Southern Shifters: Pryde and Precious (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Heather Long Read Free Book Online Page A

growing can do that. What if you could provide a hearty seedling, which can grow in the absence of light or regular water? What if its blooms can help with fever? Or illnesses? Or simply become a new source of food?” She blew out a breath and stared at the ceiling. “Do you have any idea how many lives were saved by dwarf wheat? Do you know how many are starving because their countries do not get enough rainfall? Or their soil is depleted?”
    John raised his eyebrows. “No, but I’m already certain you know the answers. I will do what I can about your plants. All right?”
    Hardly mollified, she pointed at the tablet. “You have what you wanted from me. Why don’t you just let me go?”
    He swung away, not answering her, then began striding to the entrance. “Stay here.”
    “What?” She stared to follow him. “We’re not done.”
    Opening the front door, he glared at her. “I said stay. ” Then he was out the door and it closed behind him.
    Arianna stared after him. She wasn’t a dog or a pet. She didn’t have to obey his orders. All true, so why was she standing still? Scowling, she glanced at the door then the window. He’d told her to stay there—did that mean the living room? The spot she was in? The vise like pressure on her mind squeezed until she imagined she could feel her pulse behind her eye.
    The sharp pain intensified. Minds. Three—no four new ones and they were close. Closing her eyes, she attempted to erect her shields. They crumbled faster than she could get the building blocks into place. Retreating from the window, she stumbled toward the sofa.
    The Psi needs to be turned over to the council.
    We should just execute her.
    What are they up to?
    The colonel doesn’t look happy with our presence.
    Why can’t they leave the project alone?
    Does she know where Ashwood and Nelson are?
    The thoughts didn’t belong to her, and they collided in her mind. The anger rumbling beneath them, throbbing with barely restrained rage, simply dug the white hot pokers deeper into her mind. The sofa wasn’t far enough. On her hands and knees, she crawled across the living room toward the kitchen, then across the cold tile until she reached the decorative, pot-bellied stove in the corner. The metal was icy, but she pressed her cheek to it.
    Old-fashioned cast iron helped her to stymy the flow of thoughts. The chilly surface of the floor combined with the cold of the iron suppressed the fire burning her synapses.
    To build her shields, she needed to focus, and she flattened her palms against the metal. The colder it made her, the more clarity she gained. One brick at a time, she began to work on a barricade.
    Why does he want to keep her here?
    Inferon employs witches as well as humans in their military contracts division.
    A whimper escaped her. She needed the flow of information to stop. It was why she liked her apartment and her isolated life. The animalistic nature of the voices in her mind didn’t help her concentration any.
    One screen up, she retreated into her mind and slammed a second one into place, then a third. They were thread-bare, thin and utterly ineffectual against a real attack but they muted the voices. With every layer, the voices dimmed a little further until she was alone with her headache.
    Curling into the corner next to the stove, she rubbed her face. Exhaustion swamped her, but she refused to collapse into a puddle. She’d bought herself time.
    Now she needed real shields. John promised to protect her and from the reaction of the others, he seemed to be making good on his word. No matter what he told her, however, she needed to be able to function. Why his mind didn’t bombard her was a problem for another day… Step one in shield construction, you have to calm down so you can feel the framework of your mind.
    The litany of her previous instructors began to stream from her memory. Breathe…

    T hough he’d expected some push back, the council dispatching four of his men to