I wanted to share this news with everyone at the same time, Rand. It is something that threatens everyone.
Jolie—he started, but was interrupted by Mathilda.
“What happened in the dream, child?” she asked, her tone fretful.
“I don’t remember the specifics,” I started. “But I do know that the person in the dream, who took the embodiment of the sea and then appeared as the outline of an old man in the sky, admitted he was a Lurker elder.”
“And what else?” Mercedes prodded.
I swallowed hard. “That was pretty much it.”
“That was it?” Trent demanded, a huge smile spreading across his face. “So you’re seriously concerned about a dream you had that just happened to be about an old man and the sea?” Then he snickered, apparently patting himself on the back for being so witty.
“It means the Lurkers are getting restless,” I snapped at him, before turning to face the others again. “I have been contacted by the Lurkers regularly and now that they have reached out to Bella …”
“What did they say to her?” Varick asked, leaning forward.
“She said they were rallying, that a battle between our forces and theirs was pending, and they could attack us at any moment,” I said as I felt my voice break with the effort.
“We need to understand why they insist on making contact with you, Jolie,” Mercedes said, and studied me. “Did you receive any indication about what their plans are? When they might attack and where?”
I shook my head. “No, I received nothing of the sort. The reason I brought up the dream is that I think it’s imperative that all of our forces rally together. I want all creatures of the Underworld stationed together here at Kinloch. I don’t think it’s safe for us to live separately anymore, not with the Lurkers planning something.”
“Where will everyone live?” Trent asked.
“I want you to organize a mass move to Kinloch, where we’ll erect temporary housing on Kinloch’s grounds. If the Lurkers attack, we need to be ready for them, and we are much stronger en masse than we are on our own,” I answered. And yes, I had given plenty of thought to housing five hundred or so creatures on Kinloch property. I wasn’t worried about the issue of space.
Rand nodded and smiled at me with a proud expression. “I agree entirely.” Then he faced everyone in the room. “How quickly can each of you gather your factions?”
Odran pursed his lips as he considered it. “Ah will make haste, within ah few days’ time,” he answered.
“Yep, me too,” Trent said.
“I imagine it will take no more than two or three days to gather the vampires,” Varick finished.
I swallowed hard and nodded, realizing Kinloch Kirk was about to become a very busy place.
I was sick again. So sick I couldn’t sleep.
I imagined my magic cleansing the nausea from my body and suddenly felt relief. But I still couldn’t get back to sleep. I rolled over and listened to Rand’s gentle snoring, trying to figure out whether there was a pattern to his inhaling and exhaling … raspy inhale for three counts, chain-saw-meeting-glass exhale for three seconds. Realizing sleep would continue to elude me, I stood up and reached for the robe, or dressing gown, as Rand called it, beside my bed. I wrapped myself up and padded across the wood floor, pausing at the large rectangular windows that revealed the crashing moonlit waves below Kinloch Kirk.
Sinjin is somewhere out there, I thought to myself. Somewhere out in the cold of the night. He’s alone, but I hope he’s okay.
God, I hope he’s okay. Please let him be okay.
Shivering in the cold air, I wrapped my robe tighter around myself and thought about how much everything was going to change over the next several days. Soon all of the creatures in my kingdom would be assembled at Kinloch—men, women, and children. Although I still thought it was a good idea—we would be stronger as a collective force and more capable of defending ourselves—I also had to wonder if I’d just signed the death sentences of all the creatures of the Underworld. I mean, if we were all gathered in one area and the Lurkers decided to attack, they could completely wipe us out.
Stop second-guessing yourself, my inner voice said. There will always be a “what-if” to every decision you make as Queen. The decision-making is the important part.
“Are you ill?” It was Rand’s voice and I turned, surprised to find him awake. Stepping out of bed, he stood up and stretched, walking over to pull me into the warmth of his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and we both stared down at the tumultuous sea.
“Yes,” I said, and rested my head against his shoulder as we both watched the ocean wrestle with the rocks that punctuated its depths of blue.
“Kinloch is a beautiful place,” Rand said softly. He lifted my chin with his fingers as he smiled. “And this is all your doing, Jolie. You never cease to amaze me.” He shook his head in wonder. “You have come such a far distance from the girl I first met in your store two years ago.”
I returned his grin. “And yet, sometimes I feel I haven’t changed much at all—that I’m still just as awkward as ever.”
“I hope you never lose that part of yourself,” he said with a smile.
I didn’t respond—I just continued to gaze out at the ocean, wondering what would become of us, and the Underworld in general. Were we strong enough to stand against the Lurkers? Could we really defeat them? I sighed and figured there was no use in thinking like this—I was just running myself ragged. Instead, I focused on tickling Rand’s arm.
“Come back to bed, Jolie,” he whispered, and then smiled secretively. “It’s chilly out here, and what’s more … I want you.”
I laughed, but shook my head, feeling stressed from head to toe. I couldn’t even comprehend sex at the moment. “You seemed very happy in the land of dreams—I’m sorry I woke you up.”
“Was I snoring? Is that what woke you up?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
“I apologize.” He kissed the top of my head. “I was dreaming of Pelham,” he said, and his voice took on a nostalgic tone. Pelham had been Rand’s best friend and the original owner and namesake of Pelham Manor. When I traveled back to 1878, I met not only Pelham, but also his sister, Christine, and we became fast friends. Thinking of them now left a hollow void in my stomach.
“Whatever became of Christine?” I asked.
Rand held me closer and was quiet for a few seconds. “She lived a long and happy life, married and had children. Of course, I had to move away quite early on, lest Pelham or Christine question me regarding why I didn’t age as quickly as they did.”
“Where did you tell them you were moving?”
“Ireland, to one of my father’s estates.” Then he cleared his throat. “Pelham died quite soon after you left in 1878, and Christine moved to northern Scotland with her husband, so I didn’t have to maintain the charade for too long.”
I nodded and felt my mind slipping back to a time when things were much simpler—a time before I’d had any involvement with the Lurkers, and before Sinjin had time-traveled.
“Do you ever miss those days?” I asked, thinking of how much I missed them.
Rand nodded. “I do and I don’t. I miss my friends, of course, but I have always believed in the idea of living in the present. The present holds such riches for me now,” he said as he squeezed me around the middle, “that I find myself happier here and now than I ever remember being.”
“And you still have Pelham, sort of,” I said, reminding him that Pelham’s ghost haunted Pelham Manor.
Rand nodded. “Yes, though it is not quite the same thing.”
I smiled, but before I could respond, I felt a strong feeling deep inside of me. My heart rate increased, my hands went clammy, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. The feeling itself was difficult to characterize—something like anger tinged with fear—but it was spreading through my body at an alarming rate. I felt my breath catch as I suddenly went rigid.
“Jolie?�
�� Rand said, noticing that I’d abruptly gone still. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
I was about to answer him, when I was struck with a wave of panic. But it wasn’t my panic I was witnessing, and since Rand was standing beside me and didn’t seem upset, I couldn’t imagine it was his either.
“Something isn’t right,” I told him, and closed my eyes, sending out the feelers of my magic to pinpoint whose discomfort I was receiving.
“Is it our baby?” he asked, sounding panicked. “Perhaps you need to sit down.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not the baby. The baby is fine. It’s something … else entirely.”
When he opened his mouth to say something, I shushed him, trying to focus on the source of the fear that still vibrated through me. I clenched my eyes shut more tightly and ordered my magic to expand outward, through Kinloch Kirk, to track down the source of the terror. But when I came up empty-handed, I could only guess that whoever was broadcasting these strong emotions wasn’t within the walls of Kinloch. That much was evident or my magic would have located them.
“I don’t understand,” I said. Then I approached the door, trying to concentrate my abilities more pointedly, to reach out to whomever it was who needed me. I mean, they had to be nearby, right? I couldn’t have picked up on something so definite and crisp if the source in question wasn’t close.
“Jolie …”
And then it hit me. “Bella,” I said out loud, and then turned to face Rand, my eyes wide. “Something is wrong with Bella.”
“What’s wrong with Bella?” he asked, gripping my upper arms. “Did you receive a vision?”
“No, just this bizarre feeling of her fear,” I said, and shook my head, because none of it made any sense.
“What could possibly scare her?” Rand asked, his tone suggesting that I might be mistaken.
But I knew better. This was no mistake. “I don’t know, Rand, but I sense that she’s in trouble.” I felt another shard of panic slice my insides and knew that I had to help her. Granted, we had never been close, and were more like enemies than friends, but any way I looked at it, I couldn’t leave a fellow creature to suffer through feeling like this alone. “We have to go to her!”
Before Rand could try to talk me out of it, I started for the door. He reached out, gripped my arm and pulled me back, shaking his head. “She’s too dangerous, Jolie. I don’t want anything to happen to you. I will go instead.”
I shook my head in refusal, figuring there was a reason Bella had broadcast her distress to me. ’Course, it wasn’t a bad idea to have company, especially Rand’s company, since he could kick magical ass. “Let’s go together,” I said.
Realizing it wasn’t up for debate, he just nodded and took my hand as we hurried out of my bedroom. We went down the stairs and toward the rear of Kinloch Kirk. From there, the grounds of Kinloch opened into a courtyard and, beyond that, the guesthouse where Bella still resided. Even though I had emancipated her, she had yet to take our loyalty oath, which was more my fault since I hadn’t yet found the time to ensure that she take it. So she was still a captive prisoner until that little ritual was completed.
As we ran outside, I shivered in spite of myself, the cold Scottish gale chilling me to my very core. The werewolves standing guard outside Bella’s door spotted us and stepped aside, granting us entry.
The first thing I noticed was how silent her quarters were. “Bella, are you okay?” I called. But no one answered. I turned to face the guards. “Have you heard anything?”
“She’s been quiet for the last twenty minutes or so,” the first guard said as he glanced at the second, presumably for his opinion.
The second guard nodded before turning to me. “Before that, though, all sorts of strange words were coming out of her mouth. Half of it sounded like gibberish.”
“I think being stuck in that room has taken its toll on ’er,” the first guard said, while the second nodded in agreement.
Rand went to open the door, but as soon as he touched the doorknob, he received a mild shock, a small blue light arcing up from the knob.
“I forgot to tell you that Mercedes’ wards are in place,” I said. When I left Bella, I had released a charm that permitted Mercedes’ magic to reassert itself.
“Hold my hand,” Rand said, extending his own. I didn’t ask any questions, I just complied and waited for further directions. “Focus with me and we’ll get the wards down that much faster.”
Gripping his hand in mine, I closed my eyes and focused on unraveling the net of Mercedes’ magic. And just as Rand had promised, together we were able to defeat Mercedes’ charm in seconds. I could feel the power slipping away like tiny threads unraveling in my hands until the wooden door was all that separated us from Bella.
Rand took a few steps forward and tested the doorknob, but before opening it, he closed his eyes. He chanted something, probably a divination spell to ascertain whether anything horrible loomed behind the door—like a monster that might already have made lunch out of Bella and was now considering dessert. Detecting nothing, he turned the knob and opened it.
What we saw in there both surprised me and scared the hell out of me. Bella was in a corner of the room, huddled into a little ball, her arms wrapped around her legs as she rocked back and forth, muttering inanely to herself. She looked up at us, but as if oblivious, she focused on a spot above our heads, and then her attention strayed frenetically to other areas of the room before she returned to her knees. As she resumed her incessant rocking, I could see her hair was stringy and wet with perspiration, and her face unusually pale. She looked very sick.
What frightened me most, however, was not that she appeared to be in the throes of a mental breakdown, but that this was Bella Sawyer. Bella had always been fiercely independent, beautiful, and vain woman. She was always dressed to kill, and her snappish and arrogant personality made her a force to be reckoned with. This pathetic puddle of a person cowering before me now in no way, shape, or form resembled the Bella Sawyer I had come to know so well.
“Bella?” I said, gulping hard.
She glanced at me and shook her head, as if she didn’t know me. “They are coming,” she said softly. Then she apparently caught the image of something in the room, emphatically shaking her head as tears flew from her eyes.
“Bella! Everything is going to be okay,” I said as tenderly as I could. I didn’t know what else to say or do. Truth be told, I was still reeling from the disturbing sight of her. “What do you think happened to her?” I whispered to Rand.
His eyes were as wide as mine as he shook his head, sighing deeply. “I don’t have any idea.”
We both watched as she dropped her head back against her knees and cried out something that we couldn’t understand. Then she lifted her head, her eyes following something in the room. I glanced around but couldn’t figure out what she was looking at. “Do you see anything?” I whispered to Rand.
“No.” Then he took a few steps closer to her. “Bella,” he said as he approached. “What is it? What do you see?”
She sobbed, but refused to look up at either of us. She just kept rocking back and forth as she muttered to herself—gibberish, mostly, almost like another language. Rand glanced at me and shrugged. Taking a few more steps toward her, he reached out and touched her shoulder, but as soon as he made contact with Bella, she shrieked, and shrank even farther back in her corner, facing the walls.
“No, stay away from me,” she screamed, shaking her head as tears flowed from her eyes. “Don’t touch me!” she yelled. “Don’t let him touch me!”
“I think she’s lost her mind,” Rand whispered as he backed away with open palms to show her he wasn’t going to touch her again.
I nodded and took a step closer to her, thinking maybe what she needed was a woman’s gentle approach. Rand frowned. He obviously didn’t want me to get anywhere near her. “Jolie—” he started.
“Please, she might listen to me. Just give me a chance.”
<
br /> Recognizing my iron resolve, he backed away.
I will be here should you need me, he said through our mental connection.
Thanks, I replied with a smile. I watched him back up to the door, where he stood on the alert.
Then I turned to Bella, who was still distraught. Her hair fell in long clumps around her shoulders, and she started winding strands of it between her fingers. Fallen black hairs littered the floor around her like hundreds of tiny snakes. “You have to tell me what happened, Bella,” I said in a soft voice.
She glanced at me but still didn’t seem to register who I was. It was like she’d been lobotomized.
“They come here,” she said softly. “They come here all the time. I am never alone.”
“Who are they?” I asked, feeling a tremor of fear shoot down my spine at the mention of “they.” I had a pretty good feeling that I already knew who “they” were.
She shook her head and rocked back and forth again as if she hadn’t heard me.
“Were they Lurkers, Bella?” I asked.
She nodded, her eyes hollow and wide. Her hair hung in her face, obscuring half of it.
“What did they say, Bella? What did they tell you?” I prodded, needing to learn what she knew and, of course, what the Lurkers had done to her.
“It was him,” she said slowly as she scanned the room. She seemed scared, as if we were in danger of being overheard.
“What did he say?” I asked. I could feel the fear welling up inside me as an image formed in my mind. It was the same man from my dreams—the Lurker elder with the long white hair and beard. He breathed power. I closed my eyes to concentrate fully, to absorb every inch of the vision.
“Jolie?” Rand said, reminding me that he was still there. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m getting something,” I answered, and looked at Bella. “What did the man say to you?”
“That I must do as he says,” she answered, eyeing the room again, recoiling into herself, fear emblazoned on her face. “I am not safe here. None of us are.”
And that stuck right in my gut. “Why aren’t we safe?” I demanded, swallowing my dread.
Something Witchy This Way Comes: A Jolie Wilkins Novel Page 11
