Hidden Light

by Nikki Bolvair

  Guilt trickled through me.

  “If and when Carly gets her mark,” Hale picked up with a little bite to his tone, “she'll get mates. And whoever they are, they're going to have to get used to us. Zander, Baxter, Colten, and I are not going anywhere.”

  “You can send us on the mission to Falls. We'll go. But we're taking her with us. Mark or not, she's ours,” Hale finished.

  Kenneth stepped forward. “You’re saying this despite the change? All of you? We haven't even looked in the database yet.”

  I stepped away from them, subconsciously rubbing the base of my neck where my hair covered my mark. “Change?”

  “Their mate marks changed,” Patrick stated as he stood behind my mom, his hands on her shoulders for comfort and support. In their eyes, my mom's, my stepdad's, and Colten’s and Baxter’s parents, their expression said it all: devastation. For me, for their sons.

  I glanced back to the guys as blood roared in my ears.

  Zander took a step forward, but I stopped him with an outreached hand. He paused mid-stride as if one more move would break me. “We don’t care about that,” he whispered.

  “We only want you,” Colten added, his golden eyes shining.

  I straightened. “I want to see. I want to see the mark.”

  Colten stripped off his shirt, they all did, and turned.

  Since Zander stood closer, I walked to him. My hand trembled as I reached up and traced the mark. I went from him to Hale, then Baxter, and finally to Colten, tracing their marks, too.

  My head bowed to Colten’s shoulder blade, and hot tears flowed. “Colten, they’re the same as mine.”

  Colten stiffened then whipped around. His hands spun me so my back was to him and he pushed away my hair, yanking down the zipper of my dress in front of everyone.

  “Son, what are you doing?” Henry demanded. “Don't do that!” he shouted while he hurried closer to defend my honor.

  Zander grabbed him.

  My head lifted a little as I met Henry's worried gaze. I gave him a small smile of reassurance. “It’s fine. He’s not hurting me.”

  When Colten’s fingertips traced my mark, I shivered. His fingertips lifted, and his lips met my back, a caressing kiss from my neck to my shoulder. Such an intimate gesture in front of all these people.

  He moved away, Baxter taking his place behind me. “It’s the same,” he announced in awe. “This whole time you were meant to be ours.”

  “It is?” one of Colten fathers asked.

  Kenneth's mouth popped open in surprise. “Carly has her mark?”

  “For how long?” Hale asked as he took Baxter's place.

  My lips pursed. I couldn't lie in front of Colten.

  “I think this is enough,” Baxter’s mom spoke up.

  “Oh,” Myra jumped in, waving her hand, “let them have their little spat. You know they'll be making up sooner or later.”

  I barely heard what else they said as I turned and braced myself against the hurt in Hale’s eyes.

  “I'm sorry,” I told him, lifting my hand to his shoulder. “I'm so sorry. I didn't know it wasn't like yours. I thought—”

  Hale drew me into his arms as tears fell. “Aww, baby, I know what you thought. You never questioned that we might get an extra piece. That our mark wasn't complete.”

  Another hand rubbed my back and lips kissed my head as he zipped up my dress. “We understand.”

  “You were the first one to receive the light,” a voice rose. “The first human ever. Why didn't we think that something like this would happen?” Saul asked. “I believe Philip giving his light away caused a chain reaction.”

  “You think?” Patrick asked.

  Then everybody started talking.

  I turned away from Hale and stared up into Colten's eyes, then looked over to Solomon.

  He’d come over to where we stood and held his hand out. His eyes held a twinkle. “May I be the first to congratulate you on finding your mates, Carly.”

  I smiled and put my hand in his. “Thank you.”

  He nodded and grinned. “You're welcome.” He turned back to everyone who had come to search for me, and his voice boomed as he spoke. “Lydents! We can no longer solely rely on what we’ve known to be tradition. The Spirit Whisperer is telling us changes are coming soon. We need to be wise. We need to be prepared. But first, we need to celebrate! A Lydent wedding is in our future!”

  Everyone in the room clapped and cheered.

  I left the circle of my mates so I could go into my mom’s arms. “I'm sorry, Mom. I just didn't know what to do. Leaving seemed to be the best idea at the time.”

  She patted my back. “I understand. They weren’t easy on you.” She glared at my stepfathers over my shoulder. They seemed remorseful.

  Henry hugged me next. “I'm glad things worked out the way they did.” When I pulled away, he tapped my nose like he used to do when I was younger. “Looks like you're stuck with us, little one.”

  I gave him a brilliant smile. Henry was always my favorite.

  Patrick came over next. His arms wrapped around me. “I’m sorry, Carly. We should have been more thoughtful with everything. And you,” he said, giving me an extra squeeze. “You should have been more honest.”

  “I know.” I let him go.

  Kenneth came over then. He stood awkwardly, not sure if he could hug me or not. Uncomfortable because, out of everyone, he tried the hardest to keep the guys and me away from each other.

  I twisted my fingers nervously in front of myself. “I'm sorry that I kept things from you, but I'm not sorry for fighting back.”

  He sighed and folded me into his arms. “I know, Carly. I know. Sometimes it's good to fight back. And sometimes it isn’t. I'm sorry for not seeing what separating you guys was doing to my family. For what it did to you. You are my family. Can you ever forgive me?”

  I pulled away and gave a hard swallow. “That's what families do. They forgive even the most hurtful things. Forget? Maybe not. But forgive and learn from their mistakes, yes.”

  “Well.” Henry clapped his hands. “It seems like we’re ready for celebrating! I say three days!” He turned to my mom, and then his eyes met Myra's.

  “More like one day,” Baxter said while his mom hugged him.

  Then she came to me. I’d only met his parents a few times, but it was nice to feel wanted instead of thrown away.

  “One day.” She grinned. “Are you ready for that, sweet one?”

  Baxter came up and held my hand as Colten took my other one, and Zander and Hale stood behind me. All of them surrounded me in some way.

  Zander said, “Because we accepted the mission in Falls, we only have three days until we're supposed to arrive.”

  I turned, surprised. “We're moving?”

  “Only for a little while,” Zander answered, his eyes still glowing from what he had done earlier.

  I blushed and whirled back to my mom. “I guess we’re moving?”

  “Not before a wedding, you aren’t.” Hale’s mother quipped.

  A smile crept up along my lips. I was finally going to get my happily ever after.

  Hooks

  Four Days Before

  “What in the world?” Carly screeched as her ass popped down in the seat. She looked cute in her PJs and pissed-off face. “Why?” she demanded.

  I cocked my head to the side and went for honesty. “I need you.”

  She groaned, leaning her head back like that was the most upsetting thing to hear. I guess, for her and the newly-acquired male suitors, it would be.

  “Not you, too!”

  I chuckled. “No. Not like that.”

  She glared, not at all impressed I wasn't one to seek out her romantic attentions. “I have questions.”

  I nodded, knowing this was coming. “And I have answers…”

  She bit her lip. “Why couldn't anyone else see you in the hospital room when I was sick?”

  Letting one of my secrets go, I told her, “That's
because I projected myself there. You were the only one who could see me.”

  Releasing her lip and squinting at me, she asked, “And how did you know I needed the vaccine?”

  “I know a lot of things,” I replied, being vague on purpose. I leaned forward, my gaze intent on hers and grinned when her lips pursed. “Carly, I helped you. Now, I need you to do something for me.” I snapped my fingers and pencil and paper appeared on the desk in front of her. "I need you to draw another picture."

  She was befuddled. "Why?"

  "Because," I said, placing my hands down on her desk, "at this moment I need you. I need what you can do, and I can't do it for myself. Please, Carly," I pleaded, as much as it hurt me to ask. "Draw."

  She tapped the table, curious. “Why? What is it about?"

  I glared, frustrated with her young, human mind that had yet to be opened to our world. I might look young, but elders like me did not get talked back to by anyone. "Because, I’m researching the vaccine, and I think that there’s a chance that when Lydent mothers receive it, it can affect their future babies if those kids don't receive it after they’re born. Not because of their power, but because while in utero, they become used to their mother's blood. If one is born and not given..." I let my explanation fall as I conjured the last picture Carly drew. I pointed to the mother. "That woman, she's Lydent. If her baby was a girl, her health could be dire. Not at first, but gradually. It was worse with you because you hadn't had it before now. If it's a girl, her daughter will have a little in her blood, but not enough."

  "Yeah, but all Lydent females get the serum. Why would this be any different?"

  "Carly, you've been around long enough to know the answer to that question."

  She gave a slow nod of understanding as she took in the drawing. "It's because he's human. She broke the law and married a human. They're on the run."

  "Now, do you see why I need your help?"

  She nodded. "Yes."

  It didn't matter anyway, but I cautioned her. It would have been suspicious if I hadn’t. "And you must not speak a word of this to anybody. Not a single soul. You have your answers." I pushed the paper toward her. "Now, please?"

  She picked up the pencil and drew picture after picture. To ease the ache of using her fingers to draw so much, I offered her a peppermint when I noticed her finger shaking. She smiled and took it.

  I poured over each drawing and the answers they gave me. As the baby grew in the pictures, I knew for a fact it was a girl. Sighing, I leaned back in my seat and glanced over at Carly's hunched form. I knew she couldn't draw anymore, just like I knew this Lydent woman who dared to shake change in our world once again was the descendant of my sweet Anna.

  Carly turned in her chair, and I got up to walk over to her. She gave me the last drawing, and it made my heart stutter.

  "I think..." She bit her lip. "I think she's dying, Hooks."

  I nodded and traced the figure in the shaded tones she drew. "I believe you're right."

  Carly tapped her pencil. "We need to help her."

  Glancing up, I agreed. "We do."

  I waved a hand across her face, and it went blank. "You have a good heart, Carly. When you run, you won't run far because I’ll need you again. Forget."

  When she started to drop, I picked her up and shimmed into her house, grinning at the small resistance of the intruder wards that could never hold me. I sat her on the couch and lay a magazine across her chest as if she had fallen asleep reading, then shimmed out.

  Back in the classroom, I gathered up everything I could into my brown satchel and flung my hand across the room, obliterating everything to dust. The room now empty, I slapped the last remaining image on the far wall. Carly would be back. She would see it and have questions. She would find me, but not until I needed her. Then I shimmed away.

  Find me Info

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  Enjoy chapter one from the next book in Lydents’ Series, The Bridge Over Snake Creek!

  The Bridge Over Snake Creek

  Thrill-seeker, and terminally ill by default, all Hannah wanted was for her life to go back to the way it was before. But that dream was like grasping water in a closed fist. A dream, one she could never hold on to... If someone told her in the beginning the way things would end, she would’ve gladly let historical secrets remain hidden. But curiosity was a cruel and vicious nag.

  Once the magic was out, there was no putting it back.

  Falls, Idaho was different. Strange. Just like the five guys who made it their mission to keep her daring ways to a minimum. They never wanted her to know who they really were, but they couldn’t help themselves. Sometimes, fate could play an unforgiving game. Things were not as they seemed, and the big picture started to unravel. Her sickness, there was a cure.

  Welcome to Falls.

  Chapter One

  A new town. A fresh start. That's what my dad was hoping for as we drifted away from my hometown. It took two moving trucks to pack up our stuff and a ton of medical papers to sort out. I remember thinking as I packed whether or not my dad was experiencing a midlife crisis.

  Dad was offered a job in Middle-of-Nothing-Ever-Happens-Here, Idaho. He made a decision to pack up and move without consulting his one and only child who, by the way, would have absolutely said no. And so I was forced to leave Falmouth, Maine behind. Forced to let go my friends and my life. Forced to abandon my mom, buried in the graveyard just around the bend in the road from our home, to live in Falls, Idaho.

  I shifted in the passenger seat of our moving truck, toed off my shoes for comfort and scratched at the bottom of my feet. We had already been on the road for two days. The only real break we made, outside of truck stops, was a modest motel where we slept in beds stiff as boards and the sheets were scratchy. I'm pretty sure the rash on my feet was from the three-minute shower I took there.

  As I rubbed my left foot, I listened to the half static, half news reports filtering in from the radio. Dad loved listening to the news. I lifted both my feet until they were up on the dash then reclined my seat to lean back, careful of the black pouch that rested on my side.

  Dad gave me a quick glance. “Okay there, honey?”

  I sighed. He was going to ask me that a hundred times on this trip, I knew it. Back home it was easier to hide from him and his concerns when he asked that question. In this cab, though, there wasn’t anywhere to run.

  “Peachy,” I answered, hoping he’d take it and not ask again.

  Mom died when I was twelve. Cancer took her. In that first year without her, I became somewhat of a wild child and one night went too far. Some say I was already too far gone even before that.

  There was a reason. The pain in my chest beat relentlessly. Always there, never letting up. Never letting me be. I missed my mother deeply and now my dad was struggling to hold onto me.

  I bit my lip and stared out the car window, my gaze blurring the scenery that passed us by as I thought back to that life-changing moment. I should have known better. I wasn’t thinking. Alcohol has a limit for a reason. It’s poison after all. My friend knew. She stopped, but me? I didn’t care. And the repercussions of that night still haunted me.

  I tore my gaze from the highway scenery outside and shifted, letting out a soulful sigh as I felt the gentle tug on my hip from my life pack. The doctor told us this black eyed monster had always been there. Lingering beneath the surface as it waited to rear its ugly head. It’s in my blood. My genes. A joke played on me at birth.

  Dad went crazy protective when we found out. Never letting me out, treating me like a child. He’d been driving me
insane and every so often still does. He had a right to worry about me. The two of us already lost Mom, and now I was the one ill.

  My stomach growled. I looked in my bag of snacks and frowned. There wasn’t a whole lot of choices. Nuts, an apple, and an avocado. I needed to restock.

  I picked up my lavender and citrus infused water and took a sip. Plain water was so annoying, and I loved mixing it up. I replaced the cap and shoved it back in my bag. “When are we stopping again?”

  Dad glanced toward me. “You hungry?”

  I turned down the annoying radio and answered him. ‘Yeah. I also need to fill up on snacks. Running out of the good stuff.”

  Dad took his eyes off the road for a second to glance over at me, “Okay, we’ll stop in the next town.”

  “Tell me again why we’re moving?”

  “You know why.”

  I turned to look out the window. “To spy on Mom’s parents.”

  This was his reason for moving. Mom’s family lived there. My grandparents didn’t know about me and they didn’t know their daughter died. It had taken Dad four years after Mom’s death to search for them because he wanted the family medical history to help me. Three months after finding them, he decided to move us across the states to live in their town under the radar. Mom kept them out of our lives for a reason. Dad wasn’t going to announce us until he knew why. He was leery of Mom’s parents.

  “Not true, Hannah. You know my job is moving us there.”

  “Four months after your investigator finds them?”

  “It’s just a coincidence. And they live in the next town over.”

  I slipped down into the seat and turned my back to him. Coincidence, my ass. He wouldn’t even give me their last name. Someone’s paranoid.

  I pursed my lips, thinking. Dad had a right to be paranoid about me. I was the one giving him a false sense of security. He was in the dark about my extracurricular activities, but sometimes a daughter has to do what a father never wants to hear. I needed to feel alive again, somehow.