The Chronicles of Kerrigan Box Set Books # 1 - 6: Paranormal Fantasy Young Adult/New Adult Romance

by W. J. May

  He flashed his dimples. “She asks so casually…” The table laughed. “As much as I hate to disappoint you if you were looking for a juicy answer, I brought my grandmother. She was the one who passed the tatù to my father so she already knew all about them. Plus…she’d never been allowed inside Guilder because she was a woman. I thought she deserved a chance to see it.”

  Molly rolled her eyes and grinned, but Rae was truly smitten. Of course he brought his grandmother. Because everything from his toes up to those sexy dimples was absolutely perfect. It was also interesting to note his grandmother had the tatù. She was willing to bet Devon’s father wasn’t proud of that fact. “Well,” she said, feigning disinterest, “if you’re not doing anything else that night…maybe you’d like to go with me?”

  His eyes sparkled. “Why Miss Kerrigan, are you asking me out on a date?”

  Rae flicked a few drops of her milkshake at him. “Don’t make me ask twice, Wardell,” she teased. “If I have to ask again, the next guy I’m asking is Julian.”

  Julian chuckled. “No can do, darlin’. I’m going to be out of town.”

  “Out on another secret mission?” Molly asked. “Or out with the secret girl on a different kind of mission?” She raised her eyebrows up and down, trying to waggle them at Julian.

  He raised his hand for the waitress. “Cheque, please.”

  Devon ignored them, keeping his eyes locked on Rae. “I’d love to go with you. I wish I’d had the courage last year to ask you.”

  Rae’s stomach fluttered with automatic excitement, but she flashed a cool grin. “Well, okay then. I mean…if you insist.”

  He chuckled and pulled her in for a quick kiss.

  But as they were packing up and heading back out to the car, Rae couldn’t help but notice a small worried crease in the center of his forehead. When he saw her looking, he flashed a quick smile and hopped into the Jaguar, but Rae couldn’t help but wonder.

  Was this thing with his dad turning into an even bigger mess than she’d feared…?

  They got back to Guilder just as the sun was setting through the tall trees. Groups of students were flooding out from the dining hall, and much to Rae’s surprise, she found that she already recognized some faces. A few of the younger students even waved to her as the boys escorted her and Molly back to their rooms. Conscious of what she carried in her backpack, Rae pulled on the straps, keeping it close to her.

  “So, we have the files…our first and only lead on Cromfield,” Julian summarized as they trudged up the stairs. “Now we just need to find her.”

  Jennifer. The missing link.

  Rae had gone over the problem a million times in her head. What it all came down to, was they were just stretched too thin. It was going to take everything she and her friends had just to pass their finals and graduate—not to mention searching for Cromfield both on their own and with their impromptu mentor group at the same time. Not only could she and Molly not get away from school and join the boys on the hunt, but Rae was extremely hesitant to leave her mom at a time like this.

  Plus, there was one other major problem. Jennifer was a badass. There was a reason the PC had her teach Rae—she was one of the best fighters the Privy Council had ever employed. Or had Jennifer offered to teach Rae so she could get close to Rae?

  It didn’t matter. It was going to take a real force to bring her down. They needed someone as crazy and dangerous as Jennifer. Someone with nothing to lose.

  Fortunately, Rae had someone in mind. “I think I know what’s going to help us,” she said tentatively, suddenly dodging their curious looks.

  “What do you mean?” Devon asked.

  “I know someone that can help us.”

  She’d sent the text late last night after dinner. It was the very definition of a long shot, but at this point, she figured it was the only shot they had.

  “Who?” Devon asked curiously.

  Just then they arrived at Rae’s door. A dead black rose had been nailed to the front of it.

  “Perfect!” Rae forced a smile and tried to sound cheerful. “He got my message.”

  Chapter 6

  “You have got to be kidding me!”

  Devon’s handsome face turned an angry shade of puce. They’d moved inside her room when she’d told them what she had done. Rae seriously worried that if he didn’t calm down, he might burst a major artery, or hyperventilate or something that would require medical attention. She wanted to go through the files but now was obviously not the time to suggest it.

  She held up her hands peaceably. “Honey, think about it. It’s not that bad of an idea—”

  “Don’t you honey me! There’s absolutely no way we’re getting Kraigan involved in this! The guy tried to kill you, Rae—half a dozen times!”

  Rae glanced at Molly and Julian for help, but they were suddenly keeping their eyes wisely on the ground. All right Kerrigan, she told herself. You expected some resistance. You just have to stand your ground. “Okay, but for one thing—he didn’t try to kill me that many times.”

  Devon flashed her a look of sheer consternation and even Molly glanced up with a frown.

  All right—bad strategy. Moving on.

  “For another thing—Kraigan doesn’t have any sort of motive to kill me anymore. Hate me, sure, but not kill me.” She said the words in a rush, trying to get them all out before Devon stopped her. “He thought I was some golden child, the one whose mother was chosen and that’s why his own mother got killed. But we know now that’s not the case. My family had nothing to do with his mother’s death—it was all Jennifer.”

  Julian started nodding slowly and Devon swatted him upside the head.

  Rae continued cautiously, taking a slight step back just to make sure she was out of back-of-the-head range. “No one in the world has a greater motivation to catch Jennifer than he does. AND no one stands a better chance at doing exactly that. He’s intelligent, devious, and dangerous.”

  Devon flashed a pained expression and she steered clear of the ‘lethal’ words.

  Rae crossed her arms over her chest, she refused to be deterred from her decision. “I mean—he’s capable. If anyone can catch her, it’s him. Plus, once he does, he simply has to absorb her power and she’ll be defenseless.” Rae smiled at the idea. “Like a cat without claws.”

  Devon was obviously waiting on pins and needles until she finished her speech. Now that she was done talking, he crossed the room and stood right in front of her, forcing her to look in his eyes. “Rae, that’s all well and good, except that Kraigan isn’t known to be the most rational kind of guy. He flat-out worshiped your father, and in his twisted mind, that alone was enough reason to come after you.”

  “But that’s the thing,” Rae said quickly. “Once he knows how Simon treated his mother—like some animal to be used for breeding—he’ll hate him, and Jennifer, just as much as I do.”

  “Rae, you can’t—”

  “Trust me, Devon.” She looked deep into his troubled eyes. “Jennifer killed his mom. If there’s one thing he’ll care about more than hating me, it’s that.”

  Molly’s voice ventured tentatively from the corner. “How in the world are you going to convince him that’s the case? He thinks the entire thing is on you and your mom. He’s not going to believe you if you just call him up one day and tell him that’s not true anymore.”

  The corners of Rae’s lips turned up in a little smile. “Of course he won’t. That’s why I have to show him.”

  A brief silence followed her proclamation. Followed by an explosion.

  “You WHAT?!”

  “Rae, come on, you can’t be serious—”

  “Even I can’t go along with you on that one…”

  She held up her hands for silence. When that didn’t work, she covered those hands in fire. The boys fell suddenly quiet and Molly folded her arms angrily over her chest.

  “You know I don’t like it when you do that inside,” she accused. “It makes all my clothes
smell like smoke! Even from across the hall.”

  Rae doused the flames at once and forced herself to calmly face her friends. “Guys, I don’t like getting that close to him any more than you do. However, it’s our best shot, and you know it. It might be our only shot.”

  Julian stared at the floor and Molly frowned out the window, but Devon was still looking at Rae with cold steel in his eyes. This was a course of action he simply couldn’t sanction.

  Rae tried again. “All I need to do is let him touch me for a split second. He’ll absorb Carter’s gift and be able to see everything I saw for myself. When he catches Jennifer—and we all know he will catch her eventually—he can use the same thing on her.”

  Still, her friends said nothing. She looked at each one of them desperately in turn, until finally landing on her reluctant boyfriend. “Devon, please. You know it’s a good idea.”

  He regarded her for a moment, but slowly shook his head. “No, I can’t help you seek out the man who tried to end your life. I won’t do it.”

  A rush of emotion swelled in her chest, but she tried to keep herself under control. “This isn’t about me—this is about Cromfield! He killed my father, brainwashed my mother, and left me to grow up as an orphan. And he’s still out there! Devon…please! It’s a risk worth taking.” She pulled herself up to her full height. “And I’m taking it.”

  Devon studied her for a long moment, clenching his jaw so hard she thought it might break, before suddenly crossing to her desk. He ripped off a sheet of binder paper and grabbed a pencil, and then thrust them both in Julian’s face. Julian took them tentatively, staring back and forth between Rae and Devon with a question in his eye.

  “Draw,” Devon commanded. “Draw what happens if we go and meet Kraigan.”

  With a silent nod, Julian perched on the edge of the mattress. His eyes grew unfocused for a moment, before glassing over as his hand began flying over the page. Despite the charged atmosphere in the room, Rae couldn’t help but take an inquisitive step closer. She’d seen Julian draw before, but it was nothing like this. His eyes were almost completely opaque as his hand swept over the page; connecting lines and shading angles that made no sense to anyone but him.

  Devon saw her watching and followed her gaze. “It’s been like this for a while now,” he explained. “One day, he just seemed different than before. The drawings are more detailed, complex. They even depict things happening further and further down the road.”

  “Can he hear us?” Rae asked curiously.

  Devon walked over to Julian and gently kicked his foot. He waved a hand once or twice in front of his face, but there was no response, no sound except the hasty scratches of the pencil. “He’s completely out of it. It’s like he goes into some sort of trance. It’s been like this since… since…”

  “Since he started drawing me?” Rae asked.

  Devon could only shrug a maybe yes.

  Molly raised her eyebrows. “Well, that’s useful. I mean, if it enhances his visions.”

  Devon nodded, but watched his friend with a worried crease. “As long as he only gets the visions at an appropriate time. He’s completely defenseless when it happens. It leaves him vulnerable.”

  Just then, Julian’s eyes cleared back to their deep brown and he stared unblinkingly around the room, like a man who’d just woken up from a sudden sleep.

  “Welcome back, buddy,” Devon smiled quickly, then gestured to the paper. “So, how about it? What’s it going to be?”

  Julian frowned and stared down at his drawing. “I only drew him touching her. I can’t tell what happens next because he hasn’t decided it himself.”

  He held up the paper and Rae had to stop herself from gasping aloud at the perfection of the portrait. It was like he’d simply taken a photograph and shaded it in black and white. Each minute detail was colored with a flawless hand, lending an almost eerie sense of foreboding to the little scene. A sense that was increased tenfold when she saw that Kraigan had his hands around her neck.

  “Well, that doesn’t look very good,” Molly murmured.

  “See!” Devon declared. “He’s trying to kill you. We’re not going.”

  Rae countered fiercely. “Or he’s taking Carter’s tatù like I want him to.”

  “With his hands around your neck?!”

  Julian muttered, “You have to admit, it’s Kraigan’s style.”

  “Thank you, Julian!” Rae stared at Devon in triumph.

  Julian’s face paled, making it almost white in the moonlight. “I’m not saying I think you should go.”

  “Aha!” Devon countered, pointing to his friend with a grin.

  Julian held up his hands and backed away. “Look, I’m not getting in the middle of this. But guys, you have to keep in mind that this isn’t some kind of lover’s quarrel, all right? This is a mission, just like any other. Please at least try to be pragmatic.”

  Devon turned on him. “Pragmatic? That’s a bit hypocritical, don’t you think? If this were you and me dealing with any other agent we’d ever worked with, we’d be out the door already. But you don’t want to go either because it’s Rae.”

  Julian met his friend’s anger with gentle patience. “Rae can take care of herself.”

  “Yeah, she can,” Molly interjected suddenly. “And we’ll all be there with her.”

  Devon stared at the other two like they’d literally stabbed him in the back. “You guys cannot be seriously considering this.”

  “It’s three against one, Devon,” Rae said softly, putting her hand on his arm. “We’re going.”

  Devon ripped the arm away and took her by the shoulders, pulling her forward so their faces were only inches apart. “You can’t ask me to do this,” he begged quietly. “It’s like every other day I have to stand by and watch as someone new tries to kill you, Rae. I get that, it’s part of dating Rae Kerrigan. But let’s at least not go willingly back to someone who’s already tried it before. Please.”

  Rae stroked the side of his face with a tender look in her eye. “I hate to say it, but that’s also part of dating a Kerrigan. In case you didn’t pick it up from the family dinner last night, or even just by getting to know me these last few years, we’ve got a bit of a wild streak.”

  His lips curled up into a smile in spite of himself, and the next thing she knew, they were kissing. For the first time, she didn’t care that her two friends were in the room watching. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him with reckless abandon, only pulling away when Molly cleared her throat sharply from across the room.

  “Do not make me throw up my milkshake. I forbid it.”

  Julian turned away to the window with a grin. “So much for keeping things professional.”

  Devon grinned but it quickly disappeared. He held Rae close as she pulled out her phone to text Kraigan back.

  “I’m telling him to meet us back at that pub in London.” Her fingers flew over the keys on her phone. She was glad nobody asked how she had gotten his text number. She herself had it from when he had been in Guilder pretending to be someone else, but couldn’t be sure he’d kept his phone. The rose on the door had proven he’d read the message.

  “Have him meet us there at midnight,” Devon instructed. “That gives us time to get there an hour or two before to scope it out for any little surprises he might have up his sleeve.”

  Rae typed it into her phone, then slipped it back in her pocket. “Done.” She fought back the automatic shudder, which ran through her skin at the thought of seeing her half-brother again. Last time he’d tried to burn her at the old Wade factory. Speaking of which, she glanced at the figurines in the small cabinet on her desk. She’d have to ask her mother if she remembered them also. There was still the message to decode. She’d done some of it, but was pretty sure there was more to the whole thing. Now was not the time to think about that though. Pushing the thoughts of her mother aside, she stuffed her backpack in the back of her closet and slipped on her coat. “No one’s goi
ng to look for the files here.” She shrugged. “No one knows we have them.”

  “Yet,” Molly added with a yawn. “I think we should start keeping stuff in my room. No one ever sneaks into my room.” She looked purposely at Devon.

  “Shall we get going then?” Devon asked and turned to reach for the doorknob.

  Rae laughed as she went through the door Devon held open for her.

  The boys and Molly followed suit and headed out behind her down the stairs. Halfway down, Devon grabbed Julian’s keys with a wry smile. “How ‘bout I drive?”

  A look of sheer frustration clouded Julian’s face. “I’ll be fine,” he muttered.

  “I know you would,” Devon answered just as softly. “But let’s just leave this to me for now, okay pal? Precious cargo and all…”

  The entire exchange was lost on Molly, who stepped in front of Rae on the stairs when Rae slowed her gait down to listen to the boys. Rae switched into an advanced hearing tatù and followed along curiously. If they were planning to take Julian’s car, it would seem natural Julian would drive. Although, come to think of it, he hadn’t been driving earlier today in London either, and he’d complained when she had zapped Devon on the shoulder while he was driving. Was something the matter with him? Had he lost his license? Worse, was he sick?

  Before Rae had a chance to ask, she walked headlong into the back of Molly and almost fell down the rest of the stairs. Luckily Molly stood solid to keep them from tumbling. The boys, in turn, ran into her, and all of them lifted their heads together to see why Molly had stopped so suddenly.

  Madame Elpis stood tapping her foot near the front door of Aumbry House. Her wiry arms folded tightly across her body and her beady eyes locking on each one of their guilty faces in turn.

  Devon was the first to recover. “Hey, Madame Elpis. Lovely night…”

  She gave him a look so sharp it could cut through glass. “Night being the operative word, Mr. Wardell. Where exactly do you and the rest of your friends think you’re going at this hour?”

  Devon swallowed hard and fell back into the group. Technically speaking, he and Julian didn’t attend the school, and thus didn’t fall under the school curfew rules. But there was something about Madame Elpis that made you feel as though anything and everyone were under her jurisdiction. All the time.