On Wicked Ground (Solsti Prophecy Book 4) Read online

  “True. We need money anyway. I grabbed what we had, and a few items to pawn, but it won’t last forever. You know the drill.”

  She did. Move to a new place, then steal so they’d have enough to pay for whatever temporary roof was over their heads.

  “Problem is, that mirror,” he continued.

  Her throat went dry. “The counter spell?”

  He nodded. “Someone saw you use it. Right now, someone is probably on their way to the house we just left.”

  “But who could possibly be harmed by me looking for my family?”

  Sebastian dug into his chocolate cake. “Well, this could go one of two ways. One, the women are your biological family, and someone else who knew all of you hid you away for some nutty reason. They may be threatened if you find out.”

  “Or?”

  “Or those women are your biological family, and your hunch is correct.” Sebastian’s voice thickened with dread. “That means, your power, if you are indeed…that type of creature…is needed to fight something awful.”

  “Fight…” Realization dawned. The old legend stated that the four Solsti together could defeat an evil that no one else could. “Oh, shit.”

  “Oh shit could be right. We don’t know yet.”

  “So someone is after us and it could be either a pissed off relative or the worst monster the realms have seen in thousands of years?” Her voice came out as a squeak.

  “Yes, someone is after us. As for who…if the person is the one thing the Sol—the women are destined to fight, then…”

  “Oh my god.” Alarm chilled her blood and she drew a shaky breath. “What are we going to do?”

  “For now, do what we do best. Blend in and keep a low profile. Work the crowds and pick pockets. We need money and we have to stay one step ahead of whoever it is, at least until we know who we’re dealing with.”

  “I’m sorry.” She met her dad’s eyes, hating how simplistic those two words sounded.

  His blue eyes softened a fraction. “If you are…one of them, we’d be facing this sooner or later.” He nodded at her food. “Eat. You’re gonna need to keep your strength up, whether you square off against a street crook or a mega-monster.”

  Alina forced down several mouthfuls of eggs as she tried to quell the panic that had erased her hesitant joy at seeing the three women. Panic won’t help. Being smart will. Do what you do best. The mantras repeated on a loop in her mind. She couldn’t steal, or work on her possible new ability, if her thoughts were all over the place.

  She squared her shoulders and looked at her dad. “So we’ll get rooms somewhere, and then I’ll head to…” she paused to recall the city’s clubs, “Hell’s Gate?”

  “Good choice.” Sebastian set a pile of coins on the table. “Let’s go.”

  Elegia jolted awake with the force of her vision and gasped, nearly falling off her chair. The resulting cough and constriction of her airways had her clutching the cool edge of her lab desk. A high pitched wheeze kept rhythm in her lungs, an irritating reminder that her goddamn asthma was here to stay, as her vampiric lung tissue proved stubbornly resistant to any of her biological advances. She fought to regulate her breathing as she focused on the beautiful, vibrant, black lily plant in front of her, its petals curled open to her as if recognizing its creator.

  Glancing around, she took in her long work tables full of healthy plants and the dark surface of her desk. She was alone. Good.

  She pushed out a slow breath and recited a spell that would relax her airway. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, body buzzing from the most powerful vision she’d ever had. They were so rare, and this one, so potent and vivid…could only have originated from one source.

  The mirror.

  The one that had been in her family for decades and which her thieving brother probably hoped she’d forgotten about.

  Images, colorful and clear, formed and shifted in her mind’s eye as she recalled the vision. A blond female sat on a bed, using the powerful reflective surface to scry. She held her hand above it, scored her palm with a blade, and spoke. Though Elegia couldn’t hear her words, she’d seen exactly what the female had seen.

  A hallway, dimly lit with electric sconces, and lined with many closed doors. Chaos erupted as doors flew open and pairs of men and women rushed out. Three of the women converged in the center of the corridor, looking at one another with surprise, shock, and wide, teary eyes. Hands flew to mouths, jaws unhinged. The three hugged.

  The image shifted. The woman on the bed stared into the depths of the mirror until her focus jerked to her own door crashing open. Sebastian stormed in.

  The vision ended.

  Elegia rubbed her hands together. So, her useless brother, Sebastian, had the mirror all this time. It hadn’t been lost, as he’d insisted the last time they spoke. When was that? Eighty years ago? Elegia couldn’t remember. But it didn’t matter. If the mirror had alerted her, then she needed to find him, and that would be easy.

  Southwest. The energy traces left by the vision were as obvious as bloody footsteps in new fallen snow. Her brother had been hiding from her for as long as they’d been estranged. She shouldn’t know which way to go, but now the mirror’s enchanted pull would lead her to his door. Next would be questioning him and that blond female, and then finding those three women.

  She didn’t recognize them, but the resemblance in their facial features implied they were related. Their presence was significant. The mirror only granted visions to creatures whose motives were diametrically opposed to those of its user.

  Those four were a threat. She needed to kill them, starting with the little blonde who’d opened this can of magical worms.

  CHAPTER TWO

  NICOLE STOOD IN THE SECOND floor hallway of the old mansion, staring at her two sisters, shaking with a mix of shell-shocked joy and confusion.

  “Alina,” her youngest sister Gin whispered. “It was her. In my dream. I know it.”

  “I saw her too. Grown up.” Nicole’s voice sounded scratchy and sleep-roughened as it pushed through the lump of emotion in her throat. The reality-shattering dream that woke her as well as Gin sent hope and disbelief curling like vines around her heart.

  Because Alina had died before she turned two.

  The youngest of the four Bonham sisters, she had been born with a heart defect that her body wasn’t able to fight.

  “So did I. I-I don’t understand how it’s possible, but it had to be her.” Brooke shoved her dark, sleep-mussed hair out of her face and leaned back into the arms of her mate, Kai.

  “She was searching for us,” Gin said. “She was sitting on a bed. Alone.”

  “Yes. I got the sense that she was desperate to find us. You know how, in dreams, you just understand certain things to be true?” Nicole glanced at Brooke, who nodded in agreement.

  Another door opened, and Ashina and Raniero stepped out of their room. “We heard the commotion. What’s going on?” The two Lash demons were the sisters’ maternal grandparents, though through the magic of demon physiology, they looked to be only about thirty years old.

  “We all had a dream about Alina.” Brooke reached for Ashina’s hand. “Only not as a toddler. As she would be now, if she…if she were alive.”

  “You all had the same dream?” Ashina’s eyes moved over each sister. “At the same time?”

  Nicole, Brooke, and Gin nodded.

  “What was the dream?” Raniero asked.

  Gin took a deep breath. “She had blond hair and green eyes, just like she did when she was…” she looked to Nicole as if searching for the right word, “with us. She was sitting on a bed, and it was like I was sitting there in front of her. She was looking at me, looking for me. For us. I couldn’t hear her, but I could feel her words, her emotions. And she desperately wanted to find us. I tried to tell her I was right here in front of her, but she didn’t hear me. Then I woke up.”

  Every detail matched what Nicole had dreamed. As it replayed in her mind, she sen
t mental images to her mate, Gunnar, whose chest was pressed to her back. It’s the exact same dream!

  Gin’s eyes were huge. “Could she really be…alive?”

  “How, Gin?” Nicole asked with as much gentleness as she could, though she couldn’t suppress a shiver of excitement that defied rational explanation. “She died. We buried her.”

  “I know, but this felt so real. And we all saw her.” Gin toyed with the belt on her robe.

  Gin’s mate, Mathias, wrapped his brawny arms around her. “Strange things have been happening all over Torth, and we saw how it spilled over to Earth.” Just last week, Gin and Brooke had discovered a supernatural biological contaminant in the local water supply, put there by the henchman of the deranged vampire they were trying to locate.

  “But Alina was never on Torth,” Brooke said and sighed.

  “That may be true. But I think it’s clear that someone was trying to send you three a message,” Mathias said.

  “What do you mean, that may be true?” Nicole narrowed her eyes at Mathias. “She died. She was here with us, in Illinois, her whole little life.”

  Mathias appeared unfazed by her questions. As the Lash demons’ Hunter, he was a skilled tracker and part of their leader’s inner circle. He was used to tough questions and equally tough jobs. “Yet, two Elders have confirmed that the fourth Solsti is out there, somewhere.”

  Nicole released a shaky breath and sagged into Gunnar’s brute strength. “That’s true,” she murmured. “I just figured we probably had a distant relative somewhere. I never thought that-that…”

  Gunnar kissed the top of her head. “You just said that in dreams, you know certain things to be true. Even if they make no sense in real life.”

  Nicole nodded. Alina’s presence had been so strong, she’d wanted to reach into her dream and touch her. Chills ran down her arms because she’d had no doubt that Alina was alive. Now, crowded with her sisters and their grandparents in this familiar hallway, concrete facts and logical questions reared up. But try as they might, the dream-sparked ember of possibility refused to dim.

  “I feel her.” Gin placed a hand over her heart, and her words fanned that ember into a tiny flame. “I always have, in a way. Like she’s near, but never in the same building with me.” She sighed. “Guess that’s a crazy thing for a scientist to say.”

  “I think the definition of crazy has changed,” Brooke said.

  “But where would she be? Who took care of her?” Nicole shook her head. “I want to believe it but my brain can’t make sense of it.” She turned her head and breathed in the comforting scent of her man, whose love embraced her through their psychic bond as surely as his arms held her body. I don’t even know what to think, she told him through their connection.

  Then don’t think, love. What do your heart and instincts tell you? He stroked her hair as she nuzzled his chest, drawing on his essence to settle her.

  Tears brimmed as she lifted her head to meet Gunnar’s crystal blue eyes. That she’s alive. One tiny droplet spilled over to trickle down her cheek, triggered by the words she could only form in her mind.

  Gunnar dipped his head to kiss her gently. That’s what your heart tells me too.

  “Let’s go downstairs and talk where we can all sit comfortably.” Ashina spoke above the chatter, her healer’s voice carrying a note of authority. “You girls all look pale.”

  Nicole nodded and let Gunnar tuck her close to his side. On autopilot, she made her way down the steps, heart pounding and hands shaking. Where is she? How is she alive? What happened to her? The questions ricocheted in her mind on a repeating loop, competing for space with memories that only Nicole had. Age five when Alina died, she was old enough to remember her tiny sister. She remembered Alina’s long stays in the hospital and seeing pictures of her lying in a child size bed with safety bars.

  The group filed down the stairs to the great room of the large brick mansion. Nicole bee-lined for her favorite spot on the leather sectional, but Gunnar picked her up and set her on his lap. “I need to hold you, baby. Your heart rate and your emotions are trying to out-hurdle each other.”

  Trembling, she melted against his six-and-a-half-foot frame while her sisters and their mates found places to sit. Ashina and her mate, Raniero, entered the room a second later with Rilan, the group’s Elder.

  “We told him you all had the same dream, but we didn’t go into detail,” Ashina said as she sat next to Raniero on one of the couches.

  “Tell me everything you saw.” Rilan perched on a leather armchair.

  Nicole, Brooke, and Gin all exchanged glances, then Brooke took a deep breath and narrated the images that would be forever burned in Nicole’s mind.

  When she finished, Rilan rubbed a hand over his jaw and looked at each sister in turn. After a minute he stood and paced to the tall windows that flanked a large stone fireplace. Hands behind his back, he stared silently out into the darkened yard.

  Nicole glanced up at Gunnar and then at Brooke. Her sister returned the gaze with a shrug.

  Seconds ticked by, heralded by the soft clicking of a mantle clock. Nicole wanted to jump out of her skin with anticipation. But her mind was still a jumble of conflicting emotions. What if Rilan announced, in his old and wise opinion, that it was simply a dream?

  “Was she alone?” he asked abruptly.

  “Yes.” Gin picked at her nails, a nervous habit.

  Rilan turned to face them, brows furrowed. “Girls, I think someone definitely wanted to contact you. I believe this dream is a message. And I also know, as I discerned before, that the fourth Solsti exists somewhere. She is alive.” He folded his arms. “But is this woman your sister? That isn’t clear. Is this woman real, or a hologram conjured for the purpose of the dream? We don’t know if this woman is the sender.”

  “I thought dreams weren’t supposed to make sense,” Brooke muttered.

  “What about our feelings?” Gin asked. “We all have this strong sense of knowing her emotion, knowing how desperate she was to find us.”

  Rilan sighed. “I want to believe it, child. You know I want to find her as much as you all do. But there’s too much we don’t know.”

  “If she is the fourth Solsti, Arawn would want us to follow every lead,” Mathias said.

  “Yeah.” Gin sat forward, excitement filtering into her voice. “Can we move forward on the assumption that she’s out there? How do we start our search?”

  “Good point, Hunter.” Rilan sat down in his armchair. “Arawn would offer any and all resources for us to pursue this. Even if the woman turns out not to be your sister, she’s a logical starting point.”

  Nicole had never met Arawn, the Lash demons’ leader, but knew he hadn’t achieved his powerful position by skipping details. She pulled up images from the dream, trying to remember any subtle components. “All we saw was her sitting on a bed. I don’t remember the color of the room, or if the room was in a house or an apartment.”

  “More important than the room is how she was able to contact you,” Rilan said. “To reach three specific people in a simultaneous dream takes a lot of power.”

  “Do you think she knows spells?” Brooke asked. “Maybe she’s a witch.”

  “Maybe. Or she could have used an object to conduct her message,” Rilan mused.

  “Like an amulet?” Gunnar asked.

  “That’s one possibility.” Rilan paused. “But an object that can accomplish what she did tonight sometimes has drawbacks.”

  “Drawbacks?” Nicole asked.

  Rilan rubbed the back of his neck. “Items that have such powerful searching, or maybe scrying capabilities, sometimes come with a counter spell. A…a booby trap, I believe you call it here on Earth.”

  “Like what? Will she be hurt?” A note of fear crept into Gin’s voice.

  “Possibly. Or pursued…there will be repercussions of some sort, if such a spell is installed on the item.”

  Nicole’s heart rate tripled. “We have to find her fas
t. Before something evil does.”

  “What do we do?” Brooke asked.

  “Such an item would have released a powerful burst of magic into the air.” Rilan resumed his pacing. “Another Elder, or witch, may have taken note. I’ll contact my colleagues. All of them, here and on Torth.”

  Nicole’s head felt too heavy. “She could be anywhere.”

  “She could be lost, scared, alone...” Brooke said.

  “But, she guessed we’re…” Gin frowned as if looking for the right word. “Out here somewhere. Alive.”

  “News traveled fast about you girls.” Mathias sifted his fingers through Gin’s hair. “She could’ve heard about you.”

  “If she knew, why would she wait to try to find us?” Nicole asked, as her mind tried unsuccessfully to fit the pieces into the puzzle. “Wait, maybe she didn’t know what she really was until recently. Like us.”

  “Maybe, but at least we all had each other.” Brooke cast a glance at Gin and Nicole. “I hate sitting here not knowing what to do, and doing nothing.”

  “I’ll get started right away.” Rilan turned to Mathias. “I’m afraid, until I get some leads, I can’t even give you a general area to search.”

  Mathias nodded. Though his tracking skills were legendary, he needed some kind of sensory detail to start with. A scent, a footprint, a voice.

  “What can we do?” Nicole asked softly. “I can’t go back to sleep. She could be scared or in danger.” Nicole turned in Gunnar’s arms, gazing up into eyes of Caribbean blue. “What if she has a mate? And children?”

  “We all have a thousand questions, love.” Gunnar held her tightly. “We’ll find her. If Arawn has to send every Lash Watcher out to comb every inch of land and sea, he will.”

  Elegia followed a virtual magic compass southwest, with a group of loyal Serus demons at her back, and ended up at a small house near Torth’s southern forest. She inhaled deeply, but her weak vampiric senses couldn’t detect a damn thing. She turned to the closest demon. “Can you tell if it’s occupied?”