by Khloe Wren
“Welcome, Brianna.”
With a squeak, I spun around with a hand over my heart to see who’d spoken and scared the hell out of me.
A tall, elegant-looking man stood perfectly still. His skin was a strange green-black color and he wore pure white from neck to feet, and also a white dome-type crown thing on his head. But it was strange. I couldn’t really see what he was wearing, only the color. Same for his face. His voice had been clearly male, but I couldn’t identify any features, but I knew the color.
Very strange.
“Who are you? Are you the one who’s been possessing me?” I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear my vision, but I still couldn’t focus on him. “And why can’t I see you?”
“So many questions. You do not need to know my name or my visage. They are not important. I have brought you here to train you.”
“Train me?”
“Yes. Now you have bonded with Ra, as you were destined to, I can no longer control the powers for you, therefore you must learn to do it.”
I glared at him. “So it was you who had been possessing me! Why did you do it? Have you any idea how stressful it is to constantly wake up not knowing where you are, how you got there or what you’ve done?”
I got the impression he lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “I did what I needed to do in order to keep you safe and set you on your path.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose in frustration, until something else occurred to me.
“Do you know where my sisters are? My mother?”
“Of course. They are on their own paths.”
I glared again. “Are they safe? They don’t have guardians like Martin, do they?”
The apparition shimmered a moment.
“You are not to question me! The purpose of this visit is for you to learn your new powers. The first lesson is that you must not expend mental energy on things that are not your concern. It is a waste.”
Oh, my family was my concern, but this spirit was obviously not going to be forthcoming with the details. At least I had confirmation they were all alive. I could find them myself.
“How is that a lesson?”
“We need to build up your mental strength. Not wasting mental energy is important.”
I frowned, not fully believing he wasn’t just trying to get me to shut up about my family. “What exactly are my new powers?”
“Your abilities are all based on mental control over lightning and storms. You are aware of the cage and how it can be used for transport. You can also call up storms, or disburse them.”
Okay, that actually sounded pretty neat. Assuming he wasn’t lying about not being able to snatch me anymore, and that I now held control over the cage thing.
“How far can I travel with the lightning? Can I take people with me? How does it work?”
“It is not limitless. The distance depends on how capable you are, as does taking people with you. The stronger you train your mind and body to become, the further you will be able to go. You will need to be incredibly strong to take someone with you.”
“So if I train hard enough, I could take myself and Spark over to the US to visit?”
“No, that is too far over water. Now, enough questions. You need to start your lesson before we run out of time and you wake.”
Chapter Eighteen
Spark
Once Brianna was sound asleep, I carefully extracted myself from the bed and slipped out into the hallway, making may way down to the living area where I could hear the murmur of voices.
I’d no sooner dropped down onto a couch when Aaron handed me a glass of amber liquid. I didn’t even care what it was, just tossed it back and hissed at the burn.
“Fuck, brothers.”
“She sleepin’?”
I nodded to Stone. “Yeah, finally. I gotta go back in with her in a minute, just wanted to come check in with you all first.”
Falcon leaned forward, gaining my attention.
“You seriously somehow branded her while you were what? Coming inside of her?”
I nodded. “That pretty much sums things up. She now has the Ra branded into the back of her neck for all fucking time.” I scrubbed a palm over my face. “I hope she’s not mad again when she wakes up and remembers what I did to her.”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine by morning. It was understandable she freaked out when it first happened. But she’s been through a hell of a lot these past weeks and has held it together remarkably well.”
I hoped Aaron was right. “Yeah.”
Falcon frowned. “But how did it happen? Did it just like poof and appear?”
“I had this instinct that demanded I wrap my palm around the back of her neck. Not seeing any reason not to, I did just that. It was after we both came that she cried out in pain and all hell broke loose.”
Seeing the question in Falcon’s gaze, I didn’t wait for him to voice it. “I think Aaron’s right. We declared our love to each other tonight. I voiced that I was claiming her, and she was mine. She accepted it and claimed me right back. I think it’s some sort of mating mark.”
Stone scoffed. “So, if we’re banging a chick and get the sudden desire to grab her neck, we need to not do that shit. Got it.”
I chuckled. He was so full of shit. I’d seen how he watched Brianna. He was craving a woman of his own.
Falcon clearly felt the same way as I did. “Bullshit, brother.”
Stone threw a cushion at him, but Aaron cut the games short with his next statement.
“I’m wondering if your marking her will free her from the spirit.”
I switched my focus to him. “I was thinking along the same lines. Guess time will tell, but between Martin being killed and me marking her, I’m hoping she’s now free of whatever was taking possession of her.”
Aaron tapped his fingers over his knee a few times as he thought something through.
“We’ll give her a couple of days to get stronger, then we’ll test it. Take her outside and see if anything happens. Maybe see if she can call it to her. We need to start working with her on using her ability.”
I sat back with a sigh. “Yeah. I know we do, but dammit, I just want a fucking minute of peace with my woman, yeah?”
“Speaking of which—assuming she’s now free of that spirit, there’ll be no more fires and our job is done. What are your plans?”
Aaron aimed the question at all of us but was looking in my direction.
“I’m staying here. Bri doesn’t like crowds and hasn’t ever left Australia before. She’d never cope with the crowds in Tampa. Not only that, she’s apparently got a couple of sisters out there that she wants to find.”
Stone sat forward. “Wait… you didn’t mention that before. She has sisters?”
I frowned his way. Why was he getting so excited about her having sisters? Oh… shit. He’d said he’d felt as though Bri was familiar to him. Could one of the other two women be destined for Stone? And if that were the case, would the third sister be the mate of another of my brothers? With a mental shake of my head, I pushed the thoughts aside. That was an issue for another day.
“I only found out earlier today. Haven’t had time to tell you all with everything else that happened. She was taken on a journey while she was drowning. Saw her mother giving birth, saw her and her two sisters in a hospital nursery, then, when they were older — and clearly not well cared for—one of her sisters as an adult. Turns out she’s one of three identical triplets. The visions revealed her sisters’ names are Emily and Jessica and her mother’s is Cammy. The only last name she picked up was for the girls, Doe. Since Brianna is now Brianna King, I doubt the other two still use that name. It’s fuck all to go on, but she wants to find them, so that’s what I’ll be doing next. Need to run it by work, but I’m sure they’ll be fine with me moving here. I was hoping to buy a place close by and settle in here with her.”
I cleared my throat and eyed Falcon and Stone before I continued. “I was planning to call Ja
meson and tell him I want to either go nomad or maybe set up a chapter here. I’ve enjoyed my time with the Royal Bastards MC and don’t want to leave them. I’ll then need to call Nycto to run it by him too, but ultimately Jameson needs to okay the move. What do you two think? Wanna join me here to start a new chapter?”
Stone shrugged his shoulder. “I’m a nomad anyhow, brother. I can stay for a while. Got nothin’ else on the books at the moment.”
I could bet Stone wouldn’t be going anywhere until we found Brianna’s sisters.
Falcon rubbed his chin, giving his goatee a small tug.
“Been feeling a little restless lately up in Tonopah. Time for a change. I’m in, assuming Jameson will be okay with it.”
I turned to Aaron. “Wanna join a motorcycle club, brother? You can be our prospect.”
With a raised eyebrow and a smirk, he shook his head at me. “Just you try to order me around, brother, and we’ll see how that ends for you. But if you men are all doing this thing here in my backyard, yeah, I’ll join you. Might be good to ask your other brothers too. It’s been a long time since we were all together. It’s time.”
“I guess we need to start looking for real estate, then.”
“And study the laws. Australia doesn’t tolerate MCs like the US does. You need to take a good look at how you’ll have to set shit up to make it legal here. I don’t want to be living life getting raided by the cops every other weekend.”
I nodded. “Yeah, need to iron out the details still.” I looked over to Falcon, the man who had always led when Aaron wasn’t around. “Falc, you up for being prez of our new little chapter?”
As much as we wouldn’t really treat Aaron like a prospect, as far as Jameson was concerned that’s what he’d be for the first year, so we couldn’t vote him in as president for at least a few years.
“If you’ll be my VP, sure. Stone, you need to think about handing in that nomad patch of yours and be my SSA and road captain. Hell, we’ll all have to wear a few hats to begin with.”
I looked at my watch and did the math. “It’s getting late in NOLA, so we’ll put a call into Jameson later. We’ll do it on speaker so he knows we’re all in agreement. But for now, I’m gonna go wrap myself around my woman and get some fucking sleep while I can. I’ll see you all in a few hours.”
Because even though the day was barely half over, it felt like I’d been awake for a week.
Brianna
The early morning sun was shining through the window when I woke next. Well, it was shining through the half of the window that wasn’t boarded up. Spark was lying beside me, fast asleep and looking way too sweet for me to disturb. A pang of guilt for all I’d put him through yesterday about the brand-mating mark thing hit me. He’d been as shocked as I was. Well, maybe not as shocked, but pretty close to it. And I’d freaked out and not let him even touch me. I winced as I remembered the look of hurt he’d had when I’d done that. It was cruel of me, but I hadn’t been able to help it. All my life I’d only had me to rely on and when things upset me, I’d go find a solitary, quiet spot to deal with it.
Although, I was extremely grateful he hadn’t done as I’d asked. Nope, my man was a keeper. He stuck it out and when I’d calmed down, he’d done exactly what I’d needed him to do but hadn’t realized it until then. That was to hold me. Surround me with his scent that soothed and his heat that calmed. Nothing beat falling asleep cuddled up against him.
I ran my gaze over his sleeping form again. The blankets had slipped down to his waist so there was a whole lot of his gloriously dark golden skin on display, just begging to be touched, kissed and nibbled on. I really should let him rest some more, but maybe if I made sure he woke up happy…
“Spark! Need you out here right now!”
Aaron’s voice boomed through the house and Spark was up and half dressed before I could track what had happened.
“What’s going on?”
“Don’t know, rohi, but you better put some clothes on and come with me. I’m not leaving you alone ever again.”
I needed to tell him about my latest dream, but we didn’t have the time now, so I hopped out of bed and dragged on some underwear and leggings. I didn’t bother changing out of his shirt and grabbed my shoes to shove on. Thankfully my hair had stayed, mostly, in the braid I’d put it in earlier, so I was good to go when Spark headed for the door.
We got to the living area and looking out the window, the pillar of smoke was easy to see. It was maybe five kilometers away, but it wouldn’t take much for it to make it to us.
“A car crashed into a power pole and brought the lines down, starting another fire. If we can get over there fast enough, we should be able to contain it before it takes off. Sorry, Brianna, but we’ll need you in the cage just to be safe.”
I shook my head, excited to be able to try out my new powers.
“I’ll explain later but I don’t need the cage anymore. I had another fancy dream and I’ve got some powers of my own that’ll be of service with this one. Let me go with you and try to help.”
Aaron looked like he wanted to argue but Falcon cut him off. “We don’t have time to debate it. Let her come, she can have a go at using her powers. If they don’t work, we can take over and deal with it our way. There’s no harm in trying. You sure the lightning won’t come for you?”
“As sure as I can be. I was informed that Spark marking me released me from the spirit’s hold.”
Spark wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in against his side, leaning over to kiss my temple. “We need to discuss this dream later, rohi. You stay right beside me, okay?”
I nodded as Aaron opened a portal and I followed the others through, nearly bouncing with my excitement to try out my skills.
I hope they worked.
The portal dropped us behind a stand of trees a little way from the crash site. Sirens filled the air, but no one had arrived yet. The driver of the car was still in his vehicle but was stirring, so clearly still alive.
Spark tightened his arm around me as he spoke. “What can you do, Bri?”
“In theory, I can bring in a storm and make it rain.”
“Wow. Handy skill. So give it a go, see if you can get it to work. Just bear in mind, it might take more than a few tries before you get it to work. Everything takes practice.”
I nodded, already focused on the sky. “Yeah, I know… but I really want to try.”
He released his arm from around my waist and moved closer to where the flames were spreading from the crash site. The lines had fallen away from the car, so thankfully that wasn’t at risk of engulfing.
Falcon moved in to stand close to me. “I’ve got your back, little sister.”
“Okay, let’s do this.”
With my arms bent at the elbow, I put my hands out in front of me, palms up, closed my eyes and set about concentrating on calling in the clouds as the spirit had shown me to do. I let myself get lost in the process, calling the clouds brimming with rain to drop their load over the burning trees and surrounding area.
An arm around my waist stopped me from hitting the ground, when with a gasp, I returned to myself as my knees gave out. Wiping the water from my face, I laughed.
“Holy shit! It worked! I made it rain!”
Falcon chuckled as he kept his hold on me, propping me upright. “You sure did. Although, I think you may have called a little too hard. We need to work with you on controlling your intensity.”
Aaron and Spark came back to stand with us, Spark taking me from Falcon’s grip.
“You okay, rohi?”
“Can you turn it off now?”
Spark and Aaron spoke over the top of each other and I gave them both a smile before I first answered my man.
“I’m just feeling a little worn out, but I’m fine. And I can try.”
Nestled safely against Spark’s chest, I once more closed my eyes and holding my hands out, focused on the clouds, throttling down the deluge until it quit.
> “That’ enough, Bri, you can stop now.”
Sagging against Spark, I opened my eyes in time to see Falcon send a gust of wind to disburse the clouds now that it had stopped raining. Despite being drenched, Aaron was grinning as he opened a portal. “Damn, girl, that was something.”
Spark scooped me up into his arms and followed the others through the portal and onto Aaron’s porch.
“Spark and Falcon, do your thing. I’m not having everyone spread all this water through the house.”
I couldn’t help but grin as the men dried us all off with air and heat. Living a magical life was something else.
Chapter Nineteen
Spark
Once we were all dried off, we moved into the living area and sat down. There was room for Bri to sit on her own, but I didn’t let her, instead keeping her on my lap. She didn’t put up a fight, just snuggled in as she curled up to get comfortable. Still fucking loved how well she fit against me.
Aaron leaned forward, focusing in on her. “So, Brianna, before you fall asleep on us, wanna fill us in on your latest little dream-time adventure?”
She nodded lazily and I didn’t think we would get the full story out of her tonight, but she cleared her throat to try.
“The spirit took me to a clearing in a field of reeds, I think.”
I stiffened and looked to Aaron. “Do you think—”
Brianna found some energy and sat up straighter to stare at first me, then the others, who were all staring at Aaron with wide eyes.
“What’s the significance of reeds?”
“The Field of Reeds is what Ancient Egyptians called their version of heaven. It was where the souls of those who lived righteously would go to spend eternity. I don’t know of any other reference in the supernatural to reeds that would fit. What did the spirit look like?”
She was frowning as she answered. “It was strange. I could see him, but I couldn’t see details. Like I knew he had this odd greenish black-colored skin and he was wearing bright white clothing and something white on his head, but I couldn’t tell you what color his eyes were or whether he was wearing pants or a tunic.”
