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

by CC Solomon

  “I’ll rip his throat out!” he shouted.

  “That might kill me,” I replied, heading to Erik’s bedroom. “I’m stronger but not sure if I would survive his death.”

  He followed me. “Then I will rip his arm off.”

  “No need for such violence,” I stated, sitting on the bed. I patted the space beside me.

  It was winter, but all Erik had on was a pair of sweatpants he’d grabbed from a clothing pile the weres put beside a designated tree. This way they wouldn’t return to the town naked after shifting back to human.

  “You aren’t taking this seriously, Mina. I lost you. I can’t let that happen again.”

  I held out a hand to him. “It’s not going to, Erik. I’m never leaving you. I am more powerful now. And I can handle Phillip.”

  “I could beat him into a coma.”

  I snorted. “That moon sure does bring out the violence in you.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me, not speaking.

  “It’s almost 3 a.m. Can we just let it go and go to bed? Nothing happened. He asked me to help him heal the people he maimed and I agreed.”

  I scooted back on the bed and got under the covers. Under the blanket, I removed my leggings and panties and threw them onto the floor. I then took off my T-shirt and tossed it aside as well.

  “Are you going to stay standing there angry or join me under the covers?” I gave him a naughty smile.

  He titled his head and considered me before taking off his sweats in a blur and joining me.

  I woke up a little before 7 a.m. in the winter darkness. I shivered, my skin feeling like ice. Erik ran very hot and he liked to keep the apartment set on Arctic. I ran the other way and thought we’d come to a compromise. Apparently, in his fit at my short disappearance, he’d turned the heat on low and I’d forgotten to adjust it. Lying next to him was like lying next to a space heater, but separating from him left me with a miserable coldness.

  I scooted to the edge of the bed but soon felt Erik’s arm tighten around my stomach, pulling me back to him. I tried to lift his arm but he felt like a boulder.

  “I’m just going to get a glass of water, honey,” I whispered, turning slightly to Erik.

  His eyes were still closed but he was frowning.

  “I’ll be right back. You can time me.”

  His frown remained but eventually he lifted his arm. I turned fully to him and kissed his forehead before picking up my clothes off the floor and throwing them on, socks and all. I needed gloves and a scarf to walk around inside.

  I went to the thermostat in the hallway and turned the heat up before going to the kitchen. I grabbed a glass out of the dark, wooden cabinet above the sink and turned on the faucet; hovering my glass under it to fill with water. I did a two-step at the sink to turn up my body heat.

  A cold breeze lifted the hair on the back of my neck and I spun around, seeing nothing. It felt like a blast of air conditioner had just shot out of the vent. How could that be? I’d just turned up the heat. Maybe I’d turned on the air conditioner instead?

  I turned the faucet off and placed the glass on the counter, intending to rectify the temperature battle, when I heard a noise. Something small fell in the living room. It sounded like a book falling on the carpet. I walked out of the kitchen, passed the dining room, and entered the living room space. I surveyed the floor but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I walked over to the balcony sliding glass doors and peeked behind the vertical blinds, looking out at the quiet town.

  I narrowed my eyes as I looked down at a dark mass hovering under a streetlight in the parking lot. It looked like a human silhouette, except it was floating and was the color of charcoal, like a shadow that refused to hide from the light. A prickly heat stabbed at my limbs and fear seized me. It was no shadow. I thought back to my first night in Ireland in the abandoned apartment and stood back.

  Something brushed against my ankle and I yelped, spinning around. I looked down and saw my furry, gray kitten. I bent over and picked up Poppy.

  “You scared me, kitty,” I whispered. I leaned forward and peeked out of the blinds again but the blurry figure was gone. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Amina,” called a male voice.

  I spun around, thinking it was Erik, although it didn’t quite sound like him. The voice was deeper and croaking.

  I saw nothing. At least nothing at first glance. But as I took a step away from the balcony sliding doors, I saw the dark outline of what was possibly a male figure sitting, no, crouching in the leather chair facing me near the entrance of the living room.

  “Erik?” I squeaked.

  The figure slowly shook its head.

  Poppy hissed in my arms.

  The thing clearly wasn’t Erik but a girl standing in the dark had to ask. It was a shadow really, perhaps the same one from outside. It had a humanoid shape but was very thin, with long limbs. Its twig-like arms seemed to go past its boney knees. I couldn’t see any features. No eyes, nose or mouth. It didn’t have hair or any clothes on. It was as if I were looking at the black skeleton of some alien creature.

  The prickly sweat crept under my arms and I took a step back. The thing that clearly wasn’t Erik unfolded itself from the chair and stood up. It was tall, so very tall. Maybe eight feet or more, as there wasn’t much room from the top of its head and the ceiling. I’d seen many things in the past several years but this was new. I was facing a lot of new things recently.

  “Aaaammiiiinaaaa” it croaked again.

  It had no mouth. How the hell was it calling my name? How the hell was it seeing me?

  It moved towards me in an awkward walk. Like a baby just learning to take its first steps. In theory, I could outrun it but it was standing between me and the front entrance. That was assuming it wasn’t some incorporeal being or ghost that could teleport, which I suspected it was. It struggled on towards me, arms now raised out as if reaching for me.

  Poppy dug her little claws in my arm and the pain brought me back from my frozen fear.

  I let out a horrified scream, shouting Erik’s name and teleporting to the outside of the apartment.

  I stood in the parking lot in my sock-covered feet, shivering in the cold dark. It had to be at most, ten degrees out. Poppy snuggled closer to me, bumping her head against my neck.

  “Poppy, I gotta leave you out here and go kill a monster. That doesn’t seem like a ghost,” I whispered.

  “It wasn’t,” Phillip said beside me, looking up at my apartment.

  I jumped away from him. He looked over to me with an expression of concern. He was dressed only in sweatpants and a long-sleeved T-shirt. He also did a two-step in bare feet.

  “Where’d you come from? How’d you know something was in the apartment?” I asked.

  “I felt your fear. Like last time,” he replied. “Did you leave—”

  “Hold my cat,” I demanded. I gave Poppy to Phillip and teleported, bravely, back into Erik’s apartment bedroom.

  But Erik wasn’t there. I heard a growl and ran out of the bedroom to the living room.

  I saw Erik’s bare back as he clawed at the giant shadow creature with his now-inhuman jackal claws. His claws connected with the creature and vivid, red slashes appeared across its thin torso. It belted out an ear-splitting screech before back-handing Erik, who sailed across the room towards me.

  I threw out my hand and magically pinned the creature to the floor. It struggled against my invisible hold.

  Erik scrambled to his feet and charged at the monster again. He pounced on it, tearing into the creature. He tore into the blackness with his talons with a superhuman speed, like the blades of a fan, not giving the creature time to react. Its cries continued.

  I heard pounding on the door and telepathically opened it to keep an eye on Erik. Phillip appeared with Poppy, as well as Carter and a couple other pack members.

  “Something broke in,” I explained before turning back to Erik. I clapped my hands and the room became
illuminated with the light fixtures.

  I stared down at Erik, who had stopped clawing. There was nothing but a thick puddle of black goo in front of him now. It was also splattered over the furniture and his body. He stood up and turned to us. A gash crossed his chest, from his left shoulder to his right hip. His hands were dripping in the thick, black liquid as if he’d been playing in it.

  “I think he got it,” Carter stated, breaking the silence. “Whatever it was.”

  I looked around. There wasn’t a body. No black skeleton. All that remained was the black goo. Had it escaped? Dematerialized, somehow?

  “It melted or something,” Erik explained, breathing hard.

  “How’d something get in if this place is warded?” Phillip asked. I turned to him. Poppy, the traitorous cat, was snuggled in his arms.

  “Good question,” I stated.

  Erik nodded, crossing his arms over his bare chest. He only had a pair of boxer-shorts on, but he still looked like a Roman gladiator ready to fight. “The building and the town are warded.”

  “But no telling what kind of ward. Clearly, this thing was stronger than the ward here. I’ve got to put up a new one around the town,” I stated.

  “I can help with that,” Phillip said.

  “It knew my name.”

  “Just like the creature in Dublin knew mine.”

  “Something’s coming for me.”

  Carter turned to the growing crowd. “We’ve handled it, folks. Go back to your apartments. We will put up a stronger ward around the apartment and the town within the hour.”

  People slowly piled out of the apartment, exchanging worried glances, but they did not question the second in command.

  “Why would something be coming for you?” Carter asked, hands on his hips. He was dressed only in black sweatpants and was very muscular. Did all the pack members live at the gym or did they just get all beefcake when they became weres?

  No, strength was a prerequisite to being in the top five. That meant Raya, as the fourth, was probably not only thin but muscular. I resisted the urge to suck in my stomach. Really, my mind had a disappointing way of going off to things that were so not important.

  “A big bad is coming and said big bad knows that we are threats,” I explained. “It came for Phillip in the form of a dark spell. It’s coming for me as some sort of shadow creature. I’ve never heard of or seen anything like this.” I looked down at the black mess. “I thought it was a ghost, but we can’t physically fight ghosts. We’d have to use magic or prayer.”

  “And yet, Erik fought him like an animal,” Phillip observed with a neutral look. He walked over to the goo and peered down at it.

  “It reeks of dark magic,” Erik said, grimacing and looking down at his hands.

  Phillip looked over to him and wrinkled his nose. “Yes, you smell like burned death. Someone summoned this,” he replied.

  I wasn’t as familiar with summoning. My basic understanding was that a summoning mage, warlock, or witch, could bring forth creatures from other worlds. The only other worlds I knew of were Heaven, Hell, and, most recently, Fairyland A.K.A. Fae World. “Could this have come from hell? Could someone have summoned something from hell to kill me? Like they did with David?” I asked in a slightly-panicked voice.

  Phillip tilted his head from side to side. “Possibly. Or somewhere else. We have no idea what magic worlds exist. A conjuring mage could have done this as well. They could have even made up this creature from their own minds. Whatever it is and whoever brought it, they are very powerful. They broke our wards.”

  Whatever was coming for us was growing in strength. I had to find that lamp. We needed to find the original soulmates and take them down before they killed us all.

  I turned to Erik. “I’m going with Phillip to strengthen the wards on the town and both of our apartment buildings. I can come back and do a cleaning spell for all of this.” I spread my hands out.

  He nodded. “Go. We have some witches on retainer who can clean this up. Don’t be gone long,” he stated, eyes hard. He glanced over to Phillip.

  “I’ll make sure she’s safe,” Phillip replied with a curt nod.

  Erik gave a nod back.

  That was probably as friendly as I’d ever seen them. Progress.

  After I got fully dressed, Phillip and I proceeded to spend almost an hour in the cold warding the town with every bit of strength we had. By the time I returned to Erik’s I was glad he had a cleanup crew because I had no power to do anything, not even make a candle flame flicker.

  Once I entered the apartment, I saw that it was not only sparkling clean but much warmer. I walked to Erik’s bedroom, finding him asleep on top of the covers. He had a new pair of sweatpants on and was still shirtless except he was clean and the gash on his chest was gone. I could only assume one of the witches had healed him. Left to his own were healing, there would be a scar. A silly pang of jealousy erupted from me as I pictured some witch placing her hands over his uncovered chest. I hoped it had been a guy instead.

  “He was there for you, tonight. That’s why he showed up, right? He felt you in danger?” Erik said in a low voice, his eyes covered by his forearm.

  “So were you.”

  “I heard you scream my name.”

  “You didn’t need to. You’d have known, just like Phillip did. And I’d know if you were in danger. We just need to hone in on our mate magic. And we can do that regardless of Phillip. I can even learn a way to reduce my connection to Phillip, so that he doesn’t know everything I do. I spoke to a witch back in Ireland. She showed me how.”

  Liz hadn’t had much time to go over that magic because I didn’t want Phillip to know. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. However, Liz was adamant that I needed to learn how to shut the bonding magic on and off. Unlike Mae, she was still very nervous about Phillip. While she wanted us to bond our magic, even if that meant through sex, she thought I should remain cautious of Phillip.

  “He saved you before,” Erik said, more than asked.

  “Yes but—”

  He put up his hand to stop me. “If he can help protect you when I’m not around, then I guess I can deal with your friendship with him.”

  “You do realize, babe, that I don’t need protecting. I have power and stuff.”

  “I know that. I just… I get worries.”

  “So, do I, but you have to have faith. You have to just let me be who I am meant to be. I’m more than someone you or Phillip need to watch over. I’m a bad-ass, remember?”

  “I’m a fool for forgetting.”

  I walked over to the bed and lay down beside him, leaning on an elbow. I moved his arm away from his eyes and looked at him, smiling. He looked back at me and returned my smile and that simple grin stole my heart. Again.

  “Those eyes,” he said.

  “I just used a lot of power. They’re my magic eyes,” I replied in a playful whisper.

  He laughed and the deep bass was delicious to my ears. “They’re beautiful.”

  I wondered if he would still think that when he found out Phillip had the same eyes.

  Chapter 29

  Once we confirmed that Seth, his sister wives, and Raya were at the pub, a usual Sunday activity for many pack members, Phillip and I teleported into their apartments and began to search. I went straight to Raya’s and Phillip went to Seth’s.

  I really hoped Raya had the lamp. Finding out she was really an original soulmate would make her a formidable enemy. That would suck but I didn’t like her already so it wouldn’t be any bother.

  I walked around her one-bedroom apartment sensing for magic. She was a slob. Her kitchen sink was stacked with dishes, pots, and pans. Her bathroom needed a good scrubbing and her bed was unmade.

  I felt no magic anywhere but that didn’t mean she didn’t have the lamp. I checked in every space I could imagine a genie lamp fitting. Nothing. I could sense no cloaking magic to make it invisible. Of course, it could be a magic beyond my capabilities. I coul
dn’t take these beings for granted. They’d broken wards. In sum, I was searching but I couldn’t say for sure that any place I’d already looked was actually cleared. We didn’t even know for certain that the soulmate or the lamp were in Silver Spring. They could be in Florida, for all we knew.

  I had to assume that Ahmed literally meant that our need to return home was because the lamp was literally home in Silver Spring or Hagerstown.

  We left the pack apartment in defeat.

  “We still have tons more here to check and more in Hagerstown that I haven’t gotten to,” I sighed. “This is going to take forever. We need to tell the others,” I replied. “I’m getting stalked by summoned beings; I don’t have time to waste.”

  “We have to be careful who we tell, including your friends. I wish a location spell would have worked,” Phillip said, rubbing his chin. “It pains me to say, but maybe Erik can help.”

  So we went and got help. Telling Erik the truth wasn’t an easy ordeal. He was naturally pissed that I had withheld the information. His eyes went all jackal and I threatened to teleport out of Phillip’s apartment and leave town, which only made him angrier.

  Erik cleared his throat and crossed his arms. “I assume since you are sharing the full story with me now, you trust that I’m not a cohort of these first soulmates,” he replied in a gruff voice.

  “I believed you weren’t before. I mean, you’re my mate. But after the Lisa banishment thing and Ahmed’s warning, we still had to play it smart. Can you forgive me, Erik? We can’t win this without you,” I begged.

  He looked away from me. “As long as you aren’t hiding anything else. We are a pair here. It’s not just you and Phillip against the world.”

  I nodded quickly. “No more secrets. I promise.”

  He glared at me for a moment and I stood my ground, not squirming. He was an alpha but I was no beta. Finally, he gave me a curt nod before speaking again. “Besides this Ahmed guy, is there anything else I need to know?” he asked looking to Phillip.

  I tilted my head. “I’ve already told you everything,” I replied.