Scarred

Chapter 32: Eogan's Back

Hey everyone,

Once again, sorry for the delay. There has been some family drama happening around a previously unknown medical issue (no, it's not mine). A surgery and several emergency room visits later (some of which were completely unnecessary and done strictly for drama), it seems things might be finally calming down.

Anyway - my time has been sucked up quite a bit with that, but I've still managed to make some progress on both this, and getting DT up on Amazon. I'm waiting on the last files for book covers from my designer (cuz I kinda suck at graphic design lol), and now I'm waiting on Lit to remove DT/Something New from their site.

This leads me to another thing - I may not be posting anything on Lit again. It's been a challenging process just to get any kind of response on removing DT (I think I'm now in week three of trying to get the story removed). We'll see how this latest iteration goes, but at the moment, I'm debating whether to even finish posting Scarred over there.

Anyway, when I go to publish (which is imminent), I will be replacing what's currently up on DT with teasers, per Kindle rules. What that means is that if you want to read the current version, do it now. lol

I think that's everything - thank you all for sticking with me and sorry for the long wait. As always, don't forget to vote!

======================================

Lucienne watched carefully, trying to learn what she could while Eogan studied the situation with Michael. She was shoving aside her feelings over the news of her brother and sisters so she could stay focused on watching him examine Michael's gifts. She had to admit it was easier with their minds linked together since he was able to help her lock it away to deal with later, when they had time.

"Here it is..." Eogan muttered, half to himself, as he traced the delicate threads leading into the overflowing wellspring of pure gold that were Michael's mental gifts.

Her vampire's curiosity was also piqued and she felt him watching just as intently through her sight, and not because of extreme suspicion the way he would have before, but out of a genuine desire to learn. She found herself flushing with pleasure that he was so interested in something she was able to see and do, and she liked that she could give him this small gift while he watched through her.

"Of course I'm interested, My Heart. You are unreservedly providing me a remarkable opportunity to view that which I could only ever imagine before. I must say the reality is quite impressive," he commented, answering her feelings.

She flushed a bit more, but firmly kept her attention on Eogan who was delicately picking through the glowing strands, barely even sending a whisper of feeling through Michael. Finally, he exposed yellow cords mixed into the gold, and she knew those didn't belong to Michael. Intense anger overwhelmed her, and this time it was Michael that steadied her, keeping her from doing something rash that would interfere.

She got hold of her emotions about the same time that Eogan finished his perusal and withdrew. Following him out, she took a deep breath to calm herself and then did the little mental twist that put her vision back to normal.

Michael was still standing behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist as he'd been when they started. He nuzzled her neck before placing a soft kiss there, instantly distracting her from her desire to hunt down whoever'd messed with her Ruach.

Eogan chuckled softly, but quickly turned serious again as he spoke. "This goes deeper than I had imagined. This was laid long ago, and was done by The Forgotten. It was designed with a trigger which implies that it was either his intention to let you go and set you off later for some reason, or, what I suspect was more likely, to turn your abilities to his use. Essentially what he did was lay a working that would open your ability to hear minds to its fullest extent while subtly restraining your ability to root and stabilize. Trigger those two things together, and even if you had warning, it would be very hard not to lose yourself, leaving your mind vulnerable."