Paranormal Word Series Box Set (Books 1-3 and Novella)

by CC Solomon

  Almost twenty minutes into my escape from my room, and I had almost given up hope when I saw Reggie walking towards us. He had to know where Charles and Chelsea were moved, but to get his help, I had to reveal myself and Jared, which put me in danger.

  I decided to risk it. They’d realize I was missing from my room any moment now, and something inside me told me I had to leave tonight or I never would. Trusting Reggie was another thing, but he seemed a bit sympathetic, and I still had my gifts working should anything go wrong.

  “Reggie,” I said, becoming visible.

  He stumbled back, eyebrows raised in surprise. “Amina?” He glanced over to Jared then back to me. “What are you doing out? Over here?”

  “I need to find my brother. I need to see Charles. They moved him.”

  He frowned and looked down the hallway behind him, his long dreadlocks swinging over his shoulder. “You can’t be out here.”

  I sighed. “My powers came back. I’m begging you, Reggie. I need your help. You aren’t a bad person. I know that.”

  Reggie looked back at me. “Did David hurt you that night?”

  I didn’t want to lie, but I needed as much sympathy as I could get from Reggie. I nodded. Technically, it wasn’t a lie. I was sure Reggie was thinking something more sinister when he asked the question, but getting slapped and thrown was painful, so I was hurt by David.

  Reggie frowned again, a flash of anger crossed over his eyes. “He’s a piece of shit. We’ve taken enough from you all.” He looked behind himself again and then back to us. “Your brother is on the fifth floor, room 526.”

  “Thank you. What about Chelsea? She with Oliver?”

  He shook his head. “Just left Oliver, he’s on guard duty. I don’t know where she is.”

  “Shit,” Jared muttered.

  Reggie looked to me. “If you have your powers, then keep going. Get out of here tonight. Leave through the woods, past the parking lot. They won’t follow you in there at night. There’s something living in the woods. A troll, I heard.”

  Yikes, that didn’t sound good, but I had powers, and I’d taken on other scaries before. I’d rather risk it than stay here and die.

  I reached over and embraced Reggie in a tight hug. “Thank you. I will remember this,” I said. Jared and I went invisible again and took off down the hallway.

  We ran to room 526 and pushed open the door, again foregoing the courteous knock.

  A woman was seated next to Charles’s bed, collecting his blood via a tube into the familiar blood bag. Charles was laid back on the bed, eyes closed. The dark-skinned black woman looked up in shock at the now-open door, not seeing us in our invisible status. Charles opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow in our direction. I wondered if he could see us.

  “Slumber,” I said to the woman, and her head fell forward; body relaxed in her chair. These spells worked easier on non-gifted humans. I didn’t even feel any pain.

  Charles sat up and tore the needle out of his arm, wincing. “Thank you, sweet baby Jesus,” he cried.

  “Grab your bag, and let’s roll.”

  He got up and reached under his bed. Like me, he was always prepared. “I won’t ask how you got your powers back, but I can’t help without my gifts. I don’t want to be a liability. They drugged the hell out of me today.”

  “Say no more.” I walked over to him and touched his shoulder. “Heal.” I pushed my power from my fingers into his body. I pictured a radiating warmth, red in color to represent the power of witchcraft, flowing from me to him. With my power I could heal his body of the drugs that were suppressing his mage abilities.

  Charles turned and pointed an index finger at the TV, which was in the “Off” position, across from the foot of his bed. In the past several years, he had become more expert in the use of his gifts. He could do more than just turn on electricity and get the internet running. He could manipulate all technology, but this was his basic test.

  The TV turned on to a bright blue screen. He smiled and blew on his pointer finger like it was a smoking gun.

  Jared raised a hand. “Can I get some of that?” he asked, wide-eyed.

  I threw some magic on him and he went from neutered dog to scary werewolf. Well, at least his hand he used to test his magic was scary, which looked like a furry monster claw. It was twice the size of his hand previously, with 4-inch, black talons at the end. One swipe with those and I would be maimed for life if I were a regular human or a paranormal with no regenerative or healing abilities. And that was if I survived.

  “Great, back in business,” he said, checking out his hand with a wicked grin.

  “So, we work in sync. We fight and use our powers in the worst way until we are off these grounds,” I stated. “If we have to kill, we will.”

  “I’m all for that,” Jared replied, sounding a little too eager.

  Charles gave a curt nod. “What about Chelsea and everyone else?”

  “I think we’re limited on time. It took me long enough to find you. So, we get out, get some folks to help us, and tear this place down. I feel sick saying this, but… I’m not sure we can chance any more time finding Chelsea.”

  Jared frowned, and Charles shook his head. “That’s not right,” he said.

  “I think Amina’s right,” Jared stated. “The best we can do is get reinforcements and come back for her.”

  Charles nodded silently.

  “I promise we are coming back for her and everyone else. You ready?” I asked them.

  Chapter 6

  I’m not a cocky person, so I in no way thought getting out of there would be easy. “Whatever you do, don’t stop. Just keep running,” I stated.

  “Are you going to stay invisible?” Jared asked.

  I nodded but then forgot he couldn’t see me. “Yep, until I need to fight.” I wasn’t able to use two of my powers at the same time. “Let’s go.”

  And we ran. Luckily, we weren’t far from the first floor, and Charles’ room was near the exit stairwell.

  Naturally, a guard appeared before we got halfway down the hall.

  Charles raised his hands upward, and the ceiling shook; plaster cracking and breaking in large chunks. Several electrical wires shot through and wrapped around the guard, carrying him up and into the ceiling.

  “That was dramatic,” I said, running below the squirming guard.

  “Go hard or go home,” Charles said, running along-side me; Jared ran behind us, surveying Charles’ work.

  A camera hanging from the ceiling was slowly turning towards us. Charles snapped his fingers, and it stopped, the red “On” light.

  A blood taker carrying some empty blood packs turned a corner. I put him to sleep like I did the woman in Charles’ room earlier.

  I knew, as we turned off each monitor and disabled each approaching personnel, that we were alerting attention to our escape. I didn’t care; we kept running. We reached the exit door on the first floor and pushed through, undeterred.

  We ran straight past a garden on the left and a wide parking lot on our right. At the end of the parking lot was the electrified gate leading to the woods. Still moving, I turned and saw a guard on the hospital roof, pointing what had to be a rifle at Charles.

  “Charles, on the roof!” I shouted, now visible.

  Charles threw his hand out and whispered a releasing spell. The gun flew from the guard’s hand, zooming towards us. I put the guard to sleep; half of his body hanging over the side of the building. Several other guards appeared, and we got in sync to handle them. I made them sleep, Charles lifted their guns, and Jared…scared them, and if they weren’t scared, he made them hurt or worse. I tried my best to avoid his monster claws—which were ripping and shredding the chests of guards, releasing blood and intestines—or those giant, furry hands twisting their heads all the way around. Just more images to add to my nightmares since this whole supernatural world became real.

  Charles continued to take the weapons until he and I had two. Jared preferred to f
ight with his claws…and teeth. Although we had powers, having weapons was extra protection in case we faced something we couldn’t get through.

  We raced towards the fence but were hindered by several guards appearing from our left. They yelled for us to stop.

  We didn’t.

  “Keep going. Charles, get that fence down,” I ordered my brother.

  A guard aimed his gun at Charles and pulled the trigger.

  Charles flung out his left hand, his mouth moving silently as he whispered a stop motion spell, and the bullet stopped in midair, several inches from his chest. The bullet then dropped to the ground. The spell only worked on nonliving things, but it was useful in situations like this or when a car tried to run you off the road.

  However, Charles couldn’t keep that much power up, and I didn’t have the power to command them all to sleep at once, so I had to think bigger. “Inferno!” I shouted.

  A wall of fire a quarter of a mile long and several feet tall, rose from the ground in front of us. It was wild and angry. I pushed it, hands outstretched in front of me, towards the guards who quickly scattered back from the flames and heat.

  I felt him coming before I saw him.

  David, beyond the smoke and fire and guards. He raced towards us like a possessed man at full speed, arms pumping. His steel-blue eyes, almost otherworldly now, were focused on me.

  “Gate’s down, Mina, but you got to unward it,” Charles shouted.

  “Go, I’ll make sure no one gets past this fire,” Jared stated, his hands out, both fully clawed. He began to shift fully now into a two-legged wolf nightmare that stood over seven feet tall.

  I turned to the gate. Aside from de-electrifying the fence, Charles magically made a three-person-sized gap in the links for us to get through. “Stop, David!” I shouted.

  Charles joined Jared and focused his attention on the guards and David, while I looked at the ward.

  I could see it; a wall of translucent red. I didn’t know the witch’s spell, but I didn’t have to. It was over nine years as a witch now, and I had some experience with breaking wards. I held my breath and touched the magic wall with both hands. The zapping pain was still there as it had been when I touched my very first ward, but I was prepared for it this time. I didn’t move my hands and instead pushed into the wall. It was strong and non-yielding. The burning pushed up my arms and spread through my body. I kept pushing; pouring my strength and magic through my fingers. The translucent wall became slightly softened, yet I could not break through. Sweat pooled at my hairline and under my arms as I strained against the ward.

  I heard Charles and Jared yelling as they fought the guards. In seconds, David would be on us. I had a feeling that he was doped up on blood serum and wouldn’t be stopped by my wall of fire. I also knew that maintaining the fire was weakening me and prevented me from breaking the ward. If I were going to break this ward, I’d have to use a spell and that meant I had to stop my fire spell.

  I sucked in a breath and pushed at the wall again. It weakened more, but it still proved too strong to push through. I had to stop the fire. I turned my head towards Charles and Jared, just in time to see David jump over the six-foot-tall wall of fire.

  Damn.

  He landed on his feet right in front of Charles, who shot the semi-automatic rifle he was holding at him, but David was scarily fast. He dodged the bullet and knocked the gun out of Charles hands, and they began to wrestle.

  My options were few now. I had only one hand to play.

  I let the fire fade. Since it was magic made, it didn’t need water to go away. Just me letting go of the magic, keeping it alive. I turned to the ward with full strength, and I whispered a chanting, barrier-breaking spell to demolish the ward. It broke in seconds, already weakened by my earlier efforts. The witch who made the ward was strong, but fortunately, I was stronger. I thanked God as I watched the ward crack then crumble. I pushed my hands through and felt air on the other side. But I didn’t have time to rejoice.

  I turned and spotted David grab Charles, who was sitting on the ground, by the throat; Charles clawed at his hands. Jared was surrounded by several guards, and he swiped out at them as they closed in.

  “I will kill him, Amina. I will crush his fucking throat. I know you’d hate your brother to die,” David shouted.

  “Let him go! You know I’m stronger than him. You want me,” I yelled back.

  “I’m not here to negotiate. You all come back.”

  I peeked movement from my peripheral. On my left, Jared was now being held down by several guards. Several more slowly advanced towards me on my right. I needed something massive to stop them all.

  I put my hands up in surrender and dropped to my knees. “Fine.” I stared at Charles, who was giving me pleading eyes. I knew he wanted me to run, but there would be no way I would leave him. I dropped my hands to the ground and felt the earth. I touched the grass and dirt between my fingers. I’d never done this before. I knew no spell, but if I focused on what I wanted in my mind’s eye, maybe it would work anyway. “Move,” I whispered to the ground. I hadn’t used a power word. The ground did not have to magically listen to me. And yet…

  A tremendous rumbling erupted from below, shaking the earth. The guards lost balance and fell. They struggled unsuccessfully to get up again, letting Jared go, who got to his feet and used that time to attack them. I grimaced as he slashed the throats and faces of fallen guards.

  David fought to maintain his balance, but my mini earthquake proved too much. He let go of Charles, who then got to his feet and raced towards me, falling midway. He wisely stayed on all fours and crawled to me.

  David, still standing in a wide-leg balance, began to move slowly towards me as well. Forcing each step, slowly but steadily; his eyes were locked on mine.

  “Get behind the gate,” I ordered Charles once he reached me, and he continued to crawl. I got up on shaky feet, pulling at my core to maintain balance. This was my earthquake, it would not get the best of me.

  I carefully backed up, trying to beat the pace of David, but he was almost a foot taller than me with much longer legs.

  A gun went off close to my left ear. David, hit in the shoulder, stumbled back. I turned around and ducked through the space in the gate. Charles aimed a handgun he had collected earlier at David. He pulled the trigger again, hitting David in the arm, and this time, he fell. Turns out my brother’s years of playing video games and fighting real-life monsters these past nine years had made him an excellent shot.

  “Jared!” I shouted as the werewolf continued to literally tear through the crowd of guards. He turned towards me, then eyed David. I already knew what he was thinking. “Let it go!”

  Jared looked to me again with a heartbreaking mixture of anger and sadness on his wolfen face. He looked back at David, who was now getting up and advancing towards me, oblivious to my friend contemplating ripping his throat out. Jared looked back at me, this time his eyes were calm and resolute. “Go,” he shouted in a bass-heavy voice, slightly foreign from his normal tone. He then jumped in the air and pounced onto David’s back, sending the man back to the ground. He raised a claw in the air and sliced down.

  I turned my head and grimaced.

  I needed my full magic, and I released my hold on the ground. “Stop shooting,” I ordered Charles.

  I needed to make a ward, but couldn’t do so if the bullets were passing through, interrupting the ward wall. I had to use this gift that Jared was giving us wisely. I quickly traced three symbols into the dirt where the former ward was placed, my magic pouring through my fingers into the ground. When making wards, I tended to fluctuate between symbols and spells. Neither was better than the other, but I found symbols required less of my energy. This particular symbol would wrap ten square miles around the hospital grounds. Since I didn’t have time to cover the exact circumference of the hospital vicinity, I had to guess how wide to make it, and I’d rather it be too large than too small.

  I then stood up.
I looked to David, who, bloodied, was busy tussling with Jared. Guards came at the pair as Charles tugged on my arm.

  “Let’s go!” my brother shouted.

  David turned to me as Jared raised his hand for another attack across his chest. He didn’t speak; just looked at me with icy hate.

  I smiled as Jared’s hand came down, but the grin failed to reach my eyes. I then gave David my middle finger before turning and leaving with my brother.

  We were free.

  Chapter 7

  Six months trapped in that hospital facility treated like cattle, and now I was free again. It felt almost foreign. The air smelled different to me. I felt hope again, filled with possibilities.

  “What’s the game plan, Mina? We left Chelsea and Jared behind. I don’t even know if he’s going to survive. It’s getting dark, and we don’t want to be out in these woods. We gotta find a house, ward it up, and regroup in the morning,” Charles stated, walking alongside me as we moved further into woods, putting more distance between ourselves and the hospital.

  “We have to keep moving. I don’t know how long it’ll take for them to get a witch who can break my ward and then they’re going to be on us. They have dogs and cars,” I replied.

  “We should have stolen a car.”

  “In retrospect, that would have been the smart thing to do. I was in a rush.”

  “You could have left me.”

  “Yeah, right, silly.”

  Charles stopped walking. “Mina, I don’t even know how far we are from the road.”

  “We can’t be far. Reggie, who told me where you were, said it was safer for us to go through the woods because we wouldn’t be followed in at night. We were in a hospital, and it had to be accessible to communities, so I’m assuming the woods can’t be too large.”

  We continued to walk. We didn’t speak, nervous as our surroundings seemed to come alive around us now that it was dark. We were only aided by the stars, moon, and a light from Charles’ old magic-powered smartphone he kept in his book bag.