STORY EXCERPT

Old man Adam was growing weaker, but he used his influence to ensure Zac and Wilson got a good turnout. Some flew in. Others came in cars and trucks that bumped along the dirt road to the rambling house in the rainforest. It was the biggest gathering of ghosts Zac had ever seen, more than his grandmother’s funeral, with strong representation of both Karlssen and Magnussen families. Angel had not been invited, and her daughter, Gabriella’s mother, was also absent.

“Two generations have passed,” said Adam to the gathered crowd. “And now we have proof that the devils are indeed Satan’s spawn and have plotted our demise.”

There was murmuring. “I am dying of the illness they gave me, the same that killed my wife and has infected Lena also.”

“No!” Zac knew without looking that it was Rose, Lena’s mother and Larissa’s half-blood daughter. The woman whose birth had started the whole curse. She pushed herself to the front of the crowd. “She can’t die! Angel said she was chosen to save us!”

“Save us?” snarled Adam. “Or save the devils that infected her?”

“Where’s my baby?” Rose cried out. Her husband, Randall, stood grim faced at her side.

“They have her,” said Zac, standing up. “And I mean to get her back.”

The crowd murmured.

“Torq Tremain has been here amongst us spreading a virus he made specifically to kill us,” said Zac, the crowd stilling to listen. “He is dead. But his sons are alive, and they have Lena who is one of us, a ghost.”

“We need to rescue her!” one voice came.

“Let’s kill the fucking Tremains, all of them, and have this over,” came another.

“So you’re with me?” asked Zac, punching his fist into the air.

“Aye,” said voice after voice. As Zac looked out into the shadowed, shimmering faces of his family and friends he saw a sea of arms and he felt a surge of optimism. He would get Lena back, and if the devil had cured her then surely they could work from that to save the rest of them. Only two held back and didn’t look like they would follow him. Damon and Kadar, Charles’s grandsons, nodded to him and withdrew.

“Then listen up,” Zac called out, ignoring them. “Here’s Adam’s plan.”

* * * *

The brothers took their idea to the university and, along with Tilman, pored over it for most of the night. Sticking with the principle that they only needed the first four rows, they needed eighteen families. Even then there were multiple combinations possible for the four or less names. For the columns where there weren’t four elements, which was most, they tried to match to families who had lost members and used only those who had survived. It was painstaking work. Kael, finding he was little use after his first initial brainwave, left the scientists to try and make sense of the equations when substituting the real element and went back to find Lena.

She was already asleep, and he crawled in beside her. As she stirred she automatically edged back into his arms, allowing him to hold her and wrap his body around hers. He was sure she had lost further weight, and her breathing was more labored. Please let her be saved.

* * * *

Auntie Kate’s dreams had become increasingly disturbed. In them the stone glowed so strongly that she could feel its heat. From the stone emanated swirls of mist full of ill tidings, some wrapping around her so she could hardly breathe, waking her at times and then revisiting her when she returned to her slumber. There was a darker swirl, too, one which chilled her core and left her with a strong smell of smoke, burning, and decay. This time when she woke she saw it was five a.m. Rather than go back to sleep she pulled back the bed covers and, wrapping a heavy, purple robe around her ample frame, made herself a tea and returned to her stones.

Kate murmured to herself, shaking her head. “Wrong question, I’ve been asking the wrong question.”

She placed the glowing stone back in with the others and, this time, made an incantation.

The were-devil curse had been the result of evil in the Northern world and in the heart of one ghost. After two generations it was said that the curse would turn. Kate now asked the stones for an answer to the rebound ghost curse that was surely already descending upon those in Queensland. What is the answer to the ghosts’ curse?

She dipped her hand in each time she was pulled to do so and again came up with seven stones. But this time it was three black and yellow stones and four ghost stones. One of the ghost stones was the same one that had burnt her hands on previous occasions. Lena.

“Lincoln and Lane,” Kate said to the were-devil stones and two amber flashes replied. She sighed and put them with Lena’s which still glowed, uncertain and unclear.

She touched the remaining stones gingerly, hoping for guidance. But the remaining were-devil stone and two of the ghost stones remained cool and closed. Only the final ghost stone spoke, and Kate knew instantly that this was the one of fire and decay, and it was coming closer. She needed to warn those it was coming to destroy.

ADULT EXCERPT

She was calling him before she knew what she was doing, and then when they both were there, standing at the foot of her bed, she knew she had sent two messages simultaneously though she had never done such a thing before and had not even known it was possible. One went to Kael, a cry to be soothed and loved. The other, to Lincoln, was to be held and protected, though she did not know what from.

They stood there wordlessly, both naked to the waist, Kael lean and Lincoln broad, taking up the entirety of the doorway. Watching her in a way no one, not even Zac, ever had.

Lena sat up wide-eyed and pulled the sheet around her, aware she was wearing only her lace panties.

“We’ll leave if you ask us to,” said Kael.

“Or stay and just hold you if that’s all you want.”

Lena closed her eyes and felt her grandmother with her. Love isn’t easy but as essential to life as breathing.

She opened her eyes. “Be gentle,” she whispered.

The brothers looked at each other. Kael sat at the end of the bed, calm radiating from him as his hand rested on her sheet covered leg. Lincoln hesitated then sat beside her, an arm bringing her to his chest. It felt firm and solid, safe. She leaned against him as his hand went through her silky, blonde hair, lips kissing her forehead.

The electricity she had felt earlier now went through her in waves. Kael slowly pulled the sheet off her, tickling her legs as he admired her body. “You look like an exquisite art piece that touching might spoil,” he murmured.

Lena felt as if she had spent most of her life falling short of anyone’s assessment as a woman. For reasons she couldn’t fathom, these men seemed to like her just as she was. Kael read her thoughts and grinned. Both hands rubbed up and down her legs, alternating between a firm massage and a light tickle that set off goose bumps. Lincoln edged himself behind her so she could use him to rest against, and in doing so he was able to bring his arms around her, holding and protective, but then moving over her breasts. Lena had seriously considered having them reduced. But now as Lincoln made clear his appreciation, any lingering anxieties evaporated. He moaned with pleasure as his hands massaged her, circling her nipples and watching them harden and lengthen under his touch. He sank his lips into her hair, her neck and ears, nibbling and licking, savoring the taste of her.

Kael edged his fingers under each side of her panties then slowly pulled them down. Lena closed her eyes, wondering at how she had ever dared to let herself be so wanton. But each moment was more delicious than the last and seemed to be so right. She felt more at ease and comfortable with these two men than she ever had with Zac, even though he was family and she had known him all her life.

Kael, having removed her panties, stood and dropped his own briefs, his cock long and hard as he peeled a condom over it. Then he knelt between her legs, easing them apart as he licked the inside of one inner thigh and then the other. The feeling of his tongue tickling within an inch of her pussy but not going closer kept her on the edge. She hadn’t ever known she could stay suspended like this for so long and in such a state of pleasure.

Lincoln brought his lips over hers, a hot breathy kiss that became deeper and more insistent as he pinched her nipples. Kael moved his lips over a nipple, biting gently and then harder until pain and ecstasy seemed to blur and become one. It heightened her desire, and her pelvis was starting to grind as she increasingly wanted them to take her completely. Lincoln eased out from behind her to find a condom. Lena lay back on the pillow, and Kael pushed up her legs, his mouth now coming over her mound and searching out her clit.

Lena groaned as Kael dipped his tongue into her slit and tasted her pussy juices. His fingers on her lips separated them fully so he could access her with his tongue, pressing deep inside. The feeling was delicious, the writhing of her pelvis in time with Kael’s licking and thrusting creating an ever-increasing spiral until Lena moaned that she needed him inside her.

Kael tried a finger first, tentatively and gently, but deeper than his tongue had been, then sat beside her as Lincoln on her other side trailed his fingers over her slit and ran his tongue over her. But swapping again, Lincoln returned to kiss her lips and breasts as Kael knelt closer and eased his cock over her slit.

“Are you sure?” he whispered.

Lena had never been so sure of anything in her life. As they joined they both gasped, Lena wanting to suck him deeper and deeper into her, body and soul, as Kael, thrusting with a need that seemed to take him by surprise, brought them both to climax within less than a minute. Lena gasped as it coursed through her, but almost immediately wanted Lincoln, too. She pulled gently away from Kael and, pushing Lincoln onto his back, sat astride him, lowering herself onto the firm shaft that was more than ready.