Crimson Dahlia (Book #3 of the Svatura Series) Read online

  The woman ignored his obvious hint to leave him alone and sat down beside him. “I know what you are,” she said.

  That got his attention. Careful not to overreact, Ramsey looked at her and feigned ignorance. “Excuse me?”

  “I’ll make this easy on you. My name is Lucy, and I know what you are because I have powers too. I can see the essence of people—if they’re good or bad. In the case of people like us, I can see that they have powers.”

  Ramsey glanced around again. In the almost seventy years that he’d been roaming the earth alone, he’d occasionally run into others like him. But none quite as direct as this woman.

  He decided to be direct in return. “Then I should tell you I’m a firestarter. You don’t want to be around me.”

  Lucy pursed her lips. “That is unfortunate. I’ve only heard rumors about that gift.”

  Ramsey nodded and returned to his reading, expecting her to get up and walk away. Every other gifted person he’d run across had left so fast you’d have thought he’d actually lit a fire under their feet. Firestarters were like lepers among their kind.

  When she didn’t go, he looked up again, eyebrows raised. Lucy smiled. “I’ve felt you coming for weeks. That usually means you’ll be joining my family.”

  Ramsey leaned back and studied the older woman. “Should I know what you’re talking about?”

  “It’s a feeling I sometimes get,” she explained. “Whenever I’ve had this feeling in the past, it has meant that a new member was about to join our family.”

  Ramsey frowned. “I can’t be a part of anyone’s family, lady.”

  “Lucy.” She held out her hand.

  He ignored it. “All right, Lucy. I’m Ramsey. And I can’t be around people.”

  Lucy gave him a look that was part stubborn, part motherly. “Why don’t you at least come meet my family? Stay with us a few days. We’re always interested in hearing from people like us. Unless you have somewhere important to be.”

  Ramsey was on the verge of saying ‘no’. But the thought of meeting others who understood who and what he was tempted him. He’d been alone for a very long time. It might be nice to be around other people, if only for a day or two. And lately he’d gotten better at controlling his power.

  Ramsey nodded, silently deciding to leave if there was even a hint of a blow up. He followed Lucy to her car, and together they rode in silence to her house just outside of town.

  After Lucy parked in the driveway, two teenage girls came rushing out of the house, only to stop short at the sight of the stranger with their mother. Ramsey’s gaze was drawn to the taller of the two.

  “Girls,” Lucy called. “Come meet our guest.”

  “Ramsey, these are our daughters, Liliana and Adelaide,” Lucy indicated each girl in turn.

  Clearly the two girls got their looks from their mother. All three ladies were honey blondes with green eyes. The older of the two sisters, Adelaide, offered him a shy smile. But the other one was who commanded Ramsey’s attention. She regarded him quizzically for a moment before grinning and holding out a hand to shake.

  “Everyone calls me Lila,” she said.

  Ramsey stiffened. He couldn’t touch her. Even if he was a little tempted. Too risky.

  Her eyebrows beetled in a small frown as he just stood there. Lila glanced at Lucy quizzically.

  “Ramsey’s a firestarter,” Lucy explained. Understanding flashed in the girl’s eyes. But instead of looking at him with fear, or worse, pity, Lila just shrugged.

  “I’ll risk it,” she said.

  Before he could stop her or step back, she reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a firm shake. “Welcome to the family.”

  Irritated with his slow reaction, Ramsey scowled and jerked his hand from her grasp. “I’m not staying.”

  “Bit touchy, aren’t’ you?” she asked, unfazed.

  “Lila!” Lucy scolded her daughter with a stern look.

  “Sorry.” Lila grimaced and returned her gaze to Ramsey. She shrugged. “You’re not the first person Mom’s found.”

  “Come on, Ramsey.” Lucy ushered him deeper into the house. “Come meet the others.”

  Lila turned to lead the way down the hall. Ignoring the oddly speculative look he received from Adelaide, Ramsey followed. As he walked, he surreptitiously enjoyed the view of Lila’s tall, curvy figure but was immediately irritated with himself. Staring at a cute girl wasn’t a good idea in any way, shape, or form. He forced his gaze higher and was glad he had as she suddenly looked over her shoulder at him. As she faced forward again, Ramsey’s lips compressed. He’d have to stay away from her while visiting these people. He felt an odd connection to her, even after only a few minutes. And he didn’t do connections.

  He couldn’t.

  Ramsey pulled his thoughts back to the present. He’d followed that cute blonde into the house that day. And instead of leaving as he’d intended, he’d never stopped following her. Never too close. Never close enough. And now here he was, in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, still following her.

  As sleep claimed him, he mumbled, “Lila… Lila, where are you?”

  Chapter 3

  Lila jolted awake. Ramsey’s voice was in her head, murmuring her name. It was just a dream… she knew that. But some part of her knew that he was looking for her. She shut her eyes tightly. She wanted to go back to sleep so that she could call out to him or just hear him again.

  “It’s worse,” a voice whispered to Lila.

  Lila opened her eyes again. When they’d first been shoved in this hell hole, Lila had sat next to the wall. After a day or two, she had discovered the inhabitant in the next cell, and they communicated through a small crack in the wall near the ground. Lila thought her neighbor was perhaps a woman, but the person whispered and refused to give a name, so she wasn’t entirely sure.

  “What’s worse?” Lila whispered back.

  “What happens to your friends when they’re taken. Maddox doesn’t always kill them.”

  Lila scooted across the cold stone floor to get closer to the wall. “How’d you—”

  “I heard you talking the other day.”

  “So what do they do?” Lila asked.

  “Your friends either join the ranks or die. They’re given the choice,” came the reply.

  Lila bit her lip. Sounded plausible to her. But she took everything the whisperer told her with a grain of salt. She’d seen plenty of movies where a spy was planted in the cells to try to get information out of the other prisoners. No way was she going to play the fool.

  “Join the ranks how? They’re not wolves,” she whispered back.

  “They have a way to deal with that. Once your friends are removed individually like that, they never come back.”

  “Why haven’t you been taken, then? I thought you’d been here for over a hundred and fifty years.”

  There was a moment of silence. Lila strained her ear against the wall, nervous she’d alienated her new friend.

  “They use my… services,” the voice eventually confided. “And we haven’t always been here. Maddox… well, he’s different from how it was with Gideon.”

  Gideon, Selene’s brother, had been the King of the Vyusher before Lila’s sister-in-law, Ellie, had killed him. Maddox had once been Gideon’s first lieutenant. He’d abandoned the Vyusher when Gideon died, and every action he’d taken since then had been against them in some way. From kidnapping Selene, the new Vyusher Queen, to attacking them at their castle, to turning other Svatura-like clans against his former tribe. And now he held Lila, Marcus, and many of the Louisiana tribesmen prisoners.

  “Different how?” Lila asked, her curiosity stronger than her caution.

  “Did you know Gideon?”

  Lila’s natural wariness kicked in. “I only met him once or twice and never directly talked to him.”

  She knew a lot more than that. Gideon’s primary power had been an incredibly strong ability to manipulate people. He’d used th
at skill on his own people and forced them to do unspeakable things to other Svatura.

  “What do you know about him?” Lila asked.

  There was a lengthy pause. “I know that he wasn’t originally a wolf metamorph.”

  Lila gasped. She’d been around Selene’s Vyusher enough to know that the wolf pack had a very strong impact on the wolf metamorphs. The pack had a hive mind – kind of a mob mentality on steroids – that the wolves could hear when in animal form. The pack influence also meant that non-wolves were looked at as outsiders, with a great deal of mistrust. She’d experienced that firsthand.

  Lila glanced over her shoulder at Marcus. By the small amount of light coming in the window in the door, she could see he was watching her with interest but probably couldn’t hear much.

  She turned back to the wall. “What do you mean?”

  “Apparently, around the time of his birth, a stranger was visiting with the King and Queen. Not a wolf metamorph, though. Very powerful with other gifts from what I’ve gathered. I’ve even heard rumors that he could change into a dragon.”

  Lila frowned. Ellie’s family are the only dragon metamorphs I’ve ever heard of. Where is this going?

  Ellie was married to Lila’s adopted brother, Alex. Ellie and her twin brother, Griffin Aubrey, were very powerful Svatura from a long lineage who had multiple powers between them. She had the ability to shift into a massive onyx dragon, an ability she’d inherited from her great-grandfather.

  Instead of voicing her questions, Lila kept silent and waited.

  “One of the stranger’s gifts was that he could see what powers others around him had. Even powers not yet developed. This man told the King and Queen that their son wouldn’t inherit the wolf morph ability.”

  “How is that possible?” Lila asked.

  “I don’t know exactly. Could’ve skipped a generation, I’ve heard of that.”

  So had Lila. She knew Ramsey’s mother was skipped.

  Her companion continued. “Apparently he only got the King’s power of manipulation; his twin sister inherited everything else.”

  “Who else knew about it?” Lila asked.

  “From what I understand, at the time most of the Vyusher knew. He was very much the omega wolf. He would have been bottom of the food chain in the wolf pack if he hadn’t been born royal.”

  That makes no sense. Selene would’ve known, Lila thought.

  “When he was old enough to understand, his parents told him he’d never rule, and the rest of the pack shunned him.”

  Lila set aside her questions about why Selene or any of the other Vyusher hadn’t seemed to remember this.

  “That must have been awful for a little boy.” Lila had no love for Gideon. He’d been a monster. But no child should feel like that. Ever.

  “He had a mentor who… helped… him through it.”

  “Who?” Lila asked.

  “Maddox,” was the whispered answer.

  Well, that would explain a lot. Maddox was quite a bit older than Selene and Gideon. “Wait,” Lila said. “I know that Gideon could morph into a wolf, big black one. I saw him.”

  “Yeah. He developed that skill around the time he took over the pack.”

  “So the visitor – the dragon guy – was wrong?” Lila asked.

  “No. Gideon didn’t inherit the ability.”

  Lila rolled her eyes. “It’s impossible to have a skill you didn’t inherit. Powers are genetic.”

  “Not always.”

  “What do you mean?” Everyone in the cell turned to stare at the sound of Lila’s surprised outburst.

  Marcus scooted closer. “We’re trying to keep you hidden from them, peanut. Might be a good idea to keep quiet.”

  Lila shot him a quick glare before returning her attention to her anonymous confidant. “What do you mean?” she asked, quietly this time. But she was met with only silence.

  Lila sighed and gave herself a mental slap on the head. Her neighbor was skittish about talking as it was. Drawing attention to their conversation had been an idiotic thing to do. She’d just have to wait to find out more and hope that her new ally would trust her enough to talk again.

  *****

  “How’s it going, son?”

  The sound of Oren’s voice interrupted Ramsey’s efforts to pack up his camp. He glanced up and found the ghost-like figure of the Vyusher leader hovering before him. Selene’s adopted father had the ability to astral-project his conscious self anywhere.

  Ramsey sighed. “I can feel her still. But I’m no closer than I was a month ago.” He picked up a stick and threw it into the woods.

  “Does she feel closer than she did yesterday?”

  Ramsey thought about the question for a moment. Over a year ago, when Lila had left her family to go help some of their new Svatura allies negotiate with other Svatura clans, he’d realized that he could feel her. The connection was faint, but there nonetheless. Over the last month, he could tell that he was getting closer. He could feel her more and more through their connection. But was that time? Or was it proximity? Or was it just all in his mind?

  “I guess so,” he finally replied.

  “Then you’re closer. Don’t give up hope,” Oren said with his customary steadfastness.

  “Sheila still can’t find them? How are the others doing… any luck?” Ramsey asked. He always asked about the others when he talked to someone from home. He continued to hope that one of these times the answer would be ‘yes’, that someone had Lila or at least a clue to her whereabouts. Sheila was another Vyusher whose gift allowed her to track large groups of people with abilities. Ramsey wasn’t the only person trying to find Lila, not by a long shot. Ellie and Alex, Sheila, Selene and Griffin, and several other powerful people were all focused on bringing her home.

  Oren just shook his head in answer to Ramsey’s questions. “Do you need anything? How are your money and your food holding up?”

  “I’m okay for now. But send Charlotte in a day or so.”

  Oren nodded. “All right. I’ll check in with you again tomorrow.”

  Ramsey raised a hand in farewell as Oren’s image faded from sight, leaving him alone with his thoughts once more.

  A moment later he picked up his cell phone and sent a quick text to Adelaide. He checked in with her every morning. And then he sent one more text, this one to Lila-

  Still haven’t found you. Won’t give up, Lily. I’m coming.

  Chapter 4

  “She’s awake.”

  Griffin’s voice sounded in Selene’s head just before the door to the library opened and he entered.

  “You couldn’t wait ten seconds and say it out loud?” Selene grinned. She’d been ensconced in the quiet room all day and was happy to see his handsome face. She let her eyes flit lovingly over his strong features, golden hair, and well-muscled body.

  “I like having access to your thoughts.” He walked over to lean his hand on the table next to her. “What’s this?”

  “Nothing important. When Gideon was defeated, we discovered an entire library of books – our history – buried in a room beneath the castle. I’ve been reading them. Learning.”

  Griffin flipped through a few pages, taking in the hand-drawn pictures. “History major. Huh. I should’ve guessed.”

  She pushed her chair back from the table and stood up. As she turned to leave, he stopped her with a hand on her elbow. With a little tug, Griffin pulled her into his arms and dropped a light kiss on her unsuspecting lips. Selene felt a little thrill. Griffin was her te’sorthene and she his. Fated souls bonded by heart and spirit. He was her soul mate in the truest sense of the words.

  While, over the ages, some groups of Svatura had split off to become Vyusher, or whatever else they called themselves, they were still all of the same origin and history if one looked far enough back in time. And te’sorthene was just a part of who they all were. The best part in Selene’s opinion.

  With a small sigh, Selene opened her eyes and locked gazes
with Griffin’s golden stare.

  “I hate that we have to hide this,” she whispered. “Hide who we are.”

  Griffin tucked a silky strand of silver-fair hair behind her ear and then followed it with his lips. As he nibbled on her earlobe, his voice sounded in her mind. “I know it’s hard. But it’s the right thing to do. Your people aren’t ready to accept someone who’s not a wolf metamorph. And you need to continue to build their confidence in you as their Queen. I understand.”

  Selene couldn’t answer right away, as she was distracted by his lips making their way down her neck. At the sound of her small whimper, Griffin gave her one last kiss on the mouth and then pulled back slightly, although he didn’t let go of her.

  Selene gathered her thoughts. “Just because you understand doesn’t make it any easier.”

  Griffin looked into her soft grey eyes in that serious way of his. She allowed him access to her thoughts. They didn’t hide things from each other. Not anymore.

  His eyes clouded at the worries he found there. “I won’t ever leave you again, love. You would have to send me away. And even then I’m not sure I’d obey.”

  “Thank you,” Selene whispered. She and Griffin had grown so much closer just over the last month, despite sneaking around, despite their worries about Lila and their new Louisiana allies, and despite their concerns over Maddox, who’d gone quiet again.

  “Okay, let’s go meet our mystery guest,” Selene said. Pushing aside her own worries, she turned and headed out of the room.

  Charlotte suddenly popped in directly in front of them as they entered the hallway. “She’s very frightened. And, of course, Lila isn’t here to help, and neither is Ellie or Alex. We’re hoping you might get through to her with your telepathy, Griffin.”

  “I can give it a try,” he agreed.

  Charlotte took their hands. Selene experienced the momentary disorientation of finding herself instantly and soundlessly teleported to a completely different place.