When the Wolfs Bane Blooms: Jook and Gypsies Vol. 3

The saga continues . . . Once again, our small group of Jook and the humans they are protecting within the walls of the compound face peril from the ever-rising population of Ruv Bengalo. Adding to the unshakable danger, Shandor discovers an imprisoned Jook in Black Jack’s lair who is near death. He must coordinate an immediate rescue attempt though outnumbered in a hostile territory. Meanwhile back on the compound, as the wolfsbane continues to grow, Susannah feels threatened by Fifika’s secret knowledge of an ancient potion made from the flowers of the poisonous plants—that if survived by the drinker, the potion assures they can be bitten by a werewolf and be “turned.” There hasn’t been a successful turn in centuries; attempts result in horrific death. The young bloodline’s terror at the thought of feeding a human being the deadly botanicals is compounded by her suspicion that Giselle will volunteer to be the guinea pig. Susannah fears her friend’s life will slip through her fingers. It is high summer, and soon the wolfsbane will bloom.

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When the Wolfs Bane BloomsJook And Gypsies Vol. 3By Shirley A. MartinAuthorHouseCopyright © 2019 Shirley A. MartinAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-5462-7272-4CHAPTER 1JUST LIKE THATSierra gently braked at the stop sign. She glanced up into the rearview mirror, her eyes landing on a house on the right side of the street, four houses down. It looked completely abandoned, as if she had not just walked out and locked the door ...... as if somehow it knew she would never return.She turned the three-quarter ton Chevy left, and proceeded toward the nearest freeway onramp.And that ladies – gentlemen excluded – is how to leave your husband. Pack up your car, slide behind the wheel, and drive. A bead of sweat rolled down her right temple and her hands tightened around the wheel almost as if she were making a fist.He didn't know yet. He wouldn't know until he came home that evening and found her gone. And then ladies, it might get a little more complicated. Sierra's stomach heaved. It was going to be okay, she reminded herself. By the time Jim got home from work she would be halfway to her sister Helen's house in Tennessee.But it won't take him long to figure out where you have gone.A few more turns and she navigated her pickup onto the interstate, straight into the rising dawn. Eighteen hours of driving loomed in front of her. The brightness of the sun was dead center in her line of vision; it made the trees whizzing by look like charcoal sketches. The gray landscape slipped away behind her. As did her marriage. She drove into a bright new future.She sipped coffee from her travel cup. She'd bought it at Walmart just the week before. Had she known when she plucked it off the shelf what her plans were? She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember the exact moment when leaving him had become an imminent decision.She was going to change her name back to Cavanaugh. She was going to wipe the slate clean of Jim Hastings.She would have to stay with Helen until she got a job and saved enough money to get a place of her own. A place of her own. A happy place, free of criticism and oppression. And the slow undermining of confidence that strips away the flesh, leaving only the bare bones of the woman you used to be.She passed a gas station in her periphery, then a mini-mart; now that really caught her gaze. Last stop before the open road. She was already riding on a full tank of gas. But she could stop – if she wanted to. That simple realization helped lift the cloak of oppression. Like the rising sun on the landscape, the world just got a whole lot brighter.Sierra smiled.It hadn't always been horrible. It was a classic case of a man putting his best foot forward. Until he had moved her almost two thousand miles away from her family. Until they were alone together day in and day out. She hadn't even known Jim was subject to depression. Bouts of anger, self-pity, and tirades. It all came on slowly, like a leaky faucet dripping the happiness out of her life. Toward the end he could find anything to rant about, but there was always that old faithful – lack of money – contributing plenty of fuel. In the beginning they had been making ends meet with a little left over each month. She was employed full time at a diner in town and Jim was regularly working extensive jobs for a contractor.But shortly after moving into their new residence, Jim started taking days off or coming home early. This led to long gaps in between jobs. Within the year, they were falling into debt. Twice she came home to a dark house because the electric was delinquent.It hadn't been planned –She was driving by a used car dealer on the way home from work and a 1999 midnight blue Chevy truck was sitting on the lot. It was a beauty. She whipped into the parking lot. It was before her credit had gone south. The dealer made it all too easy. Before she could wrap her head around it, she had traded in her 1989 Honda on a down payment and was pulling her pretty blue truck into their driveway.Jim was furious. The resulting fight became a catalyst to what she now thought of as the beginning of the end. She had refused to return the truck – but ... she never was allowed to enjoy it either. That was the day she lost all hope that things would again return to their prenuptial bliss. She clearly understood what kind of man she had married. Her world from that day on was dark and bleak.But the sun was shining now, glinting off the asphalt, reflecting right into her line of vision. Leading the way home ...Sierra made the payments on the Chevy faithfully over the last two years. She had promised herself she would wait until it was paid off before making her big escape. She had eight months left to go. It was terrifying – careening down interstate I-10 east into the unknown. Just thinking about not being able to make the payments and losing her truck caused her to break into a sweaty, stomach-rolling anxiety attack.She was twenty-eight years old, and apart from clothes and a few personal knickknacks, the midnight blue Chevy was literally all she had to show for eleven years busting her butt in the food service industry. Her income had been swallowed up by rent, utilities, credit cards, and furniture that would now likely be repossessed.Sierra swallowed and calmed herself down. The sun was higher in the sky now and she was rolling further away from the dank lands of her past. She took a deep breath and reminded herself of what her mother, Maddie, had said when at seventeen Sierra had landed her first job as a server in a Denny's twenty-six miles from her childhood home.No matter where you are, there will always be a job waiting for you if you can be a waitress, her mother had informed her daughter.It was a stabilizing memory. Sierra had never been to a job interview where she had not actually landed the job. Although she lacked confidence in her romantic relationships and had the inability to manifest a healthy partnership, she was confident in her job skills and her performance capabilities. Pending employers seemed to pick up on this – as well as her attractiveness.Sierra was slender, long limbed, and delicate of bone. Her wavy shoulder-length hair gave the appearance of being dark brown, but the sun set it on fire and revealed it as a dark auburn. Her eyes burned blue-green. Her skin, while fair, didn't have the distinctive freckled coloring of a true redhead and tanned to a soft nutmeg brown. Her cheeks were prone to flushing bright pink when she was emotional.In many ways she felt vulnerable and stripped of her confidence. A bad relationship could do that to a person, despite that pretty face that greeted her in the mirror,Soon she would be extending her hand out to a restaurant manager and introducing herself. Sierra took a deep breath –... as soon as she had a job, everything would be right with the world.Eventually there would be Jim to deal with.She glanced into the rearview mirror. She wasn't ready to think about that, yet.CHAPTER 2JESSIE'S WORLDIt wasn't even a sound that had awakened her, but rather a shadow that had scuttled across the moonlight pouring through a westerly window. Maria sat up. She and Giselle were bunking together in one of the single bedroom cabins. The old woman's heart was pounding in her ears. Above its tempo, she heard the compressing of leaves and soil as if something heavy was treading upon the earth, followed by a rustling.Something was out there ...Her first impulse was to crouch in the dark shadow below the window and hold her breath until it passed, but there was a sleeping teenager beside her who was oblivious to a possible threat, and Maria was spurred by a protective instinct to make sure all was well.It had to be early morning, although the sun was nowhere in sight. The waning moon hung low over the foothills. The compound was quiet, and she rationalized with all of the security and werewolves with their heightened senses, nothing – one of those creatures – could have possibly gotten in. She lifted her head over the window sill and studied the courtyard.Shadows and moonlight.Something moved –The old woman almost screamed. It was right there within fifteen feet of the cabin. It was on its hind legs and stepped from under the trees out into a clearing. She covered her mouth with her hand. It had to be one of the other kind – the good kind – of werewolf, although she had never seen one in wolf form at such close proximity. It was probably one of the soldiers who were posted as guard. It was terrifyingly unnatural. It was instantly recognizable. It could walk on all fours as easily as it could on its hind legs. It continued to prowl, its gait awkward, though not to be mistaken for clumsy."What is it?" a soft voice asked."Shhh –"Giselle sat up. "Is something wrong?" she whispered.Maria nodded in the direction that her eyes were riveted. The girl moved so that she, too, could look out into the night. Maria heard her catch her breath.The werewolf turned and looked their way for a second, and then continued moving across the courtyard toward the perimeter fence on the other side of the garden. Watching it move was the most surreal thing Maria had ever witnessed. The sudden urge to run to the bathroom overwhelmed her. As soon as the creature stepped out of sight behind the lodge, she did just that."Who was it?" she heard Giselle ask."I don't know," Maria answered, stepping from the small stone stall that housed a bathtub and a toilet, "but it was obviously a Jook.""I've never seen one like that in camp before. Who do you think it was?" Giselle asked. She could see Maria's eyes shining in the dark as she knelt on the floor beside her. "I don't know, but my guess is it was one of the Shena on watch," Maria grimly answered."Just when I thought I was getting used to them," Giselle shivered."They scare me when they're werewolves. I am not sure I'll ever really get used to it.""We're not meant to, child. There is nothing natural about that creature out there.""I kinda got used to the way they smell," Giselle said, "and the fact that their eyes turn color when they are excited. Madalina almost bit me once," she added as almost an afterthought.Maria grunted, covering herself with the blankets and rolling over on her side. "Get some sleep. One never knows what will happen from day to day in the world in which we now live."But Giselle couldn't sleep. The rise of her heart rate at the sight of the werewolf had pumped too much adrenaline into her blood. She couldn't stop thinking about that thing out there, even though she reminded herself that it was their protector.Pitivo was one of them ... his eyes were not always silvery-blue ... his features were not always regular and beautiful. She had seen him once when he was the other way. The thought of that hideous face watching her from the bushes was still enough to make her quake and want to run.Her eyes found the Draco leaning in the corner within reach of her hand.But she wasn't a runner anymore.The girl had fallen back to sleep when Maria awoke again; yellow light was pouring through the window and the morning air was warm. She regretted not being home to water her roses and tend to her yard work. She wondered if they were ever going to let her go home. Jessie seemed to think so. But she had her doubts.She was hungry but didn't want to stir and wake Giselle. She caught the sound of voices somewhere out in the courtyard and footsteps on the cabin porch followed by a brief knocking. With one glance at the sleeping teenager, Maria went to answer the door.It was the boy. He flipped his hair out of his eyes and asked if he could wake Giselle. Strange ... He knew she was there; he knew she was sleeping.Maria had not become accustomed to the smell of werewolves that co-existed in the compound. She stood aside to allow him access into the small cabin and was grateful a warm gust of fragrant spring air accompanied him. She left the door open.He was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt. His shoulders were wide and his brown arms long, the gangly awkwardness hinted at the size he would be when he matured. Jessie had been tall and lanky like that when he was a teenager. But Jessie had never moved with the predatory stealth that the black-haired youth did. She saw him lift his face toward the scent of the teenage girl as he neared the bedroom door and saw the flare of his nostrils and the shift of his pale blue eyes to lemon yellow.The room turned bone-chilling cold. She didn't follow him into the bedroom but stood riveted trying to still the pounding of her heart.Her great grandchildren would be one of these creatures.No hope of controlling her pulse now. She heard the low murmur of voices coming from the other room. A part of her accepted that the girl was safe – these were the good werewolves – a part of her wanted to scream bloody murder at the thought of the fragile human female alone in the other room with a monster like the one they had watched the night before just outside their window in the moonlight. As she had done from the very moment the strange child had thrown the tantrum in her driveway, and Jessie had shown her the pictures of the supernatural creatures in Yellowstone, Maria fought to control her most basic human instincts.Giselle's face was flushed when she came from the bedroom, the boy was flanking her backside. He had managed to return his eyes to blue. But everything else that was alien about him, remained. The girl, struggling to slip into her hoodie, smiled at Maria. "Are you ready to go to breakfast?"Maria nodded, recognizing the telltale signs of young love in the teenager she was growing fond of. Oddly she didn't think the girl knew it. The creature did. He had a confidence, born of knowing. There wasn't any guesswork for such things for the werewolves.Maria's expression was grim as she trailed after them. She paused to take a deep breath on the porch. She surveyed the courtyard where just the night before they had celebrated their victory over the Ruv Bengalo. The drums, the music, Susannah dancing by the bonfire. The old werewolf with baleful eyes greedily shoving wine or something into Maria's hands. She had been thankful to accept the alcohol – especially after noticing the furry triangular shaped ears that protruded from its thin silver hair.Madalina's eyes glowing in the firelight. And Jessie's smile.Jessie's smile.The old woman took a deep breath. As a mother she had always known, as a grandmother she knew equally – there wasn't anything she wouldn't do for her offspring. This was Jessie's world. So, it was her world now, too.The werewolves were beautiful, Maria considered, watching the congregation gather in the dining hall. Maybe she was influenced by her fear (the memory of the thing roaming the compound that morning made her shiver) of them because it seemed a false, tinny beauty. A façade. She wondered where Jessie and his female were; she hadn't seen them yet that morning. She longed for Jessie's presence to help ground her feelings of disassociation with these creatures.Her eyes found the human girl, Giselle. She was with the other teenager. The girl Maria had not yet come to know. The one who was consistently flanked by werewolves – the healer. It was hard, when Maria's eyes landed on Susannah, to take them off of her. Brown skin, green eyes, a heavy fall of dark hair. There were still faded strips of chestnut at the ends left over from sun bleaching during childhood. Hers was a real and deep beauty. Susannah seemed agitated this morning. She barely ate from her plate and kept looking around the room.As if she felt the brush of someone else's awareness on her skin, she looked over to Maria. Their eyes held for a minute. The teenager smiled. It was a polite smile, but somehow it was warm and apologetic as well. She had the same gentleness and quality Jessie possessed. Perhaps even more so, Maria thought. Maybe it was because she was female. She seemed so horribly young to Maria's old eyes. A child. And yet she slept with the big werewolf, the not so friendly one, whose eyes were never really human. Giselle said he was trying to get her pregnant. The thought made Maria wince in disgust. At least Jessie was a grown man, making his bed with an inhuman creature. (Continues...)Excerpted from When the Wolfs Bane Blooms by Shirley A. Martin. Copyright © 2019 Shirley A. Martin. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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