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Strength.

Some people have it.

Some people don’t.

Analise Morrell knew which category she fell into.  She wasn’t strong.  Not at all.  While she might wish otherwise, wishing for something didn’t make it happen.  And reaching for that indefinable something didn’t always bring it closer.  She’d reached for strength before, and she’d always failed.

Here, she was more acutely aware of just how lacking she was. Here being Excelsior, the hallowed home of the Hunters—at least on this side of the world.  For four years, she’d trained here, fighting to control her psychic gift, refining her admittedly shoddy shielding ability and working on control.  She’d also managed to get her GED and complete the first few years of college courses.

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

Psychics weren’t exactly the sort of gifted the normal person would expect to find here, no more than they’d expect to find fledging witches, shapeshifters or newly-made vampires.  Excelsior was a whole different world from what mortals would have expected to find.

Not everybody who came to Excelsior would become a Hunter—Ana wouldn’t, and she was fine with that.  But she’d leave it stronger, smarter, and more capable of controlling the gift that had damn near controlled her.

She wouldn’t be used again.  Not by her gift, and not by somebody else seeking to exploit it.

She may not be strong enough to be one of them, but at least she could control herself enough so that she couldn’t be used to hurt them either.

Hurt him.

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.  He’d been born Duke Monroe, but like many of the Hunters, he’d left his given name behind with his old life.

There was a faint, almost unconscious smile on his face, one that faded as she stared at him.  He came to a halt and she saw his nostrils flare—

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Just a quick reminder on the contest:

• Runs through 12/1.
• Read the complete rules here.
• Comment @ my blog (Not via facebook, amazon, myspace, etc) to enter. Each comment gets you one entry. You can enter via blog comments once each day.
• If you post a link to the contest and then email me @ contest4shiloh(at)gmail.com, that will get you an additional ten entries. Put link in the subject line.
• If you preorder and forward the receipt to contest4shiloh(at)gmail.com, that will get you an additional twenty entries. Put receipt in subject line. Please remove all sensitive personal data.
• You can enter each way-if you post a link, comment and preorder, that is 30 entries, as well as one entry for each day you visit the blog to comment. You could get up to fifty entries for the grand prize.
• Names will not be shared/sold/traded/spraypainted on a billboard.
• Please note, to enter for the small daily giveaways done during the week, you must comment @ my blog.
• Daily giveaways will be Monday-Friday. Winners will either be posted here or notified via email so please make sure you check back often.
• Please do not cheat-trying to comment more than once a day, using different names/emails, is cheating and you’ll likely end up disqualified and barred from entering future contests.
• Do not post to sweepstakes sites. These contests are for current and potential readers and I do not want to them to be posted at sweepstakes sites. Should this contest end up at sweepstakes sites, I reserve the right to end the contest without warning and without giving away the rest of the prizes in the contest.
• Each (daily) contest thread will be closed within a day or two of its original posting.  So enter while it’s open!