Read Online Woman King by Evette Davis - Free Book Online Page B

how powerful a
woman is when she uses her sixth sense.”
    I sat for a moment contemplating my future.
It certainly couldn’t get any worse, I reasoned. I now had the
power to read people and know their emotions. If I could figure our
how to protect myself, maybe I could get back to work and retrieve
my clients from Stoner Halbert.
    “What about the demon?” I asked. “Will it go
away now?”
    “Soon you will be able to keep him out of
your head and then he will have to move on to someone more
vulnerable.”
    Thinking about being vulnerable reminded me
of the horrible light and pain from the night before. “What was
that light last night? Why did it hurt my head?”
    Elsa paused a long while and then said, “It
was someone trying to read your thoughts.” That didn’t sound good
at all. “Read my thoughts. Why? Who was it?”
    Elsa frowned. “He’s the head of an
organization that’s very interested in humans who have extra skills
like yours.”
    “Really, how odd,” I said. “He sounds like a
freak. How does he know about me?”
    Again, Elsa didn’t answer immediately.
    “I am a member of the Council, it was my
responsibility to tell them that I was leaving my post temporarily
to help a human,” she explained. “When I told the director about
your gifts, he became very interested.”
    “The Council,” I said aloud. “It sounds like
a John Grisham novel.”
    “I don’t know who John Grisham is,” Elsa
said, her stern voice returning. “But I assure you, the Council is
very real. Gabriel Laurent is the current director. He’s the one
who tried to contact you last night.”
    “Does he always try to blind people to say
hello?”
    “I told him it was too early to try such a
thing,” she acknowledged. “I asked him to wait a few days and
promised that I would bring you to meet him.”
    “Is that where you went, when you left? To
see him?” I asked. “You touched the fountain and disappeared.”
    Elsa nodded. “I used the portal to jump to
the top of the museum, where the Council keeps its
headquarters.”
    “How did you do that? I mean how do you make
sure you get where you want to go?”
    “I use my mind. It will guide me to where I
want to go.”
    “And what does Monsieur Laurent want
with me?”
    “It’s nothing, really; he wants to speak to
you about a job.”
    I knew right away that Elsa was lying.
     
     
    ****
     
     

CHAPTER
11

    From the moment she began speaking, I knew
that Elsa was holding something back. I could feel her hesitation.
By now, I also knew her well enough to know I should back off and
wait to ask her again later. So I let the matter pass, and dressed
and readied myself for my first day of learning how to use my
reclaimed skills.
    We were headed to the Mission District. Elsa
insisted we use the subway to travel downtown. Riding the public
trains, she said, would be a good place to practice. As soon as we
got on the N-Judah streetcar, Elsa leaned in and whispered my
assignment.
    “Focus on one person, and try to block out
the rest. Find one person and tell me what you see and feel.”
    I scanned the train looking for my target. A
few seats away, I locked on to a well-dressed woman who looked to
be about 25. She was tall with long blond hair, held in place by a
tortoise shell headband. Her hair, which had been brushed until it
shined, cascaded down her back. She looked successful and
content—an easy first assignment, I told myself.
    When I examined her more closely, though, I
began to see a different story. She was encased in a solid red line
of fear. She was worried. I could feel it. Her heart also held
another emotion: longing. I sat down on a nearby train seat and
watched her.
    “She’s worried,” I said to Elsa under my
breath. “She’s trying to reassure herself about something, maybe
not reassure, but I think I can feel her trying to soothe
herself.”
    Elsa pulled me up and walked us to the second
car of the train. “Try again.”
    I was feeling more