The Goddess Redemption #2 - Spellbound (a Paranormal Romance) by Kelli Lockheart Page A

refused to think of the baby as a monster, but in her heart, she knew that was what it would become.
                  “What about the rest of my family? How are we going to survive? Why won’t the gods protect us?” the woman broke down and her sobs wracked at Sara’s heart. Because we are fools . The thought flashed into her mind and Sara took a deep breath. Strange images had been invading her mind, but she couldn’t let them bother her now. She focused on the woman and child in front of her until she knew her thoughts were her own.
                  The truth was that she had been working on a cure, with absolutely no success. The wolfsbane needed a catalyst. That catalyst, she believed, was the key to their survival. The questions the woman asked her were the same questions she had been asking herself.
    Sara and her sister, Meg, were raised by their grandmother. They never knew their parents, so when their grandmother died, it bound them together. That was why she was so protective of Meg. Sara had been looking for a cure when she stumbled upon a barrier spell to protect a dwelling from the monsters. The active ingredient in the potion was wolfsbane, a fairly plentiful purple flower for the area. She had quite a bit drying in a rack in the storage shed.
    She and her sister had tested the potion the night before. Sara knew that it worked. She hadn’t found a cure, but she had found the answers to those questions. She looked at the woman.
    “I can protect you and your family tonight,” Sara said. She heard Meg come into the room from behind her. “But you can’t tell anyone. Not tonight. You have to promise me.”
    “But if you can protect us, then everyone should know. The next mother won’t have to do this ,” she said as she hugged the babe in her arms.
    “And they won’t ,” Sara promised the grieving woman. “But right now, I don’t have enough to protect everyone. I need time to make more. Give me my time and I’ll give you this night of protection for you and your family.” Sara watched as the woman’s hope was drowned out by the crying infant in her arms.
    “I will. Thank you ,” she sobbed. “What can I do for my child?”
    “There is nothing. I am sorry ,” Sara said, softly. “He will change soon, tonight maybe, or the next. It will happen.” Sara said and grabbed the woman’s arms. “You do not want to see it when it does. But you know this, already. That is why you are here.”
    “Not yet!” the mother wailed and Sara’s heart broke. Every time a mother brought an infected child to her, it was the same. She looked at Meg. Her sister was an empath. Whereas Sara was tune d in to nature, Meg was in tune with humanity. The differences between them didn’t stop there, either. Sara’s hair was dark and she had strong features; Meg was blonde with a softer appeal. Meg was easy going and Sara was stubborn. In every way they were opposites.
    “Tonight ,” her sister mouthed and handed Sara the vial filled with purple liquid. She had written the incantation and instructions on a small slip of paper. Sara held the potion in her hand. It always surprised her at how heavy it was. Some potions were light, others, not so much. This was by far the densest compound she had mixed. She didn’t know how it worked; she just knew for certain that it did.
    “I will take him, if you want ,” Sara offered and watched the woman eye the potion in her hand. “It is yours, no matter what you choose,” Sara assured her and enfolded the vial into the mother’s hand.
    “What do you do to them?” she asked, gripping the vial like a lifeline.
    “I will tend him until his transformation; at that point, I will release him.”
    “You don’t kill them?” the woman asked . Sara had been asked this question many times before.
    “Certainly not. They are still children after all. They just don’t belong to us anymore ,” Sara said and she remembered the first time she had