Hannah's hands moved gracefully and the room was clear of all but laughter and merriment.
"Abbey," Aleksandr murmured, recognizing the pain in her eyes. He held his hand out to her.
She made a small sound, much like that of a wounded animal, and stepped back, avoiding contact with him so that his hand fell to his side.
His features hardened perceptibly and a muscle ticked along his jaw. His eyes went flat and ice cold. "Let's go somewhere and talk," he suggested and stepped closer to her.
Abbey felt the heat of his body right through her clothes. She took another step back, hating herself for being a coward. Her hand itched to slap his handsome face, but it was really herself she was upset with. Aleksandr couldn't help being who and what he was, but she knew better.
Aleksandr moved again and this time it was a clear act of aggression. Kate stepped in front of Abbey, cutting off his access to her.
"I'm going to be sick," Abbey whispered to Hannah, her voice so low it was nearly inaudible, or maybe it was through the telepathic connection the sisters shared. "Get me out of here." She had been so incredibly stupid, thinking she could live with Aleksandr's way of life. He had no compunction about doing things she believed were utterly wrong. To him, the end justified the means.
Hannah and Joley immediately turned and shielded her with their bodies as they hustled her out of the room.
Aleksandr took a step after them, ignoring Sylvia's tug on his arm. Sarah stepped smoothly into his path, shoulder to shoulder with Kate, so that he was forced to halt. She smiled at him, but her eyes were flat and cold as she looked at Sylvia. "I've heard you've been visiting Lucinda Parker over in Point Arena, Sylvia." She kept her voice bright, a conversational tone, but there was nothing friendly in her steady gaze.
Sylvia turned pale and drew back from Sarah.
Sarah kept her smile. "You should be very careful of experimenting with forces you don't understand, Sylvia. It can backfire on you and then you're in a real mess."
Sylvia's breath hissed out and her hand crept to her cheek. "I'm not doing anything, honest, Sarah. I just wanted to get rid of this rash I sometimes have." She glanced at Aleksandr, but he was staring after Abigail. "I have to get rid of it. I can't stand it anymore."
"Then do the right thing." Sarah turned on her heel, suddenly aware of Kate's restraining hand on her elbow. She shook her head and walked away.
"You were threatening her," Kate said, shocked. "You've never done that in your life."
"I was warning her. There's a difference." Sarah's soft features hardened perceptibly. "Did you feel Abbey's pain? It terrifies me. Sylvia had better not be dabbling in black magic. She has no way of understanding what can happen. If she harms Abbey in any way, I will retaliate."
There was a grimness in her voice Kate had never heard before. Sarah was always the steady, practical one. "Sylvia's been visiting the black magic queen?" she asked. "Lucinda is nuts. Everyone knows that. She makes it all up and mixes all the practices. It isn't real."
"Yes, but she can stir things up that are better left alone. Lord only knows what she told Sylvia. She may have a voodoo doll that is supposed to be Abbey."
"Sarah! Wait!" Sylvia rushed through the crowd and caught at Sarah's arm. When Sarah's gaze collided with hers she let go immediately. "I know you see things ahead of time. Are you saying something is going to happen to me? What did you mean?"
Sarah glanced up at Aleksandr, who had followed them. For a moment she stilled, everything inside her rebelling at his presence with Sylvia. His aura always blended with Abigail's when she was close to him. Everything she had learned of her gift, of her craft, told her he belonged with Abigail. It seemed obscene that he would be with Sylvia. Sarah could feel Aleksandr's reluctance to have physical contact with Sylvia. Right now an aura of danger surrounded him and twice he shifted subtly to keep Sylvia from clinging to him. Sarah looked from his hard-edged features to Sylvia.
Sylvia craved attention, any man's attention. She needed it to feel good about herself. If she could take Abigail's man she would be ecstatic.
Power clung to Aleksandr. It was in the set of his wide shoulders and defined muscles of his arms, the thickness of his chest, and the fluid way he moved. Sarah had spent a great deal of her life as both an athlete and a bodyguard, and she recognized a dangerous man even without her heightened abilities. Sylvia only saw his rough good looks. His strong sexual appeal. She would never see past that to anything else.
"Be careful, Sylvia," she advised. "Know your real friends." She turned away to follow Kate out of the gallery.
"What does that mean?" Sylvia wailed. "I don't understand. Sarah. You have to tell me what that means." She trailed after Kate and Sarah, outside in time to see Abigail's pale face flash by as Joley pulled their car onto the highway. Aleksandr swore as the car went past them.
"TELL us," Hannah said. "What happened, Abbey?"
Abbey rocked back and forth, curled away from her sisters in the backseat, her face staring out toward the sea with its rolling waves. The roaring in her ears seemed louder. How could she explain? What could she say? That she was so weak she loved a man she knew she could never be with? It sounded so pathetic. When had she become pathetic? And why were her emotions so amplified, so out of control? She felt pain a thousand times worse than she'd ever remembered.
"Abbey?" Hannah was as gentle as possible.
"Stop the car. Hurry. I'm going to be sick," Abbey said in desperation.
Joley slammed on the brakes, guiding the car toward the narrow ribbon of shoulder along the cliff. Before the car had completely stopped, Abbey leapt out, bending over as her stomach protested. She hated being sick, had always fought it, but nothing could stop her body's reaction to the acute pain she felt on recognizing that familiar ruthless streak in Aleksandr. There was no room for someone like her in his life. He needed a woman who would take second place, a back seat to his job and his tremendous drive and need to succeed at whatever he was doing. Someone who would never question him too closely about his methods of investigation.
Hannah handed her a small cloth and Abbey wiped her mouth as she stared down below her to the waves crashing against the rocks. Her heart ached so severely she pressed her hand hard against her chest to ease the pain. Out in the surf, several dolphins leapt into the air, spinning before diving back into the sea. A whale poked his head above the water, spy-hopping as if looking for her. She heard the music of the sea creatures carried to her on the wind. Calling to her. Easing the ache in her heart.
"Abbey!" Joley caught her around the waist and jerked her away from the edge of the cliff. "What are you doing?" There was alarm in her voice.
Abbey blinked to bring her into focus. "They're calling to me."
"I don't care what they're doing. I'm taking you home. You can't possibly think Aleksandr had the least bit of interest in Sylvia Fredrickson, do you?" Joley was horrified at that thought. "He could barely stand her touching him. You had to have felt that."
"Of course I did." Abigail rubbed at her pounding temples.
"Did Sylvia touch you? Could she have gotten a hair or anything at all personal of yours?" Joley guided Abbey back to the car.
Hannah yanked the door open. "Have you gotten anything strange in the mail?"
Abbey slid into the warmth of the backseat. "You both think Sylvia put some kind of spell on me?"
"You just nearly walked off a cliff, Abbey," Joley said, wrenching at the wheel to get the car back on the highway. "That's not normal."
Abbey stared down at her hands. They were shaking. "Sylvia doesn't have the power to disrupt my life at all. She has nothing to do with this."
"She'd better not," Hannah said. "She tried to make our lives miserable in school. It would be just like her to try to seduce a man she thought one of us was interested in. I swear, I thought she was trying to get back with her husband."
"I was hoping she'd try to get back with him," Abigail said, struggling for control of her em
otions. It was unfair to her sisters to be so wild with her feelings. "I'm sorry. I can't imagine what Sarah and Kate are thinking."
"Libby's in the house and I want her to do a psychic healing on you," Hannah said firmly. "You have to let her. The pain is getting worse, not better."
"You could have stepped off that cliff," Joley pointed out.
Hannah and Joley looked at each other. "Prakenskii," they blurted out simultaneously.
"What was this about?" Joley inquired.
Abigail shrugged. "I feel so stupid. I was looking at Aleksandr with Sylvia and I realized he might very well sleep with her, not because he was at all attracted and had the impulse to cheat, but because he can be cold-blooded enough to use whatever tool he deems necessary to further an investigation. I was responsible for a man's death, or at least played a part in the tragedy of his death, while I was in Russia. All this time, I've wondered that Aleksandr might have killed someone, maybe more than one man, in order to get me out of Russia. I couldn't face it. I wanted to pretend he'd never do such a thing. And I didn't want to feel responsible for any more deaths. But he could have. He could have done such a thing if he thought there was no other way."
"Abigail, you don't know that," Hannah protested.
She wiped at the tears on her face. "But he did. I know he did. He can be utterly ruthless. And if that's what it took to get me out of Russia, he'd do it. The moment I saw the truth and I had to admit what he did for me, I realized I love him just as much or more than I did four years ago. That I'm never going to stop and I can't live with him." She covered her face. "I can't live with him." She raised her head to look at her sisters with haunted eyes. "And I don't know if I can live without him."
Hannah wrung her hands together. "It has to be Prakenskii. Who else has the power to amplify your emotions to such a state?"
"Abigail's always felt things strongly," Joley said. "Although I'd like to meet Prakenskii one more time without everyone around."
They arrived home and parked. In the doorway to the house they found Libby waiting for them, one hand pressed to her stomach. "I think she's feeling both of their pain," she told Hannah, "Aleksandr's as well as her own. I'm wondering if he feels it too."
"Their auras mix," Hannah said.
"I noticed that." Joley glanced down the long drive. "I expect that he'll show up here very soon. He isn't the type of man to let his woman walk away from him like that." She narrowed her gaze as she looked in both directions. "I still think Prakenskii has something to do with this."
"I think we'd recognize his fingerprints all over the magic." Hannah was practical. She handed Abigail over to Libby. "Let's make up the circle and be ready for when the others return home."
"I'd like to take a shot at matching magic with that man." Joley rubbed her palm up and down her trousers, scowling at her sisters. "I swear I still feel him touching me."
Hannah glanced at her sharply. "You didn't tell us that. You should have said so right away, Joley. Prakenskii's a total unknown. We have to be very careful until we know exactly what we're dealing with."
Abigail sat on the floor in the middle of the living room while her sisters drew a circle of protection around her using wooden staffs. She rested her cheek on her raised knees, feeling worn out and thin. "Hannah, we weren't looking for magic at the party. We were looking for evidence of smuggling. Would we have recognized Prakenskii's magic? Except for when he turned Joley's magic back on her last night at the inn, his power has been very subtle. I'm not certain I would know if I were being influenced--would you? Except that my reaction to seeing Sylvia with Aleksandr is so unnatural."
"I honestly don't know," Hannah admitted. "It's outside my realm of expertise. Other than the aunts and Mom and Grandma, I've never encountered anyone else using magic, and certainly not directed against us."
"And if he is directing it against us," Libby said, "I think the question would be--why? What are we doing that is interfering with what he's doing?"
There was a sudden abrupt silence as they all looked at one another, trying to come up with an answer. Sarah and Kate burst through the door, followed by their aunt and Aleksandr Volstov.
He walked in without hesitation and, ignoring the warnings of circles and protection, went straight to Abigail.
The sisters shared a long look as he simply stepped over the wooden staffs on the floor and nothing happened.
"What happened, baushki-bau? I felt the pain hit you and when I looked into your eyes, it hit me."
Abigail shook her head, tears welling up. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here." She waved her hand indicating the wooden staffs laid out in a circle. "This doesn't concern you."
"Everything about you concerns me. Tell me what happened." When he didn't get a response, his gaze swept around at the women in the room. "Tell me." There was hard authority in his voice.
"We don't know," Joley answered. "We think it's possible Prakenskii used magic to amplify her feelings of pain and despair."
A mixture of bafflement and anger crossed his face. "Why would you be having feelings of pain and despair? You certainly didn't believe for one moment that I was in the least attracted to that woman, did you?"
She shook her head.
"Did anyone see Prakenskii at the party?" Joley asked. "Sergei Nikitin was there earlier, following me around and generally making a complete ass out of himself."
"What did he want?" Sarah asked.
"To be my boyfriend, I gather," Joley said. "I told him I don't date. He wasn't very happy about it."
"I doubt if he's used to being turned down by a mere woman," Aleksandr said as he sank down onto the floor in the center of the circle and pulled Abigail onto his lap. "I, however, have firsthand knowledge of it on a regular basis."
Abigail lifted her head and looked into his eyes. There was hurt there. Love. Pleading he probably didn't even realize he was revealing. She sighed and leaned into his chest. "I didn't turn you down."
"You've been turning me down for years, Abbey," he said.
"Actually," Aunt Carol commented as she fussed with the protective circle, making it just right and adding several candles at various points, "Prakenskii was at the gallery earlier. He spoke with Frank about Mr. Nikitin attending the party and then I thought he left, but instead, he went into the back room. He and that young man you went to school with, the one always getting into fights, must have had some kind of argument."
"Why do you say that, Aunt Carol?" Sarah asked.
"Light those candles on the mantel, dear," Carol instructed. "What was that obnoxious boy's name?"
"Chad. Chad Kingman," Kate supplied.
"Yes, of course, Chad. His mother was a very hard worker, but his father was a mean drunk. He believed in settling everything with his fists. I saw Prakenskii talking to him. Chad seemed rather heated, although Prakenskii didn't at all."
"Aunt Carol," Sarah reprimanded, "were you in the back room witnessing this?"
"I promised Frank I'd be the official photographer at his event. As a matter of course I took preparation photos. Naturally they included shots of the back room."
"Naturally." Kate glared at her. "You must have driven Grandma and Gramps crazy, Aunt Carol. You know perfectly well you shouldn't have been in that back room."
"You can make all the excuses in the world," Sarah added, "but you know you were spying. It's far too dangerous for you to be doing that kind of thing. Jonas told you not to do it."
Aleksandr's eyebrow shot up. He crooked his little finger at Sarah. "You have smears of white resin on your jacket and Kate has them as well. I saw that very powder in the back room where there was broken statuary."
Sarah hastily dusted off her jacket. Kate did the same. Hannah, Joley, and Abigail exchanged a long look of complete and utter guilt.
Libby burst out laughing. "That back room must have been a very popular place. Aunt Carol, all of you, and even Aleksandr all went snooping. I stayed home and read a book with my feet up, mi
ssing all the fun."
"We brought home pictures," Joley assured her. "Aunt Carol, do you think Prakenskii and Chad were in a fistfight? We found blood in one corner and the area carried the feel of violence."
"Oh, there was a terrible brawl. Chad swung a statue at Prakenskii's head. I think he meant to kill him. They had exchanged words, but I couldn't hear. I was in the small closet near the door leading to the alley where the delivery trucks come. Prakenskii hardly seemed to move, but he tore up Chad. If I hadn't seen Chad attack Prakenskii first, I would have felt sorry for him."
"What happened to Chad?"
Carol sighed. "I thought I could take a picture of the fight, but I must have knocked into the door because it squeaked. Prakenskii didn't look toward me, but he did grab Chad in one of those policeman holds and force him out the back door. I decided it best not to follow them and to allow them to settle their argument in private."
Joley burst out laughing. "We could have had a Drake family convention in the back room of the art gallery. What does that say about us?"
"It says you're all foolish and take chances," Aleksandr said.
"Well, you were there too," Joley said. "And we were almost treated to the traumatic, forever-stamped-on-our-memories, take-to-the-grave vision of Sylvia baring her breasts, thank you very much."
"Before we do anything else, I want to perform a healing ceremony on Abigail and we may as well see if it helps Aleksandr too," Libby said, pinning him with her gaze. "He wasn't invited, but it doesn't look as if he plans on leaving soon."
Aleksandr watched with interest as Libby unwrapped several beautiful stones and set them carefully within the circle. The stones were round and blood red. "Those aren't genuine rubies, are they?" he asked.
Carol nodded. "They've been in our family for generations and we purify them when needed with the elements of earth, air, fire, and water. The ruby is a strong stone and can be used for protection as well as healing. This is a star ruby and particularly powerful. We'll use a second ruby outside the circle placed beside a red candle to aid our energy in the healing."