Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

was no sign of Stefan anywhere.
    “Get up!” Rikki demanded. “Hurry.”
    Judith started to frown, took one look at Rikki’s enormous eyes, black as midnight and very frightened and swallowed her protest. She nodded. The haze was beginning to clear, and she could recognize that something was really wrong.
    “Give me a second, hon, I have to get dressed.”
    Her mind felt unusually fuzzy. As a rule she woke up sharp, but it was hard to think and even more difficult to get her body functioning. Rikki stepped out of her room, stopping the others in the hall and Judith hurried to her bathroom. “Do I need a robe, or clothes?” she called.
    “Clothes!” five voices answered.
    “Who’s in trouble?” Judith fumbled around for the sink and splashed cold water on her face. “Tell me what’s going on.”
    “Levi’s in trouble. Hurry, Judith. He’s hurt. I can feel it,” Rikki said anxiously.
    Stefan wasn’t in bed with her. Her brain was so fried it took her this long to wonder where he’d mysteriously disappeared to. Where Levi was, Stefan was.
    She hurried to her dresser, shimmied into a bra and underwear, tank and jeans and raced out of her bedroom, uncaring what she looked like. “Where are they? Is Thomas with him?”
    She was proud that in her very befuddled state she’d managed to remember it was Thomas, not Stefan.
    “I think so.” Tension rang in Rikki’s voice. “Hurry, Judith. I need you.”
    “You have to talk to us, Rikki,” Blythe, always the voice of reason insisted. “We’ve answered your call, but we don’t know what’s wrong. Judith, help out here.”
    Judith had no idea how she was going to be of any assistance. She felt like she was moving through a fog, desperately trying to force one foot in front of the other. “Rikki, did Levi call to you for help?”
    “I felt an explosion of pain. Here.” She grabbed her calf. “It was horrible, like something was sawing through my leg. He cut it off abruptly, but I knew it was him. When it first happened, he was unguarded. He must have been in agony, but when I reached out for him, he said they were handling it. Please. I don’t want to talk anymore. Let’s just go.”
    “We can discuss it in the car then,” Blythe decided. “Let’s go.”
    Her sisters were already rushing down the stairs. Judith followed them, stumbling a little, trying to find her legs. “Where are they?”
    “Sea Haven. I know they’re in trouble. We’ve got to help them.” There was a sob in Rikki’s voice. She twisted her fingers together tightly.
    The night air hit Judith, mist so thick it was nearly impossible to see her hand in front of her face. She could hear the water running out of her hoses and she glanced around her gardens. Rikki was very agitated for water to be answering her call with such ferocity. Her fears were catching, moving from woman to woman, until all of them were agitated. Judith, always careful to stay in control, yet had a difficult time with all of her sisters surrounding her, clearly upset.
    It was impossible to control her natural empathy, not when her mind was so fuzzy and she could barely figure out what everyone was saying to her. Overhead, storm clouds boiled across the sky. The wind rose, howling through the trees, blowing leaves and debris into the air. In the dark, ominous clouds, whips of lightning lit the edges of the clouds, glowing red-hot.
    Judith did her best to stay in control, but already, even before they all were in the close confines of the car, she could feel the other women’s emotions rising in direct proportion to her own. And hers were swinging out of control because Rikki was so frightened for Levi.
    “Would either of you like to explain what’s going on?” Blythe asked calmly as they piled into the farm’s suburban waiting. Blythe seemed the only one remaining grounded as she put the SUV in gear and raced down the driveway toward the ornate gate.
    “Thomas is Levi’s brother,” Judith admitted. “He came here to warn Levi that the awful man who came here from Russia never bought the story that he was dead and came here to find Levi and kill him.”
    Stefan. Where are you? She reached for him, needing to know he was all right.
    For a moment she thought she’d reached him. She actually felt his solid presence, but her brain was still hazy and the connection slipped away.
    Lissa’s breath hissed out. “I remember Inez talking about that man. His name was Petr Ivanov. He asked all sorts