Free A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) by Jeanette Raleigh

doctors.  We have to
find Claire, and you’re the only one who can talk to Earth.  Where’s Mom?”
    Mindy shrugged.
    At that moment,
the nice nurse walked in, “Oh, excuse me. I didn’t see you two come in.  You
must be Mindy’s sisters?”
    Before Jade could
give the nurse her name, phone number, social security number, address,
Facebook account, and firstborn, Raven answered, “We’re looking for our Mom.
She should have been here with Mindy, but she’s not answering her phone.”
    The nurse wrinkled
her nose, “I haven’t seen your Mom for hours.”
    “Can you have her
paged?” Jade was starting to feel desperate. As soon as Mindy said, “Claire.
Danger,” Jade had a sinking feeling.  She already felt guilty for Claire
running away. If anything happened to Claire, Jade wouldn’t forgive herself.
    “Of course,” the
nurse said, bustling out of the room.
    Amy Gray,
please check into the nurses’ station at the Emergency Room. Amy Gray.
    Earth nudged
Mindy. Claire. Time. Stranger. Mom.
    Things were
jumbling and tumbling in Mindy’s mind.  Earth tried to tell her the story, but
Mindy only retained pieces. 
    Aloud Mindy said,
“Stranger. Mom.”
    Raven gasped,
“What Mindy?  What did you say?”
    “Stranger. Mom.” Mindy
repeated and started to cry.  She didn’t know why she was sad or scared, only
that the things Earth showed her were sad and scary.  She didn’t want to
remember. She didn’t want to hold onto Earth’s thoughts, but she had to, for
her sisters, for Mom, she had to remember.
    Jade held out her
arms and Mindy sought shelter in them, the way she always had when Earth told
too much truth. Mindy felt the time passing. Too quickly.  Too quickly. Claire.
Danger.  Death.

 
     
    Chapter 7
     
    ~~ Claire ~~
     
    Claire heard the
slurping sounds of the vampires eating their victim.  It was the only way to
describe the slaughter.  The air was heavy with the smell of iron and copper,
the smell of darkness, the smell of death.  Claire closed her eyes.  These
vampires weren’t intelligent.  If one attacked, they all attacked, fighting
over the same person until that person was utterly consumed.
    At least the
screaming had stopped.
    Claire would have
given anything just to stick her fingers in her ears, to be deaf for those
terrible long minutes.  Now the vampires were sated and they moved away,
grunting and grumbling without words the way an animal would. Claire needed to
find a way out of her bonds.  There had to be something.  There had to be.
    She reached out to
Earth. Earth could hear her. The cuffs blocked her direct contact with Earth. 
Water was so far out of range that Claire couldn’t even talk to her.  Maybe
Earth couldn’t give her power to change or power to move, but maybe it could do
something else.
    Claire sent her
thoughts to the presence that waited in the stone, in the rock.  Claire was
sorry now that she hadn’t paid more attention to the gentle rumblings in the
stone.  Earth had always moved so slow, so quietly.  Earth was boring.  Claire
wouldn’t tell that to the presence saving her now, but it was the truth. She
never gave Earth more than a passing hello because it just couldn’t keep up the
way Water did.
    Earth understood.
    It passed back the
information that it had shown Mindy.  If Claire had any thought toward
grumbling, she caught herself in time.  Until that moment, Claire had thought
that she and Raven were the only Gray sisters who had caught the Elemental gene. 
Now she knew that Mindy had it, too. That was a surprise.
    Claire waited,
hoping Earth would be able to do what she had in mind. She could feel Mindy
somehow, as if a part of her were with Earth even now.  The vampires moved closer,
one of them sniffing the air with that hooting sound that meant another feeding
frenzy. It moved closer and closer to Claire, so close that she couldn’t see
anything but the dark cloak it wore. It was leaning over her, sniffing and
sniffing,