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COVER SUMMARY
WELCOME TO
SPELLFIRE, TEXAS
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EXCERPT
Terri Torarcane sat at the desk after hanging up
the last call. The dispatcher’s workplace for the Spellfire
Sheriff’s department stood sparse in office furniture and
decor. In this town there needed to be eight dispatchers on
revolving shifts. The only mundane personnel were two
witches on dayshift. Terri was the only one with a
connection to the Grollim.
Even the long time residents of Spellfire seldom
understood the Shadow People. Unknown, they lived in the
deep caverns underground, or in shadows around buildings.
The Grollim guarded the abandoned hospital building,
formerly known as the Labyrinthine Institution housing
tuberculosis patients at the turn of the century. On a
hilltop, now overlooking the Interstate highway, the Grollim
preferred to remain anonymous. Good spirits could aid the
law enforcement, or magical creatures helping others, and
some of the criminal spirits facilitated the darker elements
of Spellfire.
Her connection to the Grollim was a rare commodity,
and heavily guarded by those few individuals who knew her
well. Her great-grandmother had been a nurse in the old
Labyrinthine facility. Where medicines of the times failed,
they used witchcraft and sorcery for the treatment of
tuberculosis and other diseases the State medical
administrators didn’t discuss at the time. The earliest
shamans from the native tribes of the area knew the Grollim
in the initial days of Spellfire History, but the
relationships changed as the population grew.
“A car has a flat near Labyrinthine? Kids? Thank
you, Diz,” Terri said, coming out of her reverie.
The shadow form on the wall waved as if a human
stood between the wall and a distant light source. The
movement slid down the wall and out of sight.
Terri reached for her radio microphone and hailed
an officer she knew to be in the area of the car. “What’s
your status?”
“10-8. Patrol I-45.”
“Disabled vehicle, service road near Labyrinthine,
please investigate.”
“10-4, ETA 2 minutes.”
Terri snickered to herself. The older officer was
perfectly normal for a Vamperian, but he did have a peculiar
appearance when encountering humans that knew nothing about
Spellfire.
It was important to keep kids away from the old
hospital because of the quantities of old medical equipment
buried in the area. Glass bottles once held blood for
transfusion and broken remains could cut through boots. The
grounds also held remains of the state ward patients, which
were laid to rest without markers. No records remained after
a fire that gutted all but the heaviest cement portions of
the structures. Land developers tried to rebuild the
structure, but any planning soon stopped without
explanation. Rumors would abound and wild campfire tales
fueled teenagers’ attempts to explore the old building.
Nymph Gardens and Elfen Moons
Jewel Adams
Chapter One
Dan
Whistler rarely made a trip into Spellfire, even though his
farm laid within the city limits. “Stay beside me Amanda.”
He gently ruffled his daughter’s carrot top hair, more to be
sure his daughter heard him than for affection. When the
girl looked up and smiled, Dan relaxed a little as they
entered B.E.S.S. Nymph’s Nursery. He decided he must really
be desperate to have listened to his neighbor, Zechariah
Taylor about coming here. What could some nursery owner do
to help his land?
“What’s the count on those cucumbers, Mr. Pricket?”
“108
and counting Bess, you really weren’t kidding that those
plants would produce.”
Dan
watched the smiling old man tip his hat to the woman behind
the counter. So she is Bess. The straw hat she wore
was enough to make him want to turn away, he figured it was
all for show to sell her wares.
Before
he realized it Amanda left his side and was following the
straw hat lady down the flower isle. He kept his daughter in
sight, but something made him hang back, Amanda wasn’t one
to take to people.
Bess
sensed her shadow before she reached her destination and
turned to see the girl. Her large blue eyes were smiling up
at her and Bess returned the girl’s greeting, “Ah, here it
is, a troubled rose that a friend of mine brought in. Do you
see these ugly dark buds?”
She
caught the child’s nod out of the corner of her eye. “Well,
that has to stop. I wonder what is wrong with her, Amanda.”
The girl came closer to look the plant over. Bess rarely
extended her physic abilities beyond the plants, birds and
insects, but she felt Amanda’s silence, and decided the
child needed her skills right now, so Bess listened. “What
did she say, Amanda? I missed it.”
Dan
watched, with his mouth agape, as the girl spoke to his
daughter as if they were actually talking.
“Oh
my, her roots are all bunched up?” The girl’s red hair
bounced over her enthusiasm. “Please tell her for me that
I’ll get her a much larger home with lots of fresh soil.”
Bess
turned to face the man behind them, deciding it was time to
acknowledge his presence. It didn’t take magic to know the
man was the girl’s father. The same deep red hair and
gorgeous sky-blue eyes. But the girl’s hand on her arm
stopped her from speaking to her father. “Yes Amanda, what
it is it?” She waited for the excited girl to communicate
with her from the girl’s silent world. “I don’t mind a bit
if you help give Rose a new home, but we should ask your
father if it is alright. Okay Amanda?” The girl didn’t look
hopeful, but she finally moved her head in acknowledgement.
“Good.”
Bess
didn’t think Amanda’s father looked very agreeable at the
moment. “Hello, I’m Bess Green.”
“Who
put you up to this?”
“Wha…oh, no one.” So he wasn’t a part of Spellfire’s special
residence; she didn’t figure him for a Normal. She knew he
couldn’t see her pointed Nymph ears beneath her chestnut
hair or the light, greenish blue shade of her skin; a
blending of her Dryad and Naiad nymph heritage. No, the
protection spell surrounding the town prevented
non-believers from seeing. She looked at Amanda and without
speaking she said to Amanda, “So, you are alone with your
special gift?” The girl nodded her head in answer to her
unspoken question. “Well you aren’t alone any longer,
Amanda.”
“I
said…my daughter is not alone, I’m here.”
“I
heard you, Mister…?”
“Whistler, Dan Whistler.”
“And
as I said, no one ever puts me up to anything. Yes, you are
certainly here.” Shamelessly, Bess and the girl giggled
together. “Sorry, I’ve been speaking with your daughter
Amanda in the manner that she prefers to communicate.” She
refused to look away from the forceful glare of disbelief
that the man threw at her. “Amanda, would like to help give
Rose a new home. While we do this, why don’t you tell me why
you came into town and here to see me, Mr. Whistler?”
If she
were a man, Dan swore he’d take a swing at her smug face as
she turned away like royalty and his daughter followed her
to find a pot! He didn’t have to go after them, he could see
every move they made and every bit of the one sided
conversation she continued to have with his daughter. “How
can she do that?”
Chapter One
For
eons it simmered below in the darkness, its shadows of power
spilling into everything it touched. It came to find the
one, the one to whom it belonged. The one that belonged
to…him.
Closed
for centuries in a living ball of energy from birth, it
waited for the life of the other, the one he would know
inherently, to bring him to full life. His life-shell,
formed of the stars and the mysteries and magic of the
cosmos, brought him here, to the depths below a place called
Spellfire.
A
voice, from some distant past or future woke his energies,
making him churn for needful things. Things he could not
identify with, at first. But he soon learned what they were,
and learned quickly.
He
listened to what went on around him as he lay brooding in
the darkness. Sparks of light and shadow oozed from his
depths, creating little living things, creatures with no
thought at first, and then they too learned. And they became
free of his control.
Darkness and light. Shadows and life. He was made of all
these things, yet he could not be complete without her. So
he listened to the life around him from the cavern’s dark
depths. The Earth energies sang their songs and he heard
their meanings.
Some
knew he was there, but were afraid to tell others. Some kept
away from him; others helped to nourish his needs. The needs
of mind and soul.
Soon
he developed one. Developed a new conscious. And felt life
beckoning to him though he could not escape the shell of his
beginnings. Not until he found her.
At
least not completely. He’d found ways from learning through
the minds of others. Some called him a devil, others called
him a beneficial god of sorts. The natives both of the earth
and of the magical sort could not look upon him without
going mad or evil. Yet, he did not worry about them.
He
kept to himself, mostly dealing with those that bothered him
in some way. He did not want to surface out of the darkened
and fiery domain of fire and shadows, the comforting earth.
He knew she would find him there in the deepest cores of the
caverns below Spellfire. She would come soon. And he would
know life…
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