EXCERPT 4
from Servant: The Awakening

Pain pulsed through her veins, driving her forward. As a child, she'd fought the bone-grinding agony, thinking it physical. She used to curl up in her bed and sob, trying to comprehend the inexplicable. She'd been too young to understand the magnetism of what she had to do to make the hurt go away.

When doctors could find nothing wrong with her, the wards had grown disgusted. They showed her no sympathy, and even punished her for refusing to leave the bed. They doubled her chores, hoping to reprimand her out of her hypochondria. She'd grown strong, physically and mentally. She'd isolated herself from others.

But the pain had continued to plague her.

As a teen, she'd met Father Mullond, and from the start, he took acute interest in her, as if through her appearance alone, he could see the difference in her. There'd been no one else in her miserable life, only foster homes and dispassionate strangers, so to her, Father became her family: brother, parent, uncle, confidante - he filled every role.

He cared about her.

And he understood her.

Oh sure, some might call what he'd done unethical. The church definitely wouldn't have approved. But like her, Father had accepted that certain things were out of God's hands. He would smile and say that God had singled her out, recognizing her as a Paladin. He made it sound almost... special.

He made her sound special, instead of freakish.

Through guidance and care, he'd taught her to cope. To this day, Gaby could still hear his voice coming to her in the darkest moments of her life. "Smile, Gabrielle. He has named you a paragon of chivalry. A heroic champion. It's a gift that comes with great responsibility. You and you alone have the ability to protect the innocent."

Not all innocents, Gaby thought, reminded of those she didn't save. She did what she could, but it was never enough. A hundred Paladins wouldn't be enough. But at least she'd had Father on her side.

To reinforce that her ability was right and good, he'd taken the confessions of sinners too evil to inhabit the earth. Together, they'd waged a war and in the process, Gaby had learned how to sharpen her skill, to understand the summons, to follow an urge to the rightful conclusion.

She wouldn't die. God wouldn't let her, even during the lowest points of her life when she'd pleaded for death.

The same couldn't be said for Father.

Long before she'd been ready to face the world on her own, he'd been taken from her. Not by the evil so many feared, but a disease just as heinous: Cancer.

Never again would she open herself to that depth of emotional devastation. Fighting a league of demons alone was much, much easier than losing a beloved friend.

Drawn into herself, concentrating fiercely on the mental trail, Gaby traveled nearly two blocks when a wolf whistle split the air, startling her out of the disturbing memories.

Without noticing, she'd come alongside the local bar overflowing with idiots who never went home, or didn't have homes to go to. Given the slums she lived in, lewd comments and sexual harassment were as common as the decayed-brick scenery.

A muddy brown aura hung in the air, indicating that evil lurked here, preying on the despondent, the emotionally weak. Pausing by a lamppost, Gaby surveyed the area with a dispassionate eye. Leering men pushed away from the doorway to encircle her.

One by one, Gaby looked at the drunks - and dismissed the taint of their influence. Most of their destruction would be wreaked inwardly, on their own persons.

Stupid bastards.

She would have walked away. Unfortunately, for them, they didn't allow her to do that.

Well hell. It needed only this.

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