A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) Read online

  Elemental Rage

  Book 1: A Time to Kill

  Copyright July 30, 2016 Jeanette Raleigh

  All rights reserved. Written permission from the author must be secured to use or reproduce any part of this book except for brief excerpts to provide critical review or articles.

  The characters and settings in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons or locations is coincidental.

  Also Available by Jeanette Raleigh

  Elemental Rage Series:

  Book 1: A Time to Kill

  Book 2: A Time to Die Coming Soon

  When, Were, & Howl: The Collection (Books 1 - 5)

  When, Were, & Howl: Book 1 Moon Struck

  When, Were, & Howl: Book 2 Vampires Bite

  When, Were, & Howl: Book 3 A Tryst of Fate

  When, Were, & Howl: Book 4 A Grave Awakening

  When, Were, & Howl : Book 5 Werewolf Wedding

  When, Were, & Howl: Book 6 Fate's Dark Glass

  When, Were, & Howl: Book 7 Fortune’s Deadly Gaze

  Dark Visions (Book 1): First Love

  Dark Visions (Book 2): Lost Love

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Excerpt from A Time to Die

  Chapter 1

  ~~ Jade ~~

  Jade Gray gasped as she sat up in bed, startled awake. An owl called in the distance, and she heard movement in the yard. Was it just outside the window or further away?

  The overwhelming feeling that something was watching her haunted her. She shivered and rubbed her arms. A cool breeze lifted the edge of the yellow curtain. With a chill born more from fear than cold, Jade stumbled to the window and slammed it shut. She felt…something.

  Across the room her sister, Raven, grumbled and rolled over, jamming her pillow over her head. Jade muttered an apology. For a moment she had forgotten Raven’s existence in her haste to shut out the night. Heart racing, Jade took a deep breath. The clock read three in the morning. Way too early to be awake.

  A tiny corner of Jade’s mind itched to lift the curtain, to look outside and sigh in relief when she discovered that the yard was empty. Somehow, she knew it wasn’t. Someone hovered in the night watching, waiting.

  A scream pierced the night. Jade jumped, an involuntary response. She rushed out of the room she shared with Raven. Her mom met her in the hallway, and together they raced to Mindy and Claire’s room.

  Mindy sobbed and ran for her hiding place. Jade opened the door as Claire turned on the light. Jade stepped into the room just as Mindy slid the closet door closed, her cries now muffled.

  Before Jade could ask, her mom said, “What happened?”

  Claire gathered up her pillow and the top blanket from her bed. She said, “Don’t ask me. Mindy freaked out and started screaming. Now the bedroom smells like pee. I’m sleeping on the couch. She’s just lucky its summer and I can sleep in.”

  Their mother, Amy Gray, was a middle-aged woman who hadn’t gone all the way to matronly. She was thick around the middle, but not fat. A few grey hairs nestled in her black hair, and her forehead carried worry lines. She tilted her head toward the closet and said to Jade, “If you could calm Mindy down, I’ll get her bed changed.”

  “Sure thing,” Jade slid down the closet door wall, leaning her back against the door knowing that Mindy was just on the other side, crying. She knocked lightly, “Hey, Cricket, have a bad dream?”

  “No,” Mindy stopped crying. She was quiet now, almost calm. Jade always had that effect on her.

  “What happened?” Jade asked. She yawned, her eyes watering.

  “Shadow. Void. Darkness.” Mindy said and started crying again.

  Jade took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Melinda Gray, or Mindy to her sisters, was seven years old and small for her age. Where the other girls picked up reading and math right away, Mindy was different. Sometimes she’d stare at the wall and start laughing, ignoring her family. There were no friends to ignore. Mindy couldn’t or wouldn’t make them.

  The teachers said she was a special needs pupil. The doctors didn’t know what to think. Her scans showed a high degree of activity where they had expected to find less. Nonetheless, she spoke slowly in broken thoughts and emotionally clung to Jade. Not their mom. Not Raven. Not Claire. Always Jade.

  Jade understood why. Mindy’s birth came on the heels of their dad’s death. Jade was ten at the time. Her mom had been in shock, and Jade formed a strong bond with Mindy in the aftermath.

  “Cricket? You know you’re safe with me, right?” Jade asked. This wasn’t her first night sitting on the floor outside Mindy’s closet, waiting for her sister to settle down.

  “I know,” Mindy said quietly. She pushed the closet door open a little. She asked, “Are they gone?”

  “I’m sure they are,” Jade said and held her arms out.

  Mindy crawled out of the closet and wrapped her arms around Jade’s neck. Jade winced a little when she felt the wetness from Mindy’s accident soak through her nightshirt. Mindy said, “Void. Dark.”

  “See? The lights are on now. Let’s you get you changed,” Jade glanced at the clock. How could it already be four? She had to get up in an hour to shower and dress for her job at the diner. She worked the early shift from five to one-thirty. With a sigh, she carried Mindy to the dresser.

  “Sorry,” Mindy’s lower lip trembled and tears filled her eyes.

  Jade felt an instant’s guilt. Mindy was so sensitive to her emotions. Jade kissed the side of her head, “Shh…we’ll have you settled in no time. Let’s get some clothes and then go to the bathroom to wash up.”

  Her mother was just finishing with the pillow cases. She smiled at Jade. “Thanks for your help.”

  “It’s no problem.” Jade helped Mindy wash up and get into fresh pajamas. She tucked her in.

  “Story?” Mindy asked hopefully.

  “I’ll tell you a story. Jade, why don’t you get another hour of sleep,” her mom said.

  “I’m wide awake,” Jade couldn’t stop thinking about her own fear. She wondered if she was channeling Mindy’s nightmares…or maybe there was something real out there, a terror that woke both sisters. She hesitated, “Mom, shall I make some tea and maybe we can have a talk after you’re done?”

  “Go ahead. I’ll be right there.”

  Jade yawned as she stepped into the hall. She made a quick stop to grab change into a clean shirt. Lights were on all over the house. Claire had dragged her blanket and pillow into the living room and was flipping through channels. Jade didn’t bother saying anything. She and Claire weren’t close. They tolerated each other at best.

  Filling up the electric tea kettle, Jade plugged it in and pushed down the switch. The blue light told her the kettle was warming up. She selected the “World’s Best Mom” cup for her mother and a Bergsma frog cup for herself. She yawned harder and tears flooded her eyes.

  Standing in front of the sink, Jade looked out the window into the darkness. She didn’t even know what she was looking for. The yard backed up to the forest, and Jade watched every shadow. She hated that the window didn’t have blinds or curtains to shut out the world. They lived in the midd
le of nowhere, but just at this moment, those curtains were needed.

  “Jade?” Her mother stepped into the kitchen. It was a good thing Jade had set the cups down or they would be shattering against the linoleum.

  “You scared me!” The spell of the night outside broken, Jade could finally turn her back on the window. She grabbed the tea kettle and filled the cups, then added a teaspoon of sugar and just a touch of milk.

  Her mom laughed. The sound was rare these days. Jade remembered her mom’s laughter ringing in the house back when Dad was alive.

  “Sorry, Honey. Let’s talk.” Before sitting down, she told Claire to pick a station and settle down. Claire was flipping quickly through the channels, barely allowing a scene to appear before moving on.

  Jade settled into her chair at the dining room table. Now that she was finally going to say it out loud, her stomach flip-flopped. She waited until her mom slid into her chair.

  “Claire and Raven both have the gift. Claire with Water, Raven with Air. Dad said I would know when I got older. Well, I’m older, and nothing has happened,” Jade hadn’t meant to speak so bluntly. She’d been avoiding the topic for a long time, three years to be exact.

  “I thought you were okay with not having power? What brought this on?” Amy sipped her tea, but Jade could almost feel the tension quivering in her shoulders.

  “Today, I thought I felt something stirring, and I thought maybe that was how the power came. Mom, I woke up scared and I think I am somehow catching Mindy’s thoughts. Maybe I’m like her. Everyone in the family can do something except me. Well, me and Mindy.” Jade shrugged, “What do I do if I’m not an Elemental?”

  “You are, though. Whether you manifest power or not,” her mom said. It was just another version of a story Jade had heard from childhood. Raven had actually flown at five years old, manifested a tornado at six. Dad had made such a huge deal about it. Jade remembered the deep seeds of jealousy planted in her heart that day. She tried not to let them gain ground, tried to keep that pain buried deep where it wouldn’t hurt Raven or Claire, but Jade was frustrated and angry…and jealous. Raven didn’t do the Air Elemental thing anymore, not much anyway. It still hurt.

  “Mom. Please…” Jade felt the hurt rise in her heart. She couldn’t take another talk about her shortcomings, not after the night she’d had. Glancing over at the television and Claire sprawled out on the couch, Jade couldn’t help but feel the anger and jealousy again. Raven and Claire got the best of mom and dad. The looks, the power. Jade got a biggish nose and strong jaw, and nothing of the universe. No Earth. No Fire. No Water. And sure as heck no Air.

  “What do you want me to say?” Amy Gray asked the question in earnest. With Lawrence dead, she felt like she’d been treading water in a raging river and heading for a waterfall. Her babies were young women now, and she was as confused as they about what to expect. Her husband’s killer wanted something from the Elementals, from her family, from her babies. Years ago after Lawrence’s death, she took the life insurance money and fled from the city to a small town in the middle of nowhere. Using her Aunt Bertha’s name on the mortgage, Amy did everything she could to hide.

  Now she watched her daughter and wondered if it had been enough. Who would protect Jade if none of the gifts of the universe settled on her shoulders? It was hard enough scrabbling away from the enemy when you have power.

  “Just tell me it comes with age. Tell me I’ll have some sort of gift!” Jade pleaded desperately. When Claire, listening in on the conversation, snorted, Jade clenched her jaw and bit her lip to keep from saying something to Claire that she would regret.

  “When you were born, I felt the universe move through you. That’s all I can say. I don’t know how it works, only that some of us touch the universe and others don’t. Aunt Juliet never manifested power, and yet she lived a long and happy life,” Amy trailed off, thinking of Bertha alone in Denver sorting out her sister’s affairs. Bertha always knew the right thing to say to the girls, even if they didn’t want to hear it.

  Jade sighed and stood, “I guess I’d better get ready for work.”

  Amy said, “I need to make a few deliveries today. Lunch at eleven? I’ll make egg salad.”

  “Sure.” Jade couldn’t help the hate that sickened her heart when Claire snickered from the couch.

  She was grateful when Mom said, “That’s enough from you young lady. Turn that television off this instant. There’s enough cruelty in the world. I won’t have my daughters turning on each other.”

  Claire whispered, just loud enough for Jade to hear as she walked by, “Are you sure she is your daughter?”

  Jade rushed to the bathroom in anguish, because she had wondered before if she was a natural daughter to Lawrence and Amy Gray. Claire and Raven always joked that Jade was a changeling or adopted. Her three sisters had raven hair and green eyes. Jade’s hair was red and her eyes amber. She was gawky and gangly. Claire’s whispered words rolled again in her mind. She turned the water on and stepped into the shower, tears washing her cheeks even as the water skimmed along her shoulders.

  Water. Claire. It annoyed Jade that she was right now standing in Claire’s element. She shampooed her hair at super speed and quickly washed, grabbing her towel to dry off in the shower.

  She hugged her mom on her way out the door. Claire pretended to be asleep on the couch. Jade knew her sister would blame her for the end of her morning television, even if it was Claire’s own big mouth that got her punished.

  Jade hopped into Bertha’s car, grateful for her great aunt’s generosity in sharing her car. It was a twenty minute drive into town. The woods along the edge of their property shadowed the driveway, creating sinister shapes in the near-dawn light. Jade shivered as she passed through the darkest of the shadows, her car lights steady against the road. She could swear that someone was standing among the trees. She drove slower, trying to make out the shadows. Her shoulders tensed when a shadow seemed to separate from a tree, but then she had driven by.

  Looking in the rear-view mirror, she tried to see what it was…whether someone was watching the house. She could swear there was someone out there.

  Jade worked at Red’s Steakhouse. Red, the proprietor and chef, was a salty, gruff fellow in his sixties who said maybe a dozen words the whole day. The breakfast crowd arrived in full force at eight. Jade didn’t slow down until around ten when she had a couple finishing their breakfast at one of her tables.

  When the door swung open, Jade glanced up. Her heart sank. Harold Jenkins strode in. When Marie started to lead him to her own area, he asked for one of Jade’s tables. Marie was too professional to give Jade an “I’m sorry,” look when she seated Harold, but she would apologize to Jade later.

  Pasting a smile on her face, Jade stepped up with her pad in hand, “Are you ready to order?”

  Harold smiled at Jade and untipped his coffee cup, “Morning, Sunshine. Here we are again. Are we going to do a song and dance again, or are you going to tell me where I’ve seen your Mama before.”

  “Hi, Harold. I’m sure we would have remembered you. What would you like?”

  “Biscuits and gravy, eggs over-easy, hashbrowns, and a biscuit. So your dad was in sales?”

  Jade told the lie as she’d practiced it. “Is in sales, present tense.”

  “I’d love to meet him. Sounds like a stand-up fellow,” Harold flipped the page of the menu as if he might want to order something else.

  “My parents divorced a long time ago.” Jade said. The Gray women concocted the story of her parent’s divorce years ago. Her Mom actually made them practice answering questions until it became second nature. Jade wouldn’t be surprised if Mindy actually believed her Dad was still alive somewhere selling used cars for a living.

  “Sorry to hear,” Harold said, as if he hadn’t stopped her Mom at the grocery store to ask how her husband was doing just two weeks ago.

  “Shall I take your menu?” Jade held out her hand, hoping that their conversation ha
d ended.

  Harold looked like he wanted to say something else, then thought better of it and handed Jade the menu. Jade hated the Saturday shift. Last week, Harold had asked her where she hailed from to which Jade replied that her family had actually moved to town before Harold years ago, so she hailed from Wildwood Springs. He’d been picking at her history ever since she started working at the diner, and it really annoyed her.

  When she made the rounds with the coffee pot, Harold was waiting with more questions. His eyes had a watery, faded look. Jade hoped his interest was just that of a lonely old man, and not that of something more sinister, like one of the Death Keepers, the some-time enemies of Elementals in general and the Gray family in specific.

  “I hear your sister has problems,” Harold said, and for a moment, his face told the truth of his heart, and he wore a sly, conniving grin.

  Jade counted to three in her mind. She didn’t have time to count to ten. Pretending ignorance, she filled his coffee cup while she said, “Which sister?”

  She was already walking away when Harold answered, “The youngest. I hear she’s slow.”

  Jade’s first impulse was to pour hot coffee all over Harold and his invasive questions. Instead, she said, “I love my sister,” and kept walking. She would have to bring him the breakfast plate soon, and then fill at least one more coffee because Harold liked to hang around. She just had to hold it together a little while longer.

  Red slid the plate onto the counter. Jade took a deep breath, feeling a little sick to her stomach. She shouldn’t let him get to her like this. Forcing a smile onto her face, Jade served Harold breakfast and then put the bill upside down on the table.

  “I didn’t hurt your feelings, did I? I’m sure your sister is a sweet kid. I heard she doesn’t talk much. I know a specialist in Seattle if you’re interested,” Harold dropped the information as if he was truly interested in helping, but something in his manner put Jade off, had ever since the first time she passed him on the sidewalk last year.