Shadow of Hope by Elizabeth Rose, Tina Pollick Page B

houses these days, the Master Bedroom should be just to his right.
    He passed the entryway into the hall and saw two rooms, one to his left and one to his right. A cursory examination of the left room revealed a bathroom. The one on the right was the one he was after.
    He entered the room and started taking drawers out of the woman’s dresser, upending them and examining the contents closely. It had to be somewhere here, and he wouldn’t stop until he found it. The price for failure was too high this time.
    As his eyes meticulously scanned the contents of each pile of clutter from each drawer, he remembered back to a time when he was chosen as Head Scout by Gaia for just this very reason. The memories of his old life opened fresh wounds in his heart. The very thought of Mother cut the deepest of them all. Why did she have to betray him as she did? Why was he not worthy of her love when all the others were?
    Why couldn’t she have trusted him with more power?
    Nothing was found in the drawers. He moved on to the top of the dresser itself, examining each and every trinket with delicate care. It could be in any of these crafted items. Hell, it could even actually be one of these crafted items. His search was interrupted as he picked up the sound of a car approaching the house on the street outside.
    So the prey has returned to its haunts. Looks like every hunter has its day after all. I must prepare an appropriate welcome for her.
    ****
    Zoe stopped in the vet’s office and talked to the doctor. The schedule was light so she was able to take the next couple of days off. Chris was staying in town and she really wanted a fresh start with her dad. She pulled into the driveway with her dad behind her. The front door was ajar, which was not really unusual. Her coven sisters all had keys and most didn’t believe in locking the doors. In the country that was fine, but this was Chicago and not a hundred acre farm on the outskirts.
    She smiled, she loved them all. Crystal was the high priestess, the one who acted as a mother to Zoe. Crystal didn’t allow Zoe to call her mom, but she filled the role to a T. Four more coven sisters lived on the farm: Hannah, Daisy, Amelia and Penelope. She was raised in a household filled with love and fond memories of her mother and grandmother. The farm belonged to her grandmother, but she left it to the coven. When Zoe had left for the big city, they reminded her constantly that the farm was her home.
    They stopped by and visited whenever they came into town. She wondered if they were still here as she shut the car door and headed to the front door. Chris stopped her before she got to the door.
    “What’s wrong?” Zoe asked.
    “Your front door is open.”
    She smiled at her dad. “It’s probably one of my coven sisters. They forget to shut the door. I guess living in the country and sleeping with the door open will do that to you.”
    “I see. It would make me feel better if you let me go first, just in case.”
    He stepped on the porch, keeping to the side of the door. He grabbed her arm and pulled her close to the siding. She was about to laugh at this silliness, but stopped when he pointed to the door lock. It had a hole punched right through it, and metal shavings were scattered everywhere. Whoever was in her house did not have a key.
    She glanced up at her dad, and whispered. “Do you think this has anything to do with someone chasing me yesterday?”
    He shrugged his shoulders, but they remained stiff.
    She yanked on his sleeve. “You know something you’re not telling me, don’t you?”
    He turned putting her behind him. “Can we talk about this later? The person who did this,” he pointed to the door. “-may still be inside. If they are, I’m going to find out what the hell is going on.”
    He opened the door and slid in through the crack, she began to follow, but he motioned for her to stay behind. She sighed, but stayed put until he was out of sight. There was no way she