Read The Reluctant Amazon (Alliance of the Amazons) for Free Online

broke their
embrace. She gazed at the grass, seemingly embarrassed to look him in the eye.
“I—I guess. I just don’t…”
    “What? What’s the hang-up?” Sparks threw her hands up.
    “My aunt,” Rebecca replied, her voice hardly above a squeak.
“What—what about my Aunt Kay? She’ll worry when I don’t come home. And my
kitten. I just got a kitten a couple of weeks ago. Who’ll take care of her?”
    Sparks groaned, pulled the pack of cigarettes from her pocket
and tapped it against her palm.
    “Your aunt’s fine,” Artair replied. “She… Well, she already
knows you’re with us.”
    “She does?”
    Popping a cigarette out of the pack, Sparks lit it with a flame
from her thumb. “Can we tell her all this shit later? ’Cause we need to grab
Megan and get the hell outta here. We’re sitting ducks. I can almost smell the
revenants now.”
    Artair nodded. “She’s right, Becca. I’ll send word to Kaylista
to tend your wee kitten.”
    “You know her full name? You know my Aunt Kay?”
    “Aye. Your aunt is a priestess of your goddess—”
    Rebecca put her hands over her ears. “Don’t tell me anything
else. No more. Just promise you’ll have her take care of my kitten. Promise me?”
She looked up at him with hope and trust in her eyes. He felt humbled she could
offer him those gifts after the way he’d manhandled her all day.
    His common sense returned in a rush. Ancients be damned, he’d
been hugging the new Earth! An Amazon—a warrior—and he’d coddled her like some
frightened child. If he didn’t train her, didn’t toughen her up, Rebecca would
die the first time she faced a revenant, even a pathetic piece of decaying flesh
like a three. What in the hell was wrong with him?
    He was Artair MacKay, damn it. Laird of the clan MacKay. Feared
by all. Respected by his enemies as a cold-hearted bastard. Trainer of Amazons
who had defeated every type of evil known to mankind and several of which
mankind luckily remained ignorant, and he’d been treating her like a woman he
wanted to woo.
    Anger and frustration flowed through him, making his words come
out in a roar. “Ye want me to leave an Amazon in danger while we talk about yer kitty? ”
    Rebecca blanched.
    A grin spread across Sparks’s face as she pointed what remained
of her lit cigarette at him. “Now that’s the Celt I know and love.”
    “’Tis time to do your job, Becca. Find Megan for us.”
    “F-find Megan? How do I do that?” She wiped away the last of
her tears with the back of her hand.
    Artair nodded to Sparks.
    Sparks dropped her cigarette and ground it out with her foot.
“There’s a bond between each generation’s Amazon sisters. We can sense each
other, especially when a sister is near. Close your eyes.” Sparks took a step
over, grabbed Rebecca’s arms and turned the new Amazon to face the old.
    Artair retreated to let Sparks give the first lesson. Rebecca
glanced over her shoulder, looking to him for his approval. Why did her anxious
eyes affect him so?
    “Do it,” he snapped.
    She was slow to obey, but with a heavy sigh, she closed her
eyes.
    Sparks took Rebecca’s hand, lacing their fingers and pressing
their palms together. “Now, I want you to picture a fire, a huge fire. Think
about a bonfire or a burning building. Just focus on the flames and feel the
heat of my touch.”
    Rebecca’s face scrunched in concentration, and her fingers
squeezed Sparks’s enough to turn white. Her nose creased and wiggled. Drawing
her lips into a thin line, her breath quickened its pace, her chest rising and
falling in rapid, shallow breaths.
    “In those flames, search for a face,” Sparks continued as many
Amazon Guardians before her. “Find a woman who looks like the flames are a part
of her, like they grow from her hands and her hair.”
    Rebecca’s eyes flew wide as she released Sparks’s hands. “Oh,
my God. I—I saw her. She’s close. She’s at… I don’t know the name of the bar,
but I know how to