Temptation Unleashed Read online

  Kira sighed softly. “It’s true that some family members might have the same color zone, but the intensity is only the same if it’s passed from parent to child. Yours and Marissa’s are the same, intense hue.”

  “You’re wrong, Kira.” He kept his expression neutral. “Kyle was Marissa’s father.” The doubt and uncertainty on her face was disheartening and Aiden heaved a deep-felt sigh before demanding, “Damn it, do you know what you’re accusing me of?”

  “There’s a way to prove it,” Kira said quietly. “I can cast the spell again with you, Marissa, Riana, and Gavin all here together.”

  He growled then, not bothering to hide his anger. “No. And if I catch you casting a spell again in this house I’ll—’’ The ominous threat hung unspoken in the space between them.

  But Kira didn’t care anymore. She knew the truth and it was nearly killing her. Aiden and her sister had been lovers. The when, or why, she didn’t know…and didn’t want to know.

  “Then there’s nothing left to say about it, Aiden,” she informed him as she walked past him to the door. All she wanted to do was get out of there, as far away from him as she could. Her heartache threatened to overwhelm her.

  I won’t think about this. I can’t right now.

  As she hurried down the stairs, and out of the house, one thought brutally taunted her.

  He’d let her go.

  And that truth hurt more than she ever expected.

  *****

  The dead quiet in the den was forbidding. Several of its occupants took deep calming breaths, exhaling slowly, breaking the silence every few minutes. Everyone watched the grim-faced man closely, sitting silently at the big oak desk.

  They waited for him to speak.

  His features were dismal dark and concentrating. His wrath, bubbling just below the surface, was reflected in the mercury swirls of his gray eyes as he contemplated his choices. His body sat straight, his muscles tense and rippling, as though he would spring from the chair or snatch the life from those who had betrayed his kind. Clenched fists rested upon the arms of his chair as he looked from face to face, seeking answers.

  These were his people. His responsibility.

  He felt the heavy burden of being the power standing between them and an uncertain future, a future that was growing more unstable as time passed, as the evil perpetuating these heinous crimes remained at large. They depended on him. They always had.

  And their fear wasn’t of what lay ahead – it came from the realization of his deep, churning frustration.

  He wouldn’t fail them, damn it.

  Aiden fought down the urge to cuss aloud, knowing it would only make matters worse if he showed his emotions openly. I will not let this happen. Failure is not an option. No matter what the cost.

  Even if the cost destroyed his soul.

  There was no doubt anymore that dangerous witchcraft was the reason for this meeting. Several shape-shifters had come to him, in their rarely used human forms, with tales that left a cold empty feeling in the pit of his stomach, and froze his heart.

  Aiden looked at the young man sitting before him, his head bowed in grief. “Jem, are you certain there was no mistake?”

  The hawk shape-shifter shook his head. “I wish I could say there was but I followed them closely until they left the county limit. I had to stop there because I’d not yet fed and my strength wasn’t at its peak for flying any further.”

  Aiden thought back over what he’d been told.

  Jem, and several other shape-shifters, had watched from a safe distance as two men had entered the compound’s sanctuary from the farthest north side. They had carried small metal cages. After they’d set the cages in the middle of one of the small clearings, they’d stepped back, seeming to be waiting for something, or someone.

  A tall figure had appeared, wearing a long black concealing cloak. The others had guessed it to be a man from its long, strutting strides and length of limb. The shape-shifters had watched, in morbid curiosity, as the stranger stopped near the cages. They had been shocked when he had lifted his arms high into the air and muttered words they couldn’t hear clearly, nor understand.

  What followed was too terrifying to comprehend.

  Several smaller shape-shifters – a rabbit, a small coyote, and a wild pig – had left their protected covering and walked, trancelike, toward the man. They had watched as the male continued the incantation and the three had entered each cage under their own volition. The first two men had locked them securely inside. Then the chanting had ended with a distinctly maniacal chortle and the tall man had ordered the other two to pick up the cages and leave. They never saw the man in the cloak vanish but the two men left, walking slowly back to the road as if they had all the time in the world. They acted as if there were no chance they would be seen, much less caught.

  The shape-shifters had fought back their numbing terror, anguished alarm consuming them as they fled the area. They had been ashamed they hadn’t done more. Stopped the men from taking their friends away.

  Now, hours later, they sat in front of Aiden, Gavin, and Riana and told their story.

  Gavin paced the room like a caged animal, low growls emanating from him as he fought to hold his temper in. “Damn witchcraft!”

  Aiden bit back a sharp reprimand, his gut clenching hard with the truth staring him in the face, but he had to be sure. He wouldn’t…couldn’t…believe that Kira would ever be involved in such atrocious and inhumane acts. Despite what Jem claimed to have seen.

  “Describe the van’s license plate again,” Aiden demanded, striving to keep his voice calm, his senses open to alternative possibilities.

  Maybe Jem was mistaken. He had to be.

  “The numbers were ‘3X3X3’,” Jem answered, “and the outer rim of the plate had tiny symbols painted around its edges.”

  “Are you sure of the symbols, Jem?” Riana asked quietly, her heart heavy with this unanticipated news. “Could you possibly be mistaken about the shape of the flower?”

  Jem shook his head, knowing he would never forget that flower. Not ever. “They were poppies, Riana. Little red poppies entwined with stars.”

  She uttered a small sound of distress and turned her head to her brothers, her eyes filled with disbelief.

  Aiden shot a hard glare toward Gavin before his brother could open his mouth, the dark warning causing Gavin to pause in his pacing simply long enough to glare back. He then looked around the room, at the faces of those who counted on him for protection, who looked to him to stop the madness before it went any further, before any more were taken. Showing a controlled calm he was far from feeling he stood up and addressed the group. “Jem, take Keon with you. Post aviaries at different points, within the outskirts of the sanctuary, as sentries. I know there are not many of you but, if you work in shifts…also, search the sanctuary. Ask around. Find out who else is missing.

  “The rest of you return home, but be on constant guard. Report back if you see anything suspicious, anyone you don’t immediately recognize.” He looked each one in the eyes, his voice hard, “Rest assured, we’ll get to the bottom of this, and stop it before anyone else is hurt.”

  The shape-shifters slowly filed out of the den, leaving the Calhouns alone. Aiden could not stop the muttered curses, his wild rage threatening to overrule his common sense. Riana defended Lena and Kira. “They have nothing to do with this, Aiden, I know it. You do too.”

  “Damn it, Riana.” Gavin glared at her. “What more is it going to take to convince you? Those symbols around that license plate are identical to the ones that hang over the door of ‘The Venus Poppy’. You can’t be naïve enough to think it’s just a coincidence! And it certainly wasn’t ‘charm’ that made those shape-shifters walk into those cages.”

  “I’m not denying that witchcraft is obviously responsible,” Riana’s voice shook with her anger, “but I refuse to believe that just because those symbols are the same as the Douglas magic shop, it means that Lena and Kira are
responsible for any of this. How can you even think that? We’ve known Lena for years…and you…’’

  “Shut up,” Gavin muttered menacingly.

  “Gavin,” Aiden’s low tone was a controlled warning, his patience holding on by a thin thread.

  “They’re innocent, Aiden,” Riana insisted. “I would know if they were evil in any way. You know I can see their auras, and there’s no indication that either of them could be the type of people to do something so horrible as this. You know I speak the truth.” Aiden wanted to grasp at the straws his sister was providing, but he was torn in two different directions.

  First, there was Kira’s sister, who had killed their brother. With witchcraft.

  Now they had shape-shifters being kidnapped and witchcraft, again, was responsible.

  But, Sonia was dead.

  That led the trail right back to Lena and Kira with the damning evidence of the license plate number.

  Fury churned deep inside him. He’d let his lustful feelings for the little witch influence him, throw him off guard.

  And now his family, and friends, would pay for his weakness.

  Had Kira uncovered the truth of their secret when she’d discovered that he and Marissa’s aura was the same? He’d let her leave that day, despite wanting to drag her back and give her an explanation that would cease her looking at him with those accusing eyes.

  But pride, and self-preservation, had kept him mute, stopped him from following her as she ran past with tears in her eyes. A feeling cautioned him, and his gut had clenched, leaving him with the unnerving premonition that if he followed her he’d be risking the lives of all he held dear.

  Including hers.

  “There has to be another explanation,” Riana insisted, watching Gavin resume his angry pacing, while adding mutterings and mumblings to the mix. She turned to Aiden, her voice pleading, “Please tell me you don’t believe Kira had anything to do with this. You know better. You…care…about her, Aiden.” She stomped her foot. “And don’t look at me with that ‘oh-no-not-me’ denial on your lips. I’ve seen the way you two act around each other.

  “Can you accept that your intuition about her, that your trust in her, has been wrong all along? You would never have allowed her near Marissa if you’d sensed any danger from her.”

  His senses were on constant alert every time Kira was near, but it had nothing to do with danger.

  She made him feel things, emotions he’d never felt around another woman, human or shape-shifter. She kept him constantly rattled, damn her. But what if she had been fooling them all along? He’d seen she had undeniable gifts, had felt her power – a far greater power than anything Sonia had ever tried to manifest. He’d known that the moment he’d first set eyes on her. Had she been using her skills to bewitch them?

  Entrap them?

  He’d kill her.

  Never mind that his soul cried out in despair at the very thought.

  *****

  Mist fell like rain, drenching them…

  Kira made another unsuccessful attempt to pin her waterlogged hair on top of her head. Her barrette wouldn’t stay closed and she was nearing the ends of her patience. She sighed loudly as the wet strands refused to cooperate. Every time her dripping hair fell in her face, water stung her eyes, an irritating reminder of the dismal weather.

  She peered through the gathering mists and saw her twin sisters, Shey and Sonia, placing one foot carefully in front of the other. Their feet forced themselves to slog through the mud, their exhaustion evident in the slump of their shoulders. Suddenly she stopped walking, almost as if she had run into a wall. She glanced around at her surroundings and what should have been familiar swampland was shrouded in an unnatural mist.

  Where were they? It didn’t seem like their normal path to the special plants and herbs they picked for their potions and elixirs. What were they doing here? Their mother knew the Louisiana swamp like the back of her hand. She had been their guide through all types of weather, taking them to the secret coves and inlets. So where were their parents? Not lost because their mother never got lost. No. Wait a minute. This didn’t look anything like Louisiana. They weren’t in their swamp.

  Kira didn’t know this place.

  Something was different. Her preternatural senses went on high alert as she felt the growing strangeness of the space. An inner voice whispered that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Where were their parents?

  “They’re dead, Kira. Remember?” Sonia turned to her sister, her young body swaying in the shadowy mist, her face pale, almost translucent. Kira’s heartbeats skipped as fear and horror rushed through her, her memory pricking her mind to remember, her mind denying it. “Shey is dead too.” Sonia waved a languorous hand in the direction of a group of weeping willows, their branches splitting apart to allow her twin to slide inside their waiting arms, to disappear into the fog.

  Kira fought back her suffocating terror, refusing to allow it to drop her to her knees. Refusing to accept what she knew in her heart was the truth. “There’s something you’re forgetting, Kira,” Sonia reminded, her voice despondent. “Something you’ve blocked from your mind. You must remember. For, if you don’t, you won’t stand a chance when you fight his evil.” Kira choked back her tears clogging her throat. “I haven’t forgotten anything about that day. Not one thing. It will be burned in my mind until the day I die,” she denied vehemently. “I remember every tiny detail. How could I forget? My memories haunt my dreams, waking and sleeping.” She stared as Sonia’s essence shimmered, flickering as if seeing her on an old movie picture screen. She seemed to fade in and out, her form rippling with the wind and rain. She couldn’t leave. Not now.

  Not before Kira had the answers she desperately needed.

  “What are you talking about, Sonia? What’s going on here? Why are we here? And where are we?”

  “They want me to tell you,” Sonia whispered in her ear like a soft breeze, “Mom and Dad. And Shey. They want me to warn you. He’s dangerous, Kira. He’ll try to kill you. He has no heart. You have to remember.”

  “He?” Kira’s confusion intensified. “Sonia, who are you talking about?” She shuddered as that horrific day’s events flitted through her mind, reminding her how precious life was, how fleeting. “Mom, Dad, and Shey weren’t killed by a person. It was a wild animal. You know that. You were there. You saw.”

  Sonia looked agitated, almost frightened, and spun around in circles as if seeking the cause. As she faded away she murmured, “I have to go. Trust your heart…not your head and…re-me-m-ber.” Kira called her name desperately but saw no further signs of her sister. It was as if she had melded with the freezing mist, become one with this weird place.

  Kira heard a wolf howl in the distance and held her breath, trying to figure out which direction the sound had come from so she could go in the opposite direction. Her heart raced while her blood ran cold at the thought of the wild animals that could be hiding, watching for her first mistake. Waiting to pounce and shred her into teeny, tiny pieces. Closer…so close she would have sworn she could smell its wet fur, feel its malevolent stare, a big cat roared a warning.

  A short terrorized scream tore free and she sat up, jerked out of her sleep by her own cry. Her chest heaved as she attempted to pull in air. Parched lips inhaled the water her shaky hands brought to her mouth, the crystal clicking against her chattering teeth. Her heart, beating so hard it seemed to fight for freedom, felt as though it would fly out of her chest.

  Thank the Goddess it had only been a dream. Dreams she could handle, if that’s all it was. But her dream hinted of things she should know, prodded her to examine answers she already had. But she had no answers, not to her questions. What had Sonia meant by ‘remember’? She was fairly certain she remembered every detail of that day. How could she have forgotten the day her heart had been crushed?

  But Sonia claimed she had forgotten. What, or who, did she need to remember? The knowledge that she had been sleeping, that it ha
dn’t been some Machiavellian twist that the worst day of her life had been brought to her mind’s forefront, didn’t stop the fierce tremors that shook her body. Didn’t calm her racing heart, make drawing breath easier, warmed her frozen soul.

  She could still hear the screams echoing in her head.

  She was so tired…when would it stop?

  Thankfully Uncle Warren and Lena had left earlier that evening for a homeopathic conference in Phoenix and weren’t around, didn’t have to deal with her pitiful phobias and screaming nightmares. It would have been embarrassing to explain her screaming fit since she had been promising them she was over that childhood trauma, had licked the nightmares. They had worried about her, and Sonia, for so long she wanted to spare them from worrying anymore.

  Kira didn’t mind running things until they got back. They hadn’t wanted to go until she had told Lena it would be fun to play ‘boss’ for the weekend, give her a few days practice. Lena had laughed, something she hadn’t been doing a lot of lately, and Uncle Warren had playfully warned her to keep her nose clean, and out of trouble. She was just glad to have something to keep her occupied. Maybe it would take her mind off of Aiden.

  Aiden…her heart clenched at the thought of him.

  She had fought admitting she cared about him but knew his betrayal wouldn’t hurt so badly if she didn’t have strong feelings. She grimaced at her words. She had never been good at lying to anyone, much less herself. Her emotions had evolved into something much greater, stronger, than ‘caring’ and ‘strong feelings’. Those were such pale phrases to describe the turbulent, encompassing feelings she had for Aiden.

  How could she have been so naive? Somewhere along the way, when she had least expected it, her confusing, intense attraction to that enigmatic, gorgeous, but aggravating, man had turned to something far more…intense. More permanent.