Zora's Dawn (Defender Book 1) by Sheryl Lee Read Free Book Online

that she was
really the person both Powers and Axel seemed to believe she was. Stealing a
glance at Axel she couldn’t pick any sign of ill ease from him. But he was a
fairy after all, and royalty at that so who knew what he was really thinking.
    She
watched moodily as the two men – well neither of them was a man really, but it
was easier to give them the general term – chatted quietly. And they weren’t
even talking about her, they were talking about people she had never met. She
wondered if she would meet all these people now that she was a card carrying
member of this enhanced ability clique. It took a while for her to realise that
at the distance the men were sitting from her she should not be able to hear
anything but a low murmur, but she could hear every word distinctly. Huh, her
hearing must be vastly improved as well. That could be useful.
    Staring
around the veranda Zora caught sight of movement at the periphery of her vision.
She turned her head slightly to see better and stared in revulsion at the
creature just emerging from the hedge that lined one side of Powers yard. A
brown snake, she hated snakes. She watched, willing it to just keep on
slithering off to the beach or to go back where it came from. Of course it
didn’t, it kept on coming towards the house with what seemed to be single
minded purpose. Zora sat still, coffee cup frozen on the way to her mouth and tried
to keep her cool. It would be embarrassing to squeal like a girl in front of
royalty.
    Remembering
the cup in her hand she slowly placed it on the table, never taking her eyes
off the snake. Then she remembered to let go of the handle. The snake kept on
coming, it was closer to the house now. Zora told herself that it wouldn’t come
onto the veranda, brown snakes couldn’t climb could they? How high off the
ground were they? Not very high, there were only a couple of steps down to the
ground from the front of the veranda. Well surely the snake was heading underneath
the house to go catch mice or rats or something. Zora kept on watching, and
felt herself start to hyperventilate (again) when the snake disappeared from
view as it got closer and the edge of the veranda blocked it from her vision.
    She stared
fixedly at where she saw it last, sending frantic mental pictures in that
direction of lovely plump mice running around under the house. There was no
sign of anything and Zora began to relax. Her mind tuned in briefly to what the
men were saying and she caught something about Marcus and vampire and blood
stocks and forgot the snake completely. She swung her eyes to the men and
quickly swung them back. She didn’t want them to know she was listening in case
they stopped talking. She needn’t have bothered because blood curdling shrieks
and catapulting oneself off the veranda in a blind panic is usually more than
sufficient to stop a conversation dead.
    Zora
forced herself to stop shrieking as the men stared at her in alarm. Clearly
they were deficient as predator and/or animal as they still hadn’t seen the
snake, now on the veranda, still slithering towards them. It stopped
momentarily when the madwoman that was Zora hurtled past it shrieking like a
banshee, but it soon started its forward momentum again. Zora managed to form
words and screamed at the two idiots on the veranda. “Snake! Coming right at
you!”
    Eyebrows
raised, Powers looked around casually, spotted the snake and hissed at it in a
most inhuman way. The snake stopped, tongue flicking out to test the air. Powers
hissed again, and growled a little, a sound that raised the hairs on Zora’s
arms and the back of her neck. The snake hesitated, confused, head swaying a
little. Axel, looking slightly amused, waved a hand at it in a shoo gesture and
to Zora’s astonishment the snake meekly turned around and went back the way it
came. The men continued their conversation as though they had never been
menaced by a deadly reptile. Well, Zora supposed, they hadn’t been.
    Feeling