NIGHTMARES
Erica Stevens
Copyright © 2017 Erica Stevens
All rights reserved.
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ALSO FROM THE AUTHOR
Books written under the penname Erica Stevens
The Captive Series
Captured (Book 1)
Renegade (Book 2)
Refugee (Book 3)
Salvation (Book 4)
Redemption (Book 5)
Broken (The Captive Series prequel)
Vengeance (Book 6)
Unbound (Book 7)
The Coven Series
Nightmares (Book 1)
The Maze (Book 2) Coming in 2019
Dream Walker (Book 3) Coming in 2019
The Fire & Ice Series
Frost Burn (Book 1)
Arctic Fire (Book 2)
Scorched Ice (Book 3)
The Kindred Series
Kindred (Book 1)
Ashes (Book 2)
Kindled (Book 3)
Inferno (Book 4)
Phoenix Rising (Book 5)
The Ravening Series
Ravenous (Book 1)
Taken Over (Book 2)
Reclamation (Book 3)
The Survivor Chronicles
Book 1: The Upheaval
Book 2: The Divide
Book 3: The Forsaken
Book 4: The Risen
Books written under the penname Brenda K. Davies
The Alliance Series
Eternally Bound (Book 1)
Bound by Vengeance (Book 2)
Bound by Darkness (Book 3)
Bound by Passion (Book 4) Releasing 2019
Hell on Earth Series
Hell on Earth (Book 1)
Into the Abyss (Book 2)
Kiss of Death (Book 3) Releasing 2019
The Road to Hell Series
Good Intentions (Book 1)
Carved (Book 2)
The Road (Book 3)
Into Hell (Book 4)
The Vampire Awakenings Series
Awakened (Book 1)
Destined (Book 2)
Untamed (Book 3)
Enraptured (Book 4)
Undone (Book 5)
Fractured (Book 6)
Ravaged (Book 7)
Consumed (Book 8)
Unforeseen (Book 9) Coming 2019
Historical Romance
A Stolen Heart
This book is dedicated to all the dreamers out there.
CONTENTS
Books by the author
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Excerpt from Book 2, The Maze
Where to find the author
About the author
PROLOGUE
A dazzling flash of lightning split the night and streaked across the sky. An angry red and orange color, the bolt was anything but natural as it raced toward the beach and the people gathered there.
Standing on the jetty of rocks protruding into the ocean, Mitch screamed and flung himself toward the waves as the bolt came straight at him, but he didn’t move fast enough to avoid it. A searing wave of heat scorched across his shoulder; it blistered his flesh with a crackling pop that resonated in his ears.
The screams of his friends echoed around him before the water engulfed him. For a minute, he allowed himself to sink into the depths of the blissfully cool ocean. When his lungs started to burn, he kicked and used his good arm to propel himself toward the surface. Breaking free, he inhaled greedy gulps of air and sea as water sluiced down his face from his drenched hair.
Waves crashed over and around him as he turned in the water, searching for the shoreline. Finally, he spotted the flames of the bonfire he and his friends had been gathered around and started toward it. His injured arm hindered the process as Mitch steadily made his way toward the shore.
Relief filled him when his feet hit bottom. He pulled himself from the sea and collapsed onto the sand where he coughed ocean water from his lungs. His friends gathered around him and knelt at his side.
Over the salty tang of the ocean air, he detected the stench of burnt flesh and hair. Lifting his head, he weakly surveyed the group surrounding him. They all bore the mark of a burn somewhere on their bodies too. Yet, the strange bolt of lightning hadn’t hurt them in any other way.
He’d never been struck by lightning before, but he didn’t think it was possible they would all remain standing and mostly the same afterward if it had hit them all. They should be knocked out or injured in more ways than the burns on their bodies. They should not be standing there looking completely normal.
Well, not completely normal.
All their hair stood on end, and some of the girls had strands sticking up in a way that would have made Einstein proud. More than that, they all looked strangely different. Their skin and eyes glowed with a new, inner radiance beneath the rays of the full moon. When he turned his right wrist over, the birthmark there—the one they all possessed—was glowing like it had been branded onto him.
Over his pain, he realized he also felt strange differences in himself and the world around him. The air was more charged than ever before. The ground beneath him hummed with raw energy. He was beginning to suspect he should be locked away—or perhaps he’d been killed by the lightning, and this was limbo, but the energy flowing through the sand strengthened him.
Oddly, though the sensations were unfamiliar and a little frightening, he felt whole in a way he never had before. A missing piece had been restored to him, but he’d never known it was missing until now.
He didn’t know what had happened to them, but he was suddenly certain their futures had changed. And no matter how amazing this feeling was, he felt a growing certainty that what happened wasn’t entirely good. There would be a price to pay for this.
It would be years before he learned how right he was.
CHAPTER 1
“Avery’s not like us. She’s not one of us.” Her dad’s words replayed in Avery’s mind as she stared out the window.
“She is, Mitch, and you know it. You’v
e seen what she can do,” her mother had argued back and the crestfallen look on her father’s face had seemed so out of place when he bowed his head and nodded.
Avery leaned her head against the passenger window as the argument she’d overheard between her parents played on a loop in her mind. Her parents had been talking about her; however, she had no idea what they were talking about, or why.
Casting a sideways glance at the woman sitting beside her, Avery tried to figure her out, but it was impossible. The woman driving the car was a mystery to her, a stranger, and that complete stranger was her mother.
With a sigh, Avery turned away from the woman as she fought back her anger. Trying to think of anything but the woman who’d abandoned her, she focused her attention on her parents’ bizarre argument. Avery didn’t know what her dad had meant with his words. Of course she was like them; she was their daughter after all.
Wasn’t she?
Maybe she was adopted. She’d once asked her dad if she was. She resembled her parents, but there were also big differences in their appearance. Her dad had laughed at the question and slapped her on the shoulder.
“No such luck for you, kid,” he’d told her. “You are definitely my child.”
And Avery believed him. That’s what made their argument so confusing, and the more she tried to figure it out, the more it made her head throb. She already felt betrayed by her dad for making her spend time with her mother. She didn’t want to know what he might be hiding from her.
She wanted to go back to Newport, spend the summer with her friends and her dad, the parent who did love her. Yet, for some awful reason she didn’t understand, both her parents suddenly insisted she spend July with this woman. Not only had they forced this entire farce onto her, but her dad had just told her about it last night.
He’d been adamant she spend a month with the woman she hadn’t seen in three years. Avery had been perfectly content never to see her mother again. The arrangement worked for her mother as well.
Once he told her the plan, Avery had argued, begged, and pleaded to get out of it. She’d hated herself for doing it. Avery rarely fought with her dad, never whined, and the last time she cried in front of him was when she fell off her bike and broke her arm at fourteen. That was also the last time she saw this stranger.
Ever since she was a baby, it had been her and her dad against the world. She’d always tried not to put extra stress on him, but when he wouldn’t back down from sending her with her mother, she’d cried—not manipulative tears but full-on tears of misery at having to do this. Still, her dad refused to budge.
Something strange was going on, but she didn’t know what, and she was entirely too depressed, and mad, to figure it out.
Avery focused her attention on the passing scenery to ease her melancholy. She’d never been to Cape Cod, and she found herself awed by the beauty of it as they passed the ocean, rolling dunes, and cranberry bogs. Large rhododendrons, an endless variety of colorful wildflowers, tall grasses, and plentiful blueberry patches dotted the landscape. Numerous water channels ran beneath the roads in a twisting array of the glittering blue ocean. Small boats made their way through the channels, while swimming children and people fishing ignored the passing cars.
The tranquil life of the people here fascinated her. However, she would never let this woman know she was awed by it, and she kept her face impassive as they drove past each new sight. Her mother turned onto a small country road winding through a forest and more blueberry patches. Old Cape houses, barns, and trees flashed past. They traversed a narrow, wooden bridge crossing a channel and onto an island.
A small sign announced they had arrived in the town of Ferndale, founded in 1802, population 774. Avery gaped at the sign. She’d mistakenly thought there weren’t any small towns left around here. This woman would have found the one to live in, and Avery was trapped on this small island with her.
Tears threatened to choke her as they entered the quaint town. The weathered storefronts and the people strolling by could have stepped out of a postcard. They passed an old church with its barn doors open to the public, a few antique stores, a deli, and a used bookstore. A pack of children running down the sidewalk dodged an elderly couple before racing into a candy store.
Her mother turned onto a road winding through more beautiful countryside before driving onto another street and up a steep hill. “This is the road I live on,” her mother said with false cheeriness in her voice.
They passed large, stunning homes that looked like they were built when the town was founded before pulling into the driveway of one. Avery barely managed to stop herself from gawking at the gorgeous, baby blue Victorian with flowers overflowing the slate walkway and climbing the railings of the wraparound porch. The flowers were a myriad of colors, and in such array it was almost impossible to decipher one variety from another.
The large tower jutting from the top of the house reminded her of an old castle, and she could almost hear someone calling for Rapunzel to let down her hair. Odd lights shimmered from the windows encircling the tower and danced across the porch roof. From the back of the house, she heard waves crashing onto the shore before rolling away again. Avery spotted the top of a wooden stairway behind the house; beach grass surrounded it.
It’s beautiful, she realized with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She’d hoped the house would be a monstrosity so she could hate it, but she couldn’t.
“Do you like it?” her mother asked anxiously.
Avery glanced at her over the roof of the car. “It’s nice.”
It was more than nice, but Avery wasn’t going to admit that to her. She could barely bring herself to look at the woman who had all but abandoned her.
Turning, Avery opened the back door of the car and removed her suitcases. Her mother grasped her duffel bag before Avery could, and she gritted her teeth to resist the childish impulse to yank it back.
Avery closed the door and reluctantly followed the stranger up the walkway to the porch. She kept her attention focused on the beautiful garden while her mother searched her purse for her keys. Bees buzzed lazily around some purple flowers, and a monarch butterfly hovered over a yellow rose.
“Are you coming?” her mother asked.
Avery blinked and turned to find the front door open. She stepped into the house and onto a worn, blue oriental rug covering the wood floor of the hallway. Her mother was already climbing the large staircase on her left.
Trailing behind, Avery scanned the paintings of the ocean, island, and boats lining the stairwell. Her mother never looked back as she reached the top and strode down a narrow hall. Avery paused to survey the hallway and more paintings. She wasn’t an antique expert, but she was sure more than a few of them were a couple of hundred years old, if not more. She itched to touch them and learn more, but she didn’t want this woman to know about her interest in them.
Her mother stopped before another door and turned to stare at her. Avery strode forward as her mother swung the door open and turned on the light. Avery’s eyes widened when she saw the set of old, rickety stairs.
Her mother started climbing but paused to glance over her shoulder when Avery didn’t immediately follow. Taking a deep breath, Avery tentatively tested the first step with her foot. Convinced this stranger was trying to kill her, she crept cautiously up the creaking stairs.
Her mother shoved another door open and stepped into a large, circular room. Following her, Avery froze when she saw the sunlight from the numerous windows spilling across the pale wood floor of the tower room. Covered by a cobalt blue quilt, a large bed jutted into the middle of the room.
Two old trunks were placed against the right wall with their lids open. The room was a pale blue, and fluffy white curtains framed the windows. Crystals hung in all the windows, and Avery realized they were what she’d seen sparkling from the tower outside. When she tilted her head back, she noticed the wooden beams crossing the roof also had dozens of crystals hanging from
them.
“What are they for?” Avery inquired, nodding at the colorful stones. She knew some people believed crystals had powers; she hoped this woman wasn’t one of them.
“For many different things, but most of them bring good luck, offer protection, and will help you sleep better.”
Of course they do. Avery rolled her eyes, and her suitcases landed with a thud when she dropped them. With everything that had gone wrong recently, she shouldn’t be surprised to learn her mother was a fruitcake. Avery would take the stones down later; their sparkling would drive her nuts if she had to deal with it for a month.
“You can unpack and join me downstairs,” her mother said. “I’ll make you some tea.”
“I don’t like tea.”
“Oh, okay, well then, unpack and join me when you like.”
Seeming as eager to flee as Avery was to see her go, her mother rushed from the room.
CHAPTER 2
Standing in front of the full-length mirror, Avery fumbled with her long, raven black hair before releasing the thick mass to let it tumble down to the middle of her back. It was resisting going into a ponytail, but it didn’t matter, she was only going to the beach and delaying the inevitable of seeing her mother again.
Stop being a coward, Avery Miller, she scolded herself as she turned away from the mirror and left the room. Using the railing to support most of her weight, she crept down the rickety stairs. If she were going to survive a month with these stairs, she would have to take it as easy on them as possible.
When she made it to the bottom, the air left her lungs in a giant whoosh. She glanced back, and her stomach somersaulted at the thought of ascending them again. With a shudder, she tore her attention away from the steps and strode down the hall. She ignored the paintings as she hurried to the first floor.
She found her mother in the kitchen sipping tea. She’d pulled her hair into a loose bun, and a few golden pieces hung down to frame her perfect, oval face. Her unnaturally vivid blue eyes were guarded when they met Avery’s. For a moment, her mother’s beauty astounded as well as dismayed Avery.
Nightmares (The Coven, Book 1) Page 1