She pulled out some underwear and a change of clothes from the bag, hanging it where the other two hung in the closet. The shower was nice and hot and it woke her up nicely. She was ravenous by the time she had finished getting ready and she quickly headed down the back stairs and ended up in the enormous kitchen where Lee was sitting, drinking coffee and reading.
“Good afternoon!” Lee smiled as she stood. She hugged Holly before her cousin could bolt and felt relieved when Holly returned it. “Hungry?”
“Starving!”
“Would you like to grab something quick here, a sweet roll or something, and head into town to the shop? We’ll meet everyone for a late lunch in the French Quarter at Deanie’s Seafood. I promise you won’t be sorry.” Lee’s grin was infectious and Holly found herself returning it.
“Sure! I’d love to see the shop and I’ve heard great things about the food in New Orleans. I’m glad that the city seems to be recovering from Katrina.”
“Deanie’s used to be located in a really hard-hit area but they’ve moved it to the French Quarter this year. It was just too much to try and salvage it where it was. So many restaurants were destroyed after Katrina. It’s going to take years more before it’s back to normal. You know, we can protect the city from demons but not a hurricane. The aftermath was horrifying. It still is in many parts of New Orleans. But we’ll survive, that’s what we do.”
Holly was touched by her cousin’s obvious love of the Crescent City.
“I’ll drive you both wherever you need to be today,” Jax said as he entered the room.
“Okay, Jax. Thank you.” Holly had promised Nate and Rhett that she wouldn’t go anywhere without Jax during the daytime.
“Great, thank you, Jax,” Lee agreed.
As it was winter, it wasn’t the tourism season and the Quarter wasn’t very crowded and so they were able to find a place to park on Iberville and walk the few blocks to Deanie’s.
A whole table was filled with Charvez women who jumped up to hug and kiss her cheeks. Holly felt the warmth of their greeting. She felt like she belonged to their tribe and that was overwhelming.
Em stood and hugged Holly. “Come on and sit down. Hope you like seafood.”
Jax accepted all of the feminine adoration with the ease of a man who was used to it. It made Holly grin. But even with the attention, he never took his focus from the room, from who was there and near Holly.
Lunch was a riot of noise and energy and camaraderie. While Holly envied them their ease of communication and the way they all seemed to know each other so well, she also began to feel a part of that. Clearly she didn’t have the decades of togetherness that they did, but at the same time, they treated her like family. Teasing and laughing with her. As she relaxed they did too, Holly began to realize that she really wanted to know these people. She resolved to speak with Rhett and Nate later that day about their plans for where they’d live after she converted.
However she’d felt at lunch, she was totally unprepared for the shop. She could feel it for blocks as they walked toward it. Could feel the invisible tether pulling her toward the glass doors at the end of the block ahead of her.
Suddenly she turned and it was like time had slowed to a crawl. She saw a flash of light and searing pain in her chest. The stench of burned flesh hit her nose and she crumpled to the ground amid screams.
And then a hand on her forearm and the worried eyes of Isolde. “I saw it. Let’s get you inside.” Her command was urgent and Jax shielded her with his body and hustled them all into The Grove.
At once, the scent of sage and the polished wood of the giant counter washed away the scent memory of the burning flesh. The sound of the jingling chimes calmed her jangled nerves.
Em pushed her into a chair and Con shimmered into the room, looking worried and ready to fight. Lee handed her a mug of tea. “Drink it, chere, it’ll calm your nerves.”
“I saw…I felt something hit my chest. It hurt, I could smell where whatever it was had burned into me. There were screams and I fell.” Holly looked up into Isolde’s face and met the same worry there.
“You had a vision. Have you not ever had one before?” Isolde asked as she chafed one of Holly’s hands in her own.
Holly’s cell phone was ringing and Jax answered it tersely. He came to her moments later. “Holly, it’s Rhett.”
“Rhett?” Holly looked outside, it couldn’t have been later than four, sunset was not for another hour. She took the phone. “Yes? Honey, is everything all right? Why are you awake?”
“Are you all right?” he demanded.
“I apparently had a vision. I’m all right. I’m at the shop. Jax is here. Rhett, it’s an hour from sunset, how can you be awake?”
“What did you see? Holly, to wake me so far ahead of sunset it must have been something bad. I want you to come back here now. I need to touch you, to know with my eyes that you’re okay.”
“I saw, hell, I don’t know really.” She looked at everyone else as she explained to Rhett over the phone. “I was walking and then I turned around, but time felt different, odd, slow. I saw a flash of light and then I felt this terrible burning pain in my chest. I smelled burning flesh. I’d been hit with something. Attacked. I fell to the ground, people were screaming.” The reality hit her, she began to tremble until her voice was shaking so badly her teeth began to chatter.
“Damn it! Holly, please, it’s killing me not to be able to help you. Please, please come back to the house now,” Rhett begged.
“H-he w-wants me t-to c-c-come back.” She tried to speak and ended up handing the phone to Jax who carried on a tense, whispered conversation with Rhett.
“We should get you back to the house. It’s safest and we need to do some thinking,” Lee said.
“It was a magical attack that she saw,” Isolde said quietly. “I saw it at the same time she did.”
“Why haven’t I dreamed this?” Lee asked, frustrated.
“Let’s talk about this back at the house, shall we?” Jax interjected. “I’ve got a very agitated vampire waiting back there and soon Nate will be drawn out of sleep too. I’ve seen a vampire kept from his mate when she was threatened, it wasn’t pretty.”
“We’ll shimmer her back right now with Jax. Lee, I felt Holly’s distress very strongly, I’m guessing that Alex and Aidan probably are feeling yours through the link. Call Alex and if Aidan wakes up, we’ll tell him we’re coming right back to shimmer you home.”
Just after Em and Con took Holly and Jax’s hand, Alex burst through the door and straight to Lee, pulling her into his arms.
* * * * *
They shimmered straight into the living room of Lee’s house and Jax led Holly out of the room, keeping an arm around her to support her as he called out to Rhett.
Rhett rushed out into the hallway and saw her and Holly was taken aback momentarily by the flash of anger in his eyes toward Jax. Jax must have seen it too because he stepped away from Holly slowly.
“He’s worried about you. Seeing you in this state, and another man touching you, incites his primal instincts,” he whispered to Holly and then looked to Rhett. “Rhett, she’s very shaky, why don’t you settle her on the couch?” he said in a soft voice and it occurred to Holly that she’d love to know just how he knew so much about vampire behavior.
Shaking his head to clear it, Rhett moved quickly to help her. “Let’s get you on the couch,” he said softly and they heard a thump and a bellow come from Nate.
“Shit. Stay here, I’ll go and let him know you’re all right.” Jax quickly headed upstairs.
Em tucked a throw around Holly as Lee rushed out to get some tea, Aidan on her heels, not letting her out of his sight.
Nate ran into the room and there was a bit of a tussle between him and Rhett until they both found a way to snuggle in on either side of her.
“Everyone else is driving over,” Em said quietly as she sat down and tucked her feet beneath her. Con sat on the floor, his head on her la
p.
“What the heck happened?” Alex asked. “Isolde said it was a magical attack in your vision?”
Holly told them what she’d seen and explained the way that time had slowed down. “Funny thing, I wanted to say these words but the pain in my chest cut off my wind, I couldn’t speak.” She then spoke a fluid series of intonations in a language she didn’t know.
Alex paled and stood up. “Where did you hear those words?” he demanded and Nate stood up, getting between Alex and Holly, baring his teeth.
Aidan stood slowly and touched Alex’s shoulder. “Rhett and Nate are in a state right now. Their only focus is going to be protecting Holly. I know you don’t intend to be threatening but your body language is. Sit down and let’s all be calm.”
Alex put his hands up slowly and sat back down and Nate followed suit and the glow in his eyes receded.
“Nate, honey, it’s all right.” Holly touched the side of his face with the backs of her fingers. He turned to her and she watched the panic fade from his eyes.
“I know. I just…waking up after you’d been so upset, I felt helpless. I couldn’t have saved you. I hate that.”
Sitting up, she moved to her knees and embraced him. “I love you so much. I was surrounded by family. Jax was there. They got me back here right away. It’s all right. I’m all right.”
Rhett moved behind her and put his arms around both of them. “Jesus, if anything had happened to you…” His voice broke.
“Nothing did. Don’t you see? My vision, my gift just saved my life.” She pulled back but stayed wedged between them. “How many people get to know of a planned attack with such accuracy? I’ll be sure to be extra careful now. Coming here, getting in contact with my family, you both pushed me to do that and it may well save my life.”
Lee came in and handed her a steaming mug of tea. “Drink up while you answer Alex’s question. It’s calming. The Grove’s special blend.”
“Alex, I don’t know where I got the words from, they just came to me.” Holding the mug in both hands, she leaned back, letting herself relax against Rhett and Nate.
Within minutes, the room began to fill with people. With family. Holly looked up at them all in amazement. They were her family and they’d come because they were worried about her.
“Do you recognize the words, Alex?” Holly asked as she saw her uncle come in and gave him a smile. He approached her and hugged her tight and then sat across from them, not letting her out of his sight.
“Yes. Holly, that was a wizard spell. Not just any spell but one of a very high power level. Master Class.”
“Is a wizard acting through her? Using her to try to get back at someone?” Rhett asked.
“I don’t think so. We can’t really do that, well, some dark path practitioners could temporarily possess someone but she wouldn’t have such a strong memory of the spell. Wizard power is inherited. In other words, because my grandfather was so powerful, my father, being his son, was also powerful. So of course my brothers and I, being his sons, are at that level of power too. That spell she just spoke was a spell that turns magic around, like a rebound of energy. Only the child of a master line would be able to speak it.”
“Another Charvez mutation?” Isolde asked. “Em has the power of an empath but also a bit of the power of a seer.”
“I don’t know,” he said doubtfully. “Witch magic and wizard magic are very different. The language we use to manipulate and control our magic comes from our power levels. As you know, our spells are not in a written language but an arcane system of symbols which, used together, create sounds and spell words. Now, we could trade certain elemental spells when I first met Lee because the three of you were at a sufficient power level to handle those. But the spell Holly used is not something you could use. I could spell it out phonetically but you would not be able to say it.” Alex pursed his lips as he thought.
“Weird,” Holly said.
Nate did a shocked double take and he began to laugh. Others began to join him and a minute or two later the tension was broken and Holly had stopped shaking.
Jax poked his head into the room. “Nate, Rhett? Donors are here.”
They wouldn’t both leave her at the same time so one went to feed and then the other.
“This is connected to wizards. We know this. We don’t know why, but at least we know something,” Nate said as he returned.
“True.” Alex turned to Isolde. “Grand-mére, what was Elena’s power level like? Did she have any unusual talents?”
“She was an exceptional healer. From an early age she was so strong. But nothing more than that. She had the Charvez talent for charming people but she didn’t have Lee’s level of power and I think that even untrained Holly has more all-around power than Elena did.”
Holly turned to Rhett and then Nate. “Can I speak with you two alone?” She looked back at everyone. “We need a few minutes.” She stood up and held out her hands to the guys. “You ready?”
They nodded, and hand in hand, they went upstairs.
Once in their room Holly went to the loveseat and sat. “I want to stay here to be trained. To learn how to use my powers and to find out what the hell is going on.”
Nate sat on one side and Rhett pulled up a chair to sit across from them both. “Okay, that’s reasonable.”
“Are you sure? You have a house in Seattle, you were starting lives there. I’m sorry to do this to you.”
Rhett leaned forward and took her hands. “Honey, we love you. You need to do this and you won’t be safe until we figure out who’s behind this and stop them. We go where you go.”
“But…”
Nate interrupted. “But what? It’s not like I can’t do consulting work from here. Rhett’s web design stuff is portable. We’ll get our own house here in the Garden District near your family and after all of this is over we can revisit where we’ll live for the long term.”
“I agree. I’ll call my business manager and get him looking for a house right away. I only have one condition,” Rhett said.
“Anything. You two are so good to me. What can I do for you?” She really couldn’t believe how fortunate she was. Despite the death threats, she had family. A big family, complete with two husbands, and it was so incredibly wonderful that she could hardly believe it.
“You need to convert.”
“I said I would already. Is that what you’re worried about?”
“No. I want you to convert tonight or tomorrow night. I want it done and I want it done soon and I won’t feel okay until it happens,” Rhett said.
“I agree,” Nate said.
She sighed and closed her eyes as she thought.
“Do you think we’d do anything that would harm you?” Rhett asked, frustrated.
“No! It isn’t something I think I should do right now.” Holly stood up and began to pace.
“Are you going to keep trying to put this off?” Rhett continued.
She rounded on him. “Why are you pushing this so hard? Can’t you just wait until it’s a better time?”
“Is it that you think less of us? That you’ll be giving up your humanity to become a monster?” Hurt laced Nate’s tone.
“No. How could you think that?” Sighing, she knelt before him and took his hand, placing it against her cheek. “I could never think that. I love you both so much. But I’m afraid. Aside from never seeing the sunrise again I’ll be helpless for twelve hours a day. Right now, if I get training to use my power, I can protect you two in the daytime. If I convert now instead of when we fix all of this mess, I’ll need protection in daytime too.”
“She has a point,” Rhett said with a sigh. “The whole issue of her being unable to respond in daylight is a real one. She’ll be newly converted, which will mean she’ll be useless at the high sun point. Why don’t we shelve this for now? It’s not like we don’t have time to address it later. Let’s do some planning. Figure out where we’re going to be living and get this asshole who’s trying
to kill her taken care of and then we can deal with this.”
“Okay but this isn’t going away, Holly,” Nate said.
She looked up into his pale green eyes and put her hands on his lap. “I know. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I love you. I love Rhett. I want to be with you for centuries, I promise.”
He touched her cheek gently and tipped her chin up with a fingertip and kissed her nose. “I love you too, sweet.”
Going back downstairs, they sat on the couch and she looked at her great-aunt. “Train me. I can’t go back to school right now. I need to finish but I have to figure out what is going on and I’ll feel better once I start to understand things. Not knowing how to use my power is holding me back.”
There was a collective gasp of happy surprise throughout the room and Isolde said with a smile, “Of course. We can begin with the basics tonight.”
“Are you up to that?” Nate asked, concerned.
“I have to be. This is part of the puzzle.”
“Okay, but why don’t you rest for an hour or so? Then you can start refreshed,” Rhett said and Nate nodded in agreement.
“Does this mean you’re staying here in New Orleans for good?” Lee asked hopefully.
“For the foreseeable future, yes. Rhett is going to have his business manager begin to look at real estate here in the Garden District. That is, if you don’t mind my living close by.” Suddenly she felt shy. Apprehensive.
Lee pulled her into a hug. “Mind? Sug, we’d love to have you here! We have a huge storage unit filled with your grand-mére’s belongings. Furniture, books, that sort of thing. Please, she left it to your mother and because she’s not alive, it’s yours. Help yourself to any of it.”
“Oh goodness, thank you. I don’t know what to say. I won’t be converting for a while though, until we figure all of this out.”