Free Time Mends by Tammy Blackwell Page A

Here.” Her chin rose a
fraction of an inch. “I want to be here with you, in your
Pack.”
    “ Good.” Because there was
no way I could handle Jase and Charlie, especially Charlie, without
her. “Then you stay.”
    Jase growled. “And what do we do when the
Matthews Pack comes to take her back? There is, what? Twenty?
Twenty-five of them?”
    “ Eighteen are Changing,”
Talley answered. “There are four little boys, but none of them will
be Changing for at least another three or four years.”
    “ Eighteen versus three. I
might not be a math genius, but those sound like some sucky odds to
me.”
    I found my way back to my chair and
half-collapsed into it. “What are our options?”
    “ Send her back to Toby
where she belongs, or get ourselves slaughtered by a Pack of
hillbillies.”
    “ Talley isn’t a slave,
Jase. She’s staying here.”
    “ A slave? Don’t be
melodramatic. She’s a Seer. There are rules.”
    A sudden flash of anger, the wolf straining
under my flesh. “Screw your rules. Talley is staying, end of story.
As far as I’m concerned, you’re looking at the new Seer Underground
Railroad.”
    Jase glared, his jaw tight. “You’re being
reckless.”
    “ And you’re seriously
pissing me off.” My nails were digging into the wood of the table,
a seriously amazing feat considering it took some effort to knick
its surface with a knife. I would probably freak out over the whole
monster-like bizarreness of it later, but at the moment I was just
grateful to have something to claw into other than Jase’s pretty
face.
    “ You’re the Pack Leader.
It’s your job to protect her.”
    “ It’s my job to be a
freaking human being and do the right thing.”
    “ The right thing?
Bullshit. You’re going to do what you always do, what’s right for
Scout.”
    There are very few humans who can use their
arms to hoist themselves onto a table and then jump four feet with
pinpoint accuracy, but for a Shifter it’s apparently not a big deal
because I managed without giving it much thought at all.
Unfortunately, the person I leapt onto was also a Shifter, and the
two seconds it took me to complete the move was more than
sufficient time for him to prepare a defense. Instead of toppling
Jase to the floor, like I planned, I found myself being flung
towards the stove.
    “ Dammit,” I hissed as my
hand came down on an eye which hadn’t quite hit the cooled off
stage and my knee banged against the cabinet. I knew at least half
of my hand was burnt, but I couldn’t feel any pain.
    You know how they do that slo-mo thing in
superhero movies? The soundtrack goes silent, leaving just Superman
and the clicking of the gun, the little flash of fire, and the
piece of metal cutting slowly through the air? My Shifter abilities
didn’t work that way.
    I still heard everything. The hum of
electricity running to various kitchen appliances. The woosh of air
coming out of the vents. The gunfire, screams, and mildly
disturbing giggles coming from Jase’s room where Angel was playing
video games. Despite the fact she was upstairs and on the other end
of the house, I could still hear the steady sound of her heartbeat
just as clearly as the sharp intake of breath from Talley, who was
only three feet away. I could hear Charlie’s muttered curse and the
soft scrape of Jase’s socks on the tile as he turned towards
me.
    It should have been too much. It almost was
too much, but unlike before my Change, my brain instinctively knew
how to filter through and process the plethora of information being
thrown at it.
    I dropped to the ground just quick enough to
feel the breeze from Jase’s fist across the top of my head. There
was a slight sting as my burnt hand hit the cold floor, causing me
to almost lose balance as I pivoted, bringing my left leg around to
sweep Jase’s feet, which were no longer there. There was the
briefest look of triumph in his eyes before my fist slammed into
his stomach.
    From that moment on, there was no