?”

Kara smiled when she made her hair drawstring tighten along with the bow. She held her left arm to the side and disp
layed her accomplishment. The Bone Bow she created
was just as long as her silver bow.
“Mark said that’s what I am. We can use our bones as weapons. And to answer your other question, I wanted to show you what I thought up for myself.”

Connor
asked
an obvious question.
“What happened to your other Bow?”

Her expression
became pained. Kara’s silver eyes met
her brother’s
finally. “I accidently broke it last night
, Brother
. I was curious about how it would shoot with my new strength. I
accidently over extended it till the yew snapped
.” She shot
him
an apologetic look
,
knowing he was the one who made it
.

He
smiled
,
knowing she broke it accidentally. “Are you going to fire Bone Bolts too?”
S
he finally smiled
at
the attempt of
mild humor
.

She shook her head. “I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. I’ll keep thinking on it though.” She brought her q
uiver of arrows with her
and pulled a single arrow out.

“Let’s see how good your bow is
,
Kara
.”  Jillian said in a chirpy voice. “Fire away!”

Kara shot a smile to Mark who was still standing in front of
Connor
and
remained
looking human
. She focused as she notched an arrow. Kara sat the tip of the arrow on the top of her
left
hand. With her index finger stretched out she pulled the string back
, guiding where she wanted the arrow to fly
.
Then her body froze. She committed to concentrating on a specific target, removing and ignoring all outside distractions. She turned into a statue for several agonizing seconds. Her taut belly stopped moving when she held her breath while an immense tension on the string screamed to be released.
The pure white bones bowed back gracefully and looked like they were storing a tremendous amount of
potential
energy. As
Kara released her three finger
s
from the string
,
she breathed and
the bones sprang forward and the arrow
twanged
away.

Even with the
new
mental
advancements
, it was
somewhat
difficult to see the arrow zipping through the air. It was moving so fast
that
Connor
saw it shake the tree it hit on the other side of the clearing
, nearly a half of a mile away
.
The penetrating force was more than
he
imagined.

“I have to see this for myself.”
Connor
said aloud and started running. As
he
ran as fast as
possible he
turned
and
saw
his
glorious mate following
him
closely
, she smiled with just as much excitement
.
She would have been able to keep up if her stride was longer, but her legs weren’t as long as
his
.
The rest of the group was running far
ther
behind. Connor
then re
a
li
z
ed that
he’s
become slightly faster
and so
too
has Sarah.

They
were now faster than both Balancer and Changer.

When
Connor
came upon the tree
he
had to look again
and more closely
.
A
hole
could only be seen in the trunk
. The bolt Kara fired went through a young and strong oak tree and the metal tip of the arrow splinter
ed
out the backside of the tree a good five inches. When Mark saw the arrow he whistled.

Jack said in an astonished tone “If that arrow was any heavier it would have gone clean through.
With that much impact your range could easily be a mile…
”

Kara
became
so pleased with everyone’s new respect for her that she fired of six more arrows into the same tree. When Kara
eventually had
enough her eyes started glowing again. This time as the bones fractured, the exposed bones began returning
back
inside her body. Less than
ten seconds
later you couldn’t even tell that her arm had even changed from normal.

The rest of the day
became so much easier after fighting Jack and Mark on the ground
,
using everything Connor
had at
his
disposal.
He
won of course, but Mark tagged
his
shoulder with a claw and drew a little blood. It was healed by the time Sarah f
ought both Kara and Jillian.
His
wife
beat
him
today because she won without
getting
a single scratch
on her fair
skin
.

Things were feeling like they were returning to normal.
Or so
he
thought.

Relaxation and Stress

On Thursday morning
, four days after Deputy Burrow left her parents home, Sarah was suddenly assaulted by a telepathic mind. It was her mother and she was relentless until she was given access.
It was earlier than usual for her to wake up
and that let
Sarah
know that something was
going on
. Sarah
finally opened
her
eyes
once Jillian’s
persistence began to get annoying.
Sarah’s
eyes
naturally
drifted up
and
awoke Connor by
caress
ing
her
mate
’
s chest slowly
and tenderly
. Even just the slightest touch of his skin makes
her
heart beat in overdri
ve.
It is a better wake up than coffee ever could achieve.

Connor was already
wide awake
, if his alert gaze was so strong
and
he
smil
ed
down at
her within moments of the tender
touch
. “Good morning
,
Prin
cess.” H
e spoke softly and kissed
her
forehead. “Did Jillian wake you up too?”

She
nodded and sat up.
“You must have been feigning sleep if you
’
r
e
already this awake.” He smiled.
As
Sarah
stretched
her
extremities
she
allowed
her
mother access.
“Mother, what’s with the wakeup call so early in the morning?”

Jillian
got
right
down to the point.
“Get dressed and get over here as soon as you can. Jack already has breakfast prepared
.
Something’s happening…
”

“Give us five minutes.”
And then Sarah
cut the link. Thanks to Connor
,
she’s
able to tell when someone is trying to gain access into
her
mind
, even asleep,
and can either permit or deny the intruding mind without effort. Also with his help she
learned
how
to block either parts of
her
mind
to keep secrets where they should be
or block the
person
out completely
to where all they hear is an annoying buzzing sound
.

Sarah
still
felt
tired from the night, but
she
exited th
e bed anyway. Connor followed her
lead and started putting on his clothing.
She
took off
her
nightshirt and put on
a pair of
black lace undergarments along with a clean sleeveless shirt and white pants. As
she
began
putting on
her
shoes
she
caressed the solid
silver anklet that Connor
crafted
.
T
here were black lines that crossed
continually and seamlessly
and it was a
simple
representation of the seared on black X tattoo on his sternum.
It also represent
ed the pain of his burden that she
lifted from him.
She
stood and watched as he was laci
ng up his hiking boots. His highly
muscled left arm held the other piece of metal
that
was covered by
his
long sleeve
d shirt
. His armlet encircled his
left bicep
and had the symbol of the Balancers engraved in it. The pentagram
is the symbol for the five elements; Fire, Liquid, Terra, Pressure and Metal.
To her family’s
knowledge Connor and
she
are the first to
have the affinity for using all five elements.
H
opefully at the
next
M
élange
meeting
they
might finally get some
solid
answers
to their situation
.