The Gift of Knowledge (The Gifts Book 2) (27 page)

     It seemed there was no reason to put off telling Ethan the truth any longer. He deserved to know. A letter in her jeans pocket pressed on her nerves. The letter came this morning from a private detective in her employ. The detective found what she’d been looking for since that day on the mountain when the Lord spoke with her about someone who was in trouble and needed her help, her sister.

Please enjoy this excerpt from the soon to be released

THE GIFT OF EMPATHY

Third Novel

in the

GIFTS SERIES

By

Jen Gentry

     The dark haired girl wondered the dimly lit streets of New York alone. Barely sixteen, this was no sissy-baby girl, but a hardcore street urchin who knew how to survive on her own. She’d lived on the streets since the day she was born. Her mother taught her well. Mother and daughter survived hopping from one shelter to the next for fourteen years. Picking pockets and scamming was a scary way to live, but the only way to eat sometimes.

     Pulling her tattered hoodie closer around her delicate features, Jewel Bell thought of her mother. Two years to this very night Jewel’s mother died in Jewel’s arms, on this very street. Jewel didn’t know what compelled her to walk this street on this date. It wasn’t nostalgia or longing. Jewel would never truly miss her mother, Lydia Bell. No, Lydia was never really a mother. Not a good one, anyway.

     A myriad of emotions rolled over Jewel. She began to walk briskly away from this place that conjured grizzly images of her mother’s violent death in her mind. With expert skill she tamped down on those awful memories and the painful stabs the emotions wracked her body with.

     The air around her became cooler as the fall winds blew in. Soon, Jewel would have no choice but to seek out the crammed shelters at night. Dread filled her, starting in her chest, as it always did, then fanned out into her limbs where it settled and ached. She generally avoided coming into such close contact with others. Especially the mentally anguished, emotionally charged people that seemed to fill the shelters these days.  All that pain packed together in one building made Jewel physically ill, to the point that she could be sick for days. But that kind of sickness didn’t kill her, the cold streets of the city in winter, just might. Jewel hated winter more than anything she’d ever had to endure. She prayed for a few more weeks of warm weather so she could avoid the shelters as long as possible.

     Making her way back to the bridge where she stashed her sleeping gear Jewel’s heart was heavy. That first winter without her mother lived in her mind, always. She’d fought off one danger after another. Fortunately, that was the winter she met Jacob. Jewel trusted no one on this earth the way she trusted Old Jacob.

     Jacob found her alone and starving in a deserted alley a few nights after her mother passed. He took Jewel to a mission shelter and forced her to eat. He didn’t leave her side in the weeks to come and defended her from other homeless people who’d wanted to steal from her or hurt her in her weakened state. Slowly she’d come to trust him. Jacob alone knew her mother was dead. He helped her keep the secret so she wouldn’t be placed in state custody.  In her mind nothing would be worse than having to live under close quarters with strangers on a daily basis. She’d never be able to trust any adults who wanted to tell her what to do. Her mother had left her with that legacy.

     Old Jacob had lived on the streets longer than anyone Jewel knew. Without his help she surly would’ve died that winter. She thanked the Lord for Jacob who’d become like a dear uncle to her. Thanks to him, Jewel was able to leave her meager belongings stashed while she attended school during the day. School kept her going. She dreamed of one day having a productive life as a nurse or a doctor, and maybe a family of her own. Maybe, one day.

    Jacob’s soft snores could be heard coming from his pallet in the crawl space under the bridge that was her current home. Jewel spread out her own pallet next to his, pulled out a worn copy of Wuthering Heights and read by candlelight until she drifted off to sleep.

***

     Jacob waited patiently until his charge slept before he transformed himself into a ball of light that shot straight up into the sky. Above the bridge he could still watch over Jewel. She was never safe on the streets, but in the past few weeks she’d been noticed by a particularly dangerous sect of demons in the area. Jewel’s gift of empathy was a serious threat to all demons, and could be a great boon to others seeking the Lord. It was time to get Jewel off the streets and into a place where she could learn to trust the Lord and others who could help her learn to use her gift.

     Liam, the commanding angel over Perry House, joined Jacob in the sky.

    “Greetings, my brother.” Liam clasped arms with Jacob. “The girl sleeps well?”

     “Yes, she sleeps safely on this night. I don’t know how much longer she can stay on the streets, though. Her gift is starting to attract the attention of the demonic hordes in the area. The demons will not tolerate the presence of an ‘empath’ among their charges for very long.”

     “The Lord has a plan for her. Soon her sister, Emily, will come for her. Let us hope that Jewel will go home with Emily without too much trouble.”

     “Yes, it will be difficult for Jewel to trust anyone. I pray the Lord helps her to understand that life on the streets is about to get even more dangerous, before it’s too late.” 

     “Keep her safe, Jacob, and know help is on the way.” The two angels saluted each other with raised swords in praise, “For the lamb, who alone is worthy,” before they each returned to their own charges.

***

Jen Gentry is a Christian writer of fiction and non-fiction works. She writes to entertain and inspire as well as to bring glory to her own personal savior, Jesus Christ. She is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a Registered Nurse. Her life journey has not been an easy one. She knows what it means to walk through the fires of faith, as she knows the pain and the joys of life.
She has a strange fascination with hummingbirds as one has always showed up in times of difficulty in her life, either a real one or an image of one. She loves things like old tea-pots and mopar-muscle cars from the seventies. She thinks of herself as kind of a redneck chick-slash-southern belle, as she loves to dress up fancy, but spends most of her time in jersey tee-shirts and jeans, with her hair up in a ponytail.
When she is not writing or spending time with her family, you can find her with her nose stuck in a book.
She loves to hear from her readers and can be reached by email at
[email protected]
.

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