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

by CC Solomon

  I frowned. I’d forgotten that. “No, he didn’t, did he?”

  Chapter 19

  I sat at the dining room table the next morning watching Brandon dig into a stack of pancakes I made. I felt exhausted and very overwhelmed. Sleep evaded me, and my fight from the previous night replayed in my mind.

  I thought of the innocent souls who died, the work I had to do to find a cure while still somehow building a campaign against the original soulmates and strengthening my own powers. I massaged my chest with my knuckles in a vain attempt to relax the ever-growing heartburn I was experiencing.

  I’d have to go to the Wiccan pharmacy later and pick up something.

  I replayed the late-night hours of Seth’s apartment, but so far, no recording of anything important. I had to fast forward through a few rated R sessions while Brandon was in the room. Now it was Quietville.

  “Mina, you not gonna eat?” Brandon asked. He took a gulp of fresh squeezed orange juice we’d picked up from the market earlier that morning.

  I took a small bite of my food. It tasted like cardboard to me. I was sure I’d made them right, but my appetite wasn’t with me that morning.

  “Are your pancakes good?” I asked him.

  He nodded vigorously and took another forkful. I smiled and brushed a hand lightly over his curly hair. Seeing him smile made my heartache. I wanted to protect him. I would lay down my life to prevent this child from seeing pain again.

  “You didn’t want to wake me up,” Erik said, walking into the kitchen next to the dining room. His hair was disheveled, and he gave a loud yawn, stretching his arms.

  “Oh, please. You knew I was up the minute I got out of bed with those jackal senses of yours,” I waved a hand at him.

  He chuckled and filled his plate with pancakes and ham slices. Between the two of them and their hefty were appetites, we were going to the market more often than I was used to.

  “Are you coming with me to bring Phillip back to help me find a cure?” I took a quick sip of water before asking this next part because I knew he wouldn’t be pleased. “I was thinking of taking Brandon with me.”

  “Is that safe?” Erik walked into the dining room and sat down.

  “I’m a big kid; I can go,” Brandon poked his chest out.

  I rolled my eyes. “A girl in his class, I’m pretty sure she’s a fairy, teleported him to the playground during math class.” I side eyed Brandon, who pretended to not pay attention to me by whistling and looking up at the ceiling. “His teacher told me about it. I don’t know how they thought they’d get away with it.”

  Erik looked down sternly at Brandon, who quickly lowered his head, avoiding Erik’s alpha eyes.

  “So, I teleported with him out of school a few times. He’s strong enough to make the teleportation trip.”

  “We teleported to the market today,” Brandon stated.

  “You cannot hold water,” I whispered.

  He pretended to zip his mouth closed.

  “Too late.” I pointed at him. “Anyway, I think it might be good for him to see another town. He seems to hold his own through the teleportation. We could drive.”

  “To Ireland?” Erik asked with wide eyes. “They build a bridge over the ocean I don’t know about?”

  “Oh, no, smart alec, Phillip’s not in Ireland right now. He’s spending the weekend with his new girlfriend in Hagerstown. Or so Mercy told me in her email to me. She is pissed about that by the way.”

  “Is she the only one?” Erik gave me a chilling glare.

  I grimaced. “Don’t start. You can come too.”

  Erik cut into his pancakes. “Oh, I was planning on-”

  Erik stopped talking as we heard Seth’s voice fill the air. He was talking to someone again. However, it must have been by phone because we couldn’t hear their side of the conversation.

  ‘Yes. Everything is going as planned … She’s starting to become a problem … When are you coming? … I’ll do what I can, but if I have to kill that bitch, I will … I get it. I don’t have a death wish, but she’s so annoying … Yeah … yeah … I’ll do my best … Okay, later.’

  We waited in silence, but he didn’t speak after that.

  “Well, that was suspicious as hell,” I stated. “Wonder who he was calling a b-i-t-c-h?”

  Brandon looked up at me, annoyed. “I can spell, you know. I’m not a baby.”

  “Shit, sorry. I forgot,” I grimaced and looked at Erik apologetically, but he was looking away, seeming deep in thought.

  “He’s up to something bigger than we thought,” he finally surmised.

  “He was calling me the b word. I know it. Probably pissed after the visit, I paid him. I need to watch my back for real.”

  “Maybe you should go to Hagerstown for a while.”

  I frowned. “I can’t run. I’m done doing that. I just have to be smarter. Clearly, he doesn’t have the go-ahead to do anything to me from whoever he’s working with. If he did, he would have killed me some time ago. This just means we have to get to the bottom of what’s going on even faster. Or take him out. Whichever comes first. I just want to know who in the hell he was talking to.”

  One of the most awkward things a woman could do, even in the supernatural apocalypse, is knock on the apartment door of her friend, who is now seeing her former crush. Oh, while also standing next to her new love who hated said former crush.

  Chelsea let us in with an unbothered smile, and the three of us, Brandon, Erik, and me, followed her into the living room where Phillip sat.

  Phillip’s eyes widened when he saw us. “Wow, what a surprise.”

  I shrugged. “I guess it would be since you aren’t checking your email, and you’ve blocked my ability to do any form of mental communication.”

  “Sorry, just trying to have a nice couple’s weekend,” he stood up.

  I fought the urge to roll my eyes. The whole thing really was making my stomach bubble with gas. Add gas relief to my pharmacy pickup list. I refused to acknowledge my stomach bubbles as anything related to jealousy. I loved Erik, so this made no sense.

  “Did something happen?” Phillip asked, eyes filled with genuine concern.

  I took off my backpack I’d been wearing and pulled out a laptop. “Can Brandon watch his cartoons on my laptop in another room?”

  Chelsea looked down at the little boy and grinned. “Of course, he can go in my room.”

  I looked to Brandon. “Brandon, this is my good friend, Chelsea, oh yeah, and over there is—”

  “Your uncle Phillip,” Phillip declared, walking over to us. He squatted down to Brandon’s eye level and shook his hand.

  “Hell no,” Erik grumbled.

  I sighed as we followed Chelsea out of the room. Chelsea sat Brandon at her bedroom desk, and I propped the laptop on top of the desk. I switched to an animated movie from years ago I had downloaded to the computer.

  “He’s beautiful,” Chelsea whispered as we walked out of the room. “He looks like he could really be Erik’s and your son. It’s fate.”

  “He has a mom. She’s gone M.I.A., but when we find her, he’ll go back,” I said with confidence although I was anything but sure. With each passing day, Ella’s return seemed less likely.

  Chelsea grabbed my hand, and I paused. “I feel like things are still awkward between us.”

  I sighed. “Honestly, there are so many things going on right now; I can’t be bothered to figure this out. It is weird, but if you are happy, nothing else matters.”

  She smiled and let go of my hand as we headed back to the living space.

  When we returned, Erik and Phillip were sitting at the dining room table deep in conversation.

  “You didn’t kill each other. That’s good.”

  “He just filled me in on all that’s been going on and Seth’s request for me to return and find a cure or detection test. Or else he’ll attempt to do something bad to us, I’m assuming,” Phillip relayed.

  “Yeah, he didn’t exactly giv
e us an ultimatum, but we can guess he has one.”

  “So, it’s probably not safe for you there. I’d tell you to move back here but…” Chelsea trailed off. “Things aren’t looking too good here for the paranormal.”

  “What’s going on?” Erik asked.

  “That’s another reason I came back,” Phillip started. “The paranormal virus is spreading here, and a lot of non-gifted humans are the ones who are being attacked. They’re immune to this disease or the side effects of the magical drug if that’s the case, but it doesn’t matter if the attackers kill them. Which they usually do.”

  Chelsea nodded. “Phillip’s been helping to delay the progression, but nobody else has been successfully doing that.”

  “Well, I’m here. I can help,” I stated.

  “It doesn’t matter. They want to get rid of us. We have until the end of the week to leave.”

  I shook my head, shocked. “They can’t do that. This is a government town. It’s for all the people. Regular human and paranormal.”

  “They can do whatever they want to. We all know these government towns are really for the non-gifted. At least the ones run by the non-gifted, which this town is. Any government collective that was forming is going to be broken down after this. I’m seeing talk on the internet about other towns run by the non-gifted kicking out their paranormals. Everyone is scared.”

  “Let me talk to Colonel Robinson,” Erik offered. “Maybe I can reason with him.”

  “And if that doesn’t work, maybe we can ask the murderous Neanderthal to allow them to come to Silver Spring. We have the space,” I added.

  “Seth will agree to it.”

  “I’m hearing some talk about people moving to Baltimore,” Chelsea said. “I didn’t know there was a town in Baltimore.”

  “That town is hidden. How does anyone know about it?”

  “Joo-won’s probably recruiting,” Phillip surmised.

  “That’s a base for the original soulmates. We can’t have that town growing.”

  Erik got up. “Okay, so let’s go talk to the Colonel.”

  I looked to Phillip. “Are you coming back?”

  Phillip gave a tired shrug. “Yeah, I’m coming back. I’ll bring back some doctors from here. Maybe the ones who know the science behind testing for the human sickness can help us.”

  “Thanks.”

  “And Mina,” Phillip started, as I turned to get Brandon. “I’m sorry about not coming to help you yesterday.”

  I didn’t reply. Instead, I gave a curt nod and turned away. I didn’t want to say how I really felt, which was that I was hurt. I was no damsel. I was fully prepared to fight my own battles. So why was I bothered? Why did I feel … abandoned?

  Since it was a Sunday and we hadn’t planned a meeting with the head of the town, we had to wait about an hour before Colonel Robinson was ready to see us. We waited in the lobby of his office, a former business building. Brandon sat in a chair beside me, continuing to watch his movie. I’d put earphones on him so he wouldn’t disturb anyone.

  When the Colonel finally arrived, we were escorted to his office. Brandon stayed just outside with a member of the staff.

  “It’s good to see the two of you,” the Colonel replied, shaking our hands. The older black man sat down at his desk. He was dressed in a navy-blue suit, which was different from the military uniform I was used to seeing him in.

  Even though there was no longer a military, he still wore it to work every day. I assumed that uniform gave him a sense of normalcy and calm in this new world full of what was once make believe. “You’ll have to excuse me for not being able to get here sooner. I just came from church.”

  “It’s fine. We’re the ones who showed up unexpectedly,” Erik replied.

  “So, what can I help you with?”

  “Sir, we understand that you have a growing problem with the infected here,” Erik began. “And we were told you are making the paranormal leave.”

  The Colonel tightened his lips and nodded. “Yes, unfortunately, it’s just become too dangerous a situation for the non-paranormal humans. We can’t risk it.”

  “Well, Phillip and I are putting together a team to find a cure or, at least, work on a way to test for the virus,” I explained.

  “I’m glad to hear it, and I fully support your efforts.”

  “We’re asking that you pause this forced evacuation until we find a solution,” Erik requested. “As you know, a good portion of the paranormal community here came from that prison run by a group of non-magic humans taking paranormal blood. They’re just getting settled here. Then there are the ones who’ve been here for years and are just as much a part of the community and the government as anyone else. I can imagine losing that many gifted people would hurt your defenses. And I hear there is talk of some going to the Baltimore town. That town is not an ally. If we lose people to them, it will only grow our enemy’s forces. Enemies that want to enslave non-paranormal humans. The last thing we want to do is feed them more people.”

  “I understand your concern. I do,” the Colonel began. “And perhaps we can talk those people into going somewhere else. We can find a better place for them. Perhaps your Silver Spring town for the time being.”

  “We are looking at that as an option.”

  “I get you don’t want to displace your kind.”

  I bristled when he said that last word. Weren’t we all the same? Human. The lines got drawn in the sand when people started dying.

  “I just have to think wisely about this.”

  “If the shoe were on the other foot, would you still do this? If it were the non-paranormal humans who were sick and attacking paranormals, would you make them leave?” I asked.

  The Colonel looked over to me with understanding behind his eyes and sighed. “But that’s not the case, and you’re anything but helpless.”

  “You know very well we can still be hurt by regular humans. I’m living proof of that.”

  “Ms. Langston, I don’t make this decision lightly. In the past several months, I have seen more crime here than the whole time this town has been running. I’ve seen some truly vile things. A week ago, we had a werewolf murder and eat a child. Barely older than that boy out there.”

  “Shit,” Erik swore.

  I covered my mouth in horror.

  “This choice is not an easy one that I’m making. I know what it means and the greater ramifications. Mr. Leal has filled me in on these original soulmates. I realize that they are a threat, and we’ll have to prepare accordingly. But we can’t ignore the immediate threat. Yes, this decision has led to division and delayed any movement towards a unified government. However, I have a duty to the people here in Hagerstown first. This virus hits without warning for most of the paranormal. Unless you are particularly strong, you become crazed overnight.”

  “What about your wards? If you kick the witches out, they are going to take those wards down,” I reminded him. “You’d be wide open until you get a wall up, and that would take a lot of time without magic.”

  “I understand the ramifications. We are making provisions for that.”

  “What can we do to change your mind?”

  Colonel Robinson frowned and. “Nothing. Find a cure or at least a test and an explanation about how this disease is passed on. You find me that by the end of the week, and everyone can stay.”

  I huffed. I had one week to save paranormals in Hagerstown and Silver Spring, as well as myself from Seth’s threat. Sure, no problem.

  Chapter 20

  It was Tuesday. We had until Sunday to produce something, and so far, we’d been unsuccessful with everything. We were a team of six. Phillip, Carter, who was in grad school for biology back in the Pre-world, a human scientist, two healing mages and me.

  “If we don’t know how this virus is spreading, we can’t find a cure,” said the human scientist. She was an older woman, easily in her fifties. “Like I’ve been saying, no test is going to work because you can’t see th
e virus in the system. It’s invisible. No practical methods I can think of will work. You have to fix this with magic.”

  “But we can’t fix it with magic because we don’t understand the virus,” I countered with frustration. I sat down on a chair in an empty office we were using as our research quarters. “Phillip and I have been able to pause the illness in stronger paranormals only because we’re life mages, and even that’s not enough. Our combined power can’t heal someone with the virus.”

  “And we haven’t found anyone immune to figure out why they didn’t change,” stated the Hagerstown healing mage, a plump man in his forties.

  Carter stood up. “Amina, can you and Phillip get the virus?” Carter asked, rubbing his chin.

  I began to shrug, then stopped. I was attacked by Raya, which Carter knew. He wouldn’t share that information with the group, but he could start a conversation. Phillip had healed me, but technically he should have only slowed the progression of the virus. I didn’t have any indication in me I was even sick. That was because I never got the virus in the first place.

  “How would they know that unless they expose themselves?” the Silver Spring mage, a male with thinning blond hair, inquired.

  “Even if we were immune,” Phillip began, sitting down and propping his feet up on a desk. “You couldn’t use our blood. The virus isn’t physical; it’s magic, so could our blood even work for a cure?”

  Carter began to pace excitedly. “Wait, wait, wait. You can’t test the blood because you can’t see the magic virus. You can’t see magic under a microscope. But we know there is magic in our blood, and even our organs. It’s why the weres eat the heart. It’s why some beings want the blood of the Fae.”

  “And why my kidnappers wanted our blood for that serum,” I added.

  Carter nodded. “You can’t see it, but you know the magic is there. So, no, we can’t test for it in any scientific way. We won’t know who has the virus or who could be immune from it. However, if we find someone who is proven to be immune, we could make a cure or a test out of that blood anyway. The magic, like the illness, could be in our blood.”