“She’s our way out. Other than being exiled, she’s like a golden ticket to freedom,” Brayden says.
“Sorry, but she’s not going to be your shield.” Aunt Mirela grabs my shoulders.
“It’s time,” Aunt Simza says breaking into their conversation. “We need to go.”
They don’t waste any time. Riley, Brayden, and Kayla run across the street. Kayla glances back at me. Her eyes light up. For once, it’s not hate I see in them, it’s hope.
Colin grabs my hand and leads me up the sidewalk.
We push through a hedge, following Aunt Simza. We duck down on a stone path. A small bush covers us. Glass doors line the front part of the house. It’s broken up in three sections…a north wing, a central section, and a south wing.
Kyle must have gone in.
My heart races.
“Move.” Aunt Simza rises, walking down the path that leads to the south end of the house.
Gray clouds loom overhead. Colin’s touch…his nearness soothes me, somehow. They may think I’m a buffer to their werewolf bond, but in reality it’s Colin who’s saving them all by helping me control my erratic gift.
We near a side door surrounded by tall hedges. Aunt Simza tugs at it. “It’s locked,” she whispers to the hedge next to her. To anyone else, that would seem strange.
Clashing sounds begin on the north side. Aunt Simza picks up a rock and knocks out a small glass square window on the door. She cuts her hand as she unlocks it from the inside.
Hooting, hollering, and howling echo on the wind. Riley, Brayden, and Kayla are doing their parts, but I hope they start running like Kyle told them to.
Colin stops Aunt Simza from entering first, and he takes the lead.
He walks down a hall to where Aunt Simza directs him and points to a closed door. He eases it open. Glass doors line the east side, overlooking a kidney-shaped pool with the ocean beyond. Nadya and Fonso are in the center of the room, bound in chairs, their backs to each other. Fonso’s out cold. Kyle jumps up, pulling his gun. Recognition lines his face and he holsters it.
“Hurry, we don’t have much time.” Kyle kneels by Nadya, undoing ropes.
“Ma.” Nadya’s eyes widen. Tears fall down her cheeks. Aunt Mirela hugs her.
Colin unties Fonso’s ropes. His head lulls to the side and he’s unresponsive to us.
“Fonso?” I lean down next to him.
“They keep him knocked out,” Nadya’s voice cracks.
“Shh.” Aunt Mirela whispers and helps Kyle.
“Ma, he’s got powers,” Nadya says “Big powers. They’re scared of him.”
“Not now Nadya,” Aunt Simza peeks down the hallway.
“How will we get him out?” I ask Colin.
“We carry him.” Kyle finishes untying Nadya.
Nadya jumps up, embracing Aunt Mirela.
“We need to go.” Kyle helps Colin lift Fonso up. “This way.” Kyle nods toward the glass doors. “The beach.”
I rush to the door to open it for them. Aunt Mirela, Nadya, and Aunt Simza follow them out. I take the rear. We walk around the south end of the pool, pass a cabana, and head toward the beach.
Thunder rolls through the clouds.
Nadya whimpers.
“Wait.” Aunt Simza’s face turns white. “Something’s wrong.” She shakes her head. “I can’t make it out. Lyuba says we’re in trouble. We need to run.”
A back door on the other side of the pool crashes open. The raven-haired bitch walks out, pointing a gun at us. She fires.
The shot hits the cabana’s wooden boards.
Nadya screams.
We run.
Another shot rings out, but doesn’t hit anywhere near us.
I shake with fear. A howling wind swooshes in.
I tumble forward, plunging into Aunt Simza, who has stopped on the beach.
They’ve all stopped. Colin and Kyle sit Fonso down. Aunt Mirela blankets a shivering Nadya in her arms. All of them are looking in the same direction.
I turn to see what stopped them. On the beach, 50 feet away, a man holds a gun to my kneeling father’s head.
Chapter 25
My dad’s eyes water when he sees me. His hands and feet are tied. He mouths one word to me. “No.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” Kyle yells.
“What am I doing?” Kyle’s dad asks. “You’re the traitor. Why are you helping them?” He waves the gun at us. He’s an older version of Kyle with less definition in his torso.
“I knew it.” The raven-haired bitch Vadoma slinks around us, her gun raised. She shoves Kyle forward as she passes. “He’s not cut out to protect the innocent. He’s weak.”
I glare at her. “You’re pathetic without your gun, if I remember correctly.”
Colin grabs my arm.
“That’s the girl he wanted, right?” Kyle’s dad motions to Vadoma. “Take her and get out of here.”
A tall, brawny gray-haired man walks down the shore. “What’s going on? What are you doing?”
Aunt Mirela gasps.
“Bo, you dirty ass!” Aunt Simza exclaims. “Figures you’re behind this. Why didn’t you tell me?” Simza asks the wind. “You didn’t think we needed to know this!”
“We found them.” Kyle’s dad points at me. “There’s the girl.”
“You kidnapped them?” Bo asks.
“Like you care how they do things.” Aunt Mirela spits.
“By any means necessary,” Vadoma says. “That’s what you said.” She steps toward me. “Why you want her, I have no idea, Grandfather.”
Aunt Mirela and Aunt Simza stare at each other.
“You’ve used me all these years,” Aunt Mirela says. “And you’ve used this poor girl, too, haven’t you? What did he make you do for him?”
“You said she died.” Aunt Simza tears up.
Aunt Simza and Aunt Mirela position themselves in front of me, blocking me. Aunt Mirela pushes Nadya behind her to stand next to me. Nadya grips my hand.
“You’re not going to use our children like you used us,” Aunt Mirela says.
Riley, Brayden, and Kayla run up the south side of the beach. They slow when Vadoma points the gun in their direction.
“Who the fuck are they?” Vadoma steps back.
Kayla growls at her.
“They’re fucking werewolves.” Vadoma’s eyebrows rise as she looks at Kyle. “You brought fucking werewolves with you?”
“It’s not what you think, Mirela.” Bo holds his hand up. “Use your head for once and figure it out. When she was born, the earthquake killed Lyuba.”
Vadoma trembles. Her face reddens.
Kyle watches her, then turns his attention to his father.
Kyle’s father squints, looking at Colin. Recognition dawns on his face. “It’s him.”
Kyle’s father pushes Dad over in the sand. He raises his gun, stepping toward us. He points it at Colin and fires.
“No!” I yell.
Brayden pushes Colin, but he’s not quick enough. The bullet pierces his side. He falls.
Kyle tackles his father, causing the gun to fire in the air.
Heat rises inside me. Nadya snaps her hand away, shaking it. Dark skies move in over the water. Howls erupt all around us. At least 50 wolves move in from all directions.
“No, no.” Colin holds his side, watching the red eyes encircle us. He seizes Brayden. “Get them out of here. Save Elysia.”
Brayden nods.
“Colin?” I kneel. He takes my arm, gazing at me, then closes his eyes and falls limp.
“No!” Fury boils within me.
The wolves growl, moving closer. One howls.
Brayden flinches. “He’s asking us to shift and kill you.”
Kayla growls. Her clothes rip off as she transforms in front of us. She takes a fighting stance, but instead of attacking me, she faces the incoming wolves.
“She’s resisting,” Riley says.
“It’s working. They don’t know
what to think.” Brayden rips his shirt off, joining Kayla. Riley follows suit.
The other wolves step back. One whimpers.
“Elysia!” Father calls to me. He’s the furthest away, struggling with his restraints. A wolf nears him.
A lawn chair flies through the air, knocking the wolf away.
Fonso is weary, but on his feet. He’s leaning on Aunt Simza; his arm swings in the air and hurls another chair at a gray wolf. Aunt Simza rushes to untie my dad’s legs. He stands. They back up to us, facing the wolves.
“Elysia, calm down.” Dad’s words echo on the wind.
“Calm down?” I ask. “No.”
Aunt Simza grabs my arm, but quickly pulls away, the heat writhing through my veins is too much for her.
Kyle’s father throws Kyle over his shoulder, reaching for his gun.
The winds pick up, blowing sand in the air. The ocean water recedes further from the shoreline. Thunder booms.
Fonso continues flinging any lose object he finds through the air, keeping the wolves at bay. Sweat drips down his forehead.
Kyle’s father lifts the gun. “I will die today, but I’ll go out killing as many of them as possible.” He aims at Riley.
Time slows for me. I feel the wind racing through the trees…the dark clouds loom over us, the vibration of the thunder battling above. A hundred waterspouts form in the ocean, dancing on the waves. I take it all in, becoming one with the storm. I allow it to breathe through me. My feet leave the sand, as the wind lifts me up.
Everyone freezes, gawking at me.
A surge of energy enters me from above, followed by the brightest light. I narrow my sight on Kyle’s father and lightning bolts from my hands and into his chest.
Vadoma’s next. I set my sight and her. She trembles.
“Elysia! Don’t! She’s your sister!” Dad blocks her. I couldn’t have heard him right. A fogginess numbs me as I try to process his words, but the howling of wind scrambles their meaning.
Listen to your father. A beautiful glowing woman whispers on the wind. Save them Elysia.
The whirling gust feels my emotions and builds a sand wall around my family.
The wolves stop their pursuit of the others. A large black wolf growls. The others follow his lead. They move closer toward me.
“They’re going after Elysia!” Fonso yells through the roaring squall.
“Get back!” My father herds my family and friends off the shore.
Fonso struggles against him, but my father pushes him away.
Riley and Brayden change into their human form and move Colin off the sand.
Waterspouts encircle several wolves, pulling them through the air. The angry water swoops in around me on both sides, crashing against the pack. It sucks most of them into the dark depths of the ocean. The few remaining wolves scatter from the shore, away from us.
The wind lowers me onto the sand and the surge releases me. I feel the separation as I part from the elements. A sadness sweeps in, replacing the amity I shared with the forces of nature.
Dad catches me before I hit the sand.
“Why did the wolves go after her?” I hear Nadya ask through my haze.
“Because she alone can break the Roaming Curse,” Bo says.
Chapter 26
Several people surround me, but their faces are a blur. Colin passes in and out of consciousness. Rain starts and stops periodically. Every time he wakes, he squeezes my hand. I refuse to let
it go.
On arrival, the paramedics put Colin on a gurney and I’m forced to let go of his hand as they rush him to the ambulance.
Silence is deafening when riding to the hospital in the hopes of saving a life.
Someone leads me inside to a chair in a waiting area. Big arms cradle me. I sink into his chest. “Dad.” My voice cracks.
“I’m here. Shhh.” He rocks me.
Rain pounds the building, curving sideways hitting the clear windows. It calls to me… whispering its need to fall.
“I’m sorry.” A rough voice breaks the silence. Bo, my grandfather, sits across from us. “I didn’t intend for any of this to happen.”
“What exactly did you think would happen?” Aunt Mirela asks. “You kidnapped my children.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.” He glances at Vadoma standing at the window. “I just wanted to find Elysia.”
“How is she my sister?” My throat aches. I’m parched.
“A few years before you were born, Lyuba was pregnant. It was before she met Harman. She was nineteen.” Aunt Simza says and takes my right hand. “Tom, the father, ran off before she gave birth. He wasn’t Rom. He worked for Bo, helping with security for the shows he put on featuring your mother.”
Vadoma turns away from the windows and studies me.
“I didn’t tell her about this,” Bo says, watching Vadoma.
Aunt Mirela glares at him. “I’m sure there’s a lot of things you neglected to tell her.”
“She gave birth to a stillborn girl at home. I was there. The baby came out blue.” Aunt Simza cries. “How is it possible she’s standing here now?”
Everyone’s attention turns to Bo.
He clears his throat. “She was dead. I brought Vadoma out of the room so you could console your sister. I kissed her cheek and she started coughing. I almost brought her back into the room, but I couldn’t. Lyuba was too young. The child wasn’t full Rom. I thought she’d be better off in the hands of other caring parents.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make.” Aunt Simza clenches her teeth. “That almost destroyed her.”
A tear runs down Vadoma’s cheek. She catches me staring and faces away from me.
“She saved me,” Bo says. “When you all left, she was there. Your cousins raised her, until werewolves killed them. She was away at school. It’s been us for the last fifteen years.”
“You used her to find us?” Aunt Simza asks.
“No. I found you all years ago. I hired a private detective,” Bo says. “I left you at peace and helped you from afar when you needed it.”
“Helped us?” Aunt Mirela asks. “You made Nadya try to find Harman every year since she was five.”
“That’s regrettable.” Bo creases his brows. “I was curious to see why he fled. I learned of Lyuba’s pregnancy and her death. The earthquake. When I arrived to see for myself, I found her, but no baby. Harman had fled.”
Dad repositions himself in the chair. “Lyuba asked me to. She knew Elysia was special. She named her in her last breath…it means lightning struck.”
A silence falls over the room. I clench my fists, thinking how my mother knew me so well from the moment I was born.
Bo clears his throat. “When I found you guys working in one of those nasty carnivals, the detective said you pretended to talk to the dead, tell past lives and find things. I knew what Mirela and Simza did, but the finding things was new. That’s when I hired Brian. He used you to locate Harman, but he was always out of reach, thanks to his gift…until now.”
“Brian…Kyle’s dad,” I say. “Where’s Kyle?”
Riley, Brayden, and Kayla sit on the far side of the waiting room. Fonso and Nadya sit on the other side of Aunt Mirela and Aunt Simza. Kyle’s nowhere to be seen.
“He stayed behind,” Dad says.
“You killed his father,” Vadoma says from across the room. “Do you blame him?” She scrutinizes me. “You almost killed me.”
“He shot Colin,” Kayla says.
“Because he killed Brian’s wife,” Vadoma replies. “Damn werewolf.”
Kayla growls.
“Enough,” Aunt Mirela says. “Hasn’t there been enough fighting and killing for the day?”
“She’s right,” Aunt Simza says. “It’s time to stop fighting amongst ourselves. There’s a bigger threat coming and if we don’t unite, it’ll be the end of all of us.”
“What do you mean?” Dad asks. “What’s coming?”
Aunt Simza stares a
t me. “Lyuba says now that the packs know what you can do, they’ll be coming for you…for all of us. They won’t stop until you’re dead or until you break the curse.”
“What curse?” I ask.
“The Roaming Curse. It’s the reason we are never able to stay in one place for very long. It’s also what the wolves are sworn to protect,” Bo says. “You’re the only one who can break it, which means you’re the one the Hunters will be after.”
A storm swells in my chest. The overwhelming feeling to protect the ones I love comes over me. The only way to keep them safe is if I leave…alone. A sadness grips me. I just found them, and I wasn’t ready to let them go. But, it’s the only way.
A doctor walks down the hall toward us. I stand and stare at his expression, trying to figure out the news he has to share before he reaches us.
He stops a few feet away from me. “He’s going to be fine,” he says and offers a smile. I want to hug him. Tears of joy fall down my face. Bright, glowing, yellow rays stream into the room as a light rain falls.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
“Every time they go to the mainland for supplies, I get nervous,” I say.
Colin wraps his arms around me. “I know. Every time you get nervous, the clouds roll in. They’ll be fine. Fonso and Harman will be back in less than an hour.”
“It feels surreal, all of us being here together, doesn’t it?”
Vadoma spars with Kayla at the water’s edge on the south side of the island, the only side with a beach. Riley, Brayden, Emilian, and Nadya fish from the dingy. Nadya’s crushing hard on Riley. To say that Aunt Mirela isn’t happy about it is an understatment. Aunt Simza’s working past her anger at Bo. Bo spends most of his time researching, trying to find some solution for breaking this curse.
Colin laughs. “It’s utterly bizarre.”
“It’s so quiet here.” I breathe in the salty air.
The orange-reddish sky breaks through the gray clouds as the sun sets. The water beats against the rocks 30 feet below. A fish jumps.
“Hard to believe there’s a war raging.” Colin kisses me on the cheek.
“I don’t want to leave.”
Lightning Struck (The Roaming Curse Book 1) Page 15