Page 14 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

And she wondered if she would ever feel connected to anyone the way she felt connected to the natural world. Would she ever allow herself to be that close to someone? After the pain of losing her parents, she didn’t see how she could. She’d wrapped her heart in thick layers, and not even Carol had managed to get past them. Shelly was probably the only person who had come close to breaking through her walls. Despite the protection she’d attempted to give herself, Tara still hurt and felt lonely. She wanted to fit in somewhere. She needed to be a part of the world instead of just watching it happen around her. She wanted desperately to be able to let go of the anger that was always simmering in the background. She didn’t even understand what she was angry at. Her parents for dying? God for allowing them to die? The idiot driving the car who hit her parents? A combination of all three? Or was it the strange feeling that her parents’ accident wasn’t an accident atall?

It wasn’t a thought that she’d ever voice out loud because it sounded completely absurd. Tara carried with her the memory of a dream. It seemed real to her, as if it was something she’d actually experienced, but she knew it couldn’t be. She remembered a voice telling her she’d one day find out who shereallywas. Tara had no idea what it meant. It was simply one more thing that made her feel like she was strange, different from everyone aroundher.

She didn’t feel as though shewasa part of the world, as if she somehow didn’t belong. As she walked into the quiet house, Tara wondered, not for the first time, if she was supposed to have died with her parents. If they had indeed been murdered and she’d been in the car with them, wasn’t she, too, a target? Had she somehow lived when that hadn’t been herfate?

She sighed and shook her head. “You’re thinking too much, Tara,” she said quietly as she marched to the bathroom to wash the soccer stink off herself. She needed to shut down her mind. Tara wanted to finish out the three months she had left in high school, and then maybe she’d be able to figure out what she was supposed to do with her life. If she could just finish these last three months, then something was waiting for her. She just knew it. It seemed ridiculous, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more—something bigger than herself— and she was destined to be a part of it. Or, it could be she was reading too darn many fantasynovels.

“Not giving the fantasy novels up,” she said to herself. Tara would rather live in her fantasy worlds than feel the emptiness of her real life. If only those worlds really existed. Maybe then she could quit fixating on the loss of her parents and begin to heal. Maybe fantasy worlds did exist. After all, if a person existed that couldn’t be injured, then maybe there was an entire unseen world out there filled with people just likeher.

Chapter 6

Could you make a little less noise?” Zuri practically spat the words at Jax. The pair crouched behind a cluster of boulders on a ridge as they watched a beady-eyed gnome. The creature was riding on the shoulders of a giant golem made completely of large stones. New Mexican bedrock most likely, Jax thought, though he couldn’t be entirely certain from thisdistance.

“What noise? I’m not making any noise,” he whispered. Jax was dressed in camouflage fatigues. He carried a pistol on his belt, as well as a large stone hammer slung across hisback.

“You’re breathing too loud,” repliedZuri.

She was dressed similarly and also carried a semi-automatic weapon. Instead of a hammer, however, she carried a sheathed kris dagger. She fingered the weapon’s handle absentmindedly as she watched the golem and the gnome. The giant was dutifully following a deer hunter as he crept down a dirt path through the woods. The hunter couldn’t see the gnome or the stone golem, as the latter were both spirit beings of earth and completely invisible to the humaneye.

“You want me not to breathe?” he asked, his voice conveying just how ridiculous he found herrequest.

“Right now? Yes. You sound like a yawninghippopotamus.”

Jax bit back the sigh that was common when he was talking with his on-again, off-again lover. “You always did make me breathless,Zuri.”

“Not now, Jax,” she growled, turning her attention back to the hunter, who was carrying a large caliber rifle in one hand and an aluminum can of beer in the other. By the way the man was swaying, it looked as if he’d already emptied a few of the cans thatafternoon.

“What’s he after, I wonder?” Zuri breathed as her eyes narrowed toslits.

He smirked. “Judging by the caliber of the rifle, I’d say a buck. Though at this point, I’m sure the fool would shoot anything that crossed hispath.”

“Not him!” Zuri nearly growled. She’d been in a foul mood since they’d headed out on their current mission.“The gnome. Why is he following this guy out here all alone? Suicide? Accidental self-inflicted gunshot,maybe?”

Jax chuckled. Not at the prospect of the hunter shooting himself, but at the fact he’d once again flustered Zuri. Did he like to poke her? Absolutely. He loved the way her cheeks turned rosy when she was angry with him. “Can’t say. But whatever it is, I’m sure it isn’t good. Should we take them now?” Jax rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He was eager for this hunt to be over, which wasn’t typical. Jax usually loved stalking the spirits for as long as possible before making his move, savoring every moment of the hunt, and especially every moment of the actualkill.

“What’s your deal?” she asked, not taking her eyes off hertarget.

There was really no point in trying to keep anything from her. She knew him too well. “I checked on one of my charges a couple of days ago. She will be graduating from high school in a fewmonths.”

“Okay…and?”

It wasn’t unusual for those who had identified potential nature hunters to check in on them, especially if they were close to reaching the age where they would be recruited to theacademy.

“There were two acolytes there. One was water, the other fire. They were young and didn’t look dangerous, but they had to have been up tosomething.”

“Two different elements in one place?” Zuri asked, her alarm evident in the slightly raised sound of her voice. “Were they operating together?” It was extremely unusual for dark acolytes to work together. Even the academies of the light elementalists merely tolerated oneanother.

“No,” he answered. “They weren’t near one another. But I couldn’t figure out which students they were there for. I didn’t see marks on anyone other than my own charge. I can’t understand why water or fire would be interested in mygirl.”

“Did you notice any darkspirits?”

That was the kicker. Jax had felt several, and possibly more, dark elementals lurking about, but he’d never been able to get a read on them. He’d never actually seen them. “I felt them,” he admitted. “Have you ever heard of dark elementals being able to shield their physical form fromus?”

Just as Zuri opened her mouth to answer, she paused and cocked her head. “What’sthat?”

Jax narrowed his eyes and cocked his own head, pushing all thoughts of his visit to Kentucky from his mind. He heard singing coming from somewhere down the path. It was faint but growing louder. The gnome giggled. The golem merely marched on, stone-faced. The hunter staggered forward, seemingly still unaware anyone else waspresent.

“Crap! Boy Scouts,” said Jax. He knew Zuri’s wide eyes surely matched his own. “That’s why he’s here. We need a distraction. Now!” He’d have to try and figure out what was going on with Tara and those other elementals after they’d dealt with the currentproblem.

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