Crimson Dahlia (Book #3 of the Svatura Series)

by Abigail Owen

  CRIMSON DAHLIA

  BOOK # 3 OF THE SVATURA SERIES

  BY ABIGAIL OWEN

  Copyright © 2013 by Abigail Owen

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  ISBN 978-0-9882272-2-4

  abigail.owen.books@gmail.com

  DEDICATION

  To Wendy, Mom, my critique group, and my beta readers. You guys are awesome.

  Couldn’t do this without you.

  WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE SVATURA SERIES!

  “HYACINTH is an exciting, romantic, engaging novel with a unique and rich perspective….

  As with the first novel, HYACINTH's greatest strength lies in Owen's portrayal of women. Her heroines are both strong and capable, and they are fully able to lead their people as equals with their male counterparts.”

  -K. Cunning, Amazon Top 500 Reviewer

  “I find that Hyacinth is one of the few out there that the second book is better than the first book in a series.”

  -Chantale, Geeky Girl Reviews Blog

  “[Hyacinth] contains an excellent blend of romance, close friendship, and my favorite kind of action sequences in which success depends on a whole group of characters acting closely together to defeat a common enemy. The climax of the book is a battle scene as magically fast and furious as in [Blue Violet], which will satisfy fans of action as well as romance in an urban fantasy book.”

  -Kate McMurry, Amazon Top 500 Reviewer

  “I loved [the plot], i thought again really well paced, nice amount of action and suspense to keep the reader going.”

  -Becca, The Violet Hour Book Reviews Blog

  “The plot of ‘Hyacinth’ takes its reader from the heights of engaging with our favorite characters again to apprehension and fear to anticipation and then more fear and then highs and happiness and then back down with a bump! Abigail Owen makes reading, even reviewing, such a happy chore!”

  -Kirsty Vizard, All In One Place Blog

  “Abigail Owen has created a stunning world of supernatural people trying to survive hidden from mankind and those that hunt them. I can't wait to start the next book.”

  -K. Dunst, Amazon Reviewer

  “I really enjoyed this first book and immediately had to read the second one as well, can't wait for the third one coming soon…Nice job Ms Owen!”

  -Cyndy, Amazon Reviewer

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  MEANING OF THE FLOWER

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  KEY CONCEPTS, CHARACTERS, & POWERS

  MEANING OF THE FLOWER

  All flowers have a meaning. In the Victorian era, people used flowers as symbols to express their feelings.

  dahlia: a warning, change, betrayal, dignity, elegance

  crimson: passion, the heart, emotions

  Chapter 1

  Lila couldn’t get warm. Wherever their captors were holding them was damp and cold and seemed to be underground, given the rough stone walls surrounding them. A harsh fluorescent light in the hallway filtered into their cell through the small window in the door. The constant hum of the bulb was a minor form of torture.

  “Ugh,” a male voice groaned beside her. “I can hear your teeth rattling in your head. If I promise not to think impure thoughts, will you swallow your darn pride and get over here and snuggle with me?”

  “F-f-f-fine,” Lila said. It would have come out grudgingly if she could speak around her chattering.

  She scooted across several inches of floor and sidled up to Marcus, the leader of the Louisiana tribe of Svatura. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in closer. After a few moments, the heat from his body started seeping in, and her shivers lessened.

  “Thanks,” she said when she could finally form words again.

  “It’s a miracle. You actually know how to say thank you,” Marcus teased. His gruff voice was laced with a Cajun accent.

  “Hardy. Har. Har.” Lila inwardly cringed at such a lame response. She was just too tired and cold to think of anything wittier.

  “Ha. It took us a whole year to get you to warm up to us. And when you finally do, we find out that you’re a sarcastic little thing. Even when you’re stuck in a hole in the ground.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m a beacon of sweetness and light,” Lila deadpanned.

  She practically felt Marcus roll his eyes. “How’s the head?” he asked. He brushed her matted honey-blond hair away from the gash at her temple.

  “It’s all healed. I’m still pissed that guy bashed me like that when I wasn’t looking.”

  “Well, you did bite him, chère.” Marcus chuckled at the memory.

  “He deserved it. No one tries to kidnap my friends - or me for that matter - without a fight. My powers may be fairly passive, but that doesn’t mean I can’t kick some serious butt.”

  Lila, Marcus, and several other members of his Louisiana tribe had been attacked in the middle of the night and captured. Maddox, their captor, had once been a part of the Vyusher, a clan of powerful people who all had the ability to morph in wolves. But then he’d turned against his own, attempting to turn all the other gifted people in the world against his former people.

  “How long do you think they can hold us here? It has to have been at least a month by now,” Lila wondered out loud.

  “Fairly indefinitely, I’d say,” Marcus answered. “With that blocker they’ve got keeping all of our powers in check, there’s not a ton we can do. Not that we’ll stop trying.”

  “I don’t know how Selene fought her way through that blocker when she was held,” Lila murmured.

  Marcus shifted into a more comfortable position. “Yeah. If it’s the same guy holding us prisoner now, he’s one of the strongest blockers I’ve ever run up against. The bastard has the nine of us in this cell plus the other two they took. And that’s just who we know about. All of us are still trying to use our powers. How just one person managed to thwart him is mind-blowing.”

  Over a year ago, Selene, the new Queen of the Vyusher and now one of Lila’s good friends, had been captured by Maddox. He’d tried to hold her with the blocker, but Selene’s own ability to turn off others’ powers had won out in the end and she’d escaped.

  “By now my family has to know that Maddox has us. They’ll be using every single ability they’ve got at their disposal, and Selene will have all the Vyusher looking for us. She’ll
keep her promise to you, Marcus.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Lila didn’t say anything. Thinking about Selene meant thinking about Ramsey. And she didn’t want to think about Ramsey.

  Suddenly the locks slid back in the door, and everyone in the room immediately changed positions. Lila now had eight Svatura sitting in front of her blocking her from whatever was about to come through that door.

  Lila narrowed her eyes at Marcus’s back.

  “I can feel you glaring at me,” he whispered over his shoulder. “But we’re not going to stop. If Maddox gets his hands on you—”

  He didn’t finish the thought. The door swung open and, just as it had every other time, immediate pain washed through all of the occupants of the room. Lila felt as if razors were slashing over her skin. Forcing herself to keep her eyes open, she looked down and was shocked that blood wasn’t pouring out of her.

  The sensation was completely debilitating, and that was the point. While they were all prostrate on the floor in pain, one of them would be dragged away with little resistance. Lila vaguely registered the sound of a brief struggle to her right. Then the door closed and a locking noise sounded. Then the pain disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

  Marcus jumped up. “Who’d they take?”

  There was a moment of confusion as everyone looked around, checking to see who was missing from their ranks.

  “Dane,” a voice cried out. “They took Dane!”

  Lila felt sick to her stomach. She’d come to like Dane over the last year that she’d been traveling with the Louisiana clan. He had the ability to morph into a massive grizzly bear, but with her he’d always been a big softy.

  He was the third of their group that Maddox’s people had taken away. Now only eight of them were left in the cell. They had no clue what’d happened to those taken. But Lila had a pretty good guess, and she tried to not let her panic show. Survival was the name of the game. She knew her family would be desperately trying to find her, so she pushed her fears down deep inside and waited for rescue… or for her chance to fight back.

  Marcus returned to her side and wrapped his arm around her again. They leaned against the wall silently, each lost in their own thoughts.

  “Marcus?” Lila whispered.

  “Yeah?”

  “Have you noticed that the three they’ve taken so far are some of our strongest?”

  Marcus was quiet for a moment. “Jeez. You’re right. Dane – our biggest, strongest metamorph. Seamus – with his lava bombs. And Ariel’s nerve control. And now that I think about it, they took her first, and that’s when the pain started.”

  “Right? So they’re already using her nerve control. If they’re taking out the strongest of us first, who’s next?”

  “Either James or Sylvie,” Marcus said after another thoughtful pause.

  Lila nodded her agreement. James was a particularly talented telepath, and Sylvie could conjure tornadoes out of thin air.

  “Don’t mention this to anyone yet,” Marcus whispered. “They can’t do anything about it, and it’ll just make their terror worse.”

  “Okay. Um, Marcus?”

  “My, you’re chatty today,” he murmured.

  Lila rolled her eyes. “What do you think they’re doing with them?”

  She felt Marcus’s chest rise and fall in a silent exhale. “Well, if they’re not dead, then it’s something much worse.”

  Chapter 2

  Ramsey Pierce sat on the ground, his elbows resting on his drawn up knees as he used a stick to poke at the fire blazing in front of him. Sometimes being a firestarter was a handy thing, especially when camped out in the middle of the woods in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

  He’d started his journey closer to Lake Tahoe but wasn’t quite sure where he was now or how far he’d come. Somewhere in the western foothills maybe. Over the last few days the terrain had changed from primarily rock and pine trees with steeper inclines to rolling hills covered with dry golden grass and tall black oaks.

  Ramsey was trying to track Lila through the inexplicable connection they shared. He had no idea why he could feel her. It wasn’t a power that either one of them claimed. But he’d known the moment she’d disappeared.

  Was it only a month ago? The pain of the violent shudder that had woken him in the dead of night still lingered. He’d just known. Without a second thought, Ramsey had leapt from his bed and rushed to get help, heading straight to Lila’s sister Adelaide’s room. He’d barely bothered to knock before barging in.

  “Something’s wrong with Lila,” he practically shouted.

  “What?” Adelaide sat up and rubbed her eyes, groggy from sleep. “Why do you—?”

  “I can feel it.”

  Adelaide looked confused. “How—?”

  “I don’t know. But it’s not important right now. I think she’s hurt.”

  Adelaide closed her eyes for a moment, thinking, and then reopened them and looked at him blankly.

  “Have you talked to her lately? Do you know where she is, or was?” he asked.

  “I just talked to her yesterday. She was in Brazil,” Adelaide answered. She quickly hopped out of bed and grabbed a robe, fumbling to get her arms into the sleeves. They hustled down the hall to gather the others.

  Ramsey barely remembered the conversation the family’d had that night. All he’d been able to think about was Lila. He did remember Lucy, though. Lila’s mother had been frantic with fear for her child. Ramsey said that he could find Lila using their psychic link. And Lucy stood before him, her face pinched with worry.

  “I don’t know why you think you can, but if you really can feel my little girl, you bring her home,” Lucy pleaded. “Do you hear me? Bring her home to me!”

  Now, a month later, he was no closer to finding Lila than he’d been that night. Ramsey tilted his head back, leaning against the rough bark of a tree, tired in a bone-deep way that went beyond the physical. He’d meant the promise he’d made Lucy… he owed her that much. She’d become like a mother to him when he’d had no one else. She’d opened her heart and her home to him, despite the risks of bringing a firestarter into the family. She trusted him to find Lila, and he wouldn’t let her down now.

  Ramsey ran a weary hand over the dark red stubble covering his jaw. He stared, unseeing, into the flames in front of him. As much as he loved Lucy, and as much as he’d meant every word of his promise to her, his oath had come from a deeper place. There was a sick feeling inside him that sat like a rock in his chest at the thought of Lila being hurt.

  Ramsey thought about the first time he’d ever seen Lila. He’d been alone for a very long time before Lucy had found him. His power had started to manifest early, when he was only six. By the time he left his birth family at age nine, he’d already inadvertently started several blazes, though nothing fatal. But two events had triggered his leaving: His mother had discovered she was going to have a baby, and then he’d discovered his grandfather’s diary. If Ramsey closed his eyes, he could still see the words on the pages—

  I take my pen in hand to put my pain to paper.Lest our daughter, Mary, has questions about this day, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under her eye when I shall be no more. I laid my precious wife, Elizabeth, in the ground today. We found her a right pretty place on the top of hill overlooking the valley she so loved. To know that she lies there, still and cold, at the actions of my own hands, at the fire that springs from me, brings me the keenest agony I have ever known. Thank God that this terrible gift seems to have passed Mary by. She’ll never have to know the torture of having killed the one you love. And, for my part, I will not risk my daughter’s own life the way I did my wife’s. For her sake I am willing – more than willing - to lay down my own life, to protect my only remaining family, and to pay the debt I owe for the life I took.

  Reading those words, Ramsey had realized that he wasn’t safe to be around and worried for his unborn baby brother or sister. So he’d run away to protec
t his family. Much like his grandfather had many years before when he’d taken his own life… by the same fire inside him that had accidentally killed his wife.

  Ramsey’d left his family in 1884. Svatura aged much more slowly than normal humans, an odd phenomenon which started around puberty. Time seemed to slow down for them more and more and then speed back up again much later in life. If Svatura survived to live into old age, they could live as long as two thousand years. So while Ramsey looked as though he was only nineteen or twenty, he was actually closing in on one-hundred-and-forty.

  His family had lived on the frontier, so he knew how to live off the land. And for many, many years, he’d been able to remain on his own, fending for himself. He’d wandered the wildernesses of America, a witness as the vast, untamed land slowly shrunk, closing in on him inexorably. It wasn’t until 1952 that Lucy’d found him and introduced him to her family.

  Ramsey jumped up, haunted by the memories that wouldn’t leave him alone. He went about cleaning up the campsite, washing his plates, hanging his bags of food up in a tree far away, and tamping down the fire. Finally he got into his one-man tent and wrapped up in his sleeping bag. Although the temperature was still hot in the daytime, the mountains got chilly at night. But the second his eyes closed, those haunting thoughts he kept running from took over.

  Ramsey had been in a small town in Illinois, sitting on a bench at a bus stop with a book in his lap. He’d managed to earn a little money working odd jobs for a nearby farmer and was on his way to wherever his bus ticket would take him. He never stayed in the same place long.

  “Hello,” a soft female voice interrupted.

  Ramsey raised his eyes from the book he was reading – a beat up old copy of Huckleberry Finn. “Can I help you?”

  The woman smiled kindly. “I think I can help you.”

  Ramsey frowned and glanced around. “I don’t think so. Thanks.” He lowered his gaze back to his book.