Order of the Akasha: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Complete Series)

by E. M. Moore

  Travis pushed them out of the way and sat down. “Tell us more about what you did to the victims. I want to know what we’re dealing with.”

  Her face crumpled. “I didn’t know what I signed up for.”

  My shoulders bunched, and I was about to give it to her again when Gabe came up and put his arm around my shoulders. “Shh,” he whispered in my ear. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”

  “I didn’t know the whole story until I told Dupre I wasn’t going to do it anymore. I knew that somehow I’d been causing it, but I didn’t know how exactly. These people were my clients, my friends.” She glared at me, then looked back at Liam and continued with her story. “Since I now had the power to connect people with their loved ones who’d crossed over, I offered it up wherever I could.”

  That part I did believe. She’d even offered it to me.

  “Friends started taking me up on the offer, and then it just grew.” She took a deep breath to try to calm herself. “I gave them their readings. They were so happy,” she said, tears trickling down her cheeks. She wiped at them and shook her head. “Dupre told me that what I’d been doing was actually marking them.” She scratched at her neck. “When I marked them, it allowed for something he called a ‘Liderc’ to go after them. The Liderc came to them as their loved one who crossed over, except it wasn’t their loved one at all. I don’t even know if I connected them with their loved one, or if it was the Liderc the whole time.”

  Liam looked up at me. Shit. The Liderc. We’d found that name in a book. It was a supernatural creature that came to victims in the night, pretending to be loved ones, oftentimes getting freaky with that person before killing them.

  I gasped in an even bigger breath and peeked a glance at Gabe. Shit, this had been following us for days. He’d passed out in the locker room and had a sex dream about us. The Liderc had taken my form.

  I swallowed, tamping down the vile surging in my stomach.

  “The Liderc thing, whatever, it killed them. Choked them.”

  “Mark her,” I said.

  Travis sighed. “I can’t mark her, Norah. She’s not magical. The Akasha doesn’t care about non-magical beings.”

  “What about the familiar?”

  “I imagine that’s how she got the power in the first place, but she, herself, isn’t magical. Never was.”

  He looked at me over his shoulder and frowned. He lifted his shoulders a fraction of an inch and then turned back toward the weeping spiritual advisor. She really was a fraud then. She never had powers, still didn’t, which was why we didn’t sense her or smell negative magic. It was the serpent familiar tattoo—and Dupre—the whole time.

  “She’s not innocent either.”

  Gabe squeezed my shoulders, but Travis got up. He walked around the coffee table and pushed us out of hearing distance. His green eyes zeroed in on me. “Look. I get it. You’re pissed Randy’s gone, and you want someone to blame, and just to do something to make a difference.” His eyes softened the more he looked at me. “You almost hurt her, Norah. You can’t do that. No matter what, you can’t do that. She wasn’t armed, she wasn’t fighting, she’s not even magical. You have to work within the light. At all times.” He swallowed. “You have no idea what it could do if you don’t work within the light.”

  My mouth fell open as I thought about what I’d done or had been about to do. Granny would’ve had a fit. “I didn’t even think about it. I thought she’d killed those people, and she could’ve, Travis.”

  He touched my arm and another spark triggered between us. This time, he didn’t pull away. “I know, but you can’t do that again. If you’d hit her… We couldn’t even be having this conversation right now.”

  I staggered back. Holy shit. He was right. I could’ve hurt an innocent just because I wasn’t thinking. I nodded. “It won’t happen again.”

  The air shimmered over Travis’s right shoulder and I angled him away. He turned, dropping into his offensive stance.

  “It’s just Granny,” I told him.

  “Call me that one more time, Norah Girl, and you’re in trouble.”

  I strode forward. “Did you find him?” It was a stupid question. She always found the ones she looked for. Always.

  She looked at me as if she was well aware it was a stupid question too. “Have you just been losing your mind while I’ve been gone? Yes, I found him.” She turned after catching a glimpse of the room around us.

  The medium stared back in shock.

  Granny turned toward me and put her hand on her hip. “I see you found the trash.”

  Liam left Serena’s side and walked toward Granny. “How can we find Randy?”

  She eyed him, then looked at me. I gave her a quick nod and she said, “I have a description for you.”

  All of us sagged with relief. Granny’s directions were usually pretty good.

  “He’s in an old house, white. Part of it is gray with age. It’s in Salem, out in the countryside though. There’s a forest, and a dirt road leading up to the house. The mailbox out front is—”

  “—a broken picket fence,” Liam finished for her.

  Granny grunted.

  “You know where he is?” I asked, my heart lurching.

  He nodded. “Home.”

  But that didn’t sound like the house in Ipswich, or even the apartment. Not even close.

  “His childhood home,” Liam said, his voice soft, practically empty.

  “Shit, that’s not good,” Gabe said.

  Granny turned on him. “Watch your mouth, boy. Just because that accent sweetens it up doesn’t mean it still doesn’t sound like garbage coming out of your mouth.”

  Gabe reared back, holding in a smile. He caught my eye, and I smiled back at him.

  That was Granny. No one could swear but her, and trust me, she took full advantage of it.

  “Let’s go,” Travis said. He motioned toward Serena. “You’re coming with us.”

  She looked around, crawling into the back of the couch. “But—”

  “Oh, put a sock in it, bitch. You’ve darn well done enough already, now get your ass moving and follow my granddaughter. She knows what she’s doing.”

  At that, Granny blipped out. Gabe, Liam, and Travis stared at me. All I could do was shrug. You never knew what was going to come out of Granny’s mouth. One second I was dumb, and the next I was a regular genius.

  They better get used to it.

  24

  Liam drove the big Jeep out past Salem’s city limits. He was the only one out of the number of us who’d ever been to Randy’s family home. Like his own, it had been abandoned, except for Randy didn’t have the money or the care to keep his up and running. He hated that place. He never sat foot there, barely even talked about it. So, the fact that he was there now. With Dupre, and God knew whatever else—a Liderc, maybe? Not good.

  Gabe and I were squished in the back with the medium while Travis sat in the passenger side. I was basically on Gabe’s lap as I watched the medium pull a cross from under her shirt and close her eyes, her lips moving a mile a minute. Seemed like an odd thing for her to be doing with a demonic familiar attached to her neck, but what the hell did I know?

  “How long?” I asked. Again. Yes, I wasn’t being the patient type right now.

  “A few more minutes,” Liam said.

  Gabe squeezed me. He was trying to play it cool, but underneath us, his heel bounced up and down, jostling me here and there. He probably didn’t even realize he was doing it.

  “Any ideas or plans?” I didn’t know why I was talking so Goddamn much. To keep me from thinking, probably. “How do we beat a Liderc?”

  “I just thought we’d throw the Akashic cell around it,” Travis offered.

  “Dupre got out of that the last time, though.” Who knew how useful it would be in this case either? It seemed like we were up against something more powerful than the Order had ever seen before. Different enemies called for different tactics.

  Madame Sere
na pulled a glass vial from her bra and handed it to me. I glared at it. I never wanted to touch anything other women kept in their bra. She rolled her eyes and tried again, putting it in my hands. “Holy water,” she said. “It’s the only thing I could think of in case it tried coming for me.”

  I slipped it into my pocket and looked from Travis to Gabe. “So, that’s what we got? Holy water. Don’t they have some sort of thing you can kill them off with? I mean, vampires have stakes. Werewolves have silver bullets. Lidercs have…”

  “Right,” Gabe said. “They’re from demons, correct? We might be able to send it back to hell. Somehow.”

  I was starting to get a major headache.

  “Listen,” Travis said, his alpha male voice on. “We’re going to capture the Liderc in the Akashic cell. We’ll use the holy water to do it, so it loses some of its strength. Then, when it’s caught, we’re going to call Walter and those guys are going to deal with the rest of it, just like we’ve always done.”

  I lifted my shoulders. I was up for trying anything, I just wanted to be done with it.

  “Here we are,” Liam said. He pulled the Jeep up in front of a house exactly like Granny described. Flashes of light lit up the interior intermittently.

  I played with the all-seeing-eye bracelet on my wrist. I knew I should’ve made the guys ones sooner. As soon as we got Randy back, that was the first thing I was doing.

  “Be careful, everyone,” Travis said. “Stay focused. Liam, you go to Randy. Norah, you better do that, too. The rest of us will take care of Dupre and the Liderc if it’s there.” He turned all the way around in the seat and caught Serena’s gaze. “You stick with me.”

  We all got out of the Jeep and Travis practically had to pull Serena the entire way to get her to go up to the house with us. She deserved it. She’d started this whole thing. He went straight for the door and stomp kicked it. It knocked over, and we all filed in afterward. “Here!” he called out, turning to the right.

  We turned after him, and there was Randy, strapped to a chair. His face a mix of rage and sadness. Liam grabbed my hand, and we made our way around our group, skirting the figure in front of Randy. “His dad,” Liam said. “The Liderc took the shape of his dad.”

  Fuck me. Poor Randy. No wonder why he wasn’t fighting back.

  “Ahh,” a voice came from behind us. “I wondered when you’d all get here. And you brought the psychic, too. Good to see you can follow the breadcrumbs I left for you.”

  I didn’t even bother looking up since I knew it was Dupre. Travis and Gabe had that handled, I told myself. Randy was my focus. I walked up to him, tilting his chin up to me. “Randy, it’s Norah.” He blinked, but it was as if he was looking right through me, not at me. “Randy, babe. You got to break out of this. That’s not your dad. That’s a Liderc. Do you remember us talking about that? It’s not real.”

  The figure in front of us hadn’t moved, but Randy flinched away as if he had, cowering into his humongous shoulders.

  “He can’t hear you,” Dupre said. “The Liderc is strong. It knows exactly who to take the shape of in order to get into their victim’s head the most. Truly, an awful thing for your friend. I haven’t seen someone look so scared before. The others I watched looked so happy. Well, right up until the moment the Liderc suffocated them, taking their life source away for all eternity.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” I seethed.

  I put my hand out and closed my eyes, gathering all the magic I could in my palms until I felt frayed along the edges.

  “Norah,” Travis warned.

  “It’s evil.”

  “Don’t. Hurt. Yourself.”

  I punched out at the floor. The purple magic that had gathered in my hands shot forward, hitting right at the Liderc’s feet. It upended the creature, and he stumbled to the side before standing back up straight again, never losing its concentration on Randy.

  “Randy!” Liam called. “Come on, come back to me, man. You’re stronger than this. You’re not him, and you don’t have to deal with him anymore.” He slapped Randy across the face.

  Randy blinked, and I moved forward, going to my knees right in front of him. “Randy, honey. Come on, snap out of it! They’re using you. It isn’t real. You only think it is.” I wrapped my hand around his bicep. “I’m real though.”

  Little by little, the haziness in his eyes receded. My heart lifted.

  The Liderc walked closer, and I turned throwing my hand out and shoving him back several feet. He tripped in the hole my magic had made, and he stumbled back again before righting himself. Dupre cursed. “What are you waiting for? Get him!”

  I stood in front of Randy. “He won’t do it. He won’t get past me, I can promise you that.”

  The corner of Dupre’s mouth twisted up into a devilish smile. “I was really hoping you’d say that, Norah. We’re still not done with you.” He tapped his chin. “What would you say if I said I’d leave your friends alone as long as I could…have you?” He lifted his shoulders and raised on to his tiptoes.

  “The fuck you will,” Travis said, standing in front of me. He reached out for my hand and took Gabe’s too. “Get Liam’s hand, Norah.”

  “The cell won’t work, Travis. We don’t have Randy yet.”

  “We can try,” he said, his jaw clenched tight together.

  The blue flame sputtered and rose up all over Dupre again. “You can try, boy. But you will fail.” Dupre waved his hand and Travis blew backward, missing Randy by a fraction and hitting the opposite wall. He slumped into a corner and didn’t move.

  Gabe moved in front of me next. “She’s not going with you.”

  I touched his arm. “Gabe, help Liam with Randy.”

  “No,” he said, turning toward me, his eyes twisting with betrayal. “We’re not losing you. Do you think Randy would want this?”

  “Randy doesn’t really have a say right now.”

  The Liderc stepped forward and Liam sent it backward again before it got right back up like a paranormal robot.

  “Call off that thing,” I said. “I’m right here.”

  Behind me, I heard Liam still trying to drag Randy out of his personal hell.

  “I’m not stupid,” Dupre said, the blue flames licking up and over his face, so he was just a silhouette inside. “I’ve also gotten stronger in case you couldn’t tell. Life is being very, very good to me, but I did promise Jay you and I intend to keep that promise.”

  I opened my arms wide. “Let’s do it, then. You’re the one holding this up.”

  Madame Serena, who’d been cowered against the wall stepped forward. A floorboard creaked and Dupre spun his head. He cackled loudly. “Serena, my my,” he clucked.

  She looked away from Travis and toward Dupre, stepping backward until she hit the wall to try to hide herself. “I told you that you couldn’t escape this, and I was right, wasn’t I?”

  Jesus. This guy just struck me as someone who wanted to hear himself talk. “Dupre! Let him go!”

  Dupre turned a rage-filled face toward me. His eyes were a sharp, midnight blue, and the fact that the flames were the only things that made up his features was alarming. He lifted a hand and a spread of blue flames shot from his fingertips and came straight toward me. I blocked it with my magic, sending it into the opposite wall. He did it again, and I countered it. With a growing frustration, he screamed, throwing another licking blue fire ball at me, and I blocked and sent it right back at him. His eyes widened just before it him in the chest. He flew through the air and landed flat on his back.

  I spun, looking for Randy. The Liderc blocked my view, but I saw him shimmer.

  “The holy water,” Serena said. “Throw it.”

  I slipped the bottle from my pocket and uncorked it. Grasping tightly onto the glass, I flicked the water out and onto the Liderc. It shimmered even more, getting more staticky and unclear. I could see through it now right to Randy whose color was returning to his cheeks. Liam slapped him across the face again
, and finally, Randy’s back straightened. His gaze fell on Liam, then Gabe. He looked right past the Liderc to me, and then he roared. Green magic balled behind him where his hands were tied. Liam scampered out of the way as the floorboards in the house broke open, dirt and rocks flying until a sharp stone landed by Randy’s chair.

  Liam picked it up and sawed his hands free. Randy stood, the green magic jumping off him now in little bolts until he shot forward, connecting with the Liderc. The Liderc fell into the hole both Randy and I had made. I dropped the rest of the holy water onto him and from my left, saw a lick of flame fly through the air and land on the creature. It squealed and morphed, its unreal body locking into horrible positions. Randy lifted a shaking hand. The earth vibrated and cracked, and the Liderc fell through into the Earth, rock, mud, and soil collapsing over him until he was just swallowed up.

  Randy heaved a sigh and stumbled to the side. Liam caught him. My body was weak, as was all of ours. We were frayed at the edges and dying out.

  Gabe moved to the wall and shook Travis before rousing him and helping him to his feet. We were all there again, connected. With every one of us conscious, we were stronger. Though we were weakened as individuals, magic still flared beneath the surface because we were together, as one.

  Dupre shifted. He coughed a couple times and moved slowly to his feet. He no longer burned with blue fire but looked like the pathetic man that came into my shop in New Orleans who wanted to torture his ex-wife. That was the kind of man he would always end up being, even if he got powers here or there. It didn’t make him a different person at his core. No, he was still just a sick, poor bastard.

  His fingers stretched out. He glanced down at them in shock and shook them as if he expected something else to happen. Nothing did.

  Travis limped forward. “You’re done, Dupre. Your Liderc is gone, and soon, you will be too.”

  Dupre’s lips thinned, and then the corner of his mouth tilted up again. “You know what I’ve learned? Always have something else up your sleeve.”

  His hand shot forward. I stared at it, unblinking, trying to figure out what it was. It certainly wasn’t magic.