KING OF THE UNDERWORLD (Earthbound Book 1)

We all knew this day was coming; it was predicted long ago. Our parents had trained every single one of us for this moment and had made sure my sisters and I never forgot this was all part of our destiny. We thought we’d have a few more years before we had to step out into the open. We’ve been in hiding for so long, revealing ourselves now will be risky.

We know it’s going to be dangerous; it’s possible we will be hunted and killed off one-by-one; or even worse, tortured beyond recognition. The latter is far more daunting a prospect than the former.

With Megan’s disappearance, it seems the time is finally upon us. Our parents had been the backbone of our community. With them gone, we need to stick together and put the plan we agreed upon into action. We need to get to work finding Megan. Getting her home safely is our number one priority. The stupid bickering has to stop, and it needs to happen now. It isn’t helping our situation in the least. We still haven’t managed to decide which one of us will go into the lion’s den.

I hate sitting here listening to them squabble; we’re wasting time. I have no choice and know what needs to happen. I’d known even before we sat down to discuss things. It will be harder to convince them than it was for me to come to terms with the way things were meant to happen.

I stand up and move over to the fireplace, watching and waiting for my opportunity. I can’t wait any longer, time is too precious. “I’ll do it. I’ll go,” I call out, trying to make my voice heard over the deafening noise of their argument. The decibel achieved by my sisters is shocking, but the fact nobody hears me over it is not.

Bloody hell, if they don’t stop this bickering, I’m going to pull my hair out. I continue listening to my five sisters speaking over one another, saying who will do that, what is necessary and what isn’t. Do they include me in this conversation? Of course not. Being the youngest completely sucks sometimes. They rarely listen to what I have to say, and they consider my opinion far less often than that. I already know this time won’t be the exception.

I study each of their faces, watching as they turned more and more crimson, wondering whose temper will reach its boiling point first. Someone is going to blow a gasket, and soon. I must admit, I’ve never before witnessed any of my sisters lose their cool this way. Sure, they sometimes disagree with one another over stupid shit, but it never reaches this level of rage. One would think that if anyone were going to lose their shit, it would be me, what with my wild red curls and the temperament to match.

As usual, my sister Pamela is gesturing wildly with her arms. If she’s not careful, she’s going to smack someone in their face with one of them. She’s arguing with Ava, one of my other sisters, who is standing there with her hands on her hips, her eyes scrunched up as though she’s trying to block the sound of Pamela’s voice. My other sisters Mia, Abigail, and Emma are arguing amongst themselves, their voices rising higher and higher, as if they’re trying to compete with one another. Their combined voices are causing my head to throb. I cannot stand idly by and listen to their nonsense for even a moment longer.

“STOOOOOPPPP!” I scream, my voice growing hoarse from the effort, but I’m pleased when I achieve my desired result. They all stop speaking at once, turning their attention towards me. Eyes open wide in shock, it’s almost as though they just realized that I’ve been in the room with them this whole time.

“I said I will go,” I repeat, raising my voice to get them to take notice of what I’m about to say. I need them to listen.

It takes exactly two seconds before all hell breaks loose. I’m forced to listen to all the reasons I couldn’t, shouldn’t, and wouldn’t do it. In my eyes, none of them come up with even one solid reason against it, though. Megan has disappeared. It’s been three days since anyone has seen her. The last sighting was at The Fallen Angel, a notorious nightclub.

Rumor had it that if you wanted to find a certain type of pleasure, The Fallen Angel was the place to go. It is said that as one ascends the floors, the experience becomes more and more extreme. Everything from dancing to sex, even blood feedings if one so desires. There is a price to pay for your pleasure, and the more perverse the desire, the higher the price. But that doesn’t always mean money.

The club is owned by none other than Lucien Sinclair. Sexy as hell, trouble with a capital T, and if the rumors are to be believed, a Demon. Sources say he isn’t fond of humans and despises witches even more. If he finds out a witch visits The Fallen Angel, they’re fucked, and not in a way they’ll enjoy. He is a force to be reckoned with, someone nobody wishes to cross. We’ve all heard the rumors about what happens to the people who cross him. They’re damn lucky if they get out with all their limbs intact. Anyone with a lick of sense stays far away from him and his clubs. He rules with an iron fist and staying off his radar is the only way to be safe. The other thing to note about Lucien; he rules over this city and its surrounding regions.

Why Megan and her friends would have gone there is all our comprehension. We questioned her friends already, demanding that they explain why on earth they’d chosen that particular nightclub. Their answers had been vague and unhelpful. It seemed their memories of that night were hazy. They could remember Megan going to the bar for a round of drinks before heading to the bathroom, but after that, nothing.

Each of them thought Megan had told the other she was going home, but she hadn’t. She was there one minute, gone the next. I wasn’t the only one who wanted to slap them silly for their foolishness.

The human police were useless, and they’d done nothing but waste our time. They stayed away from all things Supernatural, even if humans were involved. They preferred to leave things in the hands of The Enforcement, which is the Supernatural’s police force. A group of the most powerful Supernaturals, or Naturals as they prefer to be called, maintains The Enforcement.

Then you have the Councils, a mixture of human and Naturals, and they’re rarely much help. They prefer to leave matters they consider beneath them to The Enforcement or the human police force to deal with.

We had reluctantly approached The Enforcement, hoping that they would help us. It was a wasted effort. Even though Megan was on a Supernatural’s property when she was last seen, they refused help, no matter how much we pleaded with them. They claimed it was a human matter and told us to go to the human police force for help. So, with no help in sight, we realized we had no choice but to deal with her disappearance ourselves.

I’ve never seen Lucien Sinclair in the flesh, and I know the next 48 hours will mean that fact is going to change. Everything is going to change; I feel it in my bones. But I am absolutely certain that I am the only person for the job. I’ve never gone against my sister’s wishes before, but I don’t feel I have much choice this time, no matter what they say to convince me otherwise. I know, without a single doubt, that I need to be the one to infiltrate The Fallen Angel.

I feel like screaming. Don’t they realize how much time they’re wasting? Or that time is a commodity we have precious little of? Megan is missing, and we need to find her quickly, no matter the cost. She is the one who anchors us all when we need it.

I’ve already spoken to our cousin Melissa, and with some persuading, she’s agreed to give me some of her herbs, along with a spell of protection. She didn’t want to put her family in danger by helping me, but she understood the importance. Before this heated discussion began, I’d given the spell and herbs to Pamela, briefly explaining why I’d gotten them. As the eldest, she preferred to be the one in charge, so she wasn’t the least bit pleased I’d gone behind her back to Melissa.

Pamela steps forward, eyebrows knitting together as she takes my hand in her own. “Scarlett, why do you feel it must be you who goes rather than one of us?”

I realize Pamela already knows the answer as soon as she asks her next question. “Have you been dreaming again?”

I know the reaction I’ll receive if I tell them the whole truth. I’m not going to lie, but I need to watch what I say and how I say it. Placing a smile across my lips, hoping they don’t realize how forced it is, I give a quick nod. “I know she was there. We all do,” I sighed. I know them too well; I can tell by the look on their faces that they’re about to protest. To tell me I can’t go. I know why, too. It’s because of my age.

“Stop,” I order, shaking my head, halting their arguments before they can voice them. “Hear me out. It must be me. You are correct, Pamela. My dreams…. I just know I have to go,” I pause, trying to find the right words to express my emotions without frightening them and freaking them out further.

Admitting to them what my dreams truly comprise of is difficult and it will cause them to go off the deep end. I know I need to tell a little white lie. I’m going to hold back a bit of the truth, namely the part about Lucien Sinclair. I know by going into his nightclub that I will end up meeting him. I saw it in my dreams. If I even mention his name, my sisters will flip. They’ll lock me away, telling me it’s for my own good and they wouldn’t let me out until they decided I’d come to my senses.

If they stop me, it will not only put Megan in even more danger, but it will endanger the rest of us as well. Something is coming, something that will change everything; changes that were already in motion long before Megan went missing. With her disappearance, they had upped the ante. Dangerous times are on the horizon, and it frightens the fuck out of me. They all know it too; they can sense it. Maybe not as strongly as I can, but it’s there just the same.

“None of you can go. It must be me.” I tell them. I know each of them can see the fear in my eyes, but I also know they hear the clear determination in my voice. Even if they don’t like what they’re seeing and hearing, they all know that if they don’t help me, I will just find another way, and they know I’ll be far safer with their help. They just have to trust me and let me be the one to find out what happened to Megan.

They know my dreams always come to pass. The ones I’d been having lately are different, though. They’re more intense and feel more vivid. It’s as though I’m truly there, not just seeing, but experiencing the events of my dreams. The dread that has been materializing within all of us for weeks is threatening to overwhelm us.

PAMELA

When Scarlett came to me earlier and handed me the herbs along with the spell from Melissa, I didn’t fully realize what her intentions were. In shock, I abruptly sit on the nearest available chair and watch as my sisters do the same. I study their faces for their reactions to Scarlett’s announcement.

I notice Mia’s and Abigail’s eyes have glazed over, their faces devoid of expression. They are likely communicating with each other via their own personal link. Ava and Emma are just sitting there, looking between me and Scarlett. I watch as Ava frowns, her face filled with worry as she rubs the back of her neck. Emma starts twiddling her thumbs, a habit she uses when she’s upset or uncertain about something. I watch as she opens her mouth as if to say something, only to immediately shut it again.

I know Scarlett feels she must be the one, just as I know we’re going to agree to let her go. I just hope none of us will end up regretting it. The feeling of our combined guilt travels down our mental link, but I also feel relief swelling inside the room. It may sound selfish that most of us feel relieved to know Scarlett wants to go, but none of us have any desire to set foot in The Fallen Angel.

We especially don’t want to set eyes on Lucien Sinclair. I pray she won’t have to see him, but there’s always that slight chance. Just the thought of it sends shivers down my spine. He is bad news in more ways than one. Everything we know about him shows how dangerous he is. I would even go as far as saying he is downright deadly.

With none of us there to cover her back, Scarlett will have to be on her guard the entire time. We’ve all received self-defense training over the years, so we know how to protect ourselves. Thankfully, Megan and I carried that tradition on after our parents died.

We understand that being witches doesn’t mean we can’t get hurt or killed. We are just as mortal as the humans of the world, we just have a little… extra inside of us. Every normal witch possesses powers, but those powers can be quite different. The thing is though, we are not normal witches. Scarlett and the rest of us, including our cousins Melissa, Evelyn, and their own families, are unique. Scarlett differs slightly from the rest of us, as she possesses a wider range of powers.

She can see both the past and the future. It is one hell of a burden; one I know she carries heavily on her shoulders. She has seen many gruesome deaths from the past, and I know she’s aware there are only more to come. She also has the power of psychometry. Sometimes, all she has to do is touch an object and she will see the memories and feelings of the people who possessed it. This can be uncomfortable because she has no control over when or what she sees.

She once told me the one power she has never considered a burden, the only one she genuinely thinks of as a gift, is her ability to heal. Scarlett learned from an early age that she not only has the ability to heal the earth’s soil with a touch of her hands, but she can also heal the wounded.

Megan also has the power of psychometry and is gifted with the same healing powers as Scarlett. When the two of them combine their powers, they are impressive and potent beyond belief.

I can feel the fear coming off my sisters in waves. It’s palpable, overwhelming. Fear, not just for Megan and Scarlett, but for ourselves as well. As we sit there listening to her reasons for putting herself in danger, we understand where she was coming from and we are relieved not to have to do it ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we’re happy about it. None of us want to step foot in that nightclub, but we plan to be there for Scarlett if she needs us. We have no intention of losing another sister.

I can feel that Mia and Abigail are unhappy with this turn of events. They feel they should be the ones going into the nightclub to find out what had happened to Megan, rather than Scarlett. Being twins, their powers combine, and they are the strongest out of all of us. However, they are still training and mastering their skills, so they aren’t quite ready to handle a situation of this magnitude.

“If you’re so determined to go, then we will support you,” I tell Scarlett before turning my attention to our other sisters. “We have to make sure Scarlett is protected.”

I turn back to Scarlett. “None of us will be able to go with you. It’s too risky.” I want to make sure she knows what she’s walking into, that she will be alone.

“I know,” Scarlett replies, meeting my gaze. I can see the determination in her eyes as well as her acceptance of her fate. If we hadn’t agreed, I know she would have gone there alone, likely with nobody knowing she had gone, and with no one to help her.

Tapping her chin as though deep in thought and tilting her head to one side as she narrows her eyes, Mia says, “We will have to combine several spells to protect her. It needs to be powerful enough, not only to hide any markings, but also to provide her with a concealment spell and a protection spell. Melissa can help with that.”

We all know our cousin Melissa is our best bet. She won’t have any problem conjuring up another spell or two. I must inform them that Scarlett has already taken care of contacting our cousin. “Scarlett already contacted Melissa and got the protection spell from her, so part of it is done.”

I turn my attention to Ava. “Ava, get ahold of Melissa, explain what else we need, and thank her for her help.” I know our best option is to combine all our powers together, fitting them together as if they’re pieces of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle sliding into place. That, along with our cousin Melissa’s spells, will give us the best odds of success.

“Will do,” Ava replies with a nod of her head, giving Scarlett a small smile as she gets up from her seat and walks into the other room.

Placing a protective shield around someone can be difficult enough on its own, combining the shield with different spells will be even more so. The primary problem being that we have no way of knowing how long it will last, or if it will even work at all. Even if the spells can stop one person from seeing the truth, it doesn’t mean it will work on the next person. It’s an enormous risk. We stay up talking well into the night until we finally come to an agreement. We have little choice but to take a chance and trust that Scarlett can handle this. There is just no other option.