Elementals Mystic Warriors: Mystic Warriors, #1

By Katherine L. Moore

Elementals Mystic Warriors

Enter into the enchanting world of the Mystic Warriors.  Where an ageless immortal society of gifted and powerful  supernatural  beings exist, unknown to man, with magic and the ability to control the elements of nature and use these ability to fight the forces of darkness.  Desire, love, and adventure lie ahead for two unlikely souls destined to be together.

Powerful shifter, telepath and practitioner of magic, Bly La Croix is a true daughter of the earth.  She's a descendant from a long line of Elemental warriors and magical beings as a protector of mankind while living among normal man as one of them.  The various roles she's assumed over time afforded her the secrecy necessary to fulfill her protective role to man. 

Andrew Von Erikson, the eldest of the Von Erikson triplets born over six hundred years ago.  The situation surrounding their birth created the one of a kind warrior that they are.  Known to the society of Elementals as Day Walkers, they are a triple threat to combat the evil of the world.  Due to the circumstance of his birth Andrew exists in a world of isolation, expecting nothing, to never fine a mate who can save him from the shadows that haunt his being.

They were both summoned to return to Nos Ysse Kraggenra – Sanctuary Mountain, by the governing council of their society.  Trouble is brewing and danger of the dark forces is presenting itself.  It's prey, mankind and their weaknesses.  From the moment they meet, Bly and Andrew are drawn to one another, helpless to resist the desire that ignites between them.  Destiny has brought them together, but is it enough to overcome the obstacles that malevolent force has thrown in their path. Will the desire they share be enough to overcome the barriers of their lives that separate them?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katherine Moore
• Release date: Jan 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386917991

Katherine L. Moore

KATHERINE L. MOORE Katherine Moore, author of Elementals Mystic Warriors, the first book of her Mystic Warriors series, lives in Houston, Texas.  She is a native of Louisiana, which is where the basis for her love of reading and writing began. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Houston-Downtown.  She is a mother, business owner and a former educator.  While in her role as an educator she helped spread her love for reading and writing to expand the minds of the students she taught. Coming from a large family of eleven children, reading and writing gave her a way to have a space that she didn’t have to share.  She tells friends and family that she writes for herself because it gives her a sense of freedom.  With this freedom comes the ability to create characters and settings that are not locked into any one realm or reality.  When she writes she becomes a part of her characters. They exist in the domain, time and space that she creates. The fact that she has the capability of presenting her characters, that create pictures and emotions that stimulate the mind is an ability that she feels blessed to have.  “I love storytelling… paranormal-romance filled with action, sometimes conflicting personalities and intrigue is what I present…”, says Katherine Moore.  She attributes the love of her preferred genre of writing to the stories and legends handed down from the elders that surrounded her in her youth.

Book preview

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my parents, John Nathan Lambert  Sr. and Theresa Bordelon Lambert, for always encouraging me to let my mind flow free.  To use the  colorful imagination  I’ve always had to create stories.  For telling me that I could do and be anything I wanted to be, as long as I wanted it. To my sisters, brothers and my children who have always been supportive to me in my writing endeavors.  To Frank, who usually only deals with technical reading, but inspired me because my writings could capture and hold his attention.  The attention and strength of his support was very significant in the completion of this book.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Special thanks to the staff  members of the GREEN TORTOISE HOSTEL in Seattle, Washington.  With your help I was able to stay in a friendly environment that was contributing to my creative nature.  Surrounded by great flow of people, the influence of the area the Pacific Northwest, I was able to feel the atmosphere of the Puget Sound and the mountain ranges.  My room’s location at the hostel was a window that was supportive to my creative muse... Thanks Green Tortoise – Seattle!

Special Thanks to Teena (Hell Cat!) Lambert and Michelle (Micky) Ware, for being the Awesome Supporters that you are!  You being there to listen as I told this story were important to me

Prologue

The contractions were coming closer together as Teresa and John La Croix made their way Eastbound on U.S. Highway 90 for Lafayette, Louisiana.  Lafayette was the closest hospital to where they lived in small town, USA, and it was seventy-two miles away.  The couple already had two children, both girls that they left in safe keeping with Teresa’s father.  Teresa’s mother had died when Teresa was twenty years old, she was the youngest of her siblings.  She was the youngest of the Macintyre’s and she was already happily married to John La Croix, who was very attentive to her every need and desire.  John considered himself the luckiest man in the world, having found a treasure in this world like Teresa.  She belonged to a family of twenty-five children and at the ripe age of twenty-five she was on the way to becoming the mother of her third child.  Granted that this collection of offspring that Teresa belonged to was not the product of single births.  Teresa’s parents had several deliveries that consisted of multiple births of twins and triplet babies, boys and girls.  Almost a trademark of the MacIntyre clan.

Teresa like her mother was tall in stature and was beautiful.  Her cream colored skin was smooth as silk and was a compliment to the raven tresses that fell around her shoulders. The only oddity associated with her raven locks was the two inch wide patch of reddish gold hair that was woven through it.  A reddish gold patch that was resistant to color or any attempt to change its appearance.  Her tresses framed a classic beauty of an oval face with a slightly squared jaw line. Her eyes were a beguiling smoky-gray, accented with golden spears that darted and encircled her pupils, set in two beautiful almond shaped portals to the world.

Although living in the State of Louisiana neither John’s family or Teresa’s family were native to the area...John La Croix‘s lineage was spoken of mostly in whispers.  He had been adopted by Narcisse La Croix along with six other siblings after the untimely death of both of their parents.  Circumstances surrounding the deaths of both parents were never discussed.  Casting a shroud of secrecy around the children of the deceased.  But Narcisse La Croix took all seven of the children, four girls and three boys, under his protection and raised them as his own.  La Croix being the adopted name of John and his siblings... his family’s true last surname had been lost with time.  But the La Croix elders never hid the fact that John and his siblings where descendants of a Northwestern Native American people.  Narcisse La Croix had come to America from Canada to start a new life.  He was wealthy; a man of means, whose presence alone spoke of unseen power.   It showed in his manner.  He isolated his family from the outside world, often stating that they were  better off staying amongst themselves.  He owned large parcels of heavily wooded land and built his family’s homes on it... away from the rest of the world.  The La Croix family was shrouded in mystery.  Whisperings in the surrounding community of strange things going on behind the secured area of Le Domaine de La Croix (the Domain of the La Croix) were always in the air...

Teresa’s family was of  European descent.  She had the mixture of Scots, Irish and Norman blood running through her veins.  It was apparent when you saw the culmination of their family brood...the group had a bountiful mixture of redheads and golden blondes and raven black hair...but there was more to this family than met the eye too.  It was whispered that the Mac Intyre clan was a strange lot and there were stories of things happening wherever and whenever her family was around.  They lived an almost nomadic existence, never staying in one place for too long.  Things happened!  Places and people being on the verge of severe poverty would suddenly have a major turn-around.  The growth of crops on farms and livestock seemed to flourish.  People and communities that were almost once on the verge of starvation, now would be able to provide for their families.  Towns where the population was being terrorized with crime and the fatality rates were soaring, things seemed to suddenly change for the better with the Mac Intyres around.  Reports of sightings of strange beings or creatures were being made.  Along with these sightings people were turning themselves in for crimes they had committed.   They would say it was because they had to or else!  Some were hardened individuals that were known to be tough malicious beings showing fear for their own safety... seeking the safety that they thought being in custody would bring them.   Other depraved offenders just came up missing and never heard from again.  But just like they had come to town, the Mac Intyres would suddenly be gone without any notice. They were just gone... 

It was by accident or fate that John La Croix happened to meet Teresa MacIntyre.  The Mac Intyres had arrived in John’s community and Teresa was running a family errand when the old truck  she was transporting family supplies in had broken down.  John was on his way back to his family’s home when he came across Teresa and her dilemma.  He had passed her because it was not in the habit of his family to mingle or interfere with people in the surrounding community, not unless they just had to.  This was a superstitious community where stories of the La Croix’s were in abundance.  But John felt a compulsion in him to turn around and offer assistance to the broken down traveler.  Upon getting out of his truck to approach the other truck, the driver John thought was another male, turned out to be a female dressed in overalls with her hair tucked under a cap.  All this became apparent to John as he approached the truck the driver turned around revealing what he thought was the face of an angel.  She had dirt smudges smeared across the bridge of her nose and one cheek.  She was tall for most women.  Even with the overalls John could see a woman’s true figure outlined underneath the male attire.  

She had the most enticing smile that traveled all the way up to her eyes. Her eyes were like two brilliant shiny gray star sapphires a man could get lost in them... and John did.  His assistance to Teresa brought him into contact with the rest of the MacIntyres when he helped her bring the supplies to her home.  He was astonished at the size of her family.  Well, not so much the size but the fact that they all lived together.  They were a friendly enough group, but there was something about them that John could not quite put his finger on... but his real attraction was to Teresa.  Being in her presence made him feel light at heart.  He didn’t want to leave her side.  It was like he had known her for a long time. But logically he knew that this was impossible because he had just met her.  Being near her made him feel different.  He looked at her and his heart and mind was overwhelmed with a sudden mixture of emotions.  Possession, need, even a sudden primal need to make her his...  John for the first time in his life wanted and needed something.   No...someone and her name was Teresa.  These feelings were unfamiliar and threatening not only to him, but his family circle also.  The La Croix’s had a secret that had been guarded for centuries and John’s feelings, his compulsive need for this woman could endanger everyone.  But like John, Teresa’s family didn’t have room in it for outsiders either.  The Mac Intyres had an age old secret of their own.  One that they too kept hidden from the outside world.  Was it their destiny, their fate to cross paths?  To become united and join both of these unique families...

Standing near his truck looking on as the MacIntyre family members unloaded the supplies from his truck bed, he reached out to assist Teresa with the sack she was attempting to lift.  Reaching around her to take control of the weight of the heavy sack their hands touched.  For a moment they were suspended in time and something passed through them in that touch stimulating enough to increase John’s heart rate, it made his breath catch in his throat.  She felt it too!  In that instant she turned to look over her shoulder and their eyes made contact.  It was like the world stopped in that moment and the only thing that mattered to him in those moments was her.  There was no one else in his world but Teresa!  One heartbeat passed and then two, as he not relinquishing his hold on the heavy sack said directly to her a whisper breathe away, Sweetie, I’ve got this.  She hesitated a moment as their eyes met and held each other.  Within that look, they both saw whatever they were looking for, that search for something.  There were stars in her eyes and a hint of recognition as a slow smile came across Teresa’s face and she said a simple, Okay John.  John lifted and threw the sack upon his broad shoulder.   Teresa stepped around him and said, Follow me this way.  He watched her walking in front of him knowing in his mind that this was only the beginning of something new and important in his life...that she and her mysterious family was forever going to be a part of his life...that his life was going to change.  He just did not know how much!  One thing he did know with all of his heart was that this tall beauty with grey star sapphire eyes, silky smooth cream colored skin and raven tresses he had to make his... as she walked in front of him her movements were flowing and beautiful.  She almost seemed to glide when she walked and her hips had a gentle sensuous sway with each step she took. There was no doubt for John; she was going to be his...a new beginning.

1

The air was cool and crisp in the Cascade Mountain region as the sun was barely making an appearance over the mountain peaks marking the beginning of a new day.  Under the guidance of the Earth Mother the season of autumn was beginning to make her subtle approach.   It was marked by the spectacular colors the golden yellow of alpine larches, of late-season huckleberries and brilliant yellow leaves of the canopy of Aspen trees that lined the mountain paths.  All was still except for the cool breeze and the musical sound of the rustling of leaves and the squirrels and small animals scampering about on the forest floor and amongst the treetops.  Bly La Croix needed the feel of the cool gentle breeze blowing through her hair and the coolness of autumn’s breeze flowing across her face.

Bly sat perched on an overhang of a mountain cliff.  She was  looking out to absorb the beauty of her home area of the Northern Cascades Mountains.  She sat as memories of times past flowed through her mind.  Her family had come to the Northwestern American states the Northern portion of California, Washington, Oregon and into the southern part of British Columbia, Canada.  She came for the safety of the Cascade Mountain range with her parents and family as a child.   The place know to her as, Nos Ysse Kraggenra – Our Sanctuary Mountains was home.  This almost wild and untamed area fitted perfectly to the needs of her people.  The mountainous region covered a span of over seven hundred miles.  Its terrain covering snow capped mountains, with valleys, gorges, and volcanoes and waterfalls the epitome of untamed wilderness.   This territory of influence, this domain fitted Bly’s unique and gifted family.  Unique and gifted in ways mankind and society was not capable of understanding and thereby could not and would not accept.  She was a product of the La Croix and MacIntyre family union.  Family elders spoke of the fact that it had been predestined that her mother and father would meet and marry.  Their marriage bonding together two very distinct and powerful families.  Both families not quite human but of the old world and times forgotten.  The species of her family members and those inhabiting this area she called home were a mixture of beings.  Elves, Shape Shifters, Ranger-warriors, Shadow Warriors, Practitioners of Magic, and Day Walkers.  On the whole in general some unique humans too made up their tightly formed society of beings!   They were all recognized amongst their society as the Elementals. 

The Elementals was a very fitting name because of their various gifts that were derived from the elements of the Earth itself.  Fire, water, air and earth, the earth was a part of every one of them, along with what was called their fifth element... Spirit!  Their earth gifts and their spirits united them under one cause.  To protect mankind from the evil that preyed on them and lie in wait, on the city streets, alley ways and shadows of society.  Though to even do that, the Elementals had to isolate their home bases.  Some Elementals were intertwined in today’s society as business people, agents of law enforcement, the media and even the medical fields.  What better way to stay alerted to what was going on around them, but to be a part of it. To be in the mix of things!

The Pacific Northwest was what was now called home.  But in the last century the Elementals found themselves having to expand the coverage area of the New World.  This was necessary  because evil had expanded its reach encompassing more of the new world.  The Elementals found to a large extent, that danger to humankind was taking hold in larger populated cities of the  Atlantic seaboard too.  The Northeast having the most heavily populated cities like Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.  But the third coast too, the Gulf Coast and it’s southern boundaries that were filled with its own historical mystical influences, were also in jeopardy from the assault of evil’s growing reach.   In essence crime,  victim related crimes was running wild.   Motivated by these occurrences, they had to make a move to cover a larger area.  That is probably why some of the Elementals were being called to Council...it was rumored that the need was great and that the council members were going to need to send them out.

So, once again it looked like Bly and some of the others were going on a mission that would address the immediate need in their area.  But also  possibly to the other regions of the country to scout out what was rumored and even beyond.  There was even the probability that some of them would be sent to the Old World countries, eventually.  To seek out  allies.  Beings similar to themselves that stayed just under the radar of who and what they really are.   Those that were sometimes mistaken to be something else... it was hard enough fighting the enemy.  But it is even harder to convince those that don’t know you, that you are one of the good-guys!  Especially when some of your gifted society’s abilities almost mirrored the enemy’s...

STANDING UP ON THE cliffs edge Bly slowly surveyed the beauty of the Northern Cascade Mountains.  She surrounded herself with her shield of invisibility as she inhaled.  Deeply she filled her lungs with the fresh fragrances of the surrounding timber and other plant life that accompanied the clean mountain air.  Then slowly exhaled as she let herself start a free fall off of the mountains edge.  She let herself  plummet, fearlessly free-falling.  The air flowing past her body was such a rush, she was elated by the feel of it.  Mid-way through the fall Bly made her body buoyant and was caught by an upward air current and she took flight riding the air currents.  Her flight took her deeper into the mountains to the isolated and hidden compound of her people and to the Elemental Council members that had summoned them.  In flight Bly had shielded herself from all eyes that might accidently see her.  Her society’s members were species of beings that mankind either didn’t have an inkling of their existence or was thought of as only myth or superstitious folklore.

As she reached her destination of the Council Hall she became visible once again in her human form and landed in the courtyard.  Approaching the Council Hall, Bly was remembering some of the Council members were Elementals that were legendary, some as old as time itself. Some that could remember the birth of mankind, "Edain ", as they were named in the Elfin language.  "Edain’s" translated literally meant the "Second People", which was the reference to mankind.  

Bly was the third child of eleven children and was a Half-Elf /Elandili, from her mother’s side of the family with all the abilities bestowed and a Shape-shifter from her father’s side and she was a natural born telepath with a defensive power that her people call a psychic punch.  Bly Angeni (Tall Spirit) La Croix was not a woman of small stature.  She had a beautiful exotic smooth tan complexion that covered a six feet one inch very shapely woman’s full figure, with a golden head of wavy hair that reached past her waist.  Like her mother she had an almost oval face with a slightly squared jaw line with full sensuous lips that very seldom seemed to smile.  Her exotic upturned almond shaped eyes were a rare pearl gray.  Eyes with a hint of golden sparks that seemed to radiate, flaring out around a distinctive cat-eye shaped pupil.  The intensity of the pearl gray iris was surrounded by a dark halo.  The cat-eye pupil only became obvious or manifested itself when Bly was close to shifting or one of her creature’s instincts was drawn close to the surface.   Sharpening her awareness of everything and everyone around her, seen and unseen? Her creature powers involve a shift to the Eagle or a Black Panther. On rare occasion she would sometimes shift to a golden coated wolf  with shadows of black on the tips of her fur.  

As she approached the Council Hall she was being joined by others that had also been summoned by the Council.  She immediately recognized the three of them who were approaching as her kinswomen of her mother’s family.  The MacIntyre triplets were Lilly, Lillian and Lilith.  All three striking beauties and identical.  They deliberately distinguished themselves by the way each chose to wear her hair.  They were not quite as tall as Bly but they were not of average height either and were not lacking in feminine endowments.  All three were crimson haired beauties, with golden streaks woven throughout their tresses.  Their skin was porcelain white and smooth as cream and they had the most beautiful emerald green eyes a person could behold.  They were enchanting like Earth goddesses. The MacIntyre sisters too were Half-Elf/Elandili, like Bly.  They too were telepaths and practiced the magical arts and had a strong connection to the elements of Fire and Earth.  These ladies if needed in battle could transform into the legendary Phoenix or Firebird.  As they drew near Bly spoke a greeting in the elfin tongue as a show of familial recognition and attachment, "Aaye! Naesaian luume’.  Hail! It has been too long, to which Lillian responded, Aaye Bly! Cormamin lindua ele lle seler.  Hail Bly!  My heart sings to see thee sister". These women were blood-kin and had grown from childhood together all relocating to the Pacific Northwest as times required.

Besides the MacIntyre triplets another distinguished set of triplets amongst their people had also been apparently summoned.  Not your conventional set of Elemental triplets, as were the three ladies.   This set of siblings was made up of two males and a female.  They were the Von Erikson triplets, the Elementals’ Triple Threat Team.  Their connection and existence was unique to the Elementals because their entire existence was due to an impossible twist of fate, that since never has been duplicated...

***Enter the Day Walkers***

THEIR POINT OF ORIGIN was well over six centuries ago on a small farm outside a little village located in the region of the Bihor Massif Mountains in Romania.  Johan and Merrirska Von Erickson on their small isolated farm one late evening came under a vicious, merciless attack by two of the undead, vampires that were traveling through the area while on the way to Slovakia.

The Von Erickson couple was just starting their family. A very happy event in the young couple’s lives.  The coming births of their first children.  Merriska knew she was carrying two babies as she had been told by the village mid-wife, Anna.  Her excitement was building and just before the brutal attack from the undead she and Johan were making preparations to go into the village the next day... The mid-wife Anna, was to assist her with the delivery of the babies and thought it would be best that she come into the village in case there were difficulties, considering there were going to be two babies to deliver.  In the village Anna would have the extra help of another villager she would need to insure everything would be all right.

The life changing event happened during late night hours after Johan and Merriska had settled in for the evening.  Johan was awakened by the abnormally high pitched horrendous sounds of screaming that seemed to be coming from the barn.  It sounded like the horses were under attack.  The penetrating screams of alarm mixed with pain caused Johan to sit upright and bolt out of bed and immediately get dressed.  Johan’s sudden movement awakened Merriska from her slumber but the sounds of the horses cries pulled her into full awareness, especially when she saw her husband reach in the closet for the old single shot gun that was the only weapon that they owned.  She called to him, Johan, what is wrong? He answered, There is something in the barn at the horses!  I must go see...  She reached for her robe as she started to rise to go with him.  But Johan put a restraining hand on her shoulder and told her, No! You stay here...it is probably nothing.  I will be back in shortly.  Johan left the room and she heard the front entrance door to the house close as he went out.  The barn was a bit of a way from the house so Merisska got out of bed anyway to wait for her husband’s return... She would wait in the small cabins main room for him.  As she looked out of the window she watched as the lantern light he was carrying disappeared when he rounded the corner of the barn.

She stood watching out the window as seconds turned into minutes... the horses had stopped screaming.  Now there was an eerie silence replacing the sounds that had been the animal’s cries.  She waited.  Suddenly there was a gunshot... a moments silence and then the spine-chilling heart wrenching cry of the voice that she knew so well... Johan!  Johan, what had happened...God!  Johan!  She was screaming his name in her head as in the distance on this moonless starlit night, she saw the figure of a man come around the corner of the barn.  Merriska in a panic snatched open the front door and stepped out unto the porch of the small house... she called to him, Johan!  It was as another figure suddenly came around the corner of the barn that she was overwhelmed by fear! By an uncontrollable dread as she placed a hand over her stomach.  A feeling of trepidation tugged at her heart!  She could feel the presence of something malicious, something ruthless in the air.  The babies stirred in her womb as though they could feel the presence of evil also...she placed her hands protectively over her stomach. Could her babies feel it too?  Something evil was in the air, and it was coming their way.  Merriska gathered her wits an immediately went into the house... She in her heart knew that her Johan was gone and somehow by the grace of God, she had to survive for the sake of their babies...they had to live!  She ran through the small house to the bedroom and barricaded the door...then went into the closet.  Dropping into the farthest corner and she started to pray that someone would come to help her.  Minutes passed that seemed like hours as she heard the shattering noise of her front door blown open.  The force shook the little house on its frame.  Then she heard it, the voice of death a low menacing call.  The sound of sheer evil raking against all of her senses!  It called to her, tauntingly, Woman! Come out and face me... you cannot resist me and you are wasting time trying to avoid the inevitable...  Merriska’s heart was racing.  Panic and fear was dominant in her mind.  If her heart beat any faster or harder, it would surely explode out of her chest!  Without warning the door to the closet she was seeking sanctuary in was ripped off of its hinges by an invisible force and she was exposed to whatever evil that had invaded her home and had taken her beloved Johan away from her.  She sat huddled in the corner of the closet as still and as quietly as she could.  But she was sure that whatever was out there could hear the pounding of her heart.  Into her sight came a claw like hand with nails that were razor sharp and was attached to something bony  that may have once been an arm.  The clawed limb gripped her by the hair and ruthlessly dragged her from her place of protection in one motion it threw her unto her bedroom floor.  Utter fear gripped her as the foul stench of death and decay filled her senses.  She couldn’t make herself look up at those that intruded into her home.  From her position on the floor she could see what had once resembled elegant clothing.  But she was afraid to look upon the presence of what she knew in her heart was pure evil, Nosferatu...the undead...Vampire!

She almost couldn’t breathe the smell and stench of death was all around her.  Fear was upon her and her stomach was turning over as she held back bile and the urge to throw up... her babies had ceased all movement.  They lay still within her womb as they too seem to be awaiting their inescapable fate.  He glided closer to where she laid and reaching down gripped her once again by her hair lifting her off the floor bringing her face to face with the presence of death.  There he stood something that once resembled a man but no longer!  It was tall in figure but its body was nothing but bones covered by rotting flesh and once elegant rags.  A skeletal figure with gaping holes where flesh once was and a maw filled with jagged teeth blackened, stained with old blood.  Places where parasites were protruding out of the spaces and dropping to the floor as the undead stood there.  Merriska wanted to scream but her voice had abandoned her, she felt like her throat was closing up on her.  It was hard for her to breathe.  She visibly trembled from fear and tears clouded her vision.  I will feast upon your warm rich blood to appease my hunger for a while. What luck to find such an offering for our travels The Vampire mockingly said to his companion as it held her at arm’s length and looked her over as if he were accessing her worthiness.

"Where are

Reviews for Elementals Mystic Warriors

[Michelle Ware · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow! I like her style... her characters come alive for you! While reading the book I felt like I was a part of the story... Love the struggle of Andrew! The friendship between Bly and her BFF Ricci was believable. Andrew and Bly as a couple I think are HOT!! Wondering is there something in the future between Alexander and Ricci? There is a certain kind of energy going on between them... what if?

[Abbie J Lambert Sr. · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author's approach to the story was different in that there were a lot of characters involved but she managed to tie them all together in her presentation of them. She created back stories that helped you to understand who was who. The presentation of the gifted beings was fresh and what and who they are is fresh too. The Von Erikson triplets were something new...the circumstances of their beginning was different and the discovery of what they were by their care giver Shayla Mac Intyre just drew me more into the story... there is so much going on to this story there is no doubt in my mind that there will be more to follow...a refreshing mix and blending of characters. I believe that this is a must read!