“Cass? I need a favor. I don’t know what’s going on but I need somebody to get to Willow Wood now. Aunt Trin is hurt and I can’t tell if it’s supernat or not.” She snapped the phone shut without hearing Cass’s response and sat back on her heels, monitoring Aunt Trin’s breathing. That’s when she noticed something clutched in Aunt Trin’s left hand. Storm carefully pried her fingers open to slide the item out - a rolled piece of parchment. She unfurled the paper to find a page that had apparently been torn from a book. Aunt Trin’s scrawling hand covered the front and back of the page. Storm looked around for a book, hoping to figure out where it came from, but there were books everywhere in the study, none of which seemed displaced. Storm examined the random page more closely and saw one phrase that made her cringe - Emerald Seer. Groaning, Storm moved to a more comfortable seated position. “Aunt Trin, what are you up to now? Scanning the page in her hands, Storm’s heart sank further with each line. Something about the Emerald Seer being born to defeat an ancient enemy of her creator, ultimately aide the cursed and bring a new order to the supernatural world. Aunt Trin went on to detail how the Emerald Seer would be crucial in rebuilding after the impending war. Storm sighed. “Is this why you asked me back? To convince me that I am the Emerald? Is this all an act? Did you do this to yourself to scare me?”
Aunt Trin groaned. She stirred and her eyes fluttered open. “Storm?” Questioning and hopeful at the same time.
“Yes, Aunt Trin. I told you I would be here.” Storm tried to push the irritation from her voice. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, luv. I was there and now I am here. Something is not right. You should not be here.” Aunt Trin looked scared, shocked even.
“You told me to come here, to meet you about something important.” Storm held up the piece of parchment. “Is this some joke? Some way to convince me I am the Emerald?”
“No, No. This is not right. Storm, this is not real. Please, you have to wake –“ Aunt Trin’s eyes rolled back in her head and she fell limply back to the floor.
“Aunt Trin?” Storm shook her shoulder. “Aunt Trin? Wake up! This isn’t funny.”
“No, it is not funny at all. You need to listen to her.” A voice from the door startled Storm. She sprung to her feet in a defensive crouch. Standing in the doorway was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen, naked but for a pair of dark jeans slung low on his hips to show off his well sculpted abdominals.
“Who are you?” Storm’s accusing tone caused the stranger’s eyes to flare, his jaw flexing to betray his frustration. “Did you do this to her?”
“Which would you like me to answer first? I do not have much time. I do not even know if I am really reaching you right now.” The man seemed familiar though Storm was quite certain she would have remembered meeting him. “Storm, this is not real. You have to wake up. You can sort this out, I know you can. Just feel your way back to what is real. Start with who I am. Come back, Storm.”
Storm was about to challenge the stranger when he just walked out. She ran after him but found the hall empty. Dammit. What was going on? Storm stepped back into the study and for a second she swore Aunt Trin’s body flickered and went transparent. She blinked and there Aunt Trin lay, solid as ever. Where was Cassandra? Storm paced the room, looking over the paper in her hand, trying to decipher what was going on when her cell phone rang.
“Storm?” Cassandra’s voice echoed through the other end.
“Yeah, Cass. Where are you?” Storm was losing patience with the entire thing, feeling as though it was more a set up than anything else.
“We can’t come. Can’t get –“ The line went dead. Great. She was on her own. It’s not like she could take Aunt Trin to the hospital. If it was supernatural then they wouldn’t be able to help and her aunt would more likely end up a guinea pig than anything else. Dammit.
“Storm?” Aunt Trin’s weak voice drifted from the floor by the fireplace.
“Aunt Trin?” Storm slid to the floor beside her aunt who seemed to be coming around. “What is going on? What happened?
“I think I fell. I don’t know.” She tried to push up to a seated position but faltered and Storm leaned in to help. “Is it really you, dear? I’m not hallucinating?”
“You said this wasn’t real a minute ago. What is going on? What happened to your head?” Storm eyed a new gash on her head; she swore it hadn’t been there two minutes ago. Holding the paper out to her aunt again, Storm practically screamed, “Is this why you called me here? More nonsense about me being the Emerald? Is this all an act to scare me into accepting it? And who was the guy? A friend of yours?”
“No, I mean, yes, I mean, no. No, I just wanted you to come home. There is no Emerald, I know that now, and that means you can come home.” Aunt Trin looked up to her, hope all over her face and then some confusion. “What guy, dear? There’s a guy in the house?”
“Yeah, good looking, half naked, a little younger than your usual but – wait - what do you mean there is no Emerald?” Storm eyed her aunt skeptically. In all her years, Aunt Trin had believed in nothing as fervently as she believed in the legend of the Emerald Seer. “What changed your mind?”
“My last expedition. We unearthed a book much older than any other I’ve had the pleasure of studying. It explained the ideas behind creating hope in lesser creatures and the Tuatha De’s true intentions for our kind. It included a way to strip our powers of sight and allow us to blend with everyone else.” Aunt Trin nearly glowed with excitement, color returning to her features and causing her to look much better than she should.
Storm couldn’t wrap her mind around what she was hearing. What about the parchment? And the guy? “No more visions?”
“No, dear, no more painful visions, no more supernatural anything if you don’t want it. All you have to do is drink this potion and it all goes away.” Aunt Trin reached into the folds of her long skirt and withdrew a vial with a brownish liquid in it. “I took mine two days ago and haven’t had a vision since. It has been wonderful.”
“Really? But you always loved being able to see the future. Are you sure you are alright, Aunt Trin?” Storm thought back to the beautiful man she’d seen. Thought about all of the oddities she’d experienced since waking that morning. Something was wrong. “Aunt Trin? Where are your rings?”
Aunt Trin looked at her hands, a strange look on her face, “Oh, I must have forgotten to put them on in my haste this morning. I was just so eager to see you.”
“Aunt Trin, you have slept with your rings on every night since I have known you. You never remove them except to shower and even then you put them right back on. What’s going on here?” Storm stood and backed away, not trusting anything now. Something about the beautiful man seemed so familiar. He had stirred something inside her, a strange feeling she’d never known before. What he said rang true in some part of her mind. “You are not my Aunt Trin. What are you? What have you done with her?”
The woman, or whatever it was, who looked like Aunt Trin frowned deeply, so deeply that her face began to distort. In fact, the entire figure seemed to move and shift in the strangest way. Storm didn’t stay around to see what happened. She flew out of the study, down the hall and out the front door into the sunlight. Only, it wasn’t sunny. It was night, dark and inky with no stars to be seen. What the hell was going on?
“I underestimated you again, it seems.” A deep, scratchy voice echoed behind her causing Storm to whirl toward the source. Beneath a light post that had not been there a moment earlier stood a man, large and bearded like Santa Claus but with oily black hair and minus the jolly red suit.
“Who are you?” Storm backed away, wondering where her Beetle and Willow Wood had disappeared to. She now stood in the midst of complete blackness but for the light post beside the man and the slim circlet of pale light it gave off.
“I think if you look inside yourself you already know that answer. And really, it is the least important one at this point in time.” The man looked
at her disdainfully. “But then again, I am not fully certain how your mind works. I attempted to replicate everything to the finest detail but your memories bled through at every turn.”
Storm stepped back another step, realization of her situation just beyond her understanding.
“I would not go any further backward if I were you.” The man stood erect and shook his head at her, gesturing to the space behind Storm. Indeed, she turned to see a massive chasm that appeared to end in a basin of jagged rocks. Storm closed her eyes and shook her head. This wasn’t real. So what was? Look to the real. What had been consistent that day? If he built the reality and bits of her were bleeding through then they would be the things to appear illusions. The baby crying, the beautiful man, the mystic at Whiskey Mystics – all out place.
“This isn’t real but you are.” Storm opened her eyes and glared at the creature, his mouth curling into a fiendish grin.
“Very good, very good.” The man stepped forward. “Walk with me, Storm?”
She shook her head.
“I tried it my way, now I am willing to try it your way if you will just cooperate.” The man’s eyes flashed red but he continued to smile at her with gleaming white teeth.
“What exactly are you trying?” Storm was feeling more normal by the moment, memories returning a bit at a time. Aunt Trin had been murdered. She began feeling after that. Dan and Shane were Seraphs. The beautiful man was important to her. She was important.
“I want to end this silly feud. I want us both to be happy.” The man stepped closer and took her arm, not forcefully but firmly enough that Storm was forced to join him. “Essentially, I want a truce. I see no reason we cannot both continue to exist on this plane and every other.”
Storm was still focused on remembering. Ryder. That was the beautiful man’s name. She loved him. They were married and he fought by her side. They were fighting something – this man. “You are my enemy.”
The man rolled his eyes. “I already made that clear. Really, do try to keep up with me.” The man quickened their pace, walking briskly through the darkness toward nothing in particular. Storm couldn’t place his name. She knew it, somewhere she knew it. “As I was saying, I think we can put all of this silly war business behind us and go our separate ways without crossing paths ever again. I will let you live out your life and you let me go about my business as I always have. All I need is for you to relinquish your powers forever. Then this all ends.” Storm looked over to the man, this time he appeared to be nothing more than a swirling cloud with flaming red eyes. She blinked and he was the creepy, anti-Santa again, staring at her with an eagerness that somehow made her uncomfortable.
She knew his name. Storm remembered. She was powerful and a mother and nobody kept a mother from her children. “Ever seen what happens when a tigress is separated from her cubs?” Storm felt the power welling inside her, all of her anger and love swirling into one massive energy surge.
The man looked puzzled, “Huh?”
“You are the Unseen. I am the Emerald and you are my enemy.” Storm withdrew her arm from his, pulled her hands into her chest and shoved outward as if pulling the power from her core and expelling it all into the man. The golden energy hit him in the chest and he exploded into a million shards but not before Storm could see the fury contorting his hideous face. The backlash of the Unseen’s explosion sent Storm flying backward and knocked the wind from her. As she fell into blackness again, Storm swore she heard babies crying.
Lucian
“I don’t know what else to do for her, Luc.” Sophia paced the floor at the foot of the bed, the beast on her back with its tail wrapped around her waist. He hated that his loathing of the beast continued to dissipate. It was difficult to let go of something he’d clung to for so long but Lucian was learning quickly that clinging to the past was the fastest way to lose everything he loved.
Lucian rolled off the bed, still nursing a sore shoulder, and took his wife’s hand. “Soph, we all want to help. We’ll find a way.”
“We’re running out of time. The wood sprites are dwindling and without their natural barrier we won’t keep the others out for long. Their brethren have not arrived yet. What if they were intercepted?” Sophia frowned, the deep lines creasing her lovely face. She looked pale and drained. “Nearly everybody who fought at the hospital is injured, missing, or dead.”
“Please get some sleep. I will do the rounds here, call Whiskey Mystics again to see what they can do then sit with Ryder for a while.” Lucian attempted to lead Sophia to the bed but she would not budge. The beast lifted its head from her shoulder and nodded, as if understanding his intentions. Sophia’s gaze went somewhere else for a moment and then she re-focused on him with a wan smile.
“Fair enough, it seems I am outnumbered.” She lifted the beast off her back and onto its ridiculously elaborate pet bed before sliding onto their bed. He spread a quilt over her petite frame and kissed her forehead lightly. Sophia was sound asleep before he withdrew.
Lucian stretched, went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face and slipped quietly out of their room. He stood at the top of the staircase for several minutes, listening to the silence of the house and wondering what new developments he would be greeted with. It seemed their situation worsened exponentially with each passing hour and he feared the worst was yet to come. Descending the staircase he caught the faint scent of bacon and opted to start with the kitchen. Pushing the door inward with his good arm, Lucian nearly collided with a witchling carrying a tray of food.
“Hey, Lucian.” The small girl looked tired. He wondered if she’d slept yet. “I’m taking food to Ryder and preparing a bed for Angeline. The shifters found her but she’s in bad shape. I’ll probably be in with her for a while.”
“Sounds good, just make sure you get some rest. Sophia can take over for you after she has a nap.” Lucian wanted to make sure they were all well rested. He figured they had a mere six hours or so until darkness descended again. Dorian swore more vampires would arrive to bolster their numbers but they’d suffered too many losses in the first onslaught. “Can you tell Ryder I will be up in a bit? I’m just doing a sweep and a head count.”
The witchling nodded and slipped down the hall. Lucian found Dan and Shane silently preparing a breakfast buffet. “Who’s going to eat all that?”
Only Dan looked up from his meal prep to acknowledge Lucian, “We have company coming. Some of them could be quite hungry.”
Lucian’s ears perked up. “Company? As in reinforcments of the living, breathing, warm-blooded variety?” Lucian trusted Dorian but beyond that he knew the blood suckers would just as soon drink him as aide him, to say nothing for what they thought of Sophia and the beast. Only Dorian kept them in line and Lucian worried what happened if allegiances shifted for any reason.
“Yes, we are getting some significant reinforcements today. Word has spread and the races are stepping up. They fear being shunned for not choosing a side.” Dan went back to cooking, methodically stirring a bowl of some type of batter.
“There’s only one problem with that.” Lucian settled in one of the stools at the breakfast bar and stole a piece of bacon, crunching it as loudly as possible because one of the small pleasures in his life included annoying the Angels.
“We know.” Shane didn’t turn around to face Lucian, just kept watch over the food on the stove.
“So what are we going to do about it?” Lucian looked from one brother to the other, hoping for some answer that would solve all of their problems.
“We’re going to have to wake her up.” Dan met his gaze, eyes whirling with emotion.
“Um, that’s a great plan, Angel, but we’ve tried everything we know and nothing has worked. Sophia has nearly burned herself out and the only other witchling we have left is so exhausted she can’t even conjure a flame. Trin Sullivan has been back and forth between realms with dozens of ideas but none have panned out.” Lucian startled as Shane slammed a pan on the counte
r in front of him, the Angel’s eyes blazing with malice.
“You think we don’t know that, Immortal? Do not forget your place or who you are talking to. We’ve tried things too. Everything we know but one and it is time to try that.” Shane stood there, challenging him and Lucian noticed the glow emanating from the Angel.
“Shane, he didn’t know. Nobody has told him.” Dan spoke quietly but evenly. “Lucian, we can go into her mind and retrieve her but it is not without risk.”
“What!” Lucian stood, pushing the stool back across the floor with more force than he intended. “You can’t be serious! She’s in a mystical coma; you can’t go in there poking around without knowing how she got there. You have no idea what is going on in her head. What if you damage her psyche?”
“Like I said, it is not without risk but since everything else has failed and we –“
“NO. Absolutely, positively, no way in bloody hell am I going to sit her and watch you go into Storm’s –“ Lucian’s fists clenched and unclenched at his sides.
“We aren’t going in. Ryder is. He has to be the one.” Dan put a hand on Shane’s arm and met Lucian’s glare. “Ryder can do this. They share a bond greater than anything. He can bring her back to us.”
“And if he can’t?” Lucian gritted his teeth. He didn’t like where this was going.
Dan frowned and bowed his head. “Then nobody can.”
“Great. Are you going to tell him or should I? The man is a mess. He’s been sitting there all night watching people try things on Storm and I know his self-control is holding on by a thread.” Lucian replaced the stool at the breakfast bar and leaned against it, arms spread so his muscles would flex and radiate the anger he felt toward the Angels at the moment. “This is crazy.”
The Storm Sullivan Saga: The Emerald Seer Series Box Set Page 58
