Paranormal Word Series Box Set (Books 1-3 and Novella)

by CC Solomon

  In the meantime, my thoughts were on Silver Spring.

  “We’re not going,” Charles said two evenings later.

  I was in the kitchen, cooking for real. A roast chicken, collard greens, and mashed potatoes from the local grocery store, which was really an indoor farmer’s market now. I was feeling quite domestic. We had invited our new gang over for a potluck dinner.

  “Come again?” I said, stirring the mashed potatoes.

  Charles reached into a top cabinet and pulled out a few wine glasses. “You said we’d leave when we freed the others. We haven’t done that,” Charles answered, walking to the dining area next to the kitchen.

  “I think I said we’d stop at Hagerstown first because it was closer. We did. We got them to help. All we can do now is try to find the others, which the government is doing.”

  “Right, so why would we leave before then? We can keep trying the locator spells or something.”

  I stopped stirring and put the lid over the pot, turning off the stove. “Charles, we can go to Silver Spring and then come back. We aren’t giving up.”

  The doorbell rang then, and Charles went to answer it as I checked on the chicken in the oven. I was feeling unsettled. I knew Charles hadn’t wanted to go to Silver Spring in the first place, but we had no idea how long it could take to help the others. I had to get at least one thing resolved.

  “Hey, Mina,” Felix greeted me. “I brought homemade lasagna.” He placed two covered containers on the round kitchen table behind me.

  “No, you didn’t.” I smiled at him, hands on my hips.

  “And I baked a chocolate cake. Boom!” He threw his hands in the air.

  “Aw, shucks. Felix trying to make me gain weight in the supernatural apocalypse.” I laughed, moving my neck around.

  “I made salad,” Faith announced, coming into the small kitchen.

  “Aww snap, Faith, trying to make me lose weight in the supernatural apocalypse.”

  Faith laughed and put her large bowl of rabbit food next to the real people food. “I figure we should have a few more vegetables on the plate tonight.”

  Lisa called from the dining room. “I brought wine!”

  “I brought whiskey,” Erik added, also in the dining room

  “I brought my love and affection!” Charles cracked.

  “I can’t eat that,” Felix muttered with a frown.

  “The food’s ready. So, this is buffet style, eat where you like! Happy Friday, we’re alive!” I exclaimed, feeling, for the moment, genuinely content.

  Faith headed out of the kitchen. “Get me to the liquor.”

  I smiled. I was surrounded by people I’d only known for two weeks, but we were already like old friends. I couldn’t explain the chemistry we seemed to have with each other. Sure, hard times could make people closer, but we all knew there was more to it. We were connected by more than shared dreams of Silver Spring, and I had hopes that by going to that town, we could find out about those ties.

  “Felix and Lisa, can you both help me convince Charles to head to Silver Spring now?” I asked, peeking out of the kitchen.

  Lisa, grabbing a plate off of the glass dining room table, turned to Charles. “Why don’t you want to go?” she asked.

  “What if we go, and the place is nothing but trouble? Now we have a new issue to resolve taking us away from our main goal, which is to free our friends. I say we resolve one thing first before going to another,” Charles answered, giving a slight shrug.

  “But what if Silver Spring can help you find your friends? I mean, it’s a town full of supernaturals,” Felix pondered, walking in the kitchen with a plate.

  “Yeah, Phillip found me and helped me escape. Maybe he can do the same for one of our friends who is still captured,” I offered, taking the chicken out of the oven with some mittens I found in the nearby drawer.

  “That’s a lot of guessing. We know we have a good thing here. And this town could use our help,” Erik stated.

  I placed the chicken on the stovetop and looked over at Erik with twisted lips. I’d foolishly thought he’d have my back. He looked at me and shrugged, and I narrowed my eyes. We hadn’t had any alone time since our make-out session a couple of days ago, and I was beginning to think it was a one-time deal.

  “Of course, the Silver Spring town could have helpful information,” Erik added. He gave me an arrogant wink as he headed to the dining room, and I pursed my lips and looked away, secretly smiling.

  “What about just some of us go,” Lisa began. Having filled her plate, she headed out of the kitchen. “It’s only two hours away.”

  Erik entered the kitchen again. Walking past me, he reached out, and his hand grazed the back of mine, which was hanging down at my side. I was still annoyed with him, but the contact gave me instant butterflies.

  “A lot can happen in a two-hour drive. And then, what happens if the place is a setup? We should all stick together,” He surmised.

  “Well, six of us won’t stop that,” I said, giving him a tight smile.

  He looked over at me. “We’re like family now, and we should remain as one.” He smiled in return, and it was like sunshine yet again. Secretly. I believed he smiled only for me.

  Wait, was he trying to be charming?

  I turned away from him and caught Faith’s smirking face. I lowered my head. It seemed our secret flirting wasn’t so secret.

  “I agree with Erik that we should stick together. But we should also head over to Silver Spring,” Faith began. “Witches here are trying to use magic spells to locate the prison, but so far, no luck. Even Lisa couldn’t help. You either, Amina. So, us taking a quick visit to Silver Spring to see what’s going on won’t hurt.”

  “I think that sounds smart,” Felix said. “We need to go. They said we have to go now.”

  Lisa, plate annoyingly filled to the brim for such a tiny girl, turned to Felix and frowned. “Who’s ‘they?’” she asked.

  Felix smiled and tapped his head. “Voices in my head.”

  We all stopped what we were doing and looked at him.

  “Nine years ago, I would have been worried about your mental stability,” Lisa began.

  “I’m still worried,” Erik muttered beside me.

  “But now, there actually could be people telepathically communicating with you,” Lisa went on.

  “Doesn’t mean they’re good people,” Erik surmised.

  “We’re going. End of story. Either you come with us, or you stay here,” Lisa announced before exiting the kitchen.

  “I’m with her,” I stated. “We have four yeses, one no and one maybe. Yes wins! Let’s go.”

  Chapter 15

  Three days later, we were heading south to Silver Spring.

  “So, where exactly do we head once we get off the highway?” Erik asked, driving a gray sedan, the Hagerstown community let us have.

  I sat in the front passenger seat and gazed out of the window as we exited 495 into downtown Silver Spring, following the SUV Charles was driving.

  “Felix will know,” Faith stated from the back seat.

  There were no signs welcoming us to the town. We simply drove straight down Colesville road, but it wasn’t long before we saw a tall steel wall a few blocks before Georgia avenue.

  “Well, this is new,” Faith commented. “What is it, like, twenty feet tall? More?”

  Charles made a left down a side street, and Erik followed, circling the circumference of the great wall. It was maybe six miles around, with no visible door or opening and no sign.

  “Sooo, I’m going to take a gander and guess this is the Silver Spring town,” I said.

  “How did they build this?” Erik wondered.

  “This is a magic wall, for sure,” Faith replied.

  Charles stopped his car back to where we first started. Erik followed suit.

  I looked around. The street in front of the wall was clear. On one side of the street was an abandoned office building. On the other side, a vacant re
staurant. The rest of our surroundings was filled with weeds, tall grass, trees, and a few more side streets.

  “Should we honk…or something?” I asked.

  “I feel like we’re visiting the Wizard of Oz, this is so exciting,” Faith said in a sing-song voice.

  I shook my head then stopped as, surely by magic, an outline of a door appeared in the smooth, steel wall in front of us. “Whoa,” I whispered.

  We waited, expecting the door to open and perhaps a man in a green uniform to appear, but nothing happened.

  “Do we...knock?” I asked.

  Felix and I seemed to have the same thinking because he got out of the car, Charles following, and headed to the door.

  Erik leaned over me, opened the glove compartment, and reached in. He pulled out a handgun I didn’t realize was in there.

  “What are you doing with that?” I questioned.

  “Insurance,” Erik answered, taking the safety off the gun. He then looked up at the top of the steel wall through the front window. “I don’t see any sharpshooters, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t there. If anything goes down, Charles is going to cover Felix. His magic will better protect them.”

  “So, you think,” Faith said from the back, but I heard her cock a gun behind me, and I turned around to face her.

  “Lisa is on alert. If she felt dark magic from the wall, she was supposed to have Charles drive us away and regroup. The fact that we didn’t have to leave might be a good sign,” Erik added, looking around.

  “Hmmm.” I turned to him. “Was I not invited to this strategy meeting? Because I’m sitting here confused,” I said with a frown.

  Erik glanced over at me, eyes gentle. “I told everyone but you and Felix. Felix was to lead us in, so he had to come pure of thought just in case these people had telekinetic abilities and felt things were a setup. Same with you.”

  “And not Lisa?”

  He turned away. “She is good at sensing magic, even when it’s hidden.”

  If my blood could boil with me living through it, I was sure it would. He had my brother keep a secret from me. If there was anything I had left, it was my brother, and if Charles was willing to keep secrets from me, even if it seemed small to him, then what did I have?

  I pursed my lips and turned to look out of the window.

  “I’m sorry. I thought I was doing what was right,” Erik stated.

  I didn’t answer.

  “Oh, forgive him, woman,” Faith piped up from the back. “There are worse things to fight about with your boyfriend.”

  I opened my mouth to correct her of the fact that Erik and I were far from a couple when the door in the steel wall opened.

  Out stepped an unarmed man. He looked late 40-ish, with average height and his dirty blond hair in a low ponytail. I was disappointed there was no green outfit like in Emerald City.

  We watched as he, Felix, and Charles exchanged words.

  “What is he saying?” I asked Erik. I knew since he was a were he could hear them, even from thirty feet away.

  “Felix’s telling him we’re travelers looking for a community that can help us save our friends. The truth. Basically. The guard, or whoever he is, wants to know how we heard of their community. Felix said he saw it in a dream. He’s not going to tell him that you and Lisa also had dre—” He stopped suddenly.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “He asked for you.”

  “The guard?” Faith questioned.

  Erik frowned, eyebrows gathered in concern. “Yeah. He asked if Amina Langston was with him.”

  I looked on as Felix turned towards us and nodded before speaking to the guard again.

  “What’s he saying now?” I asked.

  “Felix told him you were with us. The guard wants to see you.”

  “Okay.” I reached for the door but Erik grabbed my arm. He gave me a concerned look, but then let go without uttering a word. I opened the door and got out of the car, Erik did as well. I looked over to the guard who was taking out a piece of white, letter-sized paper. He looked down at it and then up at me. I waved. He gave me a curt nod, then said something to Felix and Charles.

  “What’s he saying now?” I asked Erik.

  “He said that we can all come in. We’re to follow him in our cars. If we veer off, they will shoot and kill us.”

  “Well, that does not make me feel welcomed,” Faith muttered from the passenger window.

  We all got back in our cars, and Charles and Erik drove at no more than ten miles an hour, which was enough to give me a tour of the town as we entered through a larger entryway that slid open around the smaller door space.

  I don’t know what I was expecting, but all I saw was a town very similar to Hagerstown. There were people shopping in stores, kids playing in a playground, joggers running on the sidewalks, citizens sitting outside, dining at a couple of the town restaurants. There was a movie theater, a gym, a few high-rise apartments, a candy and ice cream shop, a bar. And those were just the things we passed.

  “Wonder how many people live here. They can’t have people filling all of these apartments,” Faith wondered. “Size-wise, it’s bigger than Hagerstown, and Lisa mentioned they have, what, two thousand people?”

  “Could be using some of these apartments as something else. Hospital, school,” I guessed.

  The guard’s car stopped in front of a high-rise apartment a quarter of a mile away from what I assumed was the center of the town. Charles pulled up behind the sedan on the right side of the street, and Erik followed suit. He put his gun, which had been resting in the cup holder with the safety on, in the back band of his jeans.

  “Do we really need that?” I asked.

  He looked over at me with steely eyes. “Ask me that again when this meet and greet is all over.”

  I shook my head and got out of the car.

  I walked over to Charles. “I’m going to fight you when this is all over, you know that, right?” I whispered.

  He looked over at me, eyes wide. “What did I do?” he asked.

  “You didn’t tell me about Erik’s plan. Family first, remember?” I replied, crossing my arms.

  “You!” Shouted the ponytail guard. He was pointing at me. “Amina?” he asked, he had a thick West Virginian accent.

  “Yes,” I answered.

  “Come with me. He wants to see only you first.”

  “She’s not going anywhere alone,” Erik said, stepping forward. Another guard that I hadn’t noticed before stepped from the other side of another car.

  “Who is this he you’re talking about?” Faith asked, behind me.

  “Our leader,” the guard stated.

  “Can someone come with me and just stand outside of the door of wherever you’re taking me?” I asked. “We don’t plan to cause any harm. It’s only six of us. But as you can imagine, since we’re outnumbered, we’re a little apprehensive.”

  The guard gave me dead eyes, head tilted to the side. He then straightened up. “Sure, bring your brother,” he replied.

  “How’d he know I was your brother?” Charles whispered.

  I shrugged and began to move towards the stairs leading inside the building, but Erik stopped me and grabbed my left wrist. I turned and looked at him with quizzical eyes.

  He frowned. “I don’t like this. How do they know all of this stuff about you?”

  I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “There’s probably a telepath around. It’s going to be okay. Charles and I made it this far together, we’ll be okay in there.” I moved up on my toes and gave him a tight hug because, well, I didn’t honestly know that it would be okay. This world was just too unsettled for that. Yet, somehow, touching him seemed to bring a calm over me.

  His arms wrapped around me tightly. “If you’re in there too long, I’m going to knock down every door until I get to you.”

  I smiled again. “Well, then I better not take too long.” I wasn’t sure what Erik and I were to each other, but whatever it was
, it felt nice to be cared about like this. I moved away from him reluctantly.

  “Lisa, do you need a hug to reassure you too?” Charles asked, and the fairy laughed and walked over to him for an embrace.

  We then both headed into the building to see the wizard.

  “No one gave me a hug,” I heard Felix say as we walked through the doors.

  Once inside, we were greeted by two guards at the door and security behind the apartment concierge dark oak desk. I only assumed they were guards and security because they were all wearing black. I couldn’t imagine that there was much leisure time or importance to make uniforms. I looked up and saw security cameras near the corners of the ceiling that looked very much on.

  The space looked modern, with a sparkling clean, light-tiled floor, colorful artwork on the dark gray painted walls, and beige fabric lounge seating.

  We followed our hippie guard into the elevator and up to the twenty-fifth floor, one level below the penthouse. We got off and, wouldn’t you know it, more guards were around the floor. I had to assume there were a lot of people in the town if the leader could afford to use so much personnel for just watching his building.

  We exited to the right of the elevator and walked to the end of the hallway. Our guard guide stopped and turned to us. “You,” he said, looking at Charles, “You can sit in our waiting area.” He pointed to an apartment across from us with the door propped open.

  Charles looked to me, and I nodded before he walked into the apartment.

  The guide looked at me. “Knock on the door. I’ll be out here,” he instructed.

  And so, I knocked. A millisecond later, the door opened, although no one stood behind it. I turned and looked at the guard, who was whispering to a female guard already posted outside of the door to the waiting area. They stopped talking and looked me.

  “Well, go on in,” said ponytail guard.

  I sighed and stepped through the doorway, jumping when the door closed quickly behind me.

  I walked farther in, past an open walk-in kitchen to my right, and a closet on my left. I entered a great room that looked like an interior design show had taken over. There were dark wood floors, pale-blue walls, a black suede couch covered in tons of pillows, a dark wood and leather dinette set, and gold-framed art on the walls. But that wasn’t what caught my attention.