Merkaba, a supernatural suspense series (Walk the Right Road, Book 3) Read Free Page B

devout Catholic. If she thought about it, her family was an odd mix. Her father had questioned, accepted, and respected her mother’s people’s ways. But then, that had only been after he allowed her mother to return after she’d left for five years when Alecia was eight.
    “Is someone going to be taken captive?”
    She stepped back, brushed her hands together, and stepped on Dan’s foot. “No, this is for protection. I built this between the east and south. The east is new beginning, a new journey; the south is adolescence, when we learn to behave, to be kind to our fellow man, to better listen to our moms and dads, to our elders. This Manitou is to protect this journey, this new beginning. I just get an idea to build one in a certain place, and I will without question. Sometimes I don’t know why, but I don’t question that feeling.” She shrugged, unable to explain any more. He must have thought she was nuts.
    “That’s cool. It makes total sense. You know, I get vibes all the time, and I’ve learned to listen, too. You sound really in tune.” He stepped closer, and this time Alecia heard the warning in her head to step back. She did, her hand shaking as she held up her medicine bag.
    “Don’t come any closer. I know exactly what you are.”

Chapter 7
    She watched him with such fury—no, fear, as if she held a cross in front of her and was ready to take on the devil himself. But then, she was looking at him the same way that shaman down in San Pedro had. He too had cast Dan out. He’d done something to Dan that had him scurrying—running away was more like it, though he’d never admit it. The shaman had shaken his feathers, his beads, and yelled, “That all he is will be no more.” Dan had run because that man had put the fear of God into him. For the first time, a man—that shaman—had known and seen what Dan really was.
    Ever since he was a little boy, he had known he was different. Growing up the way he did, in his family, he had pretended to be civilized. His mother had been alone with five children, and first his father and then grandfather had left. Everyone had only taken from him. He had starved as a little boy, eating out of garbage cans, and had sworn that he too would take from everyone so he’d never go without again. There was something about the power of taking from others. He couldn’t help himself. It was like a drug, so addictive. He couldn’t help hurting those he was supposed to care about. It just happened, and when they didn’t go away when he was through with them, well, that was when he’d really take them apart. Of course, not with his own hands, but by his puppets, the others who always acted for him. Women, especially, they could never resist helping him, and those that did especially loved hurting other women for him. What a sick bunch they were. But this dark beauty before him wasn’t buying any of it. He scrambled, trying to figure out where he’d slipped and where he’d given himself away.
    “So, what tipped me off?”
    She pulled something from her pouch, lit a match, and burned the leaf. Sage—he could smell the telltale scent. He stepped back. That was what the shaman had burned, too.
    “Oh, I heard the warning,” she answered. “I listened. You see, I’m protected, being watched, and there are many here now, watching and helping with this wheel. They are both here in this physical world and gone, and they are walking the wheel as we speak. You’re destructive. You feign an interest I haven’t experienced before. You really are good. Let me guess—you saw me, and there was something about me you just had to have: my power. You’ve done everything you could to touch me so you could connect to me, but I won’t let you. I will not shake your hand. Don’t come near me. I’ve cast a circle of protection, and I’m sending love out to you because nothing bad can survive in love. Love does conquer all. I knew I’d face opposition and an attack, and here