{"id":3517,"date":"2009-11-02T00:00:47","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T04:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shilohwalker.wordpress.com\/?p=3517"},"modified":"2009-11-02T00:00:47","modified_gmt":"2009-11-02T04:00:47","slug":"30-days-of-giveaways-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2009\/11\/30-days-of-giveaways-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Days of Giveaways…#1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\"Hunters<\/a>
Hunter's Need...releases 12\/1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

___________________<\/p>\n

Strength.<\/p>\n

Some people have it.<\/p>\n

Some people don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Analise Morrell knew which category she fell into.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t strong.\u00a0 Not at all.\u00a0 While she might wish otherwise, wishing for something didn\u2019t make it happen.\u00a0 And reaching for that indefinable something didn\u2019t always bring it closer.\u00a0 She\u2019d reached for strength before, and she\u2019d always failed.<\/p>\n

Here, she was more acutely aware of just how lacking she was. Here<\/span><\/em> being Excelsior, the hallowed home of the Hunters\u2014at least on this side of the world.\u00a0 For four years, she\u2019d trained here, fighting to control her psychic gift, refining her admittedly shoddy shielding ability and working on control.\u00a0 She\u2019d also managed to get her GED and complete the first few years of college courses.<\/p>\n

To the mortal world, Excelsior was a private school for gifted and troubled children and teens.\u00a0 Other than her age, Ana supposed she fit into that category well enough.<\/p>\n

Psychics weren\u2019t exactly the sort of gifted<\/span><\/em> the normal person would expect to find here, no more than they\u2019d expect to find fledging witches, shapeshifters or newly-made vampires.\u00a0 Excelsior was a whole different world from what mortals would have expected to find.<\/p>\n

Not everybody who came to Excelsior would become a Hunter\u2014Ana wouldn\u2019t, and she was fine with that.\u00a0 But she\u2019d leave it stronger, smarter, and more capable of controlling the gift that had damn near controlled her.<\/p>\n

She wouldn\u2019t be used again.\u00a0 Not by her gift, and not by somebody else seeking to exploit it.<\/p>\n

She may not be strong enough to be one of them<\/span><\/em>, but at least she could control herself enough so that she couldn\u2019t be used to hurt them either.<\/p>\n

Hurt him.<\/p>\n

As though even thinking of him was enough to make him appear, Duke Lawson came striding into the huge gymnasium, walking with a lazy, feline grace.\u00a0 He\u2019d been born Duke Monroe, but like many of the Hunters, he\u2019d left his given name behind with his old life.<\/p>\n

There was a faint, almost unconscious smile on his face, one that faded as she stared at him.\u00a0 He came to a halt and she saw his nostrils flare\u2014<\/p>\n

___________________<\/p>\n

Just a quick reminder on the contest:<\/p>\n