Crimson Dahlia (Book #3 of the Svatura Series)

by Abigail Owen

  "Would it help to show me?" Alex asked.

  Ellie shook her head. "It's not something I can show. There's no visual to go with it. It's not like I could see a specific glow inside him. Or a specific power. It's more like a feeling." She let out a frustrated sigh.

  Alex ran a soothing hand down her side and over her hip. "Don't worry too much about it. It'll come to you if you relax and stop thinking so hard."

  "I guess so," she grumbled.

  Alex grinned. Ellie was definitely not known for her patience. “You’re cute when you’re annoyed.”

  “Huh,” she grunted. “Even when my face is all puffy from crying and my eyes are all swollen and red?”

  “Especially then. That you care about my sister so much makes me love you even more… if that’s possible.”

  Ellie grinned. “Your pillow talk is so sweet, baby.”

  Alex reached out and smoothed his thumb over her full bottom lip, then leaned over and kissed her. “I’ve waited over a hundred years for you. I have lots of that sweet talk all stored up just for you.”

  Ellie melted at the look he gave her. Alex gathered her into his arms and just held her. Both of them basked in the glow of how lucky they were to have found each other. The awfulness of Adelaide’s broken relationship made them appreciate what they had so much more.

  “I wonder how Lila and Ramsey are making out in their new temporary home,” Ellie murmured, thoughts of Adelaide leading to thoughts of Lila.

  “At least they’re close by,” Alex said. “And safe. It’s a brilliant hiding place.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  Chapter 32

  Ramsey was researching caves in North America when a strange sound caused him to look up from his computer screen. He glanced around and listened intently.

  Nothing.

  With a small frown, he resumed reading. He didn’t really think that he’d find Maddox this way, but it was worth a shot. Besides, Lila had asked him to give her some space, so what else was he going to do?

  There it was again. That strange sound. Ramsey snapped the computer lid shut and went to investigate. He didn’t have to go far—just from his cell to the one next to him.

  When they determined the next place Lila and Ramsey should hide, it had been Lila who’d come up with the idea of hiding deep within the castle itself…down in the dungeons where no one was allowed to enter, including the guards who stood watch at the doors outside.

  “No one would think to look for us under the noses of the Vyusher,” Lila had said. And they’d all agreed.

  The space was dank and dreary. Time-weathered rock formed the walls. The doors to their cells were rusted iron bars, and the dirt floors had been pounded into a hard, rough texture. They were well below ground, so no sunlight entered the area.

  They would have to keep relatively quiet so as not to alert the guards who stood outside the door at the end of the corridor to their presence. They’d chosen the two cells farthest from the entryway. With Charlotte’s help, they’d outfitted each room with a cot, a warm sleeping bag, and a small table. There was no electricity down in the dungeons. Selene hadn’t even known about these rooms before Maddox and his wolves had attacked the castle and Ellie and Griffin had followed them down here.

  Without a way to power lights, Ramsey and Lila used camping lanterns instead. An unfortunate hole in the floor was their toilet. Ramsey still mentally chuckled as he recalled Lila’s wrinkled nose at that little nugget of information, but she’d sucked it up and dealt with it like a trouper. Charlotte planned to bring them down food for meals, but, of course, there wasn’t much by way of entertainment. Luckily even down here their computers managed to connect to the wireless internet, although they had to send them upstairs with Charlotte periodically to get charged. And they had books and magazines. And each other.

  Hopefully, Selene’s plans would move forward quickly, and this situation wouldn’t last long. Otherwise, they’d have to find more tenable accommodations.

  Ramsey stopped at the threshold of Lila’s cell. Looking inside, he found her curled up on her cot, trying to muffle the sound of her sobs.

  Without hesitation, he crossed the room and sat down on the bed beside her. She turned to look at him over her shoulder, and the devastation on her face crushed him. She didn’t tell him to go away or ask him why he was there. Instead she sat up and burrowed into his embrace, no longer trying to hide her crying.

  He smoothed a hand over her hair. “What’s wrong, Lily?” he asked her softly. “Is it being back down in a dungeon?”

  Lila shook her head, pulled back and opened her mouth to tell him but couldn’t get the words out. She buried her face in his shoulder and kept crying.

  Ramsey stroked her back, feeling completely helpless. After a while he said, “Darlin’, you’re starting to scare me. What’s going on?”

  “I can feel Adelaide,” she wailed.

  Understanding struck. “They told her about Nate and Talia’s power over him?”

  Lila nodded. “Ellie did. I could feel it the second Adelaide’s heart shattered… She’s hurting so much, Ramsey. But she’s fighting it too.”

  “Has Ellie said anything to you yet?” he asked.

  Lila gulped and nodded. “She let me listen in. Adelaide is refusing to believe that Nate did anything. She wants to ask him, but knows that if it’s Talia’s fault, Nate is probably not aware of what’s happening and talking to him wouldn’t accomplish anything. Plus, there’s the plan. She doesn’t want to put everyone else in jeopardy.”

  “Jeez… she’s hurting that much when she doesn’t believe it?” Ramsey muttered.

  “She can still see their te’sorthene link, and it’s giving her hope. How much worse is it going to get when she knows it’s real? Or if that breaks? I don’t think she would survive it.”

  “Then you need to heal her,” Ramsey said.

  Lila’s face crumpled. “She… doesn’t… want… me… to…” she hiccupped between sobs.

  Ramsey took her arms and gave her a gentle squeeze. “Did I ever really want your help?”

  Lila quieted a bit. “No… but that was… different.”

  “You can heal your sister, make her feel better.”

  “Maybe,” she muttered with a frown.

  “And if it gets worse, you could maybe save her life,” he continued. “Insulate her from the pain.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” she sniffed.

  Ramsey pressed his lips together. “Do you think her despair is affecting you right now?”

  Lila looked down and played with the rings on her fingers. “It’s possible, I guess. Why?”

  He reached out and tipped her chin up so she would look at him. “Because the Lila I know wouldn’t hesitate to help one of the people she loves most in this world if she thought it was the right thing to do. Sometimes despite their wishes.”

  Lila blinked. “You’re right.”

  She closed her eyes and concentrated on the glow inside her that represented her ability to heal emotions. After that disastrous attempt that had resulted in turning into a falcon, Ellie had told Lila how to access the different powers that were now within her grasp.

  She searched through the various strands of light inside her that represented her powers. The ice blue was her own, but now she had violet blue from Ellie, yellow from Adelaide, and fuchsia from Selene inside her as well. She found the one she wanted and brought the light forward. She pictured holding it in her hand. Ice blue, it burned with a heat that was odd for such a cool color. Lila then felt for Adelaide.

  Her sister was easy to find. Her pain was a sharp dagger splintering the world. Lila pictured the light she held in her hands entering her sister’s heart, mending the brokenness, piece by piece. Adelaide would feel warmth, peace, and comfort.

  “There’s too much to heal. It’s too hard,” Lila muttered.

  “You can do it,” Ramsey said.

  His support made her feel stronger. She poured every ounc
e of her love for her sister and the strength she pulled from Ramsey into the healing.

  After a few moments, she suddenly felt Adelaide relax.

  “Lila,” she heard Adelaide call her. “Thank you.” The whispered words floated in Lila’s mind.

  With a gasp Lila’s eyes snapped open. Had she heard that on her own? Or was Adelaide using her new telepathy? She assumed the latter.

  She turned to Ramsey with an exhausted smile. “It’s done. She’s asleep now.”

  “That’s my girl. You okay on your own?” he asked. She guessed he could sense the uncertainties that’d suddenly started fluttering inside her - or maybe he shared them. Ramsey unwrapped his arms from around her and stood up.

  Lila said nothing for a moment as she debated with herself. She wanted to shake her head no and ask him to stay. She wanted to spend the night in his arms. In her mind she saw it all. Her holding out her hand to him, feeling the weight of his body as he joined her on the bed. The heat of his kisses… heat everywhere around her.

  She closed her eyes against the images. They were so powerful and so tempting. But she was still unsure. She’d been so angry with him when she’d left last year and that anger had helped her shut off her feelings for him. But now he claimed that he wanted her and that he’d never loved Selene. And maybe it had been Lila’s power projecting feelings on him that weren’t true. It was entirely possible that she’d been forcing on him what she’d thought she was seeing, maybe driven by her own unfounded jealousy. And maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt. He’d only gained control over his powers in the last few years, so perhaps he’d just needed time to adjust to how a relationship with her was suddenly possible.

  But still, she didn’t know his heart. Not really. After sixty-some-odd years of rejection, belief was hard to come by.

  Lila ignored the urge to ask him to stay and nodded. “I’m fine now,” she said.

  The flash of disappointment in his eyes almost had her calling him back.

  She watched until he was gone. And then flopped back onto her bed with a deep sigh.

  Chapter 33

  Several days later, Lila and Ramsey were both going absolutely stir crazy. It was a miracle that they hadn't killed each other… yet. But today, finally, some action.

  The tribes that Oren had been able to reach were gathering at last to discuss options. While they couldn’t contact every clan on the planet, they’d still managed to tap most of the larger ones. When Sheila had been kidnapped, she had been in the process of trying to locate additional groups. But all the ones Selene was aware of had come. Even the Brazilian tribe, who called themselves by an ancient Amazonian title that Lila had difficulty pronouncing. It was something like Timening, which apparently meant jaguar, a symbol of power in their indigenous culture. The Brazilians seemed to be impressed by Ellie's ability to shift into just such a creature.

  Nate and Talia took a trip to where Talia had been held by Maddox – the same place where Selene had been held the previous year. Ostensibly, they were there to try to solve the mystery of who Talia was. In reality, they’d been sent away so that they wouldn't know about everything happening in the castle.

  Selene had other plans for them, which included feeding them false information to incite an attack on the castle when the Vyusher, Timening, and all the other tribes were actually ready for them.

  Griffin had been telepathically allowing Ramsey and Lila to see and hear the arrivals through his eyes. Lila thought the sensation was very odd, a bit like watching TV on the back of her eyeballs. And now, from many levels below the others, Lila and Ramsey watched and listened as the official gathering began. The image reminded Lila of a scene from one of her favorite movies, Brigadoon. There was a wedding scene in that movie in which all of the different Scottish clans gathered together, each coming in wearing their family’s colors and piping their bagpipes.

  This wasn't quite the same. No one was wearing a kilt. And there certainly weren't any bagpipes. Each group entered the hall separately, the leaders at the front, their people lined up behind them. In addition to the Brazilians, there were tribes from all over the world, every continent except Antarctica.

  Like the Vyusher and Timening, some of the tribes had some kind of localized name for themselves. Most actually called themselves Svatura - especially those from Europe or America - having descended from the original group that Ellie's and Griffin’s great-grandparents had founded almost two-thousand years before.

  But no matter what they were called, they were all the same type of people… powerful. More than human.

  Lila watched through Griffin’s thoughts as Selene stood, looking every inch the queen she was, and waited patiently for all to arrive in the Great Hall. Finally, Selene held up her hand, and silence descended upon the room. "Welcome to all of our honored guests. We hope that you are comfortable with your accommodations. We are grateful for your presence here and hope to build strong new alliances that will last for millennia to come."

  The room erupted in applause. But once it had quieted down, the leader of the Brazilian tribe stepped forward. She was a woman who Lila thought embodied the concept of an Amazon – tall, muscled, and gorgeous, with mocha-colored skin, long gleaming black hair, and striking dark eyes.

  She spoke excellent English, with only a slight accent. "While we agree to come together to face a common enemy, do not mistake that for a desire for further alliance. We still do not trust the Vyusher."

  Selene gave the Brazilians a little half-bow of acknowledgement. "We understand. And we won’t make any assumptions further than the need to help each other with this current threat. But it is also my personal goal to earn your trust at the same time."

  A murmur swept through the room. Obviously many were here for the sake of self-preservation only. But that was a start.

  “The enemy of my enemy and so forth,” thought Lila.

  “Damn straight,” she heard Griffin mentally agree with her.

  “You agree?” she asked him.

  There was a small pause, and then Griffin came back with “You heard that?”

  “Yeah.” Lila frowned, confused.

  “Huh. I didn’t think I’d let you hear that thought,” he said. “Anyways, you should see the hoops Selene had to jump through to ensure no fighting broke out between all these people.”

  “Like what?” Lila asked.

  “Well, for one thing, the Mongolian clan can't be near the Russian clan because of something that happened between them over a thousand years ago. And that's only one example. It's been a logistical nightmare.”

  Lila chuckled.

  Selene had been waiting patiently as some back-and-forth between several tribes went on, but now she held up her hand. "Let us concentrate on our primary objective – that of defeating Maddox – which is why we're all here now."

  *****

  "Do you think it will work?" Lila wondered aloud. "Selene's plan?"

  She and Ramsey were sitting on her cot, eating their dinners off trays balanced on their laps. They had been listening to the negotiating and strategizing all day.

  Ramsey shrugged as he finished chewing his bite of ravioli. "If she can keep all those tribes from going to war with each other, I think the plan has a shot. We certainly have numbers on our side."

  "Seriously. I can't believe Selene was able to manage even a smidgen of cooperation among the tribes during the talks today."

  "I got the impression that she had a little help in that department," Ramsey said as he pinned her with a knowing look.

  Lila blushed. She was sure no one else had noticed. How could they, when they didn't even know she was there? "Maybe a little."

  "Careful with that. If they figure it out, they won't be happy," he warned.

  Lila gave him a sheepish glance. "I kept the emotional healing stuff to a very minimum. Only when I thought she really needed help. Being Queen has got to suck."

  "It's not a position I envy," Ramsey said.

&nbs
p; Lila nodded. "Nope. If I ever get a chance to be a queen, remind me about today."

  "I'll remember that," he said wryly.

  "Do you think that Maddox will attack soon?"

  Ramsey thought that over for a moment. "He’s got Sheila now. So he has to know we've gathered a large group of people. The only thing keeping him safe is that we don't know where he is. He has to be aware that with this many powers gathered in one place, we will likely be able to figure it out soon. Plus with the stuff we’re about to start feeding through Nate and Talia once they get back…"

  "The best defense is a good offense?" Lila asked.

  Ramsey's lips quirked in a small smile. "That's the second time today you've used a warlike cliché. But yeah, something like that."

  Lila rolled her eyes at him. "Clichés became what they are for a reason. There is inherent truth in them," she stated with haughty dignity.

  "Touché," he said, and saluted her with a fry before popping it into his mouth.

  Lila ignored him. "Well, when the attack does come, we’ll be ready."

  "Yes, we will. I just wish I could figure out where he's hiding. Then we could bring the fight to him."

  "Is that what you’ve been doing all this time on the computer?" she asked.

  "Yeah.” He shrugged. “Stupid to think that I could figure out something that all of Selene's High Council and others couldn’t.”

  "What exactly are you searching for?"

  "Caves similar to the ones he kept you prisoner in."

  "Smart. Why don’t you show me what you’ve found so far? Maybe I can help.”

  Ramsey gave her an odd look. “You really think it’s worth digging into?”

  “I do,” she said. A twinkle appeared in her eyes. “Besides, what else are we going to do down here? I don’t know about you, but I’m going a little stir crazy.”

  Ramsey eyed her, trying to determine how serious she was. She gave him a little push. “Go get your computer and show me what you’ve got.”

  As he left the cell, she thought she heard him mumble, “I could think of a few other things I’d rather be doing together.”