Free Adina Falling (Threads of Fate) by Melissa Brodsky Page A

holding out his hand. Commanding someone to grab onto him, a lifeline offered.
    That someone, it seemed, was me.
    Yet, as real as this man looked, I had never seen him before in my entire life. But somehow he knew me. Whoever this man was, we were somehow connected. For the life of me, I would never, in a million years, be capable of figuring this thing out by myself.
    It was indubitably time to consult with those who were older and wiser than me. I needed to meet with the Elders. And I had a feeling that time was of the essence.

 
    I waited until exactly 7 a.m to call my mother. I needed to find out the quickest way to contact the Elders and being the local know-it-all yenta; I figured she’d be my best resource. I’d just have to figure out how to avoid giving away why I needed to speak to them. I didn’t want to alarm her.
    Barbara didn’t pick up on my first attempt so I called back. After the fourth consecutive try, my mom answered the phone, her voice still groggy from sleep, “What’s the matter? Is everything okay?”
    “Hi Mom, sorry to wake you.” I felt badly for scaring her, “Listen, do you happen to know, offhand, how I can reach the Elders? I sort of need to discuss something with them.”
    “The Elders? Why would you want to pay them a visit honey? What’s going on?” Concern coated her words.
    “Everything is fine. I just need to ask them some questions. For, ah, some research I need to do on a character in my new book.” Quick thinking on my part but I doubted my mom would believe me.
    “What kind of research, besides sex, does an author of erotica need to do?” I was right, she didn’t believe me. E for effort though.
    “I don’t want to go into details right now, Ma. Can you just please get me their location so I can go there. The quicker the better.”
    “Of course, darling. Give me a few minutes to wake up first. I’ll call you back.” She hung up sounding more than a little annoyed with me. My mom didn’t like secrets, it didn’t matter the size of them, she was a need-to-know-now type woman. I was very much the same way. Instant gratification. But, I wasn’t going to be able to appease her curiosity on this one. Not yet. Not until I had something more to go on besides a super realistic and terrifying dream. I just didn’t want to burden her with it, she had a tendency to read into things and obsess.
    I sat on the edge of my bed cupping my phone in both hands, staring at it impatiently. I was still startled when it signaled an incoming call with my mom’s picture plastered to the screen.
    “Did you get it?” Did I ever mention that patience was not something I was blessed with?
    “They are at some secret location at the moment. No one knows where. That isn’t good news, by the way. It means something is happening and they are holed up planning a course of action. I wonder what’s going on. I’ll have to make some calls.”
    “Mom, I have information for them. I really, really, really, need to find them.” I cried in frustration, praying that the events in my dream had absolutely nothing to do with why The Elders were in a top-secret location in top-secret meetings.
    “Darling, there is nothing I can do right now. If I find out anything more, then I promise I’ll let you know. In the meantime, did Xander Stark call you yet?” She really knew how to switch gears.
    “Yeah, yeah. We are going out tomorrow night.” The only thing about the date I was looking forward to was wearing my newest Little Black Dress I had found at Neiman’s. Also, I loved Ronin’s; my favorite drink could only be found there. The Lotus was my happy drink, at par with, you guessed it, Type O. I had a bad habit of drinking way too many of those in one sitting. Even vampires can get drunk; it just takes us a little longer than our human friends.
    “Did you have a nice phone conversation with him? His voice…I could have listened to him talk forever.” My mom sighed dreamily.
    “We