‘You may have an al’lei my child,’ she’d said when she was explaining about the manifestation of Nadiah’s powers. ‘A waking dream. They’re very rare but not unheard of among those with the Sight. If an al’lei comes upon you, don’t try to fight it. Let the power flow through you. Speak the words that come to you and hold nothing back.’
Lauren couldn’t have held back if she wanted to. A vision rose before her eyes, blotting out the sacred grove and everyone in it. Suddenly she saw a narrow, crooked alley wrapped in violet shadows. A girl was there, a human girl with smooth, light brown skin and warm amber eyes and she was following another female who was leading her…leading her…
“Into danger,” Nadiah heard herself speak the words aloud but somehow the voice that came from her throat was not her own. It was deeper and filled with authority. It tolled like a bell in the sacred grove. All conversation stopped and every eye was on her but she couldn’t stop.
“I see her,” she went on in the strange, sonorous voice. “Lauren—the missing one. The chosen of the Scourge. She with the star between her breasts. He has taken her to O’ah where the purple darkness never recedes.”
“What…Nadiah, what are you saying?” She heard Sophie ask in a small, trembling voice. “Why are you talking like that?”
Nadiah couldn’t answer—the al’lei wasn’t over yet. “He has tried to safeguard her but another has deceived her,” she went on, still seeing Lauren before her eyes. “She is in danger…so much danger. If he does not return to her soon it will be too late. Too late…too late…” The vision faded as suddenly as it had come, leaving her feeling weak and lightheaded. “Goddess!” she whispered in her own voice. The world went gray and swam around her and then her knees gave out and she collapsed.
Strong arms caught her and someone held her protectively. “Are you all right, uh…”
“Nadiah,” Sophie said. “Her name is Nadiah.”
“Are you all right, Nadiah?” the deep voice repeated.
Her eyes fluttered open and she saw that the human called Rast was holding her. He was looking down at her anxiously, a worried expression in his truegreen eyes.
No, not truegreen, Nadiah reminded herself with a spasm of regret. Just green. He looks Kindred but he isn’t, not really. And despite the intense heat she’d felt from him during the luck kiss, only a Kindred warrior would be able to challenge her blood bond.
“What happened?” she asked weakly. The events of the past minute were strangely fuzzy in her mind.
“That’s what we’d like to know,” Olivia said.
“You started speaking in a weird voice and then you fainted,” Sophie told her. “You were talking about Lauren. Saying she was in danger.”
“Omigoddess!” Suddenly the vision rushed back. Nadiah put a hand to her head. “I saw her, Sophie! I saw Lauren. She was wearing blue and red and she was following a female who was leading her into danger.”
“Danger? What kind of danger?” The human was staring down at her with a disbelieving frown on his face. “Are you trying to say you’re psychic or some kind of bullshit like that?”
Nadiah frowned back. “I have the Sight,” she said stiffly. “Although it’s never manifested quite so strongly before.”
He arched an eyebrow at her incredulously. “And you expect us to believe you suddenly saw Lauren, wherever she is?”
“I did see her.” Nadiah struggled to get out of his arms. “Don’t look at me like that. And put me down.”
“With pleasure.” He sat her on her feet and crossed his arms over his broad, bare chest. “You should know something, lady—I worked long enough at the PD to see this kind of thing a lot. People lose a kid and they get desperate. Desperate enough to call in some fake who claims to be able to locate their child through ‘astral projection’ or some shit like that. But you know what? It never pans out. It just gives them false hope.”
“She’s not trying to give you any ‘false hope.’” Sophie put herself between Nadiah and the human detective and glared at him angrily. “She’s just telling you what she saw. Nadiah has a gift.”
“She saw you coming,” Olivia put in, joining ranks with her twin sister. “She even knew the color of your eyes. Although she didn’t say anything about you being a jerk.”
“All right now, this isn’t solving anything.” Sylvan put a hand on his bride’s shoulder. “Come, Talana, I think the detective is simply upset because he’s been searching so long and hard for any trace of Lauren’s whereabouts.”