Running in Fear: Ghost Warrior Read online

  Nikola opened his eyes, the fire was out in the room, Pierre, Adonis and Caster were still asleep, but Lissa was not in their room. He flashed out of bed to the fireplace, and with a wave to his hand, the fire place was once more ablaze with warmth.

  The morning light from the sun came up and hit him in the eyes, when he saw the lights from the ring they had given Lissa fil-ter partly in the room from outside. “She wouldn’t?” Nikola glided over to the window to see Lissa outside with a cup in her hand.

  She sat in the swing that now looked over a large pond, that hadn’t been there last night. “Are you out of your mind, out here by yourself?” Nikola demanded, as soon as he appeared in front of her, scaring her.

  “Damn it, Nikola, I’m not alone. If you look to your right, and don’t scare the crap out of me like that again.” She snapped, and glared at him, as Dominic, Blair and Suzanne curled up on the other swing.

  “Problems?” Suzanne asked, but he ignored her, and plopped down next to her. “It’s too early for this. Let me guess, you’re a morning person?” He grumbled.

  Lissa nodded, curled her feet under her, and brought the blanket from the end of their bed up around her tighter. “You knew, all of you knew what Castor was going to do, but you said nothing to me. Why?” Her words chipped and frosty, she wouldn’t even look at his face.

  Nikola really didn’t want to get into this now, when all he wanted to do was crawl back into bed, but it looked like he was up for good. He wrapped his arm around her, and picked her up, placing her in his lap careful of her drink. “First, let me get some coffee in me, since it looks like I’m up, then we’ll talk okay?” He sniffed the air, and glanced at her cup. “What are you drinking?”

  “Why Nikola, you should know what she is drinking, since every morning when you were a little boy I made it for you,” His mother, Lyda said, appearing at his side, and handed him a glass as well.

  “When did you arrive? I thought you wouldn’t arrive to later.

  I’m sorry I wasn’t up to greet you.” He glanced at Lissa, and saw the small smile on her face.

  “So you have met my mother, and my sisters?” Nikola squeezed her, and took a sip of the hot chocolate, caramel drink.

  “I’ve shown your sisters to their rooms, and they are unpacking as we speak, but your mother wanted to talk, so we came outside to enjoy the new landscape.” Lissa studied him for a minute then she nodded. “Your sister, Karen, is right. You do take after mom.” He choked on his drink. “You talked to Karen?” he moaned, and his mother laughed, but a frown marred her face. “Not to worry Nikola, Karen has learned, the hard way, about your brother and father.”

  All of a sudden, his mother looked lost and old. Lissa moved next to him, knowing he needed to hold her. “I’m sorry mom. If there was anything I could do, I would.” Nikola couldn’t believe how thin his mother had gotten, as he held her.

  “Mom, what happened? You’re so thin. Dad, well I didn’t recognize him, when he came here.” Nikola pulled his mother down in between him, and Lissa who automatically wrapped the blanket around the both of them, sensing she was cold.

  His mother leaned against his shoulder, one tear, then two tears, slid down her cheek. “It started about ten years ago,” his sister Karen said coming to stand next to them, with his other sisters and younger brother.

  Two more swings appeared next to them, with big soft warm cushions. “Please sit.”

  Karen swung Teddy, up in her arms and sat down in the swing, next to their younger sisters Beth, and Elizabeth. “Vender became more withdrawn. He now kept secrets, and would disappear for days on end. One day, I caught him coming back from one such trip…” Her hands trembled, as she wrapped her arms around Teddy, and hugged him. His mother trembled in his arms.

  “He was stoned Nikola, Vender was higher than a kite, and not from the human’s drugs but from…”

  Karen couldn’t finish the sentence, so his mom did. “He had been harvesting. When your sister confronted him about it, he attacked her. Your father was the one who pulled him off of her, but not before he had tried to steal her soul.” Nikola slid off the swing, and knelt next to Karen. “Are you okay?”

  She brushed his messed up hair back, and smiled. “I’m fine now. It took about a year for me to finally get back to normal. I’m sorry Nikola. I was such a bitch to you, when we were growing up, and look at me now, three hundred years old, and I have to depend on you to protect me.”

  He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “You always were a stub-born one, but Karen, I would be in no other place then here protecting you. You are my family and any threat to you is a threat to me.”

  “To us all,” Pierre finished behind him.

  Nikola rolled his eyes, and stood holding out his hand. “Pierre, these are my little sisters, Karen, Elizabeth and Beth, and the little guy is my little brother Teddy.” Pierre nodded to each of them, and smiled at Karen.

  “Don’t worry, little sister, you are safe here. We won’t let anyone hurt you.” He turned and nodded his head. “Yep, you take after your mother. Sho is very beautiful.” Pierre took her hand, and kissed it.

  Lissa busted out laughing. “Enjoy that bit of manners, because in the past three days now, I’ve seen little of them.” She squealed, when Adonis came up from behind, and nipped her shoulder.

  “I resent that little one. We have been the perfect gentlemen.” He kissed her soundly on the lips, and she melted in his arms, as he picked her up, and held her. “You should get dressed. It’s cold out here, and Castor is waiting in the bedroom for you.” Adonis let her feet drop to the ground, and turned her around, swatting her ass.

  “Now go, we’ll keep Nikola’s family busy till you get back.”

  * * * *

  Lissa didn’t want to face Castor yet. She still didn’t know if she was really pissed at him, or not. Sure it would have been nice if the four of them would have mentioned something about it, but the bonding of their souls only warmed her. She didn’t flash to the bedroom. Instead Lissa decided to walk there, give herself time to come to grips with everything that was happening around her. She had awakened and seen that Suzanne was headed outside with Dominic and Blair, she had asked to join them. Then Nikola’s family had appeared. So Lissa had introduced herself to his family and showed them to their rooms. She’d had little time to think about things.

  Stopping at the kitchen, Cecil was there cooking up a storm.

  She smiled and waved her over. “Here, taste this and tell me what you think.” Cecil handed her some kind of biscuit and a glass of milk.“I take it these are made from something we found yesterday?” Lissa took a bite of the biscuit, and it melted in her mouth. The caramel, chocolate biscuit was gone in three bites. “Okay, you better have at least six dozen of these, because if Jaycee, and the rest of the women taste them…well you won’t be going anywhere but this kitchen to make more.”

  Lissa took a sip of her milk, and glanced down at the glass, as another burst of the flavor of the biscuit surprised her. “Yep, that is the same reaction I got. It seems that after eating the biscuit the milk, retriggers our taste buds, so that we again taste what we just ate.” Cecil turned to the counter and picked up a piece of the fruit, taking a bit of it, and then taking a drink of the milk in her hand.

  “Shit, it’s the milk. It’s not the food, we got here, but the milk we got. Do you know where the milk came from?” Cecil asked, but she shook her head.

  “Nope, you’d have to ask Castor. I tell you what, I’ll ask him, and let you know.” Cecil nodded and went back to work, but not before she handed her another biscuit on her way out.

  “You have to eat. You are carrying four babies now,” Cecil said, and went back to making more biscuits.

  Moving down the hall to their room, Lissa knew Castor was growing impatient with her, but he waited in their room giving her the time she needed.

  “Lissa, may I have a word with you.” Granger asked as she passed the dining room door.

  She n
odded and moved into the room, which was empty except for him. “Please have a seat.” Granger nodded, to the chair near the table, where juice, decaf coffee, and milk were set up.

  With the blanket now tightly wrapped around her, Lissa sat down and nibbled on the roll Cecil had given her. “What can I help you with, Granger? I’m afraid we don’t have much time. Your father is waiting for me now and I don’t know how long he’ll wait.” She smiled.

  “You and my father combined your souls last night, didn’t you?” He poured himself a glass of coffee and sat across from her.

  She nodded and popped a piece of the biscuit into her mouth.

  “Yes, but I’m afraid I didn’t know he was going to do it, until it was done.”

  Granger nodded and poured a third cup of coffee, when Lissa glanced up to see Castor. “Please have a seat father, we need to talk.”

  Castor picked her up and sat across from his son with her in his lap. Lissa sighed and rested her head against his chest. “What do you need Granger? Lissa and I have some personal business to discuss.”

  His son got up and paced back and forth. “I wouldn’t ask this, but Lissa has a blood bond with one of Suzanne’s best friends and we’re worried about her and her mate. Dominic’s worried about Alex.”

  All Lissa’s attention was now on Granger. “Suzanne hasn’t heard from Della or Alex?” She jumped up and clothes now covered her body. “When was the last time you heard from them?” Suzanne came into the room with Dominic. She was pissed and glared at Dominic. “The last time I’ve heard from Della was three days ago, that was before the massacre in Dearborn. All phones lines to the south have been cut, and I don’t have a blood connection to Della.” Suzanne tried to move away from Dominic, but he held onto her.

  “Suzanne is furious with me, as I am myself. I was going to make a blood connection with Alex before we left, but I was so worried about getting Suzanne out that I forgot. I want Alex and my staff here and we have tried all the normal routes, but nothing.” Lissa moved to the window and glanced outside. She shook her head. “There is something blocking my connection to Della. I don’t know if it is the change of the island or something else, but we can go there and bring them back.” Lissa turned to Suzanne who smiled and nodded.

  “That is what I was thinking. You know where the estate is and you could get us there and back in no time.” Suzanne pulled her into a hug. “Della is as important to me as she is to you Lissa. She saved me, too.”

  “Lissa you are going nowhere. It’s too dangerous and I won’t risk you or our children.” Castor snapped and glared at her.

  “Excuse me? You, the one who didn’t tell me shit about last night, are going to tell me what I can and can’t do? I don’t think so! This woman is important to both of us and if I want to go and get her, I will.”

  Nikola pushed into the room with, Pierre, Adonis, Blair and Archer at his heels. “Enough! You will not talk to Castor like that.

  Is that understood?” Nikola snapped, as sparks of fire danced in his eyes, indicating just how pissed he was.

  A slow smile formed on her lips. “Not to worry!” She grabbed onto Suzanne’s hand and flashed her and Suzanne into the kitchen where Cecil, Marsha and Shelly stood. “Don’t have time, need help.”

  Marsha shook her head. “It’s too far to do what you did and we don’t have a safe house close enough to Dominic’s estate to go there.”

  “Leda!” Lissa and Suzanne ran out of the room heading outside to the cabin where Leda was setting up her equipment. “If anyone can get any news, it’ll be her. She has contacts everywhere.” Lissa nodded to Suzanne as they pushed into the cabin. Dominic and Nikola stood there talking with Leda.

  “Oh, there you two are. I’ve called two of my contacts in New Orleans. Nothing out of the normal has happened in that area yet, but he said everyone is nervous because many of the lines are down, cut by someone. So if you’re going to go in there, now would be the time to do it, before whatever is going to happen, happens.”

  Lissa glanced at Nikola. One minute she was standing talking to Leda and Suzanne, the next she was tied down on the bed.

  Nikola and Castor stared down at her.

  “Suzanne is also being held until we find your friends, but I won’t risk your life or our babies, so you will stay here while we are gone.” Nikola snapped and disappeared from the room with Castor.

  Lissa tried her magic, but nothing worked. She was bound to the bed until they returned or they didn’t. Hurt and angry, Lissa closed her eyes. Tears slipped down her face as she tried again to connect with Della, but nothing.

  Small hands worked at the bindings at her ankles and at her arms. Lissa opened her eyes to see Jaycee, Shelly and Marsha working on the bonds. “Do you believe Remi tried to do that to me, but Marsha told him he might hurt the babies, so he just locked me in a room? Ha, like that would stop me. How dare them try and bind us!” Jaycee shouted untying her hand.

  “We still won’t be able to leave; your mate has placed some kind of bubble on the house and the property around it. And all four of your mates aren’t gone. Castor is down in the communica-tions room with Leda working on Remi’s interview.” Marsha announced helping her sit up.

  She nodded. “What about Suzanne?” Lissa tried to dress herself, but her powers weren’t working.

  “I think he pulled your powers Lissa, and we’re on our way to her quarters now, since her mates left too. Except for Archer, and we’ll take care of him,” Shelly rubbed her hands together.

  Lissa moved into her closet, realizing she had no clothes.

  Shelly came in behind her and handed her a pair of jeans and a shirt. “They might be a little big since I’m taller, but they should fit.” She nudged her and laughed. “I used to have to dress Jaycee all the time. The freaks that kept coming after her always went for her clothes, don’t ask me why.”

  Jaycee laughed behind them as she got dressed, all of a sudden feeling so alone. Lissa glanced up and Jaycee stared at her and nodded. “Shelly, why don’t you and Cecil go free Suzanne. We’ll get the picnic baskets ready.”

  Lissa moved out of her room and down to the kitchen with Jaycee and Marsha. “So where are we going?” Lissa asked pushing into the kitchen.

  Castor, Remi, Leda, Bo, and King Jared all sat at the kitchen table. Lissa froze as did Jaycee, and Marsha. “Shit, they weren’t supposed to be in here.” Jaycee snarled as both Remi and Castor stood.

  “And both of you were supposed to be in your rooms, resting.” Remi growled, Castor said nothing as he slowly moved closer to her, but she didn’t give him a chance as she shifted, the one thing no one could take away from her, and ran for the back door. Castor was there and he grabbed her, and held her tight, flashing them back into their rooms.

  “Shift Lissa, now.” Castor dropped her onto the bed and she snarled at him, but curled up into a ball at the far end of the bed.

  Lissa would be damned if she did anything he, or any of her mates said.“Lissa, I’m in no mood. You will shift now.” Castor moved around the bed to grab her, but she didn’t move. He sighed and stroked her head. “We need to talk Lissa, that’s why I stayed.

  Nikola and the others knew we needed this time alone. I’m sorry about your friend, Lissa, she didn’t make it.” He picked her head up and stared into her face.

  “We just got word, everyone at Dominic’s estate had been killed. There was no one left alive.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Nikola had just stepped into their quarters when Lissa shifted, screaming. Tears ran down her face and sobs wrenched her body, when he heard Suzanne’s scream next. He moved into the room, followed by Pierre and Adonis.

  In all his experience, he didn’t know how to fix this. His mate lay on the bed, tears falling down her face, as she just stared at the wall. “Della saved me, Franco’s bite had me at death’s door, but she wouldn’t give up as she paid three hookers to get me alone so she could take me away. She risked her life for me, cutting her wrists feed
ing me, not knowing what would happen to her. Della would sit with me all night, brushing my hair and telling me all about Suzanne. About how they escaped and survived. Her voice alone brought me out of myself, it was she who held me, while I puked and puked. She was the one who taught me to walk again, talk and believe I had a life.”

  Someone knocked at the door and Nikola knew it was Dominic, Archer, Blair and Granger with Suzanne. He opened the door and Suzanne flew to Lissa. The both of them held each other and cried.

  Marsha came into the room carrying a tray of hot tea and biscuits. She sat down on the bed, as Jaycee, Shelly, Cecil, Leda, Tonya, his mother and sisters all moved into the room. His mother glanced at him and at the other men.

  “I have set up the dining room for you and the men. Let us help your mates. We know what it is too lose someone so close. Give them time and we’ll meet you in the dining room shortly.” Nikola shook his head, but his mother pleaded with him with her eyes.

  “Son she is on the verge of losing it right now. What you did earlier, by stripping her and tying her down brought back too many memories, and now the one who saved her from that is gone. She needs us right now, because right now Lissa just sees men. Men who want to take and hurt. We need to bring her back for you Nikola.” His mother pleaded and his gaze flickered to Lissa.

  Her eyes were blank as Suzanne tried to talk to her and hold her. Castor gripped his arm and sucked in his breath. “I can’t feel her, she is withdrawing, Nikola.”

  Castor’s voice was in a panic, his bond to her seemed to be dis-solving. The men slowly left the room and closed the door behind them.

  Dominic and Remi walked with them to the dining room. “This is the closet we have come to losing one of them, and it isn’t from a physical attack, but a mental one.” Empusa snapped, as fire lit the dining room. Gaia paced on the other side of the table.

  Queen Isabel huddled close to her mate, Hendricks. She glanced up and shook her head. “I warned you to go easy. We have another problem. There is a door opening in the fae world, and it seems to be connecting with this world. I have hidden it so far, but soon enough our people will know. We need your mate whole, Nikola. You and your mates will be the ones to rule over the fae of both worlds since it seems our world is now joining with your new one.”He sat down and ran his hand through his hair. Pierre squeezed his shoulder and handed him a stiff brandy. He gulped it down and frowned at Empusa, who cussed up a storm.