New Release Sample: SEMI-PSEUDO-SUPERHEROES

"I felt something," Kurt said, after I had inhaled my half of the bar.

Ford pulled out his pocketknife and sliced the slab of fruit leather in half, passing one piece to Stephanie for Angela before pressing the other into my hand.

"Whatever hit Angela…" I swallowed hard against a wavelet of nausea that came from a flicker of memory. Honestly, the whole tug-of-war had happened so fast, I had to think back over it before I could sort out the impressions. "It was trying to hold onto her."

That made a whole lot more sense than Ford and Stephanie being strong enough to pull Angela from my telekinetic hold.

"It was a surge, or maybe more like a flash of light when a door opens, before someone inside turns off the light." Kurt shuddered and put his hand under my chin, making me raise my head and meet his gaze. "Black light. Not even black. Colors I've never seen before."

"Angela?" Ford went down in a crouch in front of her and caught hold of one of her hands.

The other hand was holding that strip of fruit leather to her mouth. Angela had inhaled the chocolate bar, but she was sucking on the dried fruit. Her head was bowed, her hair hanging loose like a curtain so we couldn't really see her face. What little I could see, her color looked normal. Ford was really the only one who could see enough of her to know how she was.

"I should hate to think that the rivalry between our towns has extended this far," Angela said after a few seconds.

"Huh?" Kurt said.

Stephanie chuckled. "It isn't the town attacking you, and you know it." She glanced over her shoulder at the house, and I looked too.

Weird. The house looked less menacing now. As if the attack on Angela, the attempt by something to drag her down, maybe keep her in the yard, maybe even suck her into the house, had used up whatever inimical energy it had.

"Or it sucked something out of you and kind of…" I stopped, a little stunned to realize I had been thinking aloud and everybody was looking at me.

"Kind of what?" Angela sounded almost normal, but her smile seemed thin.

"I don't know, maybe whatever it took from you kind of inoculated it? You're a really strong influence, and your power, your magic, kind of stunned whatever got hold of you?" I groaned and slid down to sit on the bumper of the Jeep. "That sounds totally stupid, even worse aloud than when I was thinking it."

"No, it makes a little sense." She sighed and offered us something close to her usual knowing smirk. "I hope you'll forgive me if I hesitate to act as a massive dose of penicillin or a bandage soaked with antibiotic ointment."