Oracle 2: a second glimpse of a WIP

Warning:  the following excerpt is unedited and unproofed.

A black butterfly flitted through my peripheral vision.

My stomach bottomed out even as I raised my head to follow the butterfly’s flight path. It danced along the eaves of the garage, then up over Beau’s shoulder. He didn’t seem to notice as it stopped to kiss his ear.

In fact, he was standing awfully still, staring at something ahead or maybe across the road. I couldn’t see beyond his broad shoulders.

I glanced down at my left wrist. Yep, it was bare, now tattoo-free.

I stepped forward, just until I could see the huge black SUV with dark-tinted windows parked across the street. Beau was gripping the salad Tupperware so tensely I was fairly sure he was going to permanently dent the plastic.

The butterfly flitted across the road as someone turned off the idling SUV and the driver’s side door opened.

Beau was holding his breath.

A slight, tautly-muscled woman in green capris and a goldenrod printed T-shirt stepped out from the vehicle. The butterfly danced about three inches over her green-dyed, shag-cut hair. She lifted her face as if tracking its movements.

No, she was sniffing the air. And possibly smelling the magic of the butterfly?

Kandy, Jade Godfrey’s werewolf bodyguard, was in Yachats, Oregon.

That couldn’t be good. – I See You, Oracle 2, Chapter 2, second draft