Lana's Calling: A Golden Hills Legacy Novel Page 15

  As they walked up the curb, he asked, “What is he, the high priest?”

  “Drake? Yes.” They stood outside the doors as people passed them to go in.

  “I was just kidding. You’re part of a coven?”

  “I’m not really supposed to talk about it. I took an oath. I know, stupid.” She pulled her blue hood up.

  “You look the part. I’m dating a hot witch now?”

  Her eyes bulged and then she laughed. “We’re dating?” was all she commented on, not loving the witch part, although Marissa would be proud.

  “Aren’t we?”

  She nodded, grinning wider.

  “You’re my girl, Lana,” he whispered, tugging her hood closer for another kiss.

  When they headed for the doors again, he said, “Charlotte belonged to a coven. I don’t think it was the one that ran Golden Hills, though. I think she started it. I know she practiced black magic.”

  “I think she came to me one night to scare me away.”

  “What? Are you kid—”

  “Lana!” Diana came running alongside Eric, pulling his hand to get to her. She hugged Lana but held a concerned look on her face.

  “You okay?” Lana whispered in her ear, worried for her.

  She whispered back. “Eric is acting so strange lately. I don’t want him to hear, so let’s forget it.”

  “Call me tomorrow. We’ll talk then if you want.” Lana squeezed her hand and walked with her. This woman trusted her. Acid climbed up her throat, swallowing it back down.

  “Everything okay, angel?” Hunter asked, rubbing Lana’s shoulder.

  “Everything’s fine,” Eric added, staring him down.

  “Are you okay, Diana? You seem…upset,” Hunter asked her.

  “Jesus, don’t you ever quit? We’re all fine!”

  “Is there a problem?” Hunter asked Eric, walking up to him.

  Lana broke them up by standing in front of Hunter. “Let’s go in, guys. It’s getting late.” Worried about Diana, she wanted to keep an eye on her. She also wanted to tell Hunter to never call her angel again. She was no angel, so far from it. He had called her that last night while making love, how she was his angel.

  They walked into the dark narthex. The organ music started to play in some sinister fashion, the candles casting shadows on the walls and ceiling. Hooded men stood on each side of the door, bowing down the whole time, their hands folded. When Lana walked in, they picked their heads up for a moment to give her the expected bow. She nodded back, feeling lightheaded.

  As they walked down the aisle to the front pew and took their seats, the torches and sconces roared, bringing gasps from the congregation. With her hood pulled up, it acted like a horse blinder, hiding the faces that seemed to distort at times. Diana winced in pain at one point, eyeing the inverted cross hanging from the ceiling. Eric’s face detained no expression, staring ahead of him.

  Lana held Hunter’s hand on her lap and sat straight, holding her rightful place. She had noticed when walking past the people that they bowed and then took their seat, waiting for her arrival.

  Jack walked out to the lectern and clapped for her, loud and long. “This place of worship knows when there’s a true, powerful presence in it. Lana Stone is here, and she’s been initiated into our world. You belong to her. Rise and welcome her!” he demanded, raising his hands up, the whole congregation standing up in unison, clapping and stomping their feet.

  Hunter looked around and then back at her, his eyes wide with something she didn’t like seeing there. Deep concern. Or was it admiration? He stood along with everyone and clapped, Eric and Diana clapping the loudest.

  She slowly stood and acknowledged their honoring of her, and nodded.

  “To our new high priestess! Shall she reign for years to come,” Jack added. After another minute, he gestured his hands to settle down and sit. The church grew quiet.

  When she sat back down, Hunter wrapped his arm around her, claiming her.

  “Drake, please join Lana at the altar,” Jack said.

  She shrugged at Hunter’s questioning gaze and stood, pushing past him to get to the aisle. Meeting Drake at the center before walking up the few steps to the altar, he carried a look of knowing, as if he already understood this would happen.

  As they gathered at the lectern, Jack stood in the middle and grabbed their hands, Drake’s right and her left, and raised them up. He pushed her hood down and had Drake do the same. “Meet our new town leaders, High Priestess Lana and High Priest Drake. May together they bring our town prosperity and a higher population of elite families.”

  The congregation stormed the church with applause.

  When they dropped their arms, Lana spoke. “Thank you. I hope to get to know each of you and your family. I know we have a strong team of people that will ensure this town will prosper. Golden Hills will be the best it’s ever been. Drake…” she gestured for him to talk.

  “Yes, I completely agree with Lana. With you and only you, we can be the most powerful town in the country!”

  Again, applause stormed throughout.

  “We have a wonderful architectural backing thanks to Hunter Bane, and he will ensure the beauty of this town, making our ancestors proud. Thank you,” Drake said to Hunter before stepping back.

  Hunter nodded to the crowd smiling at him and then grinned at Lana. As she stepped down to join him again, he stood and took her hand in his and then sat. “You’re amazing,” he whispered.

  She smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder. Diana reached over and squeezed her hand, again making her insides split with guilt.

  After a few minutes of hushed silence and Jack somewhere in the back, he returned to the lectern and gestured toward their area. All heads turned their way at Jack’s prompting. “On May Twenty-First, we will have a special wedding. One of our own, Eric Wessington, and his new love, Diana Billows, will exchange their vows and add to our already growing community of families and couples. We will then celebrate outside at the Tree.” He gazed at Lana, raising a brow.

  Everyone applauded and cheered.

  All of a sudden, the walls closed in on her, suffocating her. She felt as though she swallowed her tongue, like it was stuck in her throat, engulfing her breathing space, swelling to the size of a cobra.

  “You okay?” Hunter asked, rubbing her back.

  She nodded, still not feeling her tongue. What did Jack plan to do at the Tree? The one that hanged her mother’s cousin, Dane. The Dead Tree as it was named. There was no way she could allow that.

  “Loyalty is a funny thing, you see,” Jack began to preach. “Family and loyalty go together, and when that breaks, what do we do? We get angry, right? We take care of things like we should!” He pounded the wooden lectern.

  Cheers and applause from the pews exploded.

  “Anger is good! Revenge is even sweeter! When you avenge your loved ones, you’ve crossed over a line that separates you from the weaklings that hide and tolerate and accept. You can walk with your head held high and know you did something right for them!”

  More applause.

  “Eric, what would you do if someone had crossed your family?”

  Eric’s eyes widened and then examined Jack’s question. “Well, of course I’d be angry, but I’d try to understand—”

  “Stop. Understand? You’d understand what…that they hurt your family and brought a grievance into your life? There’s no understanding in my church. No second chances.”

  As Jack spoke, Eric glanced over at Lana, sweat running down his face.

  “What do you think, Lana?” Jack directed the question to her.

  Her heart went out to him, yet she wanted to squeeze his heart and make it hurt like he did to her. All she saw was a pitiful man, and Diana deserved better. “I agree. Revenge can be sweet,” she said, her eyes back on Jack. “It’s what feeds our souls and helps us get stronger in the face of injustice. It sends a message to anyone else who might even consider going against one�
�s family. I’m all for that.”

  “Hear, hear,” Jack said in a lower voice.

  “Hear, hear!” the congregation chanted.

  Lana’s head began to throb, feeling dizzy, watching the room spin. Hunter’s mouth moved with words that got lost, his brows knitted together, but she closed her eyes, feeling nausea build and her body tremble. Something was changing inside her, and it must’ve showed on her face because Eric jumped back.

  “Lana, you okay?” Eric asked, his voice full of anguish.

  She smiled and sank against Hunter’s chest as he wrapped his arm around her. “I am now.”

  The flames on the torches blasted, blowing heat in their direction, licking the ceiling in a fan of rage.

  Chapter 13

  Hunter parked at the front entrance, still concerned for Lana’s wellbeing. “Are you sure you’re all right?” He turned to her, playing with her hair.

  Nodding, she smiled. “Yes. You don’t need to fuss. I just got overwhelmed in there, thinking of all the responsibility that’s to be mine. It seemed so easy when I first came here, but now…”

  “I’m here to help in any way. You’re not alone. Have you talked to your grandfather lately? I know he always gives you words of wisdom.”

  “I haven’t. I’ll call him tomorrow.” She kissed his cheek and slid to her door before his hand reached out to stop her.

  “Hey…where’s my real kiss?”

  She looked into his eyes and then slid back, pulling his face to hers. Their mouths became one, her hand crawling down his chest and under his shirt, feeling his hot skin covering flexed muscles as his hand worked her back, down to her hip, tugging her closer, their fingers digging. A growl formed in his throat, his kiss turning urgent.

  “Not here,” she whispered.

  “Where?” he breathed against her throat.

  “Another night.” She drew back and gave him a fast kiss before slinking out her door.

  “You’re killing me.”

  Leaning in the window, she grinned. “I’d never do such a thing.” She spun around to face Stone Manor, her home, her castle. The doors flew open, welcoming her inside.

  James walked down the stairs as she entered. “How was your evening, Madam Lana?”

  “It was…clarifying, James. Thank you for asking.”

  He bowed before saying, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to retire for the night. These old bones are tired.”

  “Please do. Have a good night, James.” She watched him slowly walk through the kitchen to the back, where the servants’ quarters were. Once, she had peeked in there to find old portraits of James as a younger, handsome man. Pictures of a family, a wife and kids that were long gone. He was summoned by William Stone for eternity, never to meet with his beloved or his children’s souls again. Maybe she’d release him one day, if the powers shifted more in her favor.

  A soft echo of her name drifted from a deep pocket of the house. “Laaaa-naaaa,” an unseen entity scratched her name in a hoarse whisper, the second syllable tapering off as it snaked through the air. The hall darkened with only sconces lit, flames tossing shadows across the stairs and floor, electric light disappearing, replaced by natural.

  She stood still, closing her eyes to sense any human or non-human beings. A heaviness spread around her. Opening her eyes, she took in the sterility of room, finding nothing to fear.

  A light flickered in her grandfather’s office to the left of the foyer, a grand room with built-in bookshelves and a mahogany desk in the middle. She hung her cape on the banister end post, and walked toward the room. The lamp on the desk clicked off and then back on, illuminating a scrolled up paper of cream color on the desk with the magical pen next to it.

  The chair scratched the wooden floor, pulling out for her to possess. She walked around the desk, her fingers skimming the polished wood, and sat, staring at the paper. Pulling herself in, she picked it up and unrolled it to find words written in blood.

  At the top, it read Agreement between Jack Red and William Robert Stone. And then underneath were wishes written in bullet form.

  · To live for all eternity

  · To pass on immortality to kin and township on their twenty-first

  · birthday, called Black 21, a day of the rising

  · To be the richest man in thy world

  · To be betrothed to the most desirable woman in thy world

  · To sire a son that will continue on the Golden Hills Legacy

  · To have said son mate with a gifted woman with powers and become the most powerful couple of Golden Hills

  · To generate a granddaughter named after my wife in her image and just as powerful as her mother before her

  · To build a powerful, indestructible home to endure the end of time and name it Stone Manor

  · To have said granddaughter be heiress to Stone Manor if something shall ever happen to me and I shan’t be immortal forevermore

  · To have said granddaughter become high priestess and be betrothed to the high priest and live out her immortal destiny

  · To have a great-grandson born of this immortal union and take over, having the power of the women on his grandmother’s side, hence being the most powerful being in the after dark in thy world

  She dropped the paper as if it were a virus. Grabbing the trash can next to the desk, she hung her head and vomited, retching until there was nothing left.

  Immortal…betrothed…indestructible…destiny…after dark.

  The words rushed through her mind, slithering through her body like slick oil corroding her veins.

  “No!” She slammed her fist against the desk and ripped up the paper, throwing them in the air to fall like confetti. As they floated toward the desk, the pieces zapped back together in one sheet, creating the same contract, landing before her.

  Tears welled up in her eyes as she grabbed the pen, licking the tip, and pulled a sheet out of the open box. She started to put pen to paper.

  “Sorry, Lana, but I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way.”

  She peered upward to find Jack sitting on the edge of the desk, looking down at her. A sad grin spread over his face, clicking his tongue.

  “What doesn’t work that way?”

  “That pen, my love. You see, you’ve already read your grandfather’s words, breathed life into them, and now they’re your destiny.”

  “No.”

  “I’m afraid so. That’s why Eric’s won’t work, either, the fool. He had already read William’s list. That’s the caveat in all this. Eric wanted to change your destiny and actually try to save you, believe it or not. On his list, he wished for your betrothal. He wrote that if he sacrificed Diana, he’d marry you instead of you marrying Drake, and save your mortal soul.”

  “What do you mean sacrificed?” Her heart slowly began to pound, a hard thudding against her chest.

  “For Diana to die, my pet. He really did like her, but then he read William’s list and couldn’t allow you to be taken from him again.”

  “Again?”

  “This is where it gets interesting. Need a drink first?”

  “No.”

  “Well, I do.” He poured the glass decanter of whiskey into a shot glass and downed it before beginning his story.

  “On second thought.” She reached for the bottle and poured the fiery liquid into a glass for herself, downing it and feeling the burn in her chest, slowly numbing her face and insides. She usually hated hard stuff, but this became her medicine tonight.

  “That’s a girl. Your grandfather enjoyed that brand very much. He enjoyed a lot of things that the mortal man couldn’t.”

  “If he was immortal, what happened to him? Where is he?”

  “He thought he was following his love Lana on that fateful day. You see, it wasn’t your grandmother at all, but one of my girls who actually brought him back to hell along with everyone else that day, except for your parents, sister, and Eric. Their souls were still good.”

  “So, my grandfather�
�s soul is still stuck in…hell?”

  He slowly nodded, an evil grin working his lips.

  “Let him go!”

  “Why would I do that? He’s getting all the riches, food, and sex a man can dream of. He has a harem of women beckoning to his whims. He’s fine, baby.”

  “Then why do I get a bad feeling for him? Like he’s being tortured. I don’t trust you, Jack.”

  “Why? I’ve always told you the truth.”

  She drank another shot. “Continue with Eric’s story.”

  “Ah, yes. So, I said again simply because you were once his in another lifetime.”

  “What?”

  “You believe in reincarnation? Well, that’s what this is. You remember the story of Leon and Bessie?”

  She nodded, letting it sink in what he was about to say, taking another shot.

  “That’s you…sweet Bessie. The one your mother sent into the light, supposedly,” he scoffed. “You see, I was there in the Lost Forest, and right before I grabbed your mother, I snatched Bessie’s soul…your soul, and threw her in the bowels of hell.

  “Leon came back as Eric, reason why Bessie could never find him, and walked the earth missing Bessie deep down but not realizing it, just felt a constant ache. He has such poor eyesight in this lifetime, hence the glasses, because he didn’t want to see the real world as Leon had seen it, being William’s fourth son. He was actually related to Christian. This town has a sordid past, and pretty much related in one way or another, this lifetime or the last. It’s a special sort of town.”

  “How did Eric find out who we really are to each other then?” Disbelief ruled her thoughts still.

  “I couldn’t keep a secret any longer, much as I tried. It was not until after he came here, so don’t worry. He did used to have dreams of you, but as Bessie, never realizing the difference. You were one and the same. The guilt would eat him alive. Not only did the poor man struggle with his long-lost love, but also with Daisy in this world, the one who he helped her push Bessie into my arms.” He paused, letting it come together for her, taking another drink. “When William wrote that list, I knew I’d make Bessie be the one to come back. I kept her in my dungeon until the day Daisy gave birth. In a way, Daisy did end up saving Bessie. I know, it’s all a bit maddening.”