Changer's Blood (Balancer's Soul cycle) (43 page)

They tr
immed
Sarah’s
long hair and brushed it smooth. T
he hair
and makeup
stylist comple
me
nted Sarah
on how healthy it was
and how little needed trimming
. The other two people were giving
her
a manicure and a pedicure.
When each group finished with them
they spun the chairs and allowed
the two women
to finally see the new results.

Sarah
saw Kara first and she
i
s beautiful. She had her sandy blonde hair all
slightly
curled
in ringlets
and she looked radiant. Her smile and expression were all worth it. Her lips were
shaded in a
light
pink
lipstick
and she had on just the right amount of makeup on to fit her personality
, accenting her large eyes of curiosity and innocence
.
Kara
finally turned to
look upon her
and
froze a
s
their
eyes met and her jaw dropped slowly.

Frightened
,
Sarah
turned to look at
herself in the mirror.

Her
jaw dropped too.

Sarah
didn’t have any makeup on whatsoever because
the stylist said it wasn’t necessary
. Her
face looked
truly
beautiful.
She looked like she
was glowing.
Sarah
checked swiftly and made sure
she
wasn’t
using any of
her
power. Looking at
herself now she
realized that this is what Connor must
always
see
.

After everyone complimented
the two of them they
walked out wearing the clothes
they first put in the lockers.

Caliegh looked up from her desk and smile
d.

As they
walked up to her
Sarah
read
the receptionist’s
mind.
“Wow I was wrong… she is gorgeous. No wonder why Connor didn’t pay me any mind…”

“Caliegh, thank you so
much for letting us in today.” Sarah said nicely and on the inside she
was celebrating
a personal
triumph because
she
was
originally
jealous of
Caliegh
, but now she’s the
envious
one.

She shook her head. “No Mrs.
May
,
we should
be the ones to
thank you
for your patronage
.” She handed
back
Sarah’s V.I.P. card and she
slid it back into
the pocketbook. Sarah
signed the bill
that she laid
down o
n the desk
.

Kara chirped up as
they
were walking away “Sarah
,
how can I ever repay you
for all this
?”

She
thought about it as
they
walked to my car. The spa felt
like it went by
too quick
ly,
but
the afternoon
greeted them
. When they
sat down in the car
Sarah
turned on the air conditioning. Before
she
put the car in gear
she turned to look at Kara
directly. “If you want to make it up to me I would suggest that you don’t give up
on us
.” Sarah
smiled softly.

It took Kara
a minute to process
the meaning of such
words. Once she did
,
she smiled back. “You have my word on it.” And when either
May
sibling gives their word
,
Sarah
know
s
that they
do their absolute best to
keep it.

With a full tr
unk they finished their
trip and
started home.

Arriving at
her
house
Sarah saw her m
other wearing her work clothes as she was
tending to
the flowers that she planted in front of her home. Pulling into the driveway she looked up and stopped
in her tracks
as
Sarah stepped out of the car. She
waived
and Jillian
stood up and walked over.
“No way! Is that you my daughter?”
Sarah
nodded at
the
telepathic question and she started crying.

“Mother
,
what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
Jillian
crossed the distance to
them
rapidly
.

“Because you look so beautiful
,
Sarah. Where did
you go to get this done?” Jillian
wiped her hand clean
of dirt
before she touched
her child’s
face softly. Kara came into vi
ew and Jillian
fussed over her as well until
they
told her about the spa
that
she
always
goes to. She laughed when Sarah
told her about using
the
black card. “I had to do the exact same thing to get in
there
, but the child didn’t know what the card meant. I could hear her boss yelling at her from the
back office. It seems like she learned
her lesson
quickly.”

Kara cut in. “Are
all
you Balancer’s
rich!”

Jillian
pointed at her as she looked at
Sarah
. “Is she serious?
” She turned to look at Kara
,
looking giddy
because
she
loves showing off
just as much
. “I have been saving my money and goods for
well over
seven hundred years.”

Later on
,
after a long lecture from
Jillian and
J
ack’s astonished expressions when he came outside
,
the two of them
brought all of Kara’s clothes over and Jenny fussed over
their
new looks eve
n more than Sarah’s
mother
had
. A
nd surprise
,
she t
oo cried softly at the two of them
as she hugged
them
together
.

Finally Kara helped
bring
Sarah’s clothes to the cottage. They
had dinner toget
her and
Sarah
walked her safely home
before it became dark
.

Early Sunday morning
,
before the sun arose in the sky
,
Mark woke
Connor
up quietly.
Connor
received
about
four hours of sleep after
he
took the first shift while everyone slept in their shelters.
He
climbed up the tree for a better view of
the
surroundings for
his
watch. When it
came
Mark
’
s turn
they
switched places.
Mark took the limb while Connor
took the sleeping bag by the fire.

They
de
c
ided on the first night that
they
should do something nice for
their
first g
roup and so
t
hey
secretly
set up some traps the next day
.
If they come back I’
ll teach them trapping.
And I’ll teach them how to clean their food properly.
Connor thought
ahead, for the next week.

At about the time the sun streaked
into
the sky
,
the survival
group started to stir
, but they didn’t fully become conscious
.
Connor
decided to give them a little
breakfast
treat.
The first ones to wake up wer
e the little boys. Tyler
woke everyone up by
shouting
“MEAT!”

Mark and Connor
sat up different traps around the area and caught two rabbits, three squirrels and a
large
non-venomous snake. After Mark and
Connor
skinned and gutted the animals
they
put a stick through each one and made six
spits. They
dug the ends
of the sticks
into the ground and put the meats over the fire to cook properly.
Afterwards they washed the gore in a stream.

When the party heard
,
Meat
, everyone moved
swiftly
out of their shelters.

When the entire group huddled around the fire
Connor
could see that they were only looking at the cooking meat.
He
waived
his
hand to get their attention. “This is the last day of survival training and I wanted to know what you
r
thoughts were before we eat.” The entire party gave both Mark and
Connor
great reviews and the young couple and the husky family wanted to come back for another session. “Well ok then. Now let’s eat and share among
st
yourselves because this is all we were able to catch last night.”

The teenage girl
,
Terri
,
picked up the spit that had the snake on it. She looked at her father and asked “Daddy
,
what kind of meat is this?”
H
e laughed as did his wife
,
they each
already
had a
half eaten
squirrel in their hands
. When he told her, her face paled and she pushed the stick away. “I’m not hungry.”

The entire group
started laughing as one.

Billy stood and
ran around the fire and held out his hand. “I’d like to
know
what snake tastes like.
Please?” Terri
looked
over
at his parents and they nodded their heads. She gratefully handed the cooked snake over. He took a big bite and after he swallowed he smiled. He looked at his older brother who held the last squirrel. “You’ve got to try this
, Tyler
. It tastes so good.” His brother stood and ha
nded his squirrel
over
to his dad. Tyler
took a
big
bite and agreed fully.

Jim and Brittany
,
t
he parents of the
little
children
,
shared one of the rabbits while the young couple took the other. The boys together ate the entire snake
and laughed when they picked the
long row of
ribs clean
. The fraternal twins declined eating
and that was funny itself, but Connor
didn’t say it aloud
. The young
athletic
guy
,
Ra
y
,
looked at his girlfriend first then to
their teachers
. “We
’
re sorry, you haven’t eaten anything
yet
have you?”